OK, what's a come-along?

[wdfifteen]

Stopped at Lowes today to get a new come-along, since that jerk kid stole my old one.
I asked the tool dept - a guy my age had no idea what a come-along is - he sent me to lawn and garden (!), where the guy was similarly perplexed but tried to look it up based on my description. He found half a dozen things and asked if that was what I was looking for. Finally the right image popped up - it was available BY ON-LINE ORDER ONLY from Walmart, but Lowes didn't carry them. I needed one today.
So I went to where the tie-downs etc were to see if I could find something that would work and lo and behold, there on the floor, with no pricing, were three come-alongs! Yes, they called them Power Pulls or some crap, but they were come-alongs. Yay!!

Reminds me of the time I tried to buy chain at Lowes. I told the guy I needed 12 feet of 5/16 chain and one slip hook and one grab hook. The kid was totally perplexed, started showing me stuff and asking, "Is this it? Is this it?" He worked in a place that sells them but he didn't know a slip hook from a grab hook. What do they teach kids these days?

End of rant.

[fred cook]

The problem is that most kids today don't do the kind of manual labor things that we did growing up! Most could not tell the difference between a screwdriver and a crescent wrench! And don't even think about having one change a flat tire! When my son got to be driving age, I searched out and bought a completely worn out truck and made him help me rebuild it. When he left to go to college I was comfortable that he could fix at least simple things that would leave most stranded beside the road!

[Jolly Amaranto]

The younger generation has no interest in acquiring most simple skills. They just call someone to do it.
How Many Millennials Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb? - CORGI HomePlan - How Safe Is Your Home

[Tervuren]

I find it isn't healthful to be bothered about first time ignorance.

It is when someone can't learn, or is in a service job and won't help that there is a problem.

There are lots of names for things.

There are places I could try to order a soda and they wouldn't know what it was unless I instead said I wanted a pop.

[drkshdw]

Round these parts we don't call them come-alongs. We call them winches. Which I know is technically not correct but it's what we call them.

[stomachmonkey]

Group sex.

[Tobra]

I suspect a come along could generate significant liability exposure for the manufacturer.

[stomachmonkey]

But I hear ya.

Sent one of my guys to Guitar Center to grab some stuff.

As he's heading out I shout "and get a good set of cans"

He's gone way longer than he should be and when he gets back I ask him WTF took you so long?

He says he and a sales guy spent a half hour looking for cans and they didn't have any till they asked "some OLD GUY" in the back. So now I know, cans are headphones.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I was at HD the other day having some luan cut for shelves. I needed 18 3/8". The kid at the saw didn't know what 3/8s was. Every time I said it, he would say 3/4 with a question in his voice. I had to show him the marking between 1/4 and 1/2.

Kids today are total ****ing morons who can't do jack.

[sc_rufctr]

Oh come on you guys...

It's up to US to pass on the knowledge. There are kids who want to know.

And I know plenty of guys my age who don't have a clue about anything.

[wdfifteen]

Not apropos of the OP, but Shaun’s post..
The guys doing my room addition had a guy in the rafters measuring and nailing and a guy on the ground cutting. The guy in the rafters said, “I need one 28 and a quarter.” Dude on the ground said, “This is framing, there’s no such thing as a quarter.” It cracked me up at the time, but I began to wonder about the cumulative effects of 1/4 plus or minus on the entire framing of a House.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Stopped at Lowes today to get a new come-along, since that jerk kid stole my old one.
I asked the tool dept - a guy my age had no idea what a come-along is - he sent me to lawn and garden (!), where the guy was similarly perplexed but tried to look it up based on my description. He found half a dozen things and asked if that was what I was looking for. Finally the right image popped up - it was available BY ON-LINE ORDER ONLY from Walmart, but Lowes didn't carry them. I needed one today.
So I went to where the tie-downs etc were to see if I could find something that would work and lo and behold, there on the floor, with no pricing, were three come-alongs! Yes, they called them Power Pulls or some crap, but they were come-alongs. Yay!!

