The Beauty of Tools

A friend of mine started using cheap own brand power tools on site as his experience was good ones would be stolen before he wore them out. As the cheapies are guaranteed for a year and less likely to be stolen then he would be on to a winner.

Mike

Power tools although expensive to replace are not as important to a tradesman as the hand tools that he has owned and worn in over the years.I have had tools stolen from site twice and the ones I missed the most was a French hand cut rasp a Marples butt gauge and a small bag of hand made moulding tools from before ww2 which I used for plastering in difficult places.The rest of my tools were easily replaced the treasured ones one can't.

frank

I feel for you Frank. I had a friend who had his entire workshop rifled through and all his tools stolen. I have a lot of tools that I inherited from my Grandad, who had a succession of British motorbikes that he maintained with the tools.

If anything happened to them I'd be distraught.

I had a dental implant a couple of years ago. The dentist was a really nice guy, I asked him what thread the post was that screwed onto the abutment (the bit that's attached to your jawbone) and he said, 'My Dad's an engineer, that was his first question!'.

He showed me the miniature torque wrench he used to put the post on the abutment correctly, it was the most beautiful piece of workmanship, it, along with it's attachments, sat comfortably on the dentist's palm. I wasn't allowed to touch it as it was sterile (and I suspect he was a bit protective about it!),I forget the torque setting he used for this job but it wasn't enough to cause a pang to a gnat who had it's left nadger caught in it!

On the other end of the 'loved tools' scale, I know a guy who has a flooring company, he buys cheap rechargeable power tools for his men and, incredibly, they leave them on the job when they are finished! He says this is the best and most economical way of doing it, I don't see that myself though, it just sounds wasteful.

Regards,

John.

Hmmm... I must have hallucinated my steplad working as a kitchen fitter and having two metre-high stacks of Festool gear... (as well as the makita stuff).

Neil

The only advice I can give is do not leave yellow coloured power tools lying about. They can walk.

Thats good advice. In my life I have been far more used to using pneumatic power tools over electric, and still do now when I can.

Talking of air tools and aircraft industry. here is a nice tool, I have a few of these and i used to use them a lot. This is a DeSoutter 90 degree air collet drill. The drill bits are fitted to the end using collets sized for each drill.

The dentist I went to as a kid used one of those, only bigger.

Neil

As an aircraft engineer I'd have been lost without these. you can also get them in 45 degree angle versions and one that can swivel to any position. Here is what the collets are like. The y come in metric, imperial, morse number and letter sizes.

Here is another beautiful tool. This is a specially made subsea milling machine designed for removing excess insulation from a subsea oil production pipeline. It is powered hydraulically from the ROV that deploys it.

This may be stretching the term 'tool' a little; but I thought its beauty might be appreciated:

It's eight strips of Perspex, all the same length [to quite close tolerance], and twisted rather like a race-car exhaust.

My Dad made it, and, after having its picture taken, it was connected-up and covered in black polythene.

Anyone care to guess what purpose it served ?

MichaelG.

MichaelG Dust collector  ( sorry )

Roy

Edited By roy entwistle on 08/01/2017 21:40:50