Art & Inspiration interesting/funny tool stories

That is a statement that doesn't leave any doubt about your feelings toward the car.

 

Found a huge combination wrench in a dump truck load of gravel.

 

What a prick! I know people end up in tough situations, but that's hard to respect

 

I got two words for him and they don't rhyme.
Bob

 

i think on the way out the door for the last time id have given my old Bro a punch or two in the lop for his troubles

 

Back in my teens I worked in a machine shop. I was using a cylinder hone on a 6 cylinder Chevy block. This was the finger type hone with stones where you rough hone first then work your way up using finer grit stones. The block was sitting on the shop floor in the area where we usually used the hone. Lunch time was approaching so I thought I would do the job a little quicker. Tightening the hone up a little more surely would speed up the process, or so I thought. When I hit the trigger on the huge (and powerful) 1/2 inch drive drill, the hone locked solid to the cylinder wall. I released the trigger immediately but somehow the button had gotten pressed that held the trigger wide open and away we went across the floor. Round and round the 6 cylinder block went with me along for the ride. After several laps, with the cord of the drill rapping around me, the plug finally pulled out of the wall outlet. After that day I never ever tried to speed up any process using power tools. That was a lesson learned the hard way.

 

Wow, that one hell of a mental image! thanks for sharing.

 

Those old silver metal cased drills were wrist breakers. Once ya had one start the twist on ya, ya always were extra careful around them.

 

A lesson in tourque!!!

 

My dad's first experience with a 1/2 inch drill- he was drilling out a broken stud on a flathead. It got hung up, trigger was locked in the "on" position, he got wrapped up in the cord, being pulled into the head studs. Got his foot around the cord, yanked the plug out of the wall. Barely got out of that deal. I had one about yank my arm out of my shoulder when it hung. Don't like em.

 

Had an old 1/2" drill my 10 year older cousin gave me 50 plus years ago back in my high school days. Had a toggle switch on the top of the motor which was about the same size as a flathead Mopar starter and the handle was on the end across the motor. My mom had a '57 Studebaker Scotsman with a flathead six and automatic and the engine tossed a rod. Found a good engine for it at the local wrecking yard but it had a stick behind it and the pilot bearing hole in the crank was much smaller that the clearance hole for the torque converter so....... I got a large drill (1 1/4" or somewhere in that range) with a 1/2" shank and stuck it into the mega torque drill motor to drill out the crank. Needless to say the damn drill stuck in the crank and turned the engine over like a starter. Fortunately my mom was helping with the engine swap, (I had a cool mom) and was in the garage with me, so after spinning the engine over for about a half a minute hanging onto that drill motor she saved my arse and pulled the cord out of the wall. I made a foot switch for it after that action. Lucky I didn't break my wrist.

 

I have an old Craftsman 1/2 inch drill that I purchased in 1970 that has the same amount of torque as my 454. I was drilling, with my arms fully extended over my head, some hard, dry, Douglas Fir rafters to run some in floor heating pipes, and while drilling the damn thing caught on a knot or a nail, and hurt both hands so badly, that I was walking around like a penguin for over a week. That was even using the proper attachable handle on the drill. I was really lucky that I didn't break a thumb or finger.
Bob

 

You most certainly did!

 

My best tool memory is my ex boss, he bought one of the snap on air hole puncher when they first hit the market. Well after about 3 or 4 days it stopped working. So off back to snap on to be sent in to fix. Got it back, couple days later it stops working again, back to snap on.

We get it back, couple days later it stops again. John stands and looks at it for about 30 seconds and then announces he knows what's wrong with it, without missing a beat a slowly winds his arm around and throws it down the shop, looks at it laying on the floor and says "no not quite yet" and hauls off and kicks it back down the shop floor. Walks down there and looks at it and says "ahh that's much better!" At which point I ask what he was doing, he said "it was too Damn pretty and new for the shop".

He plugs the air hose in and nothing at which point he looks at me and says "humm... Hell I guess I was wrong"

We lowered the air pressure from 125lbs to 90 on the next one and it worked great for years.

I sure miss that guy.....

 

In the summer of 1963, I was working for Sun Oil as a chemical engineer in training in the oil fields of eastern Saskatchewan. My partner in crime, Barry, was in the same program and was just as poor as I was.
He had a 55 Plymouth 6 banger, and convinced me to help him swap out his dying engine, and install another flathead. Everything went well until it came to the first attempt to start the engine, no spark. Because the engine had been sitting a long time, I knew that I had to go through the complete ignition system. When it came to removing the sparkplugs, it was obvious that they hadn't been removed since the great flood. I had to apply so much pressure, that I had a 1/2 inch flex handle and a large helper.
Finally, after applying as much pressure as I could, the sucker finally let go, and drove my knuckles into the hood hinge. It hurt so much that my hand was numb and I actually felt lightheaded. Then I recovered, and was so pissed that I took the helper, and pounded the top radiator tank multiple times. Then I looked at Barry's face, his eyes were so wide that you would think he was in a room alone with a serial killer.
As soon as I saw his reaction, I started to laugh, and after some recovery time with my hands in cold water, we were able to complete the job.
It would have been something for someone to have had a camera on us during all this.
Bob

 

Let's here some more stories.