Reminds me of the time I tried to buy chain at Lowes. I told the guy I needed 12 feet of 5/16 chain and one slip hook and one grab hook. The kid was totally perplexed, started showing me stuff and asking, "Is this it? Is this it?" He worked in a place that sells them but he didn't know a slip hook from a grab hook. What do they teach kids these days?

End of rant.

I know what a come-along is, but if I was in the chain section, I wouldn't know what a slip hook was vs a grab hook if I was looking at a bunch of that stuff in boxes.

I'm a car guy, I've rebuilt motors from the ground up after having had all of the machining done. I had access to inside and outside micrometers and dial indicators and measured everything. I've built computers from parts purchased individually. I worked at a retail auto parts store and know what just about any part on a car was and could find just about anything in the catalogs (paper) that was possible to be had. I've done carpentry, plumbing and electrical in a home that I owned. I consider myself a pretty handy guy, but I guess I've just never needed to do that much chain/block and tackle kind of stuff.

[masraum]

I did a google search, and based on google images, they look damn near the same.

Then I found this.

Grab hook: Designed to “grab” to keep a chain from slipping off the hook.

Slip hook: Generally had a wider throat than grab hooks and sometimes has a latch design to keep an attached object in its place.

So, it doesn't sound like there's much difference.

Can you find or take pics showing what you'd consider to be the major difference?

[LWJ]

I know. You guys know. Thing is, we are people who do stuff. Most other folks just call a repair guy.

Accept it. We are better than others.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I know. You guys know. Thing is, we are people who do stuff. Most other folks just call a repair guy.

Accept it. We are better than others.

I was having this very conversation with myself the other day. Is it better to know how to do things or is it better to be able to pay for people to do things for you?

My net analysis was it's better to know since most people you pay do a poor job anyway.

Sanding window frames always gives you plenty of time to think.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I know. You guys know. Thing is, we are people who do stuff. Most other folks just call a repair guy.

Accept it. We are better than others.

We're not better. We just have that thing, that aptitude to do for ourselves.

My cousin is hopeless at anything DIY but he's good at making money so he "outsources" everything.
Recently I was in the roof cavity of his house looking for a dead rat. He's fit but he can't (or wont) climb into a roof space.
Instead he stood on the ladder and watched me lift up the insulation batts looking for the smell.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by masraum

I did a google search, and based on google images, they look damn near the same.

Then I found this.

Grab hook: Designed to “grab” to keep a chain from slipping off the hook.

Slip hook: Generally had a wider throat than grab hooks and sometimes has a latch design to keep an attached object in its place.

So, it doesn't sound like there's much difference.

Can you find or take pics showing what you'd consider to be the major difference?

On reflection, my rant was a bit harsh on the chain thing. It may be a bit of LWJ's comment that we do stuff and we know how to get things done. When I grew up we moved things around the farm with chains and we knew this stuff. A slip hook makes a noose of the chain. You throw it around a log or bundle of fence posts and hook it over the working end, pull the working end, and the chain tightens around the load.
If you use a grab hook and hook it on the 14th link from the end (for example) it stays on the 14th link from the end and never tightens.

I guess I wouldn't expect a random kid on the street to know stuff like this. But if you work at a store that sells it - it's like working in a sporting goods store and not knowing the difference between a catcher's mitt and a first baseman's glove.

[HardDrive]

Gotta be honest, I would call that a winch all day. My dad calls it a come along. I'm 48 for reference.

[wdfifteen]

Your dad is my age. Makes sense.

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

I was at HD the other day having some luan cut for shelves. I needed 18 3/8". The kid at the saw didn't know what 3/8s was. Every time I said it, he would say 3/4 with a question in his voice. I had to show him the marking between 1/4 and 1/2.

Kids today are total ****ing morons who can't do jack.

You should have just told him 466.725 mm's !