tool misuse/abuse

Never let electronics engineers and technicians near your hand tools,they shorten BA size screws with your best wire cutters ,tighten nuts with your finest long nose pliers,use files on hardened metal, they have absolutely no idea how to treat good tools.

Michael W

And plumbers, I'm sure they have all sorts of sizes to make sure you HAVE to use the wrong tool.

Regards,

Richard

Apart from the ones that are model engineers as well.

Martin

I was in the city a few years back, and there on the footpath, near where someone had been painting a building was a 10" file, it had been used for stirring paint, then discarded. I took it home, cleaned off the paint, and found that it was probably new, still in use, maybe $NZ 15/20 worth.

Ian S C

HA!!

Pleased to read it happened to someone else. The same was done to me as an apprentice at Rolls Royce. Mine was a plastic mug and I didn't pull the handle off. It was revenge for a whole range of pranks pulled over several weeks. Served me right really.

On the contrary, as an electronics engineer I am extremely protective of my sidecutters having had several pairs ruined by people cutting wire that's too thick and/or hard. Electronics pliers ditto.

... Whenever we get out our verniers he asks why we have them as they are actually for removing the nuts on radiators and other plumbing tasks.......

​in a similar context, I had an apprentice who did the same with some engineering set up, a few well chosen obscenities & a clip around the 'ear ole' sorted him out ... yes! it was accepted to do that back in my day... I've had one or two thumps here & there when I served my apprenticeship, If you went off to the shop stupid steward & complained his usual reply was ... ' and ?'... you just 'shut yer gob & got on wi 'it'... all part of learning a trade then. Can't do it now, look at an apprentice funny & they're off to the 'uman rites' lawyers.

​George.

Ah yes, the next farmer's car.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

Chemical engineers are even worse, they just let the threads rust to keep the nuts on.

it brings a new meaning to TAPPETS
Bobh

Good tools are meant to earn money. Sometimes that means using them up in the process.

Only £55 at a car boot sale and the nice man gave me a genuine NPL Echtheitszertifikat saying it was good to a tenth.

Bargain!

Dave

I went to a collective auction and saw a 144 packets of a dozen Eclipse hacksaw blades . In fact 2 lots of 144...Thats a lot of hacksaw blades innit?? Say, enough for life..? I knew they were Eclipse because they were blue...

So i bid on the first lot and i got them for £20 ,and auctioneer offers me the second lot option at the same price..so i say yes please .Cripes millions of the buggers !!! Sadly ,when i opened the first packet , the writing on the blade was in Chinese symbols ,all the teeth came off first cut ,or the saw veered off at an angle . I used them all though ,for stirring cups of tea ..

>>Only £55 at a car boot sale and the nice man gave me a genuine NPL Echtheitszertifikat saying it was good to a tenth.<<


... if it weren't so sad.

It's slightly fuzzy, but is that not Father Ted?

Neil

Indeed it is, correct! The comment about fixing a car with a hammer just made me think of this.. brilliant series.

Michael W

During my apprenticeship in a shipyard in the 1970's, everyone used an old set of slip gauges to pack up lathe tools to centre height.

We also had a large surface plate about 8 foot by 5 foot that was used to tack weld pipe jobs square and level. Any welds and splatter that ended up on the table were removed with a heavy duty air powered angle grinder.

Regards to all

Del

A colleague at work bought himself a brand new Snap-on pair of side cutters. First job he did was to cut off the mains cable from a defunct hedge trimmer, bit of a pop and bang, mains was still plugged in and switched on! Blew a hole in the cutters, and he got them replaced under warranty!!

When I did my apprenticeship the instructor in the machineshop used to sit at a big raised up mahogany desk at the front with just a two pint oil can on it.

If he saw you up to no good, usually abusing one of the machines, there'd be a shout followed by a few feet of oil heading your way!

Edited By Jon Gibbs on 14/02/2017 10:55:48