Technical Tools/ Things found on the road!

Yes karma and Murphy's law are always just around the corner. I think I have no problems with karma but old Murphy

Some people take the cake as far as being grateful . It's not just millennials that think everyone's supposed to do them a favor.

 

I believe, after a remark such as that, he would have picked it out of the trash can.

Ben

 

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And I think I might have thrown it into the trash can in the break room, right in front of him. (You know, the one with the nasty food left-overs in it.) Only after taking one of the business cards, and writing on it to NEVER call this guy for anything.

Roger

 

The 10 was probably already gone
.....in my experience, It is one of the most highly used ones and most likely to be lost first

 

3mm Snap-On combination wrench.
Tiny thing looks like a toy.

 

Not found on the road but ... While doing a preflight inspection on our Cessna Cardinal I noticed a gouge at the root of the prop. I looked in the air intake in the cowl and saw a long 1/2" extension with a socket on it laying on the engine. Removed the top of the cowl to retrieve the tool and found the engine had a bent push rod cover. Because the annual inspection had just been performed on the plane a few days prior I contacted the mechanic who had performed it (I won't go into the discussion we had.) He blended in the ding in the prop and replaced push rod cover. Apparently what had happened was the extension was left on the top of the engine and while in flight the extension vibrated forward and was struck by the prop. The extension was then propelled back into the engine striking the push rod cover. Was very lucky, this could have ended much differently. ( I kept the extension and socket.)

 

Dam Steve I won where channellocks went. Oh well last summer I found a 036 Stihl at the side of the road put a add in the paper and face book no one claimed it

 

Ok! I’ll bring them to the swap meet! Lol





Bones

 

This is not a found on the road story, but anyways, back in the mid '80's, a couple friends and I drove down to Ohio Valley Speedway, where we usually spent Friday nights at the time. We stopped at the Bonded in Athens, and each chipped in 5 bucks for gas. After all the money changed hands, we had 15 dollars worth of gas in the truck, and I had five twenty dollar bills in my paw that were not mine. I asked if anyone was missing a hundred dollars, and Jim the driver said "Yep, that's my hundred dollar bill", scratched himself off right there, and Ed the Flagman said "I never lose money, ever" and so the mystery went unsolved, but it didn't go unspent

 

We've got an area here in town that was a Superfund site because of ground contamination in the old days before natural gas was piped into town, and they cooked coal to extract the gas that was piped around town. All the houses in a large area were torn down and although a lot of work has been done, I doubt that houses will ever be built there again.
I drive through there on my way back and forth as a short cut where there's almost no traffic, only a few stop signs. One afternoon heading through this short cut, there was a 21# sledge hammer laying right in the middle of the road! The hammer was obviously almost new, no scarring on the faces and the finish on the wooden handle was still shiny. The pavement where it fell was scratched up, so it obviously was unsecured on the back of a truck and slid off. I still have it, figured whoever lost it deserved the loss for having something unsecred where it could slide off. Could have been catastrophic had it happened with the truck at speed with another vehicle getting hit by that heavy SOB!

 

Coming into Birmingham, AL late one night from over Atlanta way, kept hearing drivers talking about a tarp in the road on the CB. Finally found out where it was, right on my way. I came around Dead Man's curve where I20 meets up with I59 to go west though town, there it was, laying in the fast lane. I quickly stopped on the shoulder, jumped out, nothing coming, so I ran over, jerked the heavy thing up, must've weighed over 100 lbs, ran back to my truck, threw it as best as I could on the catwalk behind the cab, stretched a couple of bungee cords over it, and got back in and took off.

Next day when I got home, decided to look at my prize. Saw it had a burned place on one end where it had gotten against an exhaust stack, thought, well, might have to do some patching on it, no big deal. The more I rolled it out, the sicker I got. Every so often, there was a fist sized hole burned in it. Not just in a few places, everywhere on it. It almost looked like a piece of lace there were so many holes in it, all in a line on the place where it had been folded. There wasn't enough of an undamaged portion to even make a small smoke tarp. I half assed rolled it back up and threw it on a brush pile and burned it up. You could have bought a new tarp cheaper than all the patches that thing was going to need!

 

Back around 82 I spotted a rear fender for a VW bug laying in the street. It had slid off a truck & only had some road rash. A friend was building a VW at the time so he reaped the benefit of my find.

 

A 21 lbs sledge hammer! I’ve got a ten, twelve, and a 16! I almost never swing that 16, for obvious reasons! Can’t imagine swinging a hammer that big!





Bones

 

This thread has me stopping and checking every shiny object on the highway!


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Yesterday on way home.

 

^^^ LOL!!

I guess that's a fairly common type of scam, guy stops for nice looking gal broke down by the side of the road (naturally) but unbeknownst to the poor sap, three ugly guys with tire irons are hiding in the bushes, ready to strong arm robbery.

