tool misuse/abuse

LOL! These Draper ones have a similar 'fault'

Neil

I get really annoyed by people at work who use large drills and drill sleeves as hammers on morse taper drifts. Then there are the people who think it is a good idea to engrave the precision ground surface with a department name so it does not get pinched.

Martin

So do the ones from Halfords. Sadly, mine were too old to try for a refund!

Pete

Tool abuse reminds me of a practical joke played on a comrade in the Air Force in the mid 60's; we all wore regulation issue shoes as part of our uniform, these were leather soled and with the passage of time they would need new soles, when they needed new soles we handed them in through the stores system and they were despatched I think to Prison Workshops were they were refurbished with new soles. On their return to the unit we retrieved them from the stores system; on this particular day one of our section collected his shoes from the stores and left them on a table in the crew room, unfortunately when he returned to collect them he found that every lace hole had been filled with 1/8" pop rivets. He spent most of his lunch hour with a windy drill and a pair of pliers removing the obstructions. We could be very cruel in those days..

Bent twist drills that have been used as tommy bars, twisted six inch rules that unsuccessfully tried to unscrew cheese head screws, adjustable spanners that have hammered too many things so the slide jams, once hardened toolmaker's clamps used as brazing and welding clamps, the visibly surprised amateur mechanic holding a melted ammeter used to see if a car battery was really flat, the indignant expression of a man holding the remains of kitchen scissors that weren't able to cut sheet steel............I have seen all these things and many more! Colin

Been looking for a photo I had, but can't find it. I used to work in Sakhalin on an oil processing plant. There was a large workshop there, with a sign outside in 2 foot high letters 'Take Care of Your Tools' (in English). Under the sign, in a 6 foot snowdrift, stood a brand new set of bending rollers and metal guillotine, each about 2 metres wide. I was there for about one year, and they were still there when I left. If I find the photo, I will post it.

Nothing wrong with re-purposing a tool after normal use renders it unfit for its original purpose. Or intentionally buying something to use for an unconventional purpose.

Exactly, screwdrivers damaged by normal use whether rounded off or twisted make good small pokey tools or prybars/can openers.

Anyone who hasn't had to modify a tool surely hasn't done much mechanical work. The last one I 'made' was to weld(at an angle) a cheap 1/4" extension to the cut-off open end of an 11mm spanner. This was necessary to undo 3 of the nuts on an aircompressor on a Russian radial.

I worked at one place that used brand new Carver rack clamps as welding earth clamps. Shop sparks would grind a flat on them and drill a 1/2" hole to attach the cable.

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 14/02/2017 20:15:23

An Other...

.... Been looking for a photo I had, but can't find it. I used to work in Sakhalin on an oil processing plant...

​When were you on Sakhalin? I was there 2006-8 working for Shell / Sakhalin Energy in Yuzhno Sakhalin's in Sakhalin Energy's office across the road from the army base just down from the town centre, had a flat down the road in Militskaya district.. Used to wander down the Korean market every Sunday morning before meeting up with other ex pats for Sunday lunchtime session at the park.

​George

Now you know why they have the "cheap tool" stands at shows. Cheap tools are sacrificial offering to protect all your good tools. I have a set of inexpensive wood chisels to do "chisel like work" in the garden and in the house which defends my joinery chisels from all manner of abuse.

regards Martin

The wife’s favorite stock pot Tool abuse in her opinion!!!

And here our scientists are developing the new "sintered metal flavour" OXO cubes.

'...and keep stirring the mixture or it may split...'