I broke my favorite tool

RknRusty wrote:Waaaaahhh!
No, seriously... how many of you have tools that are just a part of you, that you would feel like you'd lost a finger if it went away.

This is a subject I've thought about bringing up. I thought I was the only one who would think that way about a tool. I have a couple of such tools. First is a Bahco linesman pliers my dad got me for Christmas I think in the late '80s. It was a total surprise and a very much appreciated gift. I thought I lost them at one point in the early '90s but found them a few weeks later under the carpet in the spare wheel recess of my car. Unfortunately they had got some rust on them, but they were and still are completely functional.

The other "tool" is a Signet 1/4" drive socket set. I feel restless if any of the parts are anywhere else besides my hand or in the box. I have added a couple of extension parts to the set and replaced a few worn out bits but otherwise it's still like new. This set is from the times I was a "traveling serviceman" for a company that made measurement equipment for pulp and paper industry. The biggest socket is 14mm, so this was and still is for smaller jobs only, but it is very handy and relatively good quality. This set has been around for only a little over 15 years but for some reason it has a "special" place among my relatively large tool collection.

I also have a Swiss Army knife, a special edition Wenger with black anodized aluminum side plates, I bought it shortly before I went to army and carried it there all the times and a few years afterwards too. Nowadays it has retired and lives in a kitchen drawer and is used mainly for the corkscrew functionality (the best corkscrew there is), but I still like that knife and would feel lost If I didn't know where it is.

A set or two of JIS drivers is on my shopping list, I learned only a couple of years ago that the crossheads on my Hondas are not "Phillips" Well, most of the screw heads were already botched or screws replaced with Pozidrive ones by the time I got the bikes. I already have a bunch of genuine NOS Honda screws to replace the ruined or wrong style ones, but until I get the proper drivers I'll just keep them in their little bags.

Glad you didn't get shocked Rusty. Electrically I mean, otherwise you are obviously shocked and I feel for you

The Sympathetic Kari

Rusty -Sorry to hear you've lost your right hand tool. I also have a couple of favorite tools. One is a small jewelers screwdriver with a reversable blade, straight on both ends. One blade is thinner than the one the other end. With a spinning plastic head or heal that would fit in the plan of your hand while turning the knurled body with your thumb and fingers. The blades are tough enough to "bite" into a small Phillips head that my other precision screwdrivers would just slip out of,  and now I know Why......I've learned something new today: JIS.  JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) Drivers
I always thought that they ( Japan ) had really cheaped out by using recycled metal to make soft screws that round out whenever you try to remove them. I've ruined many using my Stanley furniture grade or Snap-0n mechanics drivers. Shoot, now I find out they have their own  "standards"...no wonder my blades did not match their "standards"
So, now I know and that set in the link from Getback is on my Christmas wish list.

I've broken, lost or misplaced favorite tools before and usually suffer a bout of depression over it --- I certainly understand your pain.

As far as JIS drivers are concerned, if you fool with helicopters at all, a set is an absolutely essential addition to the toolkit. Since so many of our products are now equipped with JIS screw heads, if you don't have a driver set, you'll be surprised how much you'll appreciate their usefulness. Good sets are not cheap, but well worth the additional dollars to get a quality set.

Wow, I'm glad to know I'm in such good company. Thanks for commiserating with me, guys. Yeah, these things really become a part of a mechanic or technician, which we all are in some ways. A trusted reliable extension of oneself.

My black handle 14" Buck knife holds the same heartfelt place with my fishing gear. Once I popped the blade with a hammer to get it started through a cut and the blade fell in half. I was horrified. But I thought, Lifetime Guarantee, and sent it back to Buck explaining that I'd like it repaired. I hoped it would be a new blade, same old handle. In the mail came a brand new one. I was so disappointed, all of my dings and scratches were gone. But after a couple of summers of fishing, I bonded with it again. I'm sure I'll do the same with my new JIS screwdriver.
Rusty

You betcha, JIS.  I have the same set that Eric linked to.  I wouldn't be without them while working on my Japanese engines.  They hang on like no Phillips ever would.  

My favorite "tool" though is my "zero turn" lawnmower.  Makes lawnmowing a pleasure and it's fun to operate.

Sorry about your loss Rusty, I hope you can find a direct replacement.

