Keeping boxes?

andrewgr said:
I've been haunting ebay and Amazon daily sales to build up a small base of machinist tools and measuring devices. A number of items I've purchased are new and used Mitutoyo and Starrett.

Should I be keeping the cardboard boxes they came in? Should I be storing the items in those boxes when not in use? I have a hard time imagining selling these, but there's obviously a non-zero chance, and I think that resell value is helped by having the original packaging. Beyond that, I have no idea what considerations might be in play, or what normal practices are.
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The manufacturer's box? HECK YES!!!
Take a glance on eBay, there's a bunch of listings for empty boxes.
I grab any machine tool related MFG boxes at sales when I can. But then I'm a borderline hoarder.
 
Depends on the box. If it's a sturdy, well-made box (and most machine tools ship in such), and I don't have a couple empty boxes like it already, save it. Useful for storing crap you're not going to get to for awhile or for shipping things you've made. Empty boxes waste some space, but that space is usually way up high where heavy things can't go, and if you ever need the space, just throw away some boxes.

I guess keeping the box will increase the resale value of your tools, if you plan to sell them. But if you intend to sell them, why did you buy them?
 
middle.road said:
The manufacturer's box? HECK YES!!!
Take a glance on eBay, there's a bunch of listings for empty boxes.
I grab any machine tool related MFG boxes at sales when I can. But then I'm a borderline hoarder.
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Not me, nope, no way am I a hoarder.
What's that? I'm sorry you need to speak up, this mountain of cardboard is muffling what you're saying ;)
 
I used to save all the boxes, until I realized that I had one whole bedroom stuffed with boxes looking like the hoarder shows on TV. Now the only boxes I keep are to protect seldom used tools where I plan to always store the tool in it original box. Some of the precision instruments also have little tools and accessories in the OEM form fitted box and it is nice to keep all of that together with the tool inside. It it is a tool that will never actually get put away because I use it all the time then the box is toast and all the extra little parts and tools go into a generic small parts box.
 
DavidR8 said:
Not me, nope, no way am I a hoarder.
What's that? I'm sorry you need to speak up, this mountain of cardboard is muffling what you're saying ;)
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Years back, I did carpentry as a side backup job. When building a deck, using pressure treated lumber, I would buy a cheap circular saw and carbide blades. When the job was finished I would give the saw (with worn out bearings) to the customer. If they wanted it. Otherwise take it home, along with the worn out blades. A carbide tipped blade missing a few teeth in an old saw still was good for "old work", especially if I might hit a nail. When the blade had lost a few more teeth it still was good for cutting sheet metal like industrial roofing. Just turn the blade around backwards. When the blade was worn from that, I would, using a "blue wrench", cut it down to four points so Wife could use it with her sidewalk edger. Didn't last very long but the cost was a few ounces of gas. When it wore out, I cut it down to make a 5/8 fender washer for my tractor. Hanging on a nail so if I ever needed one, it was right there.

Nothing gets thrown out arbitrarily, very little including kitchen garbage composted. Luckily I married(3rd) someone of like mind. Pop was born 1906, a grown man during the Great Depression of the '30s. His older brothers took a serious beating but all in all they handled it pretty well. Pop's mindset was passed on to my brother and me as children. Mom's father was a "section hand" at that time. A section hand wasn't much but he had a job and a warm, dry place for his family to live. Company housing, an old boxcar. Not much, but nobody went cold or hungry or wet.

I have a bunch of "stuff", and Wife agrees, that I may never use. But it's better to have it and not need it rather than to need it and not have it. Your "hoarded stuff" is suited to what YOU DO, not what the world does. You may never need it, but if you do and don't have it? I would call it a version of prepping, not hoarding. The hoarding "foo fah rah" is simply the "powers that be" trying to make people into less self sufficient individuals.

Touching on politics here, a forbidden subject. So I'll shut up and be gone.
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My dad was born in 1920, mom in '26. They grew up as Depression/post Depression-era kids. So the frugal mentality was drilled into me hard as a kid.
Waste nothing and you'll want for nothing. Even though they're long gone I try to make them proud. :)
 
Use it up, Ware it out. Make do, Or do without. To give you an example. Found an old Sears sewing machine that was to far gone to make as a workable sewing machine. I studied it to see how it worked. Curiosity The motor is still good. Had an old high intensity light that can't even get bulbs for it. So today took the sewing machine light with its socket and wiring and use it to replace the guts in the h i light. Now I got a nifty adjustable little spot light that is mounted above the lathe.
 
I remember making my Mom laugh in hospital one day and shortly before she departed. I was lamenting the fact my insurance company had suddenly taken the crazy notion into its head that my hot water tank should be replaced. It was still good, for crying out loud, what would they know? She motioned to ask “how old was it?”, and I said quite matter of factly “1950’s..”
That’s when she laughed.... :)

-frank
 
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