Posted by Rick Denney on February 05, 2002 at 13:12:36:
In Reply to: Re: Dent Eraser posted by Art H on February 05, 2002 at 00:01:35:
I handled a Dent Eraser at the Army conference, and saw it demonstrated by Dave Fedderly. It is no hoax. Daryl Hickman has also reported good results with it. I doesn't always remove the dents completely, and is less effective where a guard is in place, but it does work.
When someone invents something, they deserve to get paid not only for the materials but also for their good idead. This brings to mind a story:
The Singer Sewing Machine company, the story goes, had a problem with one of its large and extremely complex factory machines. They hired a famous mechanical engineer to diagnose the problem. He arrived with only a piece of chalk. After five minutes of inspection and listening to the machine operate, he marked a spot on the machine with his chalk. He told them that was where their problem was, and sure enough that's where they found it. The factory manager asked for a bill, and the consultant provided him a bill for $10,000. The outraged factory manager asked for an itemization, and here's what he got:
15 cents for one piece of chalk.
$9999.85 for knowing what to do with it.
If the Dent Eraser is such an obvious thing, then why didn't anyone think of it before, and do the work of bringing it to market?
The packaging of the Dent Eraser is actually pretty nice. It's in a wooden box, with fitted positions for the magnet and four highly polished dent balls. It also has spare pads, though some have reported better results with thinner pads.
As to shipping it, when it is inside its box, the field is reasonably under control. The magnet grabs steel aggressively close than a range of about an inch--outside that isn't that much of a problem. But I would keep it well away from my computer or my TV screen.
Rick "who wants one but who will wait until the price comes down" Denney