<VV> Installing Dog Dishes - PROBLEM

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

J R Read_HML wrote:

>  the whole thread started because someone complained about denting the 
> dog dishes with a mallet. 

You have to apply the mallet the same way you would your hand, as has 
been described -- do it some other way or with greater force, and you'll 
dent the cap whether you use your hand or a mallet, and the mallet won't 
be sending you to surgery to try to get back the use of your hand.

As much as I hate wearing them, those "mechanic's gloves" are also a 
good choice for protection. [and since they are full fingered, they 
aren't a bad economical choice for dry weather winter bicycle use, either]

 > I suppose it could be a problem if you work in an auto repair shop 
changing lots of wheels (and hub caps).

It only takes one blow, landed exactly wrong, to make you wish you 
hadn't, although repetition "improves" the odds.

I speak from personal experience -- I have carpal tunnel, so I'm mostly 
pretty careful, as with patience, care, exercise, and changing how I do 
things, I have regained use of my hands without a risky surgery (my 
carpenter son-in-law can tell you all about that one, twice on each hand 
and he's still "disabled" and not yet forty), but anyway, I was putting 
one of these caps under discussion back on a sixty last fall, stoopidly 
with bare hands (just one won't hurt) and caught the nerve that runs up 
my thumb just so, and Viola! -- I am now, six months later, regaining 
normal use of said thumb.

Can't say I didn't offer the suggestion that your hand is NOT good 
substitute for a proper hammer,

Bill "Now Using Mallets & Gloves" Strickland