Oh I know how that is, being a former copier tech myself (1990-2008)there is nothing like a good quality driver mine were tools from ames copier tool supply which as far as I know are no longer around still have my old tool bag in fact, I'll check around there is still a technicians tool supply outfit in Peachtree city ga called Crawford tool who I used to deal with when ames went south, they have very high quality JIS tools. I'll check with them for ya if ya want. (Bandit)

When I started my mechanical apprenticeship in 1980 I was issued with a full tool kit by my employer (Local electricity authority).  Included was what we knew as a "CAT" bar, due to it being supplied by Caterpillar.  Also known as a Crow's Foot bar or rolling head pry bar, like this.

I'm sure that over all these years I've done far more with that bar than it was ever designed to do.  The tapered end has suffered with the occasional bend and I've had to reshape the tip of the roll-head occasionally, but it's still going strong and my most useful tool I've ever owned.  Few of my original spanners or screwdrivers have survived all these years, but I am truly attached to my Cat bar amd would be lost without it.  There are plenty of cheap copies out there but I'm sure they wouldn't last as well as my original.

Rod.

Rusty here is a place that has replacement blades the one showing is a #0 . http://www.amazon.com/Moody-Tools-Screwdriver-Blade-49-8072/dp/B002R8BF0W you may want to contact them and see if they have what you want ,,, make sure yours is replaceable , Chuck it in the vice (the blade) use something say channel locs ??? to give you something to hit with a hammer put them around the FRONT of the handle not on it smack it a few times with the hammer and see if it will slide off . Damn that's a lot harder to tell some one than it is to show SNAP ON done this a lot for me to save on cost of a new handle >>> Yea speaking of the favorite tool I had lost ? Feeler Gage set that was worn just right and a 1/4" drive 2" long #2 Phillips I used a lot when I was working steady  not the work the tool

Hey Rusty, sorry for your loss man.. I can't say I have a single favorite tool.. although I have a few that belonged to my Grandfather. They're hugely sentimental to me. Like "Kari".. I have a couple of small socket sets downstairs in the shop. They're in metal boxes. I use the 1/4" set frequently. Actually.. I have a tool-bag that's probably my favorite tool carrier.



It won't hold a 14" screwdriver.. but man it will hold a lot of tools. It's an electrician's bag really.. but it's strong-heavy canvas.. with a good zipper and leather strap.

I hope you get another driver soon.. and switch to oil lamps.

My favorite tool, I can fix almost anything with it!!

Crank, that's what I call a One-Lick-Stick.
You guys are cool, we're all brothers of a sort, aren't we. Eric, I don't think my tip is pressed on, but I'll take a look.
In Columbia we have some good industrial suppliers, so if I can not find what I want here, I'll start perusing y'all's links and suggestions.

Bandit, that name, Ames Supply, brings back memories. Yep, that's where my copier tools mostly came from. Imagine that, meeting a fellow copier tech here. Canon was my main brand from the beginning, and when we started getting into the 100+ CPM high volume machines, Oce' from the Netherlands was another. We trained on those in Chicago. I had hoped to get a trip to Venlo where they were made. Later I read that Oce' and Canon had merged.

Being a copier tech is a fantastic job for people like me that enjoy both electromechanical devices and meeting people. We techs get to go inside of places most people never imagine seeing. Every kind of business there is owns a copier. I got to go on a Sperry Corp. spy ship at Cape Canaveral once. Saw numerous manufacturing processes from building BMW Z3 cars to making Tupperware. Saw paper made the old way, on a line with hundreds of people on the floor, and the new high tech way, where the line is a ghost town and the operators are in a dark room watching system graphics on displays. Worked on a machine in the shadow of the Shuttle Challenger I met engineers, lawyers, watchmakers, printers, professors, physicists, entrepreneurs, doctors, assholes and babes.

It was a love-hate relationship. In my early days, copiers, both powder and liquid developing processes, and later the "mono-component" developer type, were inherently filthy processes, but growing less-so with every generation. Raising one from its own slag back to gleaming precision was a satisfying way to be paid to spend my days. Every one an emergency, and every customer a challenge. Lots of skills to be learned on the job. Thousands of moving parts, signals, power supplies and controllers grappling with one-another to create productive harmony; making minute changes to compensate for the ever shifting effects the environment played upon its simple supplies, paper, carbon, and magnetite, all subject to electrical and textural peculiarities that would otherwise fowl the process, infuriate the operators and bring frowning questions peppered upon the tech... commonly on a Friday at 5:05 PM.


