whom here feels the same way???

I'm 69, and I still have a no name set of combo wrenches from my bicycle days, when I was about 13. I carry them in my MC tool kit to this day. When I started working on cars it was Craftsman stuff, over the years it's been some of every thing, Snap-On, Mac, Cornwell,Blackhawk,Plumb,Armstrong,Vlchek, and other less well known. Except for a few pieces lost,I still have everything. Good tools will last damn near forever.

 

Coffee all over the computer Dude! Funny shit !

 

yeah man I'm nostalgic for the first tools I ever got. We went through a lot together and they never let me down! Cars and women, yes, but the tools, no ;-)

I mean it sounds kinda sappy to be attached to a tool but I'm looking at a screwdriver right now that I used to fix my OT car when i was broken down in a church parking lot when I was 16. I'm sentimental like that.

Any of my new tools I'd be pissed if I lost them but wouldn't get butt hurt about it one bit.

and PS yes its a horrible no-name screwdriver that I'm looking at with a bent tip LOL that i wouldn't trade for a snapon

 

One of my sons was born to turn wrenches he found a piece of aluminum pipe that he constantly used for a cheater pipe . He died in a car crash when he was 17 I always like to use Chris,s cheater pipe and other tools as much as i can. Somehow it makes me feel good.

 

I don't even own a any snap on tools, but they always bring a smile to my face. It was around 1957, when I was a kid, sitting in town in the back seat of my dads 55 olds waiting for my mother to finish her shopping (we did a lot of that). We're parked behind a snap on tool truck and my dad says "boy, that would be a handy thing to have" I said "what" he said, "a snap on tool". I was too young to even get the joke, but a few years later I saw a snap on truck and remembered what he said, and started to laugh. I still smile when I see a snap on tool truck.

 

I'd make a turn signal lever, or a shifter shaft out of it, and put it on my car.then you can keep it, and use it. I've got an old 120V dremel type deal from the fifties that stopped working a year or two ago. cant bring myself to throw it out. It was my "die grinder" when I had no compressor, and smoothed many a weld for me. Anyone fix old power tools?

 

HA! thank, now i got pepsi on my keyboard!...

 

Just tools? I can't seem to get rid of hardly anything!

 

I got some old Proto wrenches from my dad when he died. My brother and I split up his old tool box between us. Most of them are discolored from heat as dad got them from the dumpster after the clean up from a hanger fire at McChord afb in the fifties.{Pop was an A&P mechanic} The air force was just going to toss them. But the colonel in charge of the clean up said he "I dont want to know anything about this salvage operation".
I like the idea about the shifter handle. Or some other use on a project car. Maybe an "oh shit"handle on the dashboard? I say keep it and find some other use for it and screw the un-sentimental backside wipers!

 

fully understand.shit I got snap-on tools that are scroll lettering...........

 

Why trade it in????????? Keep it and buy a new one.

 

Over the past 40 years or so I've bought new tools and used tools. I don't pay much attention to them unless I can't find one when I need it. That's when it seems it has the ability to hide real good. At those times I have a tendency to name my tools. And talk to them in a loud and excited voice. However I have found over time that if you lose or misplace a tool it's a sure bet you'll find it in the last place you look. I think my favorite tools are the ones I've stole from my brother. Usually they are made in Taiwan and I don't use them but I laugh every time I think of him cussing because he can't find something. Wait a minute, you don't suppose that's where most of my tools go?

 

When Pops died in 92, I inherited his tool chest which was a Blue 5 drawer Craftsman rollaround that he bought...used...in 1953. I worked out of that toolbox when I was a helper for him after high school and on weekends, doing body and paint work. He had a lot of old handtools he picked up here and there and there were special "good" tools that I liked more than others that just flat did the job better. There were also a few tools that he hand-made to do lead and metal work. I kept most of those and put a couple of the "good tools" that I remembered into my own tool box. The rest of the tools, including the toolbox, I gave to my son. I purchased my own tool set and box in 1970 from Montgomery Ward, because they would let me buy on credit without a co-signer. Turns out that I still have almost all of that same set almost 40 years later, and they are on a par with what Snap-on's are today...PowerKraft is the brand. Non-existant today, and of course, my son as well as my daughters will likely end up with my stuff when I go...But even now, whenever I put into my hand a certain 1/2" comination box/open end wrench that is now blackened with use and with age...I feel a re-connection to the master craftsman who taught me the right way to do things, not just when working on cars, but in life. I miss him still, and I am grateful for him too. Peace, out.

 

When it comes to "MY" tools I don't give a damn. I'm just pissed I have to buy a new one. The only tools I care about are my grandfathers tools which I retired when he died and they were passed along. The old man finally gets to rest, his tools should as well. I feel like a heel for having to borrow the tin snips out of his tool box every now and then.

 

That is a great story!

 

I have way too many tools for one person. Literally by the ton. I use them and drop them and when I need one I am off looking for them. If I can't find the one I need I buy another. I keep every broken tool that comes my way because someone might be able to use it. I know I have those missing hammer heads that the other gentelman had lost and some of those broken handles too. They WILL fit in a smaller hammer.

 

I have the wrenches my dad gave me when I was 5 years old! he made me a little workbench with a little vise, set of combo wrenches hanging on hooks, hammer,
screw drivers, and a cheap socket set. I still have the bench and vise also.
kinda cool to have!

 

this thread pulls at the heart strings to what makes working on our cars a true honor,tradition and the history we are tryin to save.............too kool

 

Jeezzze kid!! I've got screwdrivers in my box older than you are! If I broke one tomorrow I'd toss it and get a new one. A tool is just that.... a tool. Ment to be used. Thanks, Mike

 

You could buy a rebuild kit... or turn it into something cool to put on your car.

 

The trick is to break it in a way that you can exchange each half for a new tool.

 

I couldn't have said it any better.K.J.

 

Yeah,why are so many people into all the old,"correct" crap(parts/cars) but don't seem concerned about the tools that put them together?....

 

Don't trade it in. Keep it and buy a new one.

 

thats funny beceause the same thing happened to me, 12" snap on extension, it got so worn that a socket would not stay on it, I had been using it professionally for 20 years, it was hard to trade in for a new one, but now the socket stays on

 

Tell em how ya really feel!

 

i've often wondered about building an ha/gr car utilizing period methods and tools. acetylene torch cut and welded chassis, a proto ratchet and socket set, diy sand casting, and a whole lot of muscle and ingenuity. it would be hard not to tig anything, wait when was tig welding invented?

 

Not just last week, my friends 50+ yr old snap on 1/4 in. drive ratchet broke. No big deal snap-on had the parts....But when the asshole snap on man took it to rebuild it he clamped it in a vise and broke the damn thing in half. What an asshole.Needless to say, rebuild your own tools its easy and takes way less time than dealing with tool guys.

 

I have some Crapsman sockets that are knurled on the outside and the C underlines the word in blocked lettersthere the only ones still left (there 8 point sockets)

 

Hey, when it comes to turning wrenches there's not a thing wrong with being sentimental. It most often gives you a comfort level that helps you do good work.I'm 66 yrs. young and I still have and use the Craftsman set of wrenches and sockets,ratchets that my Mother gave me for my 16th birthday. I even have the small metal tool box they came with and I plan on keping it for my 7yr. old grandson. So keep them ,fix them if you can, enjoy them and use them all the time to build hot shit hot rods that will blow peoples fucking minds.