The $3500 Man

[themechanic]

This won't quite make you a $6,000,000 man, like Steve Austin/Lee Majors, but could the increase in productivity and decrease in muscle soreness and fatigue be worth it?

 

[Don Frelier]

My Dad was a drywall and ceiling carpenter for many years.
He enjoyed doing ceilings and working over his head.
He used to say he'd put up miles of ceilings.
When you do it everyday the muscle soreness really isn't an issue (until you get in your late 50's - early 60's...).
But he did look tired many days after work sometimes they would work 9 or 10 hour days starting at 5:30 or 6:00.
He had to drive his own vehicle or carpool with someone.
The stressful part was not knowing what the next job would be or if he'd be assigned to one.
But I rarely heard him complain about being sore from work.
Sometimes I felt bad asking him to help me fix something after he got home.
But he rarely turned me down and sometimes I would have to wait.
I'm grateful for his hard work while we were growing up.

Here we built a new door jamb from white pine cut on the back hill a couple years earlier.

 

[SlingLow]

That's pretty cool! I can definitely see the benefit.

At this point in life, I'm wondering if they have a Cheerios model to help with my breakfast cereal.

 

[Don selleck]

I saw a similar unit that Hilti makes, always wondered if they were worth it. I too have hung, finished, and sanded miles and miles of drywall since 1987, and yes my body is definitely paying for it. I personally just do metal framing mostly now and only part time. but a few of my guys are starting to get to there 40's, and I know there starting to feel it. My sander and Q.C. guy who sands all of the jobs hold a spinning sander with attached hose all day on the bigger jobs it does alot of the work for you, imagine having something holding it up all day for you.