Art & Inspiration interesting/funny tool stories

Hello fellow Hambers, I recently picked up a pair of Klein Lineman's pliers that are date coded to March 1916 (3-16), got them for free from a yard sale, and they work great. this got me thinking, there are probably some good "find" stories, or at least entertaining ones regarding tools within this community. So I ask you, what are your funny, frustrating or lucky tool stories.

 

Theres a tool thread

 

Ah, I will look again, sorry. wasn't trying to confuse things

 

My luckiest tool find was a 16-drawer MAC tool cart that was full of brand name hand, power & pneumatic tools - all for $500 delivered to my shop, at a barn sale. I was returning home from a round of radiation when my wife stopped at the sale to help cheer me up. I almost passed on it, but my wife insisted that I buy it. Six years down the road, I'm real glad she did !

I found the pics of the MAC tool chest when it was delivered to me. I forgot to mention, there was also a MAC top chest full of stuff. My best score ever !

I just came across the picture of my tool chest when it was delivered. I also forgot the MAC top chest that I got at another garage sale for $75.00
BigMAC by TagMan, on Flickr
mac3 by TagMan, on Flickr

 

Wow, that is a good one. those type of sales don't get enough traction with my generation, often times theres some great stuff!
(P.S. hope all is well on the health side of things)

 

I was at an estate auction of a retired GM dealer mechanic and bought the cleaning rights of ther attic in his garage. It was the old dirty nasty stuff that the auction company guys were too lazy to dig out. I found lots of good old 40's and 50's car parts but the best thing was a big old wooden tool box with obselete GM dealer tools, a bunch of old Snap-on, Mac, Bonny and Proto tools , a 1953 girly calender and a big bars leak bottle full of 40's and 50's quarters!

 

Old tools are my favorites to use. The guys I work for get all excited over new stuff, and kinda look down on my antiques. Funniest tool story I have goes back to when I was in 7th grade, and the wood shop class was doing a little paint work as a summer project at the school. One kid starting complaining how tired he was getting from using a paintbrush all day. Old Mr. Hoffman took a paintbrush, drilled a hole in it, and stuck a dummy electrical cord in it. He gave it to the kid, and asked him about it a while later. The kid loved it, "much easier" he said.

 

Damn! your making me jealous! Old coins and tools at the same time!

 

I got a buddy of mine whose father owns a paint store.... I just figured out what I'm getting him for his birth day

 

from a yard/estate sale I bought a 5 gal bucket of dirty tools soaking in 2 gal of oil . Their were several Snap on ratchets that needed repair. I gave them to the S O rep and he said cant help you. Prefix was Military.

 

This was in a box of junk. No wonder the box was so heavy.

 

I have a 9/16" combination wrench that I pulled out of a tire when I worked at Discount Tire Co. Works great!

 

I found a Craftsman Hand flex cable drive..About three feet long, it gets coupled to a power source [electric motor, etc] and can mount a buffing or grinding wheel at hand end. New ones are about $250 in Industrial catalogs of the same size capacity.. Loaned it to a friend to buff model A shell and now can't get it back!

 

That used to be my nickname back in college...

 

Ha, I know that feeling, I think I've had to steal back my grinder twice now.

 

I found a Snap on 1/4 drive with extension and 10mm under the dash of my late model after a heater core change.
The Tech was very appreciative when I brought it back.

 

I bet he was

 

I have a pair of hose clamp pliers which had belonged to my late father. He had them since the 1930's. The story he told was that during a long trip, he had to stop at a garage for some emergency repairs. After he had traveled some distance since the repair, he found the pliers on the running board. Back a few hundred miles there must a been a mechanic named "Baldy" wondering where he had left his pliers.

 

2 years ago a fella came into work and said he had an old craftsman tool box, well curious and in need of a tool box i went out with a buddy who had a trailer too look at it, it was old but not just that it was covered in raccoon dooky, well it was free so several months later and a few cans of hemi orange and i scored a old craftsman box, i checked the date and it was made in July of 1976, kinda weird having a tool box older than ya but i love it. oh and in the Drawers i found few tools a few mac wrenches and a sticker with a peace symbol

 

Well that beats my yard sale story! Ha!