I'll let y'all know what I find.
Rusty

crankbndr wrote:My favorite tool, I can fix almost anything with it!!

Almost is the key word there with that. To fix EVERYTHING, you need a bigger hammer. Just in case you didn't know.

RknRusty wrote:Crank, that's what I call a One-Lick-Stick.
You guys are cool, we're all brothers of a sort, aren't we. Eric, I don't think my tip is pressed on, but I'll take a look.
In Columbia we have some good industrial suppliers, so if I can not find what I want here, I'll start perusing y'all's links and suggestions.

Bandit, that name, Ames Supply, brings back memories. Yep, that's where my copier tools mostly came from. Imagine that, meeting a fellow copier tech here. Canon was my main brand from the beginning, and when we started getting into the 100+ CPM high volume machines, Oce' from the Netherlands was another. We trained on those in Chicago. I had hoped to get a trip to Venlo where they were made. Later I read that Oce' and Canon had merged.

Being a copier tech is a fantastic job for people like me that enjoy both electromechanical devices and meeting people. We techs get to go inside of places most people never imagine seeing. Every kind of business there is owns a copier. I got to go on a Sperry Corp. spy ship at Cape Canaveral once. Saw numerous manufacturing processes from building BMW Z3 cars to making Tupperware. Saw paper made the old way, on a line with hundreds of people on the floor, and the new high tech way, where the line is a ghost town and the operators are in a dark room watching system graphics on displays. Worked on a machine in the shadow of the Shuttle Challenger I met engineers, lawyers, watchmakers, printers, professors, physicists, entrepreneurs, doctors, assholes and babes.

It was a love-hate relationship. In my early days, copiers, both powder and liquid developing processes, and later the "mono-component" developer type, were inherently filthy processes, but growing less-so with every generation. Raising one from its own slag back to gleaming precision was a satisfying way to be paid to spend my days. Every one an emergency, and every customer a challenge. Lots of skills to be learned on the job. Thousands of moving parts, signals, power supplies and controllers grappling with one-another to create productive harmony; making minute changes to compensate for the ever shifting effects the environment played upon its simple supplies, paper, carbon, and magnetite, all subject to electrical and textural peculiarities that would otherwise fowl the process, infuriate the operators and bring frowning questions peppered upon the tech... commonly on a Friday at 5:05 PM.


I'll let y'all know what I find.
Rusty

Oh yes it's defnatly an adventure! One of our contracts were with Hartsfield International airport! Now that was both an interesting adventure as well as a major pain in the butt especially after 9/11. I never dealt with Oce' much but they were good machines, I dealt mainly in Sharp up to the SD high volume series and digital's including the ARC color machine, Minolta, and some Kodak machines like the ectaprint series If i spelt it right. I did work on some of the lower end Canons and personal copiers (PC) series like the old PC25 and PC-6's which were all mono-component process machines, The sharp, minolta's and such were separate dual component units that had a separate developer and toner process. I also redid the toner/Image cartridges beginning with the PC-25's and used to do testing for Static Control INC which sold a lot of the reman supplies. Lotsa memories! A good test for hand coordination was manually stringing Corona wires lol. I still have my toner vac as well as my tool bag!
(Bandit)

Yeah I still got my toner vac, the 3M, but no filter cartridge for it. That's a mean little vacuum too.
I despise PC25s with that stupid reduction/enlargement planetary gear assy. By the time the PC6 came out, they were becoming disposable, though the dealers insisted we fix them. That was mostly the shop-techs' nightmare though.

I started a Copier Tech Olympics in the SouthEast in the early '90s that was beginning to spread when I left. We had combined it with Delta in Orlando and another company in Atlanta who's name escapes me(svc. mgr.'s name was Kevin). I wonder if it's still going on. Corona stringing races were of course a part of it. There were a few part swaps on Canons I thought would make good races. Sooner or later Ikon bought us all.
Rusty

RknRusty wrote:Yeah I still got my toner vac, the 3M, but no filter cartridge for it. That's a mean little vacuum too.
I despise PC25s with that stupid reduction/enlargement planetary gear assy. By the time the PC6 came out, they were becoming disposable, though the dealers insisted we fix them. That was mostly the shop-techs' nightmare though.

