Spark plugs are metric, sorta. The vise grips do need to be slightly tensioned and closed, or they will snap open in a box. Surprised nobody has mentioned this, I don't generally use a Crescent wrench aka "Norwegian Socket Set". They DO have their uses, but a box or open end & a socket is better. We were looked at askance in the .mil generally for using them in lieu of a box end/open. Good tool to keep in a scaled down emergency tool bag, maybe. Not thinking of too many quirks, always keep a 1/4" socket on the 1/4" extension, since the odds are that's what I'll need it for anyway. And truss rod adjustments. Deep well sockets are one of man's greatest inventions. Try to keep the garage in a semi state of order-liness, put tools away on a constant basis. Toolbox is reasonably neat and organized. When it bugs me enough, it gets emptied, cleaned, re-organized, "wtf is that?!" and "why is that in there?" stuff thrown out, etc. I can afford to buy the tools I need now, and appreciate them. When I was younger I made do. Some tasks I look at today, can't figure out how I did it.
I use a gauge to set all my adjustable tools to exactly 1/32 of an inch to allow for temperature changes. I also "clock" all my 6 pt. sockets so they are flat on top and bottom and I rotate the wheels on my tool boxes and carts. You guys are too much...... but I do know where you are coming from. I am not very organized and I've paid the price with lost tools and tempers.
I also write down name of who borrowed a tool, as well as the date on a card. The card goes into the drawer or on the peg where the tool was stored. I've never lost a tool that was borrowed.
I leave everything where I last used it. Hammers especially, as theycan be used as a substitute for any lost tool. When I go to swap meets, I buy boxes of tools, and just spread them around the workshop, a nice layer on any horizontal surface, about 8 inches deep. If you have 500 screwdrivers, one can't be more than a few inches away. I once saw a small section of the floor, that was in the late '80's, but I could be mistaken.
I'm nuts about keeping my tools organized at work, and yes, adjustable stuff is closed, mics one turn open, everything laid out nicely. It helps me be efficient, and I can tell quickly at the end of the day if I've left anything out. My home shop doesn't have as much storage space, and I have to put more in each drawer than I like to, but it' still organized.
A metric is one size too big or too small to fit, used on the kids and grandkids Asian toys and the wifes daily driver no matter where it was built if it's newer than at least 1980. Want to hear something funny? My 47 Lincoln has countless 10mm bolts in it, from the factory! Must have been an in between normal size that just happened to be 10 mm, or a sloppy run of 3/8" head size bolts!
You mean to say that there are people that DON’T close the jaw on an adjustable wrench when they put it away? That’s weird. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Messed up cords is my pet peeve. The wife will borrow one and bring it back wrapped up like a birds nest. "I tried - here you fix it if you don't like it". Now she just borrows and tell me where she left it!!! I've got a 100 footer that I've been seen laying it out fully just to get everything coiled up just right. Maybe I do have too much time on my hands. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
You guys actually use adjustable wrenches? How about water pump pliers? I hate 'em both. Adjustables IMHO are only good for completely rounding off nuts or bolt heads that were already out of of spec from rust, previous abuse, etc.... water pump pliers are for pinching the shit out of your fingers. I do have my torque wrench backed off. I'm also bad about accumulating bad sockets, because I'll buy new ones but not throw the worn ones away.... I did do a purge a while back and ditched a shitload of chinese twelve point sockets that didn't fit anything right.
Speaking of extension cords. I had to have a home training on garden hose coiling! Sent from my LG-TP450 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Dad told me to always close adjustable wrenches - that way when you grab one, you will put it down and grab a proper box or open end wrench instead, since it will be quicker! I’m pretty much a shop slob, but stuff on the floor and tangled cords make me mental. However I thought I was pretty good at rolling and hanging cords until I saw my father in law’s awesome braided cord system. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Rarely do I use an adjustable as a “wrench”, they make a great lever for bending stuff that no wrench will fit though. As a wrench only on those weird size nuts that seem to show up on poorly made imported crap. Not standard, not metric, no known size proper wrench fits on it, grab the “off shore metric” wrench, then throw the chinesium fastener away and put something that isn’t crap in its place. Water pump pliers I use for holding stuff that is hot, like a freshly welded bracket that I want to pick up to inspect, also good for opening cans like PVC cement with the knurled edge on them when they’re stuck and don’t want to open. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Braided cord system? I roll my extension cords and hoses so they unroll easily, the way a guy that works as a roadie taught me how to roll microphone cables so that they don’t get tangled on stage. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
When I taught high school both of the adjustable wrenches were kept in the back of my desk drawer. On the topic of metric tools, in the early nineties I was setting up a new tool board at school and had it all laid out when I realized that it was time to move the metric tools to the top.
I sort of went through the reverse; I started out with Japanese cars and metric tools, then got my first Falcon and started a collection of inch gear. I still have most of the Craftsman socket set I got for Christmas of 1981, all metric, so I'd leave my Dad's tools alone. Ninety five percent of the Jag stuff is inch, at least so far anyway; I haven't encountered any metric on it -yet-. I find tools in almost every car I buy, though, sometimes cheap crap but once in a while I get lucky.
I keep my finger off the trigger of all my power tools until I am set and ready to use it. Probably comes from a combination of years of gun safety and having the skin on my chin taken off by a grinder with 80grit grabbing my shirt tail and climbing up my chest against my will....because I was holding it at my waist and bumped the trigger by accident... everyone got a big laugh and i got to wear a goatee for life...LOL Chappy P.S. all my loaner tools have been stolen... i will bring my own tools and do the work for someone (at my convenience) rather than loan tools.
When I worked as a line mechanic, I was anal about where each and every tool went in my old boxes. They were a set of mixed tools I collected out of pawn shops, flea markets, didn’t have a “set” of hardly anything. That was early in my career. When I got my own shop and new tools(Mac, Snap-on, etc) I became less organized. Now that they are all in my home garage, there is NO organization. I try to get organized, but it never seems to happen. I wish I was more like I was when I started in my career....... in more ways than one! Bones
Growing up in an Imperial world, happy as a clam at high tide. We do the change over to the Metric system...Temperature, speed,weight, distance ,but you still buy a 4x8 sheet of plywood ....19mm thick. I`m retired now but I ask the young trade folks and for the most part they use the imperial system and they grew up with the Metric system .
Actually, I wish the US had gone metric way back years ago because its a lot better, simpler system. The old English system is nuts when you think about it.
This was my box growing up as an apprentice Now it’s in my service van All my snap on stuff and box is st home for personal use Everything has a place. On the road I have cheaper stuff as no matter how careful stuff gets lost/misplaced I have a few big adjustable wrenches for hydraulic fittings as carrying a set of 1-1/2 “to 3” wrenches is nuts and adds a ton of weight I like to go on the road at “ spring chicken” weight Less to carry and less to loose!
why are there 12 inches in a foot? why are there 12 hours on a clock? why are there 12 months in a year? As for the measurements...Given a chance, you will find estimating to +/- 1/2 a division far less error prone. So if we go base 2 fractional, then one could measure using a rule to quite a fine measurement. If measuring a clean edge and using a machinist scale, 1/128 of an inch is achievable with my 50 year old eyes. You're not getting that estimating to a decimal of a mm. Chappy
We will have to agree to disagree. I think metric is simpler even though I hate it because I have few metric tools and hate to work on a type of car that uses metric.
The Jalopy Journal
