A C shaped spanner for undoing the lock-nuts when adjusting valve clearences on Pinto OHC engines. I don't know why I've kept it for nearly 30 years as it never worked anyway, the jaws used to just spring apart under torque.
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Amongst mine are a number of ex RAF tools, one of which is a red, Bakelite handled screwdriver which is from a Lancaster's kit and would have flown on ops. Ironically it is still in regular use 60 yrs + on tending the German technological Tour de Force that is a BMW 1200 motorcycle.
Edited by Pugugly on 28/06/2008 at 13:20
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Gordon socket set obtained late 60's early 70's with green shield stamps. - box is looking tatty but sockets are fine.
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Although not quite same category as many above: a pair of scissors that were standard issue when I worked for the Public Health Laboratory Service in the early 80s. They've never blunted, nor has the rivet holding the 2 blades together become loose - this despite many indignities imposed upon them. I didn't steal them - it was 'custom & practice' for a service leaver to take his/her scissors with them, perhaps related to a notion of good hygiene practice. They have very thin, very pointy with symmetrical blades in high gloss stainless steel & can still cut a single hair at their tips.
Edited by woodbines on 28/06/2008 at 14:07
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Woodbines,
That is probably the most boring post I have ever seen on this forum ;-)
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Not at all. A really decent pair of scissors is a treasure.
In my hooligan youth a fellow-hooligan doctor friend gave me some artery forceps to use as a roach clip, but I'm afraid they have vanished
:o}
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Not at all. A really decent pair of scissors is a treasure.
And what pleasure to find a Sheffield steel trade mark on something so useful too.
Should imagine your post has sparked some memories of strange uses of totally inappropriate instruments.
On a similar vein..
I used to use part of a 'multilift' skip lorry loading mechanism to break the bead seal on tyres, hard up in those days, changed my own tyres, missed once and a wheel about 3mm wide at one point resulted.:)
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Robin,
You have no soul.
We still have a pre-1900 Tenon Saw, which was my great-great grandfathers, at least.
It is black all over, and caused much consternation when we took it to the saw sharpeners, as they hadn't seen its like in years.
The owner, a native of Bury, said it was one of the hardest steels he has ever worked with, and offered to buy it, just to show 'the young 'uns' how thing used to be made.
Motoring wise, dragging this screaming and kicking back to purpose, have you ever noticed that the exact tool you need - AND WHICH YOU KNOW YOU OWN - is never there when you need it? And invariably: (a) the car is in such a state of stripped-down-ness that you can't just pile in and head to the shop to buy a new one; and (b) said tool turns up, miraculously, a week later when you are hunting for something else, which, in turn, you can never find... perpetuating the cycle.
I must have six or seven 10mm spanners and sockets. If I was looking for an 11mm, I wouldn't find one. But I'd find the 10mm's.
And next week, the 10mm will have mysteriously run off to the land of odd socks and screw-in lightbulbs, and the bayonet-fitting bulbs and 11mm spanners sockets will have mysteriously returned.
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Goodness Ian. I thought it was just me. In my case though the tools are also scattered in many locations, the biggest deposit being in the boot of a Skoda Estelle in some bushes in Sussex, but of course in various locations in my car and office and the sitting room and the bedroom and the basement here, as well as the garden shed in Sussex and various stashes in the bedroom there and the corridors and some cupboards in a sort of kitchen lobby there where others have kindly tidied them away...
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... and in addition... My father, who lives about 5 miles from me, has the same problem.
Yes, over numerous Xmases and birthdays he probably has received enough tools to outfit an entire B&Q, yet inevitably he can't find them.
Sio.. what does he do - phones ME up, and asks 'do you have a 17mm socket I can borrow?'
This seems an innocent request so far, but bear with me.
Inevitably *I* have to pop round to his place ('why don't you pop over, and we can have a beer?') and guaranteed it isn't just the loan of the said socket/spanner/whatever he wants, guaranateed he is halfway through some job or other, needing either another pair of hands, a strong back, or me fetching and carrying him off to get something, as his car is now in the driveway, up on stands, with various pieces strewn about. (see my thread above!).
So I end up going home with less petrol, but more beer, invariably either covered in grease/dirt, OR with a sore back, or having learned much much more about disassembling washing machines than I really want to know.
