TOOLS

[old bear]

I now view a tool as a threat. If there is a tool in my vicinity then that implies that I may do some work. That kind of thing can upset me and put me off my afternoon nap.

My life just keeps getting better and better.

I'm with Walking Jack on this one. Tools are a threat, which means I'm going to be expected to interrupt what ever I'm doing or often not doing, to get up and do some real work. Not in this life time.

It's just so easy to "Call the Guy" and have someone else deal with the problem.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

A
Do you ever use tools--especially, power tools, to do work they were not designed to do.

Blessings

Pretty stupid question if you ask me. We're men.
I use my daughter's hair dryer to get a fire going in the pit- gets that sucker so hot I could smelt steel. I've cut 2x4's with a chain saw and cut tree limbs with a skill saw. It's called adaptive use and you are supposed to learn it in man class where you learn all that good man stuff. Matter of fact, I think that this is required proficiency that must be proven before you can be issued your weiner.

 

[Onomea]

I say 30-30 Remchester wins. (I do wonder if he confessed to the guy whose socks he used for another purpose... Nah. I bet he didn't.)

 

[VAPA]

Lining a rifle barrel up against a plumb bob string to shoot a starter hole through the ceiling and roof for a stove flue pipe.

 

[Engineer1911]

I don't own (or want) a chain saw, so I do all my lumberjack work with a sawzall, either corded or battery. If it's a really big limb, I start with the Milwaukee skil saw.

 

[ditrina]

Pretty stupid question if you ask me. We're men.
I use my daughter's hair dryer to get a fire going in the pit- gets that sucker so hot I could smelt steel. I've cut 2x4's with a chain saw and cut tree limbs with a skill saw. It's called adaptive use and you are supposed to learn it in man class where you learn all that good man stuff. Matter of fact, I think that this is required proficiency that must be proven before you can be issued your weiner.

Dear Lord.. and here I thought I was the only one.. I
remember my wife's look when she found soot and hickory smell as she went to dry her hair..

Then there was Rochester N.Y. the Ice Storm in March of'92 I believe.. Did not own a chain saw back then, but hooked up my skill saw to a small camping generator and attacked the fallen limbs

It's nice to know I ain't alone..

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

If we read the instructions, we would know you can't do all this stuff with these tools. Therefore real men don't read instructions, we learn by Osmosis. Ivan

 

[boatme99]

I am a big power tool aficionado but can't (off the top of my head)
think of when I've used them for unintended purposes. I have made slight modifications on rare instances but only if necessary to do a specific job - then restored back to original condition.

Just when I thought I have every single tool a man can have, I find an excuse o buy another one. Guess I am a tool addict

example: I must have (no exaggeration either) 35 - 40 hammers of all different types and last night I bought a Shooboy Midnight Pro. Just in G Smithing hammers alone, I have at least 7, but found a need for a Shooboy anyway.

I recently upgraded 4 different power tools by selling my older cheaper ones and replacing them with Milwaukee Electric Tools.
Left Bladed Circular Saw, Rotary Hammer Drill, Orbital Jig Saw, Angle Drill.

Added: I do remember one tool I did permanently modify........ I took and old cordless Screwdriver that had dead batteries and converted it to run on my DC voltage converter. I use it at my workbench when driving lots of long Machine Screws. It had endless power now and since it's a Bench Tool, I do not mind the cord.

Chief, I have 2 more must haves for your collection.
Did you know that there are left and right handed slate hammers?

I worked slate roofing for a while when I got out of the service. When the Boss asked if I was right or left handed so I could get the correct hammer, I thought he was pulling my leg.

 

[Oldiron]

While in the CG, had an engine tac go out. Book said pull the engine, maint officer said replace it without pulling the engine. We wound up pulling all of the (IIRC) 3/8" wrenches from the tool crib and put various increments of bend in them. Only 4 nuts to loosen but at 1/8 of a turn and swap wrenches it took a long time.
If you want to truely try something that will test your ability to improvise try playing with a blacksmith forge. Sometimes it will take an hour or two to make a new tool to use 5 min to make a forging. Fun and you get to pound the #### out of that metal. Good stress reliever. Larry

P.S. boatme99, on old blacksmith hammers you can tell if the person was rt or left handed by which side of the hammer face is deformed. A rt handed person will deface the left side and a lefty will deface the rt.

 

[boatme99]

P.S. boatme99, on old blacksmith hammers you can tell if the person was rt or left handed by which side of the hammer face is deformed. A rt handed person will deface the left side and a lefty will deface the rt.

That's something I never knew. My sister has horses. I'll have to try and go by her place next time the farrier shows up.

