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Just realized I've been setting my post hole digger wrong for like five years
I was working on a cedar fence job in Tacoma last week, and my helper, this kid fresh out of trade school, asked me why I was using the digger with the handles so far apart. I told him that's just how you get more power, right? He said his teacher showed them to keep their hands closer together, almost touching, for way better control. I tried it on the next post, and man, it was a game changer. The dirt came out cleaner, I wasn't fighting the tool, and my shoulders didn't ache at the end of the day. I'd been muscling through it for so long, thinking a wider grip was stronger, but it just made everything sloppier and harder. I must have set over a thousand posts the wrong way. Anyone else have a basic tool trick they learned way later than they should have?
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the_amy23d ago
Honestly, how many years of back pain do you think that wrong grip cost you? Tbh it's kind of amazing you didn't just give up and start setting posts with a spoon. I guess we all get stuck in our ways and just assume the hard way is the right way. At least you finally got a helper who actually paid attention in class. My big lesson was learning you're supposed to clean a paintbrush, not just toss it in a bucket.
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