hand powered tools & accessories.

[Chubbo]

Hand powered tools And accessories. After giving this matter some thought, I thought that our younger members, might be interested in the Tools, and accessories, that we old fogies used before power tools, calculators, computers etc., came into being. I'll name some as they come to mind.

Hand saws, by Henry Disston, Millers Falls, and others.

Slide rules, that came before hand held calculators.

Wood bit braces, and bit extensions.

Hammer Twist drills, and bits.

Fountain pens, before ballpoint, and gell pens.

Wood, cold, floor, and mortar joint chisels, to name a few.

Tin snips.

Hand files.

Awls.

 

[WardenRoss]

I gave my youngest son (40) a bunch of my late dad's old tools. He enjoys them immensely.

He said "What is this?"

I tried to explain how the impact driver worked, but he couldn't get his head around it.

But, I do love watching my son work with my dad's tools.

 

[MRB1]

I have, and still use all but the slide rule(and round ones) and the fountain pens. Modern power tools are handy, but I've never had to be concerned with batteries with the old boys. Plus, the old stuff was built to last, not to fail.

 

[zeke]

Years ago had opportunity to visit the "field", to check on a recently approved dam rehab. While visiting with our vaunted " tough young workers", quickly learned not a one even knew how to use a shovel, level with a rake or use a real deal jack hammer. Once off the skid steer, they were lost. Granted a skid steer was huge improvement for a lot of things, but not everything.

 

[WR Moore]

Decades ago I was going to take a machinists test and was advised to bring a calculator. The night before, I decided to check the batteries on my calculator and they were dead and there were no stores open. (Remember I said decades ago.)

After a few minutes thought I pulled out my slide rule, practiced up and was ready to go. When I got there, they'd never seen a slide rule, couldn't believe it'd do everything a calculator could (and more) and refused to let me use it. They found me a calculator.

 

[mtgianni]

A real blow torch powered by gasoline with a long flame.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

My everyday tool bag only has hand powered tools in it, One that none of the modern children know how to use is a folding ruler! One most are unfamiliar with is a block plane! and one that really surprised me was and Arkansas stone, They never thought to sharpen a utility knife blade! I couldn't believe that not one man, on the 14 man maintenance crew, owned a hacksaw!

I bought every man a 4-n-1 screwdriver and made them learn how to properly to turn screws on door hinges and door knob locks! I met a lot of resistance, until they saw that it is both easier and faster! Plus they didn't have to lug a cordless drill everywhere. (in 5 or 6 story buildings, it makes a huge difference)

I'm retired now and always have a pocket knife (SAK) and a 12" folding ruler in my pocket, with a little knowledge, you can fix 75% of things you run into! and if you can't fix it, you know the proper size of the replacement.

Ivan

 

[walkin jack]

Good timing for this topic. I have using all my dads old tools since he passed away in 2009. I decide to retire them rather than move them all up here. I decided to start over and get all new stuff.

Just to show you how far back the old tools went I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to learn that the "chucks" on new drills/drivers don't require a "key". Truly an idea who's time has come.

New tools are cool. You can quote me on that.

 

[delcrossv]

I have a variety that get frequent, or less frequent, use:

Hand drill
Hand saws: rip, crosscut, coping, hacksaws
Brace and bits
Impact drivers (less since I got rid of the motorcycle)
hand pipe threaders
Packing chisels (lead seals for cast iron soil pipe)
EMT hickeys (I think you have to be a Chicago electrician to know what these are)
Hand punches for panelboards

 

[dave1918a2]

Disston D-23. Best handsaw ever.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Ruthie has an emergency tool kit in her car.

 

[BC38]

I gave my youngest son (40) a bunch of my late dad's old tools. He enjoys them immensely.

He said "What is this?"

I tried to explain how the impact driver worked, but he couldn't get his head around it.

But, I do love watching my son work with my dad's tools.

These are indispensable when working on older Japanese bikes. The motors were all held together by a million big phillips screws that were installed with toque drivers. Pretty much no way to get them out without some kind of impact unit, and a lot of them were in places that an impact gun wouldn't fit.
Harbor Freight still sells these as a kit pretty much exactly like you have pictured.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Got a set of tools from hubby's grandpa that included vintage tap extractors. A tool probably quite alien to most young folks.

