Projects Ever have a tool or machine that is just an old friend . . . OT

Couldn't help but remember when ever my dad would come to my place he'd ALWAYS go through my tool box looking for any of his old tools! Had absolutely no shame. He'd grab any snap-on wrenches that looked old [I'd buy them at garage sales] and say they were his tools. I eventually got them back but by then they had his initials, M.A.G. stamped on them...whatta crooked ol dude.
I also found an old German Iron Cross in one of the drawers of his box. He sat down with me while we were working on a job in his shop to tell me how he traded for it in North Africa to a German prisoner during the war. I still have it and I gotta figure out a way to incorporate it into my 34 ford coupe build...maybe as a shift knob decoration, eh?

 

Not an automotive tool (unless you own a woody ) but it's my pop's old Craftsman circular saw....all polished aluminum case, stylish curves, kick-ass motor...a work of art. I remember as a kid it would dim the lights in the house when it stated....watching inside the cooling vents to see the blue sparks flying off the motor brushes. The sheet metal carrying case is even cool- cantilever design, big wing nut to hold the saw down, storage for the extra blade, adjustable fence and a place to wrap the cord up and store it.... gray hammertone finish with a leather handle, heavy lunchbox latches and rubber feet on the bottom so you don't scratch the floor. In its life this saw has cut enough wood to fill a lumber yard, yet it looks and works like new.....from a time when America (and Craftsman Tools) strived to be the best.
Every time I open the box to that saw the memories come flooding back......





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My great grandfather and his brothers had a coach building company (horse and cart type coach building) and my grandfather had all sorts of specialized old wood working tools, a few metal working pieces and lots of old painting stuff, as my great grandfather was the coach painter (real old school striper). When my grandfather went to the home my Dad cleared out his workshop (I was living out of the country at the time). Anything he couldn't use he sold. So much for the family history. But he couldn't take the memories of me and my granddad working on stuff together. Or the anvil my granddad gave me.

Of my own stuff I'd never be without my stainless 6" ruler. It's been in constant use since 1999, and was a replacement for the previous one that got "lost" at work. Use it for everything: screwdriver, chisel, knife, scraper, even works for measuring!

 

My grandfather put in oil and gas pipelines all over the country, and could do just about anything...mechanical,welding, woodworking, you name it, and had a tool for everything. Most of his old tools are at my dad's house, being used only occasionally, but I am slowly making space for them. An old metal lathe, a Delta drill press, a band saw, an oxy-acytelene outift...and all of it was old when I first saw it, in the early 70s. Not to mention lots of handtools, though unfortunately many of those were stolen from his garage when he got older, and eventually he stopped replacing them.

 

do you mean Owatonna , as in OTC tools? they don't make wrenches anymore , but i do see them at local garage sales....apparently a lot of them found their way home in lunch boxes

 

I carry my old man's Boker pocket Knife. The blades barely resemble their original shape from years of service and sharpening. It's still my go-to for just about everything.

 

I have a lot of my dads tools and many are "old friends", but i'd have to say my favorite is a Bosch angle grinder with cutoff wheel. I use it for cutting just about everything, as well as all my tube notching. I've used it so much, we even "communicate" to some extent...at least it lets me know when it's pissed at me!

 

Cool info, thanks! I can't possibly come up with the number of bolts & nuts this wrench has been on. Great story on your Dad's ratchet.

Bob

 

Not a tool, but this workbench stool came from my dad's TV sales and repair shop. I used to sit on it and watch tv there when I was a kid. He died in 1977 when I was 14 and this was the only thing from the shop that I really wanted.

 

I have a wrench that I bent to tighten the nuts on the Webers,on my first VW. Had it for 35 years and now use it on my distributor hold down....Comes in handy all the time!

 

The only tool I wanted when my Dad died was the 6" stainless ruler he carried every day. It has the fraction to decimal chart on the back, I use it EVERY day. All of my old tools mean more to me than the new ones. peace

 

I have all my sears bodyhammers I got in 1969. Still use them. some still have the original handles too.

 

I have a black&decker 1/4 inch drill ,it was my dads and I built my first hod rod with it. It still works but I just like to look at it once in awhile.

 

That's really cool, B&S. I wish I had one tool of my late father's just to remember him by. But, my younger brother sold all his stuff immediately after he died, as a package-deal to some guy, before I even knew it...ass. I do have a couple of tools that my wife has brought home for me. One is an old, heavy-duty bench-vice in perfect condition, that she bought at a garage-sale years ago. Another is a creeper from the '40s. Makes me smile every time I use them. My wife is cool...she gets it. My brother isn't, and doesn't.

