Ok as some of you know I am the Maintenance Mechanic II for the University of Washington's Olympic Natural Resources Center. www.onrc.washington.edu

I take care of all the maintenance including the Electrical, plumbing carpentry and fire and water systems here at the center. However one of my other duties is ordering custodial supplies and supervising the custodial staff as they keep the place looking good.

Anyway for 14 years I have been at the mercy of Georgia Pacific's paper towel division in that I have had to buy this special paper towel with a weird notch on both ends. Oh sure they give you the dispensers for free, knowing good and well that you are going to have to buy thier "special" product forever! Not anymore. I did something like this a few years ago with our soap dispensers that has a special plate inside that caused no other boxed dispenser to fit. Took care of that one and now it was time to stop the madness once again.

Last time I ordered paper towels either I screwed up or the company I ordered did and I ended up with 2 cases of the wrong towel that is just a little different that the one I needed. So recently the custodial crew discovered that the towel would fall sideways and jam. After further inspection I discovered the notch was not the one we needed. So I called the local paper products rep and because I stopped buying from him a few years ago I think he's mad at me and hasn't returned my calls. So screw him I don't care.

Yesterday I went down town with a roll of towels determined to finish this once and for all. And what did I discover? The little white plastic dowel holders for closets fit perfect. I only have to change out one side as you will see in the pictures and grind off a couple of tabs on the other side. So for about 75 cents for each dispenser and 3 minutes to do the work, I can now put in any 8 inch plain roll with no notches, or whatever. Not only will this allow me to buy them from anywhere but because it is not a special towel, its about half the price. So Georgia Pacific......BITE ME!!!!!

Here is the process, sorry for the long post but the reason I am putting this in here is that I am going to use every opportunity to share this with anyone I can and so I will link this to other companies being held hostage by "the man"

Cart all loaded up for the job.



Basically all I used was a 1/4-20 screw, lock washer and nut on one side and ground off the other side's notch.

Georgia Pacific Max 2000




In this picture you can see the notch wheel on the right which I replace with the closet dowel holder.


That wheel goes into this:




Here on the left side the holder is actually ok, but if you look close there are a couple of tabs that stick out.



And they go into this notch on the paper towel.



So a little grinding with the right angle dremel and boo yaa. Which takes all of 15 seconds.





Here is the other side.





Here it is on the other side. I had to drill the holder and the place it mounted.



So for 75 cents each and 3 minutes of my time not only will I save half the money on these throughout the facility (30 dispensers) but now I can buy a standard roll from Grainger. Plus we don't pay for shipping with Grainger so I'm saving even more.

I love my job, and sometimes the planets align right or whatever you want to call it and not only do we save dollars which are not increasing but just knowing that I have more choices now, well that was icing on the cake.

Now if we can do the same thing with oil from the Middle East well we would all be instant millionaires.

Well that's it for today.

 

Ha Ha very very cool deej,, you sure your name isn't Mcgyver lmao,, thats awsome in a weird way lmao

 

lol..nice job on the "yankee inginuity" there, boss!

i used to work as a mechanic and fabricator in a paper mill making a somewhat similar product..lmao.. roofing paper, before it got tarred.

similar steps in production.. the paper industry is sooooo incredibly, ridiculously competitive, they'll stop at nothing to try to monopolize the product. i know they were horridly competitive.. even amongst other plants OWNED by the SAME GUY!. the one i was at is in maryland. thers another one in alabama, and another in california somewhere.. they're part of Tamco, which some of ya may be familiar with.. Tamco actually stands for the states the plants are in.. T is for i honestly don't know.. tenessee i think, A is alabama, M is maryland, C.. cali.. and i think the o is there for fun.

crooked business.. the paper biz..

afer i told them to take there poor pay and swing shift and shove it, they started loosing revenue and alot of business. the market sucks as well, so, guess as far as job security, i got out just in time..lol

but ya. finding ways around stuff like that i a blast. i love defeating things like that.

 

right on deej!

 

Now that you are saving a bunch of money maybe you will get a raise now

 

and once a slave does not mean you bloom until after retirement for the state.

 

Funny you should mention that, I got another dollar raise this month so that should have been like 160 to 188bucks a month right? Well after the state increased everything from medical insurance and the more you make the more we take factor kicked in it turns out to be 36 bucks every two weeks. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa That's almost enough to fill my truck half way up. Oh well at $24.00 an hour now I guess I can't complain, I mean really I love my job so much that I should be paying them to work here.......................OK maybe not.

 

Good job Deej! I love the simple creativity you used to stick-it-to-the-man and save money for the school too - give yourself a big pat on the back bud!

 

Hehe. I remember those. I think I just crammed another white-paper one in there and it half-way worked.

 

OMG I got banned from a janitorial website for posting the link to my "sticking it to the man" link here. They said it was for advertising. OMG! whatever.