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Dropped $380 on a hydraulic tube roller for one job and it's been sitting under my bench for 8 months
I want to warn you guys before you make the same mistake I did. Back in January I bid a small job re-tubing a boiler at a food plant up in Rockford and figured I'd just buy my own roller instead of renting one from the supply house every time. Rented one three times that month at $90 a day plus the drive, so in my head buying made sense. Dropped $380 on a used hydraulic roller off a guy retiring out of the trade, thought I got a steal. Job wrapped in two weeks, and since then it has not moved once except when I trip over it. The rentals were annoying but they came with the right dies and I didn't have to store a 200 pound thing in my garage. Turns out most of my work is welding and fit-up, not rolling tube sheets, and I got excited about a tool instead of looking at what I really do all day. My old foreman used to say buy tools that pay rent, and this one has been squatting for free. Anybody else got a tool they bought for one job that just sits there judging them?
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burns.ruby3d ago
Man that is a hard lesson for $380 but you are not alone in this at all. I have a tubing bender that I bought for one handrail job two years back and it has been holding up a shelf ever since. The worst part is not even the money, it is how MAD you get at yourself every time you look at the thing. Your foreman was right about tools that pay rent and that is the whole game right there. The rental dies thing is real too, I always forget to ask for the right size and end up making two trips. Next time you need one maybe just rent and let the supply house store it for you.
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