 

[Frank46]

I've had the handle of a large crescent wrench cut down and reground so I could adjust the packing gland nuts on both steam reciprocating pumps and same for both electric and turbine fuel oil pumps. When changing out the electric and turbine driven pumps was still used on the older reciprocating pumps. They dated back to the early 1900's and 1920's. When I retired gave it to one of my operating mechanics and told him "here it's yours now". Still have the pipe wrenches I used and one my dad used from the railroad. Gotta confess to being a tool freak, last purchase was a milwaukee portable band saw. Have used the old skil saw with wood blades for cutting tree limbs. Frank

 

[model70hunter]

Added: I do remember one tool I did permanently modify........ I took and old cordless Screwdriver that had dead batteries and converted it to run on my DC voltage converter. I use it at my workbench when driving lots of long Machine Screws. It had endless power now and since it's a Bench Tool, I do not mind the cord.

Splain your self man. I have 2 12v Dewalts and 2 18v Cordless drivers.

I'm tired of paying out the nose for batteries. Which explains 2 of each. Both times it was cheaper to buy a new drill with 2 batteries than buy 2 batteries.

I've been thinking about converting them to corded.

Battery powered drills do some things very well, like start a sheet rock screw and stop before you sink it too deep like a 110v drill.

 

[williamlayton]

Doing things by myownself--I have no friends and my son won't help--most of my innovations have to do with creating hands that help me hold onto something that---IF I had a friend---he would help me do.
Clamps --NOT claps--- are the greatest invention in the world.
You would not believe--I have done it and I am still astounded--at things I have done to hold things while I butchered the other end.
And the things to stand on to reach other things is also part of the manly way of doing things.
Boys--we are either stupid or bright--don't ask a woman which it is. Who in the hell needs a ladder when you have a brain ?
Blessings

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Started at about 8 years of age when I was building a go-cart. Lacking the money to buy a hacksaw, I used a dull file to cut a wheel axle to length. All day project.

By the time I was teen things hadn't changed much. I used things that would not be considered tools to substitute. Lacking the money to buy a jack, I piled up newspapers under a VW engine. When the engine was ready to be removed, I pulled out the enough paper in the stack to lower the engine and slide it out. Getting it back in was not so easy.

It's a unique satisfaction.

 

[DeadAye]

Pretty stupid question if you ask me. We're men.
I use my daughter's hair dryer to get a fire going in the pit- gets that sucker so hot I could smelt steel. I've cut 2x4's with a chain saw and cut tree limbs with a skill saw. It's called adaptive use and you are supposed to learn it in man class where you learn all that good man stuff. Matter of fact, I think that this is required proficiency that must be proven before you can be issued your weiner.

Us REAL MEN use an air compressor to crank the fire up

 

[Marshwheeling]

Not so much power tools, but I do like to use hand tools in ways they were never intended. Of course, I would always prefer to use the right tool for a job, but sometimes, you just have to use what is at hand: a pocket knife to open a frozen car door, a wrench handle to lever a motorcycle tire off the rim. An adjustable wrench works great for bending sheet metal, and I once fabricated an aluminum race car body using a couple of 4x4s and a plastic mallet in the absence of a sheet metal brake.

Some of the best ones are forgotten; I just do the job and move on, but not without saying: "Another triumph for Man, the tool-using animal."


"Man is a tool-using Animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all."
―Thomas Carlyle

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Hair dryers and air compressors... Y'all are lightweights.

We used diesel fuel to start the fire and leaf blowers to feed the flames when burning trees after clearing lots for building. People in the subdivision would complain that it felt hot in their cars as they drove by. It was nice in the winter months.

 

[Step N. Mud]

many moons ago, me and my buddy both had older pickups and my buddy had me use my truck to break down his off mounted tires by parking on top of them to break the seal and re-install the new set of tires he bought at a bargain price, but uninstalled, took the biggest part of a afternoon.

Another time, we was out night time desert hunting and had a flat tire on the rear of the old jeep without a jack. so we picked up and held the back of the jeep while the driver replaced the spare tire.

 

[M E Morrison]

Started at about 8 years of age when I was building a go-cart. Lacking the money to buy a hacksaw, I used a dull file to cut a wheel axle to length. All day project.

By the time I was teen things hadn't changed much. I used things that would not be considered tools to substitute. Lacking the money to buy a jack, I piled up newspapers under a VW engine. When the engine was ready to be removed, I pulled out the enough paper in the stack to lower the engine and slide it out. Getting it back in was not so easy.

It's a unique satisfaction.

I just grabbed them & yanked them out. Going back in was also pure muscle. Maybe that's why my back is so bad?

 

[Oldiron]

I just grabbed them & yanked them out. Going back in was also pure muscle. Maybe that's why my back is so bad?

That system works OK for Bajas and rail buggies but not so well for a full rear ended car. Have used various sizes of fire wood though.If you play with the size you can pretty much stand the engine up on the back end and roll it up on the chunk of log and it gives you something to sit it on for another grasp of the intake tubes.
Larry