 

[WardenRoss]

These are indispensable when working on older Japanese bikes. The motors were all held together by a million big phillips screws that were installed with toque drivers. Pretty much no way to get them out without some kind of impact unit, and a lot of them were in places that an impact gun wouldn't fit.
Harbor Freight still sells these as a kit pretty much exactly like you have pictured.

Yep. I've still got my Craftsman model I purchased in 1970 for my dirt bike.

We would remove those large Phillips head screws and immediately replace them with Allen head screw kits.


,

 

[WR Moore]

If you're going for precision, you gotta verify those folding rulers/scales. I had one that was a hand me down from a grand father I never knew. I found out that one end was dead on, the other off about 1/16 of an inch. Yes, that made a difference in the work I was doing.

I'm not wild about hand tightening drill chucks. Maybe OK if all you're drilling is pine, not so much if you drill hard woods/metal. It does help if your drill bits have those 3 flats to get a better grip.

 

[Kinman]

I gave my youngest son (40) a bunch of my late dad's old tools. He enjoys them immensely.

He said "What is this?"

I tried to explain how the impact driver worked, but he couldn't get his head around it.

But, I do love watching my son work with my dad's tools.

I used my impact driver just the other day, just the thing for a stubburn screw that holds the centering drill bit in an older Milwaukee hole saw driver.

 

[Golddollar]

Different kind of tools, but I was using them for 38 years when examining titles to real property. Protractor for determining bearings and scale (a type of ruler) by Dietzgen for drawing straight lines and a compass for drawing curved lines so I could draw a picture of the legal description of a parcel of land. There are now computer programs to do this, but a surveyor friend once said to me, "Sometimes it's good to plot something out by hand, it makes you think about what you're doing." Even though I am not a licensed surveyor, my ability and experience in working with land descriptions allowed me to become an Associate Member of the Maryland Society of Surveyors.

 

[tndrfttom]

My dad was a carpenter and cabinetmaker who retired about the time cordless driver-drills were becoming common in day-to-day use on the jobsite. He was a wiz with a big old Yankee screwdriver and a Miller-Falls eggbeater drill and of course a brace and set of wood bits. I got him a cordless drill (I believe it was a Makita) for Christmas one year but he preferred his old hand-powered tools. About the only power tools on his truck were a well-worn Porter Cable skill saw, orbital sander and Craftsman 3/8 drill. Dad passed away about 10 years ago but I can't get rid of any of his old tools.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

A few of my dad's tools that passed on to me:

Vernier calipers
Micrometers
Slide rule
Sheet metal snips (left, right, straight)
Hand saws (crosscut, rip, box) in handmade wooden case
Chest brace (manual drill)
Woodworking clamps
Chisels (wood, metal, masonry)
Spirit levels (2', 4', 6', all mahogany and brass)
Sharpening stones (carborundum, Arkansas soft & hard)
1/2" drive socket set with ratchet and breaker bar
Plumb bob (an indispensable tool at least once per lifetime!)
Ball peen hammers (small, medium, and truly serious)

In addition to being an excellent automobile mechanic, sheet metal fabricator, and a skilled welder, Dad was a serious carpenter (cabinet maker, finish and trim work, framing, every phase of the work). Very much into precision workmanship, no detail was allowed to be less than perfect.

Dad passed away in 1980. Talked frequently about construction work before and after WW2 using gasoline-powered saws. He would have loved today's rechargeable tools!

 

[BigBoy99]

Modern Kids Don't Know Tools!

During one summer we had several co-op students assigned to our area and supposedly these were engineering students which had three years of engineering school. I wanted shelves mounted in an area and I had marked the holes which were to be drilled, and I gave one of the students a battery-powered drill, a drill bit to drill the holes and a Phillips bit to drive the Phillips Head screws which held the brackets. I left to do other things.
I came back in about an hour and discovered nothing had been done. When I confronted the individual about the lack of progress, he told me that he could not drill the holes. I was astounded and asked him to show me what he had been doing. He produced the battery powered drill with the Philips bit mounted in the drill chuck and said it wouldn't drill a hole. I removed the Philips screw head driving bit from the drill and put in a drill bit and proceeded to drill first hole. He could not believe what I had just done. He had no idea of how to use hand tools. I suggested to him that perhaps he ought to change majors from engineering to some other major because he needed to understand and use tools. While talking to him I asked him how things got fixed around his house. He said his father was a lawyer and if they needed anything fixed they just called someone and the repairs just happened.