 

I didn't have any gearheads in the family. All the tools I have I collected over many years. As far as old friend tools. The only tool I own that could not be replaced is an old Craftsman Timing light. It belonged to my good friend Charles "kong" Jackson. I keep it wrapped up in my closet.
I did take it out a while back to set the timing on Winfields "The Thing" as it was sporting "Kong" heads at the time..

 

Of all my tools my favorite is my 0-1" Starrett micrometer with FR etched into it. FR was Fred Reinhard, my grandfather, and the mic dates from the 30 or 40's. My father used it when he started at Republic Aviation and all through his life and it is the only 0-1 I use. There is a comfort and familiarity when it is in my hand and as it is a Starrett with the .0001 vernier around the stem it is as accurate as any mic anywhere.

 

I have an old lathe that used to belong to my wife's uncle William 'Bill' Farquharson. He was a real old school engineer and worked on Spitfires during the war. He died a couple of years after I met my wife and I didn't really have time to get to know him as well as I would have liked. I feel like I did though when I use his Lathe. Really wish he was here to teach me to use it. RIP Uncle Bill.

One of the last things he made with it was a new headstock bush for it from phosphor-bronze, using the same lathe - that must have been a real pain in the ass with all the dismantling and rebuilding to get it just right, but means it now runs like a new one. Just have to keep a ready supply of belt-grip spray to hand!



I've made quite a few parts for my hotrod with it - I think he would be pleased to see it being used. It helped me get the truck on the road so that I could go to church in it to marry his niece!

 

You guys are all sentimental bastards just like me . . . and that is a good thing!

 

My 1/2" SK socket set was my grandfather's. It was kept on his boat and my dad got the boat when my grandfather died. A few years later the boat sank at the dock due to a dumb guard who shut off the sump pump overnight.
My dad gave me the socket set and said I could keep it if I cleaned it up.
Still use it after almost 50 years.

A couple of weeks ago I moved my dad's combo table saw, drill press, wood lathe to my rental garage. I took the combo when my dad died in 2003. It is an old friend. I remember holding the end of long boards as my dad guided them thru the saw. I must have been about 7 or 8. I used the drill press many times when building cars over the years.

The first tool I bought was a 1/2" x 9/16" craftsman box wrench. I bought it in 1969 when I needed the offset to remove bellhousing bolts, in the car, when swapping engines on my '57 Chevy. It is still my favorite wrench.

 

I have a shop full of em. Hell I'm so friendly with them I Even Talk To Them !!! >>>>.

 

Watch those old all metal case tools. I used an old 1/4" Sears Craftsman metal-case drill my pops gave me, about 10 years ago to drill holes in an aluminum patio door to mount new hinges. Once I placed my left hand on the metal frame of the door (which was apparently connected to the dirt somewhere on the patio) to get more leverage, i felt the electric shock go from the drill hand to the other hand. I dropped the drill, and haven't plugged it in since.

 

My dad was a Tool & Die Maker and I followed in his tracks. Needless to say, I've got plenty of precision tools to get the job done but I cherish the ones I know he made as an apprentice and journeyman more than any other. He passed away over ten years ago, but whenever I slide out a drawer, there is always some tool to flash my memory back to us either fixing or building something. Damn, I miss him.

The next step is to get his early 40's lathe running again.

 

"i felt the electric shock go from the drill hand to the other hand."

I have an old metal case drill my friend gave me. It did the same thing.

I call it "Old Sparky"!

 

I've had good luck repairing old tools with this sort of problem. Usually the culprit is a frayed wire that's touching the case or a bad switch. Either way it's a cheap and simple fix to get a good old tool working again. They sure don't make them like they used to

 

OT? No way! My Sioux polisher.....it's a '65 and been w/ me since purchased from a Tulsa pawn store in '87.

 

This is so fine. It's at the top of my wish list.

 

On my workbench sits a 12" forged Trimo brand adjustable wrench (people used to call them "monkey wrenches") that was made by Trimont Mfg. Co., Roxbury, MA - patented 1911. I retrieved it from my Dad's tool collection after he died. He got it when he went to work at the Northern Pacific RR roundhouse in Helena, MT in 1941. It's still in good working condition although showing many battle scars ... working on steam locomotives wasn't for delicate tools.

It is too big and bulky to be useful for most automotive repairs, but I like having it in its spot on my bench. As a small boy, I remember digging it out of his old wooden tool box that he got from his father in the 1930's and "fixing" things with it. It's a reminder of him and the values that I learned from him such as having a strong work ethic, responsibility, appreciation of quality craftsmanship, etc. Some day, I hope it will be sitting on one of my grandchildren's workbenches.