Something Like 12 Years

Perhaps you recall several years back, I did a post about my cool lunch box. This post is about what happens to this lunch box if you use it five days a week for around 12 years (so, in a way, it's a 5-12 post!!!)

Remember that molded plastic Coke bottle handle??? Probably six months or so back, I saw that the plastic on the bottom of one end was almost worn through. I put a glob of epoxy on it to try and build it back up. It worked for a while. Then, a week ago, it cut loose as I was walking into work. I knew this day was coming, but now what was I to do??? If I were at my old job, I probably would have machined up some kind of cool aluminum handle.

No fancy CNC machine, or even the old school machine shop tools I cut my teeth on, but I should be able to come up with SOMETHING...

And, here's the result!!! Pretty much all I did was got a couple split shaft collars and a bar of aluminum. Drilled and tapped the ends of the bar, and melded the three into one. A bit of time with a file, and a 3M Scotch Brite pad to put a nice finish on it, and there it is!!! If I'd had access to the aforementioned equipment, no doubt it would be fancier, perhaps finger notches or more rounded edges, or even a Coca-Cola logo cut into the side faces, but this gets the job done in a clean, understated way.

No one I work with has noticed yet. Or at least not made mention, if they have.

Something I've not made mention of, my work issued everyone water bottles. Not only have they put in all new work stations in the newly remodeled offices, but also out in the area I work in. When they did this, they didn't want people spilling on the new stuff, and if you don't have a spill proof bottle already, now you have no excuse. The company colors are yellow and green (the company name is on the other side, they prefer employees to not share about them online for some reason) and while I like it alright, it looked the same as everyone else's. At first, I'd put my 512 on the lid, but it wore off pretty quick. Next, I took a couple of the yellow bands off. That distinguished it from everyone else, but I wasn't satisfied with it. The bands looked like they were the size of those rubber wrist bands, so I had my eye out for them. Eventually came across a green one, which went well with the text, but I only had one. Later, at my wife's doctor's office, they had a bunch of orange giveaway ones, so I grabbed a couple. They go together pretty nicely!!!

Lunch Box

I almost always take my lunch to work. Pretty much have as long as I've been working. Back when I first began being gainfully employed, I used brown paper sacks. Not always easy to come by these days, and not really durable enough to re-use more than a couple of times. I think it was for my birthday sometime way back then that my oldest sister gave me a dark gray plastic thermos lunch box. Nothing fancy, hinged halfway through the middle. I probably used that for 15 years or more. The wires between the box and the handle spread open, and they came loose from each other. I put them back together and welded them closed, not an easy proposition with a plastic box!!! A few years later, the handle wore through, so I replaced the plastic handle with a strip of leather. Once I was at the junkyard, and I found a sticker that said, "Cause I'm a PIMP" on it, and I slapped it onto my lunch box.

A couple of years ago, I told my wife that I would like an old school, metal round top lunch box. I don't know where she found it, but she came through!!! It has the vintage look that I was looking for, even though it is new construction. You can see in the first picture, the handle is a molded plastic coke bottle. I brought it in to work with me after Christmas, and everyone was duly impressed. Of course, this was at my previous employment, and it didn't take long before everyone had seen it. Fast forward to these days, there are a lot more people at my current job. It seems like almost every week someone tells me, "I like your lunch box!!!"

I like my lunch box, too.