(Road spanners, revisited)
I have several open ended and ring spanners found in this way. It started in the late 60`s - you know how it is, that glint of silver, seen in the gutter or crown of the road. One of them is top quality with four small notches carefully ground into it as an identifier.
Still see them sometimes, but modern traffic means it`s trickier to get them and then there`s image to consider - a scraggy lizard like old bloke scrabbling in the centre of the road for another 10mm spanner.
Actually I was joking about the image, because as you know, I don`t have one ;)
It`s a Magpie tendency really, because If I see one I long to make a sprint for it, if only to handle it for a while.
Do you ever see them? and are they a temptation?
;)
Edited by oilrag on 20/09/2008 at 07:46
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Do you ever see them?
Nope, unfortunately. I see dozens, nay hundreds, of useless wheel trims though.
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Oilrag,
We said at our last TA (tools anon) meeting that we would not discuss this in public!? ;-) Hehehehe!
For me, I have to be honest, the temptation is just too much.
I have to have it.
No matter what it is, I have to go back and get it.
My best find (that I got to keep) was a 3 ton bottle jack, complete with handle and the wheel brace used to undo the bolts on the flat tyre, hard shoulder M62 - this was some years ago now though. I still have the jack too.
What I found that I did not get to keep was a complete old fashioned metal tool box. It had a phone number on it. Received a party keg of Double Diamond or was it Worthingtons E? I cannot remember! But it was that long ago.
They don't make draft beers like that anymore do they?
Since then all I seem to find are pound shop cheap tools that usually just get a quick look over & left...
....and wine bars full of chemical based beers.
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Founds a Mole wrench once - still in service, must have been in the 1980s sometime.
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Huge big flathead screwdriver must be 18" long. Found lying in the road outside my old house. Given that there wasn't much else for miles it was a bit of a mystery. Still have it.
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Not quite spanners on the road, but my office once had a new suspended ceiling fitted and the contractors thought nothing of climbing up using the filing room cabinets as ladders. Many files were sent to the floor for us to sort out the following Monday. So their good selection of Britool spanners they left behind never made it back to them!
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Years ago when I was a mechanic in the R.E.M.E., our unit had some Alvis Stalwart amphibians. Due to the nature of the vehicle, any tools dropped whilst working on the engine ended up in the bilges till the next time the engine was removed; we soon learned to tie spanners to the wrist!
One of these beasties coming in for a major overhaul would attract every fitter in the shop, perching like vultures round the engine bay ready to grab all the spare tools which had accumulated!
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I've got a three foot spirit level acquired this way.
Edited by bathtub tom on 20/09/2008 at 10:58
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I found a 12mm combination spanner whilst out for a walk.
Odd size, but it fits satellite and DAB aerial plugs perfectly.
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One of the mechanics working for me, found a radar speed gun, in a layby.
& a rather embaressed & gratefull Police officer, later called at the yard to collect it!
VB
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Goodness!
I thought you were going to say that you had prised it from the cold, dead hand of a policeman who had aimed it a triggerhappy, heavily armed individual in the execution of his duty...
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I wondered where I left that...
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Found a pair of wire cutters this morning whilst walking the dog!
Edited by Tron on 21/09/2008 at 09:09
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A transit pick-up once flew (almost literally) over the level crossing when I was on duty and deposited an emormous Stilson in the roadway.
Naturally I picked it up to avoid damage to following traffic but it is so big (two foot handle) that I rarely have occasion to use it :-)
Thanks to oilrag for initiating such interesting threads
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Picked up a few tools from house clearance work including a nice Snap-On screwdriver, but a spanner has never come my way. Too busy avoiding other drivers looking for tools on the road to spot any of my own.
A chap I used to know who ran a Citroen independent garage in Bradford once found a Snap-On spanner in the boot of a Light 15 (Maigret car). The chrome plating was pitted so he called into play Snap-On's lifetime warranty and exchanged the wartime freebie for a new Snap-On spanner.