The OTHER problem with this scenario is I WILL, within a week, get another call, asking 'you know you were here last week? Do you remeber what you did with the pliers/mole grips/drill bits/etc etc etc?'
OR the other one is when he is CONVINCED that one of the tools I borrowed from him, about 6 years ago, I never returned, though I KNOW I did!
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I've still got a Churchill socket set and we had,back in the 60's,a local wood-yard that had a box full of assorted ex-WD bits-always good for a sort thro'.
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>>That is probably the most boring post I have ever seen on this forum ;-)
Ha ha.. yes, probably.. well anyway, fame of a sort I suppose. I'm wondering, given the dewy eyed tone of the many reminiscences here, whether this thread might better be by-lined: 'There's no tool like an old tool' (!)
To cut a slightly more dashing tone re tools, I still have 6-inch long 'war finish' adjustable spanner or wrench - an 'F' shape item anyway; last time used it still had micrometre like precision in its infallible grip & an oily-metallic patina that would provoke excitement on the Antiques Roadshow!
Edited by woodbines on 28/06/2008 at 19:20
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I recently bought a set of halfords 'professional' combination spanners.
I guess they will be around in a hundred years or so as they are too slim to use comfortably, and too ill fitting to be of much use anyway.
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Anything by Snap-on, yes I know they are over-priced and over-rated, but...
Take a look at my 3/8" 10mm chrome socket, that is not a tool, sir, it's a jewel.
All the other 10mm sockets look so clumsy in comparison.
It got plenty of stick for the few years I worked in the trade and still looks brand new.
Then there's my jointed 3/8" ratchet which is actually in a 1/4" drive shell - the Snap-on man offered it as a special when he found the two mechanisms were interchangeable.
Is there any better way to turn a screw than with a standard, black handled Snap-on screwdriver?
My old gaffer bought us all a set to open our Snap-on accounts - 'last you a lifetime, my boy' - and he was right.
For heavy artillery there's my black 1/2" impact socket set and 18" matador, both Snap-on and unbreakable - the nut/bolt/thread will give way first, every time.
Not convinced? Just 'weigh' any Snap-on tool in your hand - the balance and feel is something you so rarely get with other tools.
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At least 20 years ago I applied for a car insurance quote which turned out to be non competitive. My reward for applying was a free 'multi function screwdriver'. It consisted of a plastic handle which contained 6 different headed 'screws' - flat, very small Phillips, slightly larger Phillips, screw head, awl. I can't remember the other one and I daren't wake the wife up to find out (it being in a cupboard in the bedroom) but it has been an absolute godsend. The cap which holds the spare drivers in the handle has cracked and it takes much dexterity on my part to keep the thing together but I reckon that I have used it more than any other tool since I got it (I don't do much DIY by the way!).
It has also come in handy for occasional use on the car!!
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I still have and use an "Inspection Light" that i think first started out as a "stick on Dash" map-reading lamp. It comprises of a 12v tail-light bulb in a metal shade, on the end of a 10" flexible stem with a rubber sucker on the end, and a length of flex with crocky clips on, (my modification) as they are more universal than a lighter-plug. I first "aquired" it from an unlnown source back in the early '70's. and even now 35+ years on, i cant ever remember changing the bulb in it! - its a bit battered now, but i'd often be lost without it.
Billy
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I had - and lost - a 12v light which was a sidelight bulb in a reflector about the size and shape of a small tin of beans.
It had a cigarette lighter plug and a decent length of flex.
Ever so useful and I still miss it, not so much this time of year, but certainly during the winter months.
The other handheld light I had was much bigger and had a halogen headlight bulb in.
Too bright, really - like trying to fill a bucket with a pressure washer.
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My favourite tool is a Draper screwdriver-never seen it for sale again otherwise I'd buy another;it's a ratchet driver-magnet in shaft which is powerful enough not just to hold the various adaptors supplied but to hold screws etc.;what makes it oustanding is a second handle on the shaft in front of the ratchet so you can turn the shaft independent of the rest of the screwdriver.
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I have just realised that a pair of German made scissors I use almost daily were er...."borrowed" from the comprehensive First Aid kit that came with a BMW.
Bought a micro Leatherman for my Bike trip - a future classic I feel.
Edited by Pugugly on 29/06/2008 at 18:32
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