amazon review - Cursing Cats and Other Curiosities

Two reviews in one day? WTF? I know. But in my last post, I mentioned modifying my rock display stands with my Dremel. Which reminded me that I love my Dremel and the case I got for it.

I mean come on, Dremels are awesome. You can cut wood, plastic, metal – etch glass, sand anything, polish, grind stuff down, drill holes, sharpen your lawn mower blades (I don’t know why I have that attachment). So versatile! It’s not something you use everyday, but it is a life saver. It’s like “oh I have this problem! Whatever shall I do?” “I have a Dremel.“

So the last time I used it for a big project was redoing the mailbox post. We moved our mailbox but I still wanted a house number stand out on the street. A fancy one. I was shopping for them and then thought — damn, I have a nice post out there — it just has a damn mailbox on it. It’s a nice cast iron post my neighbor let us have after mailbox 3.0 (or somewhere in there) went down. And those posts were expensive. So I looked it over and realized the box was only held on by brackets. Cast-iron brackets, but I have a Dremel! And a 100 foot extension cord! So I sawed the brackets off, used the grinding bits to even it up, a new coat of shiny black paint and added a house number plaque! Wha la!

Now after this wonderfulness, I realized, my Dremel deserved better. I’ve done other big projects with it (my nativity creche) but only had it in an open box in the garage on the shelves. So there might have been a ton of dust and a little rat poop in the box with everything… Sorry, dude. So I went looking for storage and I found this box. The “Portable Tool Box – Small Parts Organizer with Drawers and Customizable Compartments for Hardware, Fishing Tackle, Beads or Crafts by stalwart (Green)”. I’ve seen it in lots of other colors, but I like green.

The top is the perfect size for my Dremel with extension attached and a huge pair of safety goggles. I have to have big googles to fit over my cateye glasses. It’s a perfect fit! I even tossed in the manuals in an envelope. The envelope looks fancy but it’s really because they were filthy and bent up from the terrible storage before…

Then, when you open up the front, you have access to 4 individual latching tackle boxes. These are perfect because the short dividers are not permanently set, so you can move them around to make the compartments the size you need.

And yall know, the Dremel comes with a ton of shit. I mean it does do EVERYTHING. I’ve got one tray for attachments. One for sanding, one for more sanding and also polishing, one for cutting and grinding. Look at all this organized shit:

So when I needed to cut some metal last night, I went out to my garage and grabbed my green box. It also has a big sticker that says “Fuck” on it because it’s mine. All my shit was right there. It wasn’t dusty. I didn’t have to look around for what I needed. I even had my safety glasses right there to remind me to use them. It’s perfect.

5 stars, highly recommend. I love organization.

It’s been a while since I did an Amazon review. I worked on customizing these last night, so I’m going to review them. But, this means you get a preview of some of my new rock collection additions. I’m going to make a post more about those soon. I’m waiting until some more things come in too so that you get the full scoop. But that’s later. For NOW, Lets review: Amazon’s “4 Pcs Adjustable Metal Arm Display Stand Easel with Acrylic Base Rock Display Easel Holder Acrylic Easel Crystal Display Stand Clear Plate Stand for Geodes Mineral Agate (2 x 2 x 3.5 Inch)”

I’m torn between giving this 4 or 5 stars. In the end, I’m super happy with these. That said, I did do some heavy modifications on them.

My rock collection is small samples. My shelves are 2 inches deep and about 3 inches high. So my display samples are small. These were the smallest stands I could find. I love the super clean clinical look. It doesn’t take away from the stone at all. I like that adjustable arms can be moved to hold different stones. I love the clean look. I don’t want to just set a rock on the shelf. I want it displayed and labeled. I want a clean organized collection. Not just a pile of rocks.

So I thought these would be perfect. They almost were. Hence my considering 4 stars. If I were to use them as is, the only issue I have is the insanely tight fit in the base. One, I couldn’t get all the way in. I pushed on the top peg only and it pushed through the others. So then I pushed down on the lower pegs and that was enough to tear the thin metal wrapping them together. Not noticeable displayed on the shelf, but disappointing. It’s still just not fully inserted.

Now, another fact is that I heavily tweaked these. I need my specimens plus the stand to be around 3 inches. The stand actually holds the specimens a decent height off the shelf. I can’t measure this for you as I’ve already altered mine. I used my Dremel with a metal cutting wheel to take the height off the bottom (Dremels are magic). This allows the lower pegs to sit closer to the acrylic base.

This made me happy for some of my specimens, but wasn’t working for displaying the smaller slices and stones. They wanted to lay down because the arms are over 2 inches long. Time to get out the pliers. I was able to bend the back peg forward according to each stones need to display it exactly as I wanted (see picture). It’s a thick peg so it did require a bit of force.

Now they’re perfect! I added a tiny label to the acrylic and these look great on my shelves! Here are the 4 I ordered and tweaked (see picture). I’m very happy with the final result. I will buy again, but they need modification. I was also very disappointed in the one that tore the metal wrap when I tried to get it in the base. So I’m knocking it down the 4 stars.