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20 years ago I ended up at a Sat. morning auction. It was sleeting and snowing ,not enough room in the house and the auctioneer said there was some tools in the basement.3 hrs later most of the crowd is gone ,steep narrow stairs to get in the basement . the auctioneer said give me a bid on all of . two kennedy boxes and no keys could be found . I told him $50 and I bought probably $1000 plus in machinst stuff. It was tough getting it out without being able to unload the boxes b

 

My favorite square shank clear yellow plastic handled large screw driver/pry bar finally gave up the ghost and a corner of the end snapped off. This was only after many years of abuse and miss use.

I was going to grind the end when I noticed the name on the handle "Snap On" I thought why not give it to the route guy that services our automotive service centers.

I handed it to him one day and he looked at the name on the handle and told me he had never seen a yellow handled Snap On tool. He then reached to the ceiling of his truck and handed me a new similar Snap On replacement. The new one was priced at $59.00.

A few weeks later he came into my office and said the factory had rejected his claim for credit for the old screw driver. It seems in the fine print of their warranty they only offer full replacement to the original purchaser. I told him I had bought it new(not true, actually got it from my father). Anyway he then said "Gotcha" He then asked for my b/date. I told him 1943, then he said the last production date of that particular driver was 1934. So you could not have purchased it new in 1943. I asked how much do I owe you and he said nothing. Its the oldest Snap On tool I have in my collection and I will display it on the wall of my truck with the age posted. We shook hands and off he went on his rounds.

brasscarguy

 

wow, thats a good one. thanks for sharing, if these pliers ever give it up (unlikely), ill probably do the same thing on my wall. its a good idea.

 

I had some vinyl lettering done to my enclosed race car trailer. When the lady was finished I towed the trailer back to the house. The distance was perhaps 6 miles with the last 1/2 mile over a curving bumpy road. After removing the trailer from the hitch on the truck I saw the ladies ruler laying on the flat aluminum trailer fender. Amazing that the ruler didn't vibrate or blow off on the way home. I returned the ruler the next day. The only thing the woman said was "I wondered where I had left that ruler"!

 

I've got a lot of old automotive tools that I bought here there and elsewhere when I find them. Hell my Snap On box that I use every day is older than the one Lilblue82 was given and I bought mine new off the truck trading a flimsy Duplex box for it.
About 30 years ago while headed into town on a Saturday morning I stopped at a "divorce" sale at a house in town. On an old blanket there was a mix match batch of wrenches and other tools all marked more by size than actual value. I picked up one and another guy picked up another one and then he says "tell you what" lets go one for you and one for me until we have picked out what we want" I agreed and we did just that picking the SnapOn, Craftsman and other name tools out of the pile one at at a time. We each spent about 20 bucks at .50 an 1.00 a wack. I've still got most of the ones I picked out in my tool box.
Best buy I made at a yard sale was a small bullet heater that runs on diesel or kerosene Paid 2.00 for it full of fuel and asked the lady three times if the price was right. I would have paid 20.00 just as fast as the 2 and I use it a lot in the winter.

 

Yeah, at the same sale where I got the pliers, I also picked up a Black & Decker wildcat 7/9" angle sander (and some wheels) that was easily worth 4 times the 25$ I payed for it, funny those prices you find when people care more about making it go away than they do about the money.

 

Safety Glasses
Last month. Sad thing is I got i from a mam who's dad died and he was selling all his tools.

 

I recently had a customer's husband pass away, she asked me to make an offer on his toolbox stored
in the basement of the apt complex they managed. I told her I would like to buy the toolbox, a 3 piece
Kennedy box. It was full of Machinist tools, bore gauge, calipers, micrometers, snap on tap and die set,
plus many more. I told her she could get much more than I could pay, but she said Paul wanted me to
have them. $400 included the keys and an additional locking safe.

 

I have a 9/16" Par-X combo wrench that I found right in the middle of the street when I was 9. It was on the double yellow line. I still have it, my 1st wrench. I found one 1/2 of a pair of slip joint pliers in a flat tire where I worked.

 

My dad took his convertible in to the muffler shop for new exhaust. The guy was chasing threads in the manifold and dropped a 3/8 tap but it never hit the floor. He felt around on top of the crossmember for about 20min but never found the tap, they charged Dad $1 extra for the tap.

about 10 years later we pulled the engine for a rebuild and there was the tap, on top of the engine mount.
Dad drove up to the muffler shop and returned the tap, and got his dollar back!


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