I started a Copier Tech Olympics in the SouthEast in the early '90s that was beginning to spread when I left. We had combined it with Delta in Orlando and another company in Atlanta who's name escapes me(svc. mgr.'s name was Kevin). I wonder if it's still going on. Corona stringing races were of course a part of it. There were a few part swaps on Canons I thought would make good races. Sooner or later Ikon bought us all.
Rusty

You must be referring to southern business machines, they were a big cannon dealer in Atlanta.
Yup I think i heard of the races never dabbled into it though and i know what you mean about that dang combo box in the back of the PC-25 not only drove the platen top but ran the Zoom! and woah be the day that spring loaded lense unit didn't return POW!! those clutches were critical. I accualy got pretty good at ripping them apart and redoing them and I used to re do some for other companies. I still have a few in fact O_o
(Bandit)

crankbndr wrote:My favorite tool, I can fix almost anything with it!!

I still clearly recall my Dad's words, "The bigger the problem, the bigger the hammer".  Thanks dad, it might have worked for you, but doesn't cut it in my job

TDbandit wrote:

RknRusty wrote:Yeah I still got my toner vac, the 3M, but no filter cartridge for it. That's a mean little vacuum too.
I despise PC25s with that stupid reduction/enlargement planetary gear assy. By the time the PC6 came out, they were becoming disposable, though the dealers insisted we fix them. That was mostly the shop-techs' nightmare though.

I started a Copier Tech Olympics in the SouthEast in the early '90s that was beginning to spread when I left. We had combined it with Delta in Orlando and another company in Atlanta who's name escapes me(svc. mgr.'s name was Kevin). I wonder if it's still going on. Corona stringing races were of course a part of it. There were a few part swaps on Canons I thought would make good races. Sooner or later Ikon bought us all.
Rusty

You must be referring to southern business machines, they were a big cannon dealer in Atlanta.
Yup I think i heard of the races never dabbled into it though and i know what you mean about that dang combo box in the back of the PC-25 not only drove the platen top but ran the Zoom! and woah be the day that spring loaded lense unit didn't return POW!! those clutches were critical. I accualy got pretty good at ripping them apart and redoing them and I used to re do some for other companies. I still have a few in fact O_o
(Bandit)

My first job in 1978 was working for a company (Crosby Valve & Gage Co. in Wrentham, MA) that made pressure-relief valves. Some were for service in nuclear power plants.. therefore the company held an "N"-stamp (A.S.M.E Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code Section III Nuclear) I worked in Quality Assurance.. and there was TONS of documentation. There were two identical copy machines.. that "to me" were incredible. They were "Van Dyke" machines.. and I can't find any info on them. I mentioned this to Rusty a while back, and he'd never heard of them. The machines were workhorses. They used rolls of paper, and had a knife that would cut the specified length. The platen was convex and it had tubes (xenon?) that were blinding bright-green when they lit. The knife was noisy.. but it was a cool mechanical "chopping-block" type of sound. I don't think it was a 100 copy/min. machine though. It certainly wasn't when it was running 16" x 11" Q.A.I.'s (that's a Quality Assurance Instruction) The tech-guy lived a few miles away.. which was convenient.. but the machines were fairly reliable from what I remember. Some of our customers were Bechtel Power, Delaval Turbine, Westinghouse, GE.. and there were representative inspectors in-house constantly. The company had a foundry.. and made some of their own castings for the valve-bodies, and bonnets. They had a bar-stock room with many exotic metals. Inconels, Stellites.. challenging stuff to machine. CNC (tape) machines were just becoming popular.. and Crosby had Dozens of them. J & L's, Cincinnati's, Mori Seiki's, Warner & Swasey's. There big machines for machining the seats on "Over-T" size orifice valve-bodies. They had toolmakers.. and a tool-crib. Now these types of companies are all doing business in China. That's just wrong.

roddie wrote:

TDbandit wrote:

RknRusty wrote:Yeah I still got my toner vac, the 3M, but no filter cartridge for it. That's a mean little vacuum too.
I despise PC25s with that stupid reduction/enlargement planetary gear assy. By the time the PC6 came out, they were becoming disposable, though the dealers insisted we fix them. That was mostly the shop-techs' nightmare though.

