tool misuse/abuse

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

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

[Bodgit Fixit and RunParticipant @bodgitfixitandrun]

Posted by Mike Poole on 03/02/2017 10:13:46:

I worked with a chap who kept his teaspoon in his boiler suit breast pocket, teaspoons do have a habit of going missing or collecting an ever increasing brown layer, the only way to control what goes in your tea is to have your own spoon. In our workshop we had a steel worktop where the tea was made, somebody drilled a hole in a mates cup and the worktop and bolted his cup to the top with a seal and filled it with tea, he kept pulling until the handle came off.

Mike

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.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Posted by Nigel McBurney 1 on 03/02/2017 10:19:07:

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.

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.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

… 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.

[steamdaveParticipant @steamdave]

Posted by Michael-w on 03/02/2017 10:19:37:

Posted by Lambton on 03/02/2017 10:17:29:

If a car engine cannot be fixed with a hammer there must be an electrical fault.

Michael W

Ah yes, the next farmer's car.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

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

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

it brings a new meaning to TAPPETS
Bobh

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by Nigel McBurney 1 on 03/02/2017 10:19:07:

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.

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

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

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

[HacksawParticipant @hacksaw]

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 ..

[john carruthersParticipant @johncarruthers46255]

>>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.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by steamdave on 03/02/2017 16:01:04:

Posted by Michael-w on 03/02/2017 10:19:37:

Posted by Lambton on 03/02/2017 10:17:29:

If a car engine cannot be fixed with a hammer there must be an electrical fault.

Michael W

Ah yes, the next farmer's car.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

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

Neil

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 03/02/2017 17:53:21:

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

[derek hall 1Participant @derekhall1]

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

[Adrian GilesParticipant @adriangiles39248]

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!!

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

Posted by mechman48 on 03/02/2017 15:09:33:

​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.

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

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Adrian Giles on 14/02/2017 10:14:05:

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!!

LOL! These Draper ones have a similar 'fault'

Neil

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

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

[Peter HallParticipant @peterhall61789]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 14/02/2017 13:10:21:

Posted by Adrian Giles on 14/02/2017 10:14:05:

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!!

LOL! These Draper ones have a similar 'fault'

Neil

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

Pete

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

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..

[colin hawesParticipant @colinhawes85982]

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

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

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.

[Alan VosParticipant @alanvos39612]

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.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by Alan Vos on 14/02/2017 18:51:32:

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.

[Alan Waddington 2Participant @alanwaddington2]

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

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