Changing shims made easy with straws

[Badot]

I'm not sure how hard it is for everyone else, but I think it's a pain in the butt to pop the shims out of the bucket (all the way, not just pry one edge up) then pull them out, and I didn't have great luck with a magnetic pickup tool. Just a note, I used the motion pro tool for this, but the screwdriver method should work equally well.

You know those red straws that come with aerosol cans? Duster gas, penetrating oil, whatever... well, when you pry the edge of the shim up, you can shove one of those under it (using the cutout in the bucket) and it's the perfect size to pop the shim out of the bucket and let it slide downwards out of the bucket slot. My shims are around the 2.45 range and it was a bit tight, so you may need to use pliers to move the straw on larger shims.

From there, just take a drinking straw and push it between the bucket and shim. Use a wire or anything similar (paper clip, cotter pin, etc.) to push the shim out from the other side. The straw keeps it from falling back in the bucket or sliding back down, and it keeps it an an angle so if you just keep pushing it pops out the top rather than getting caught on the lip. The wire doesn't even need to be bent to get the shim far enough out to easily grab with small pliers or a magnet.