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Spanners and screwdrivers are oh-so 20th century.
So has anyone found a laptop in a layby, a multimeter on the motorway or a code reader on a country lane ...
?
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Probably dropped a few myself over the decades. Lost several tools underneath engines never to be seen again.
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>>So has anyone found a laptop in a layby?<<
Someone has sat on my laptop in a layby, does that count?
:)
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I have a very nice pair of wire cutters collected from the road in Manchester (ex BT?), and also a large screwdrive. I found a pair of pliers at the air line at the local garage, and I did accquire a spanner from under the bonnet of a car after it had been for repair....
My Dad had a Bosch jigsaw that needed a very long slim screwdriver to change the blade. Said screwdriver disappeared, and we had to modify one to suit. A while later I crashed the car and had to rebuild the front end. With the front off, sat on the crossmember under the fan cowling (this was a Citroen Visa with the 652cc air cooled twin...) was the missing screwdriver. Since I must have dropped it (no recollection though) my Dad was not sure whether to thank me for finding it, or clip me round the ear for losing it!
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I have a nice nice new hard hat and I got it after it bounced off the wing of my Vectra a few years ago leaving a nice dent
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If it hit the vectra hard enough to leave a ding then its structural integrity as a hard hat is now in doubt, IMHO.
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I acquired a plastic tool tray/carrier, a 6v torch, a couple of screwdrivers and a length of earth sleeving by the road not far from home. Earth sleeving has been very useful as I go round replacing sockets and light fittings. Battery now give out on the torch...
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I agree, It has got a split in it but OK for fancy dress parties
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As I run round the local tracks and roads in the early morning I have collected over the years:
1 small cake baking tray! (ideal for storing tubes of glue).
One adjustable pipe wrench
2 screwdrivers
one small and rusty socket set
Pliars
loads of decking screws - a job lot fell off a van?
and about £10 to £15 every year in loose change (goes into our charity box).
I leave behind the dead foxes/badgers/and cows I have found over the years:-)
(the cow apparently dorwned in a pond)
Edited by madf on 22/09/2008 at 13:47
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I know a staff sargent who aquired a garage full of 'lost' tools.........that is till the military police discovered they were'nt actually lost
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I once bought a car. Actually I've bought quite a lot of cars.......boom boom....
Sorry......been a long day already........I once bought a car, Triumph Spitfire, the battery was connected to the live feed by a battery cable which must have lost its end clamp. The clamp had been replaced by a small pair of mole grips which had been attached to the cable with insulating tape.
Went fine like that but I eventually got around to replacing the cable. Still have the moles.
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I had the tracking done on a van many years ago. Sometime later I found a pair of mole grips still on the adjusting rod, I've still got them!
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ive also got a pair of visegrips off a mates track rod , after he complained to me about it clonking after tracking
near new at the time too, still have em and use them loads too
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Remember reading an excellent account of RAF Chinooks used for Special Forces - one of the aircraft was having a strip down and a very large spanner was found in the transmission shaft, what was scary was that this had obviously been left there during the build as it had been sprayed with the green primer paint used by the makers - loose in the transmission shaft.....!
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If it hit the vectra hard enough to leave a ding then its structural integrity as a hard hat is now in doubt IMHO.
Probably last better than the Vectra! ;-)
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I ride a push bike to work, and so far this year have found 2 sets of house keys (dropped into the local police station...who said "we'll add them to our bucket of keys"
and a very nice multitool and various cds etc...
chap I work with cycles 15miles....must be nutty. has so far this year found a torch! still working. and a mobile phone, and numerous pairs of sunglasses the usual spanners...
makes a nice change from dead animals and hi viz workmens jackets...
saw last year a cars hard top....hmm sat on the cycle path for 3 days before it was moved...strange you would have though the owner of the car would have noticed 20% of there car disappearing backwards at 60+mph...(A41)
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