- Messages
- 10,971
- Location
- My mother's basement
My favorite little thrift shop continues to amaze. I've found vintage attire in the place, cheap. And many a fine shirt. And shoes. And high-quality suits and jackets of more recent manufacture. All bought on the cheap.
I hadn't planned on stopping by today but other business had me a couple of blocks away so I swung in. I found a Corby brand pants presser, a home-duty unit. It was marked at 10 bucks, but that price was on a yellow tag and today all yellow tags were 50 percent off. So with the sales tax I was out the door for $5.42.
I have long wanted such a gizmo but never got around to buying one because I couldn't justify spending the minimum of $150 they cost new.
Now I could use a little advice from anyone experienced with these things. This is a vertical unit. It opens like an upside-down sandwich board sign -- the hinge on the bottom. There's no temperature control but there is a timer, with a 30 minute maximum. All that seems to work fine. The working surfaces don't get all that hot, just kinda warm, actually, but I think that's all the hotter they're supposed to get, so that the user doesn't scorch his pants or turn them shiny. Yes? No?
It does an OK but not great job of putting a crease into all-cotton khakis, but I think this thing is designed more for refreshing an existing crease than creating a new one. It's the sort of thing you'd use to sharpen up your pants between cleanings, safely and with minimal effort.
Anyway, it's hard to go wrong for five bucks. It doesn't do anything I couldn't do with an iron and a press cloth, but doing it that way requires setting up the ironing board and all of that, whereas with this thing you just line up the seams and creases, as you would when putting the pants on a hanger, open the unit, drape the pants in it, close the unit and turn the timer dial. Then go take a shower and shave and whatnot while the gizmo does its thing.
I hadn't planned on stopping by today but other business had me a couple of blocks away so I swung in. I found a Corby brand pants presser, a home-duty unit. It was marked at 10 bucks, but that price was on a yellow tag and today all yellow tags were 50 percent off. So with the sales tax I was out the door for $5.42.
I have long wanted such a gizmo but never got around to buying one because I couldn't justify spending the minimum of $150 they cost new.
Now I could use a little advice from anyone experienced with these things. This is a vertical unit. It opens like an upside-down sandwich board sign -- the hinge on the bottom. There's no temperature control but there is a timer, with a 30 minute maximum. All that seems to work fine. The working surfaces don't get all that hot, just kinda warm, actually, but I think that's all the hotter they're supposed to get, so that the user doesn't scorch his pants or turn them shiny. Yes? No?
It does an OK but not great job of putting a crease into all-cotton khakis, but I think this thing is designed more for refreshing an existing crease than creating a new one. It's the sort of thing you'd use to sharpen up your pants between cleanings, safely and with minimal effort.
Anyway, it's hard to go wrong for five bucks. It doesn't do anything I couldn't do with an iron and a press cloth, but doing it that way requires setting up the ironing board and all of that, whereas with this thing you just line up the seams and creases, as you would when putting the pants on a hanger, open the unit, drape the pants in it, close the unit and turn the timer dial. Then go take a shower and shave and whatnot while the gizmo does its thing.