I started a Copier Tech Olympics in the SouthEast in the early '90s that was beginning to spread when I left. We had combined it with Delta in Orlando and another company in Atlanta who's name escapes me(svc. mgr.'s name was Kevin). I wonder if it's still going on. Corona stringing races were of course a part of it. There were a few part swaps on Canons I thought would make good races. Sooner or later Ikon bought us all.
Rusty

You must be referring to southern business machines, they were a big cannon dealer in Atlanta.
Yup I think i heard of the races never dabbled into it though and i know what you mean about that dang combo box in the back of the PC-25 not only drove the platen top but ran the Zoom! and woah be the day that spring loaded lense unit didn't return POW!! those clutches were critical. I accualy got pretty good at ripping them apart and redoing them and I used to re do some for other companies. I still have a few in fact O_o
(Bandit)

My first job in 1978 was working for a company (Crosby Valve & Gage Co. in Wrentham, MA) that made pressure-relief valves. Some were for service in nuclear power plants.. therefore the company held an "N"-stamp (A.S.M.E Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code Section III Nuclear) I worked in Quality Assurance.. and there was TONS of documentation. There were two identical copy machines.. that "to me" were incredible. They were "Van Dyke" machines.. and I can't find any info on them. I mentioned this to Rusty a while back, and he'd never heard of them. The machines were workhorses. They used rolls of paper, and had a knife that would cut the specified length. The platen was convex and it had tubes (xenon?) that were blinding bright-green when they lit. The knife was noisy.. but it was a cool mechanical "chopping-block" type of sound. I don't think it was a 100 copy/min. machine though. It certainly wasn't when it was running 16" x 11" Q.A.I.'s (that's a Quality Assurance Instruction) The tech-guy lived a few miles away.. which was convenient.. but the machines were fairly reliable from what I remember. Some of our customers were Bechtel Power, Delaval Turbine, Westinghouse, GE.. and there were representative inspectors in-house constantly. The company had a foundry.. and made some of their own castings for the valve-bodies, and bonnets. They had a bar-stock room with many exotic metals. Inconels, Stellites.. challenging stuff to machine. CNC (tape) machines were just becoming popular.. and Crosby had Dozens of them. J & L's, Cincinnati's, Mori Seiki's, Warner & Swasey's. There big machines for machining the seats on "Over-T" size orifice valve-bodies. They had toolmakers.. and a tool-crib. Now these types of companies are all doing business in China. That's just wrong.  

Sounds like a blueprint machine, I'll have to ask my dad, our company before I ended up with it handled old micrographic supplies like Masters for plate makers and blueprint machines dispersants and rolled copy paper and such and worked on the old reader/printers. Our company name was F&F micro products. (Bandit)

HHHmmm, sounds like there may be a direct link between breathing copy toner dust and the smelling of  burning NitroMethane/Castor OIl  that leads to a Chemical reaction causing people to become creative,  building things out of balsa, turning in circles, or just running engines for the sole purpose of smelling more nitro methane/Castor Oil
WARNING: There is no cure, so enjoy it while you can!!

Way back in the 50s my dad had some good tools and over time I managed to abuse and loose many of them making him whip my butt more than once

later when I was a better mature adult he would gift me a tool or two as I needed something: one was a small drill press vise that I use for EVERYTHING

Not sure if I did it or my son did but it fell to the floor and bent the jack screw just enough to make it hard to use.

Recently it was [bleep] me off so I went to e-bay to get a similar small vise...OMG are these people nuts!? $100 for a 2.5" vise...BUT I decided to Google the name Palmgren to find that my vise has a lifetime warranty and the parent company had been bought by a new company

I contacted them for a new jack screw and told the nice lady that I WAS NOT asking for free as there was nothing wrong with my 60 year old vise ...it was dropped and my fault. Can you supply a new jack scree and how much

$14 later and two day in the mail my vise is like new

Wow, you managed to fix all three

I too used to lose and abuse my fathers tools as a teen, well what goes around come around and my son did, does the same thing.
I mostly find em in the yard all rusty and sometimes sticking in my truck tire. But ya gotta love em.
I can't have a favorite tool, have to get two or three sets of everything to have the tool when I need it.