 

Her name was Cindy.
She was hitchhiking to visit her boyfriend in the penitentiary.
I picked her up and found out she was feeling “lonely “. True story.
As far as tools and the like I have never found anything great. I usually spot the busted ratchet strap, the rusty vise grip.

 

I found a big ass MagLite in the grass by the curb, the kind that take way too many "D" cells that cops used to favor. I still have it. In the parking lot at O'Reilly's found a pair of those red and black plastic battery post insulators that someone thoughtlessly discarded. These are always handy for any extra batts laying around.

 

After buying an EH wagon in Adelaide I drove it home to the Sunshine coast, 25 hours, and a week later a 1/2 inch open end fell out from underneath.

 

What did her tattoos look like?

 

Often see stuff but usually not in places that one cans safely pull over.
In one blow;
18" Rigid Chain strap.
24" Adjustable wrench, forget brand, lot lighter than one would think it would weigh.
2- 20" Channel-lock T&G pliers.
Local utility guys were there in the morning, figured they took off for lunch in a hurry and I would just hand them back, it was just down the street from the house.
They never showed back up, and none of the tools were marked, bummer for them.

Channies get lots of usage, always get a kick out of pulling them out and co-workers getting all tool geeky over them.

 

This was back in the 70’s. No tattoos

 

Couple years ago I found a floor jack. Not as big as I use in the shop but I keep it in the back of my pickup so I don’t have to use a little crank one.
In high school I found a pair of bolt cutters that stand about 4 feet tall. Sucker will pop anything I’ve put them up against. Seems like all the ratchet straps etc I find have all been run over and crushed.

More little things but a couple months ago a nice 3/8 drive air wrench and several years ago a big stainless tire pressure gauge. Long and double tipped- works good to reach in and check the inners on a set of duals.

“Stock up now — before the hoarders get it all!”

 

I've found 3 of those big yellow tie-down straps they use on flat bed trailers on semi trucks. They make good tow straps.

It's also been a long time since I've paid for a blue tarp.

Sent from my SM-G965U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

And it's flippin' the bird.....

 

Never found anything by the side of the road but I did leave my 1 1/16" SK Wayne combination wrench on the eastbound side of I-80 in Hackensack NJ about 45 years ago when my dad and I hooked up the tow bar to tow my crippled car home one night.

 

Hello,

When we were teenagers, we were constantly on a road trip or two. Those early first/second hot rods gave us the freedom to go places and do fun things. Back then, a lot of cars had full hubcaps and white wall tires. One thing we noticed on most highways were the abundance of single hubcaps by the side of the road. My brother even had his share of losing a hubcap or two until he got some hubcap wire locks.

They worked most of the time, but a bump or two on the highway and off they came, making a racket of noise and a dinged up hubcap. Those wire locks came off fast. It was better to let the hubcap come off and roll off the side of the road, hopefully. Then the hubcap had a chance of staying relatively ding free.

It became a "stop and check out" something we saw off the side of the road. But, as the stops became frequent and the “loot” became rather crappy, those escapades stopped altogether. Until one day I saw a smooth hubcap off the side of a coastal highway when I was a 20 something driver. I turned around and came back to the spot where I saw an unusual color and appearance of something shiny, in the green ice plant by the side of the roadway. I am sure everyone thought it was a piece of aluminum or something shiny.

Jnaki

It was a slightly scratched, but fully functional Moon Disc. It was not a screw on type, but a pop on hubcap style that was not as popular, but people still put them on their cars. My wife and I were newlyweds and had an eclectic collection of stuff in our first apartment. I wanted to have some hot rod stuff, and this Moon Disc was a great find and would be a great wall ornament.

As much care and repairing that I did, I could not get the scratches out or smooth the tiny dents, either. I used all sorts of body work techniques and even took it to an industrial metal, working shop in the nearby industrial tract. They said they could rework the whole thing and make it original looking, but it would not be worth the time and effort, plus the cost, too. The small dings and scratches would have to stay.

It remained in the garage, dings and all, until a neighborhood, little kid liked it so much that he walked home, twirling the Moon Disc in his hands. Wall ornament? Who knows? It was the same kid that I gave a home made, shaped foam surfboard in its raw stage. He had it completely finished and ripped on that homemade board. So, who knows what became of that slightly scratched Moon Disc.

 

Why do you feel being honest mandates monetary compensation , wasn't the way I was raised , you did the right thing because it was the right thing , period ..

 

Being an aircraft mechanic for a major airline, its amazing how many tools my fellow mechanics left on aircraft after completing previous repairs.

 

Don't put words in my mouth. Honesty is the best policy, sure. How's that workin' out though, in society?

A little compensation along the way is a good kick in the pants to encourage people to do the right thing.