"broken" stuff you keep using....

so i have this old stapler sitting on my desk. you know the type with the spring loaded slider in the back. its probably 50 years old. the mechanism inside is broken so every time i staple something it doesn't reset, so i have to 'cock' the stapler to use it again. i feel like the rifleman every time i use it.

its such a pain in the butt, but i keep on using it.

i never think to pick one up when i'm out, and i'm too lazy to drive to the store when i am thinking about it.

plus its old and you guys know how we get about old stuff.

so i got to thinking about all the broken or malfunctioning tools i have that i just wont throw out or have been repurposed.

how about you?

 

ya all my cars

 

I have a scraper with a 1.5 inch wide blade that my dog chewed off most of the handle about 20 years ago. I wrapped it with duct tape. I was using it the other day and noticed it needs some new duct tape.

I'll have to re wrap it next time I think about it.

 

my crappy import air chisel I bought 20 some years ago. Usually I have to fight it just to get it to move...today I needed to zip part of a roof off so I tried it and it worked great. I was surprised.

 

I have too angle grinders one a no brand that I bought frieght about 15 years ago and a mikita that I bought last year. The old one you have to twist it around just right to get it going and it will stop right in the middle of what you are doing. 3 out of 5 times I pick it up and use it, just can't bring myself to throw it away.

I have an old ratchet that I have had since high school. I have actually taken it apart and filled the little teeth on it. it was a cheap bastard garage sale one when i bought it, it doesn't have th little flipper handle like a craftsman it has the little round thing on the back that you turn one way or another but it doen't care you can spin it all the way around and it will just change directions when you get it in the right place. If it isn't just right it slips, you know what that means right? I still usit, I guess if i was an intellegent man I would either hang it on the wall or file it in the round file.

 

It probably has just enough American dust and grime in it to seal it up and work....don't even go near it with any kind of cleaner and it'll work forever.

 

My wallet.

 

My Body

 

I got a pair of channel locks that dont lock. I keep putting them back in the tool box.And it seems everytime I grab for some there the ones I get.But can never seem to throw them away.Maybe one day I will.

 

Yah some times if it was special to me for some reason but mostly when some thing breaks and pisses me off that last time i throw it in the bushes or the ill weld it to something one day bin.

 

Had a arkwelder for many years with a bad switch that i had wired passed,so on tell it got unpluded,got a new one,finely gave a away the old one,but pulled the wires apart,just so he'd get a new switch,but when over to his house,i see he put it the same way

 

..Ha Ha

Me and 3 of my buddies owned a Pinto once that we push started. We pushed it for at least 6 months then one day I took a wild hair and bought a 3 dollar bendix and took half an hour to fix it.

I don't know what it is about stuff sometimes it is so cheap or easy when it comes time to finally make it right that it just seems rediculas.

 

Now that i think of it my drill press has a broken switch. Its real dangerous. I wrap the cord around my foot if i find it necessary so i can unplug it.

 

Software. I'd guess about half the software I use has "workarounds" that I deal with because I don't want the expense and learning curve of new software. Why trade old problems you know how to deal with for new problems you don't? I think software is a special case in this regard.

 

I bought a set of wood handled screw drivers about 35 years ago at one of those cheap tool sales they used to have in hotels. I think I paid $2 or $3 for the set of 10. I still have 8 of them and the dog chewed the handles on several of those. They should have been pitched years ago. But they have worn like no other screwdrivers I've ever owned. I grab one of them rather than my good Craftsman drivers almost every time.

 

an ancient Craftsman 1/2" drive torque-wrench,......the broken plastic handle gouges my hand and the scale fell off it's rivets and got lost years ago,....but it makes a hell of a breaker-bar.

 

The first day I used my brand-new Craftsman chop-saw, I burned out the switch by cutting a long piece of flat plate with it (ran it a long time, bogged down). Why the hell I didn't return it and get another one I will never know, but it's been 9 years now and every time I use it I have to plug in and unplug the cord to turn it on or off.
I've had the part number for a replacement switch written down on a sticky note here on my desk for a few years, but have never gotten around to ordering it. I could do it now that I'm thinking about it, but my wife has the debit card so I can't order it online.
Which means I'll forget all about it in a couple minutes, and remember it the next time I go to cut some steel.

-Brad

 

I agree with you on this! I wish the people who made the software were sentenced to use it themselves for one day for every time it pisses me off!

As far as using broken things goes, I tolerate work-arounds so I don't have to buy a new one. I generally get 3 or 4 times the life out of things if I don't throw them away the first time something breaks on them. Some people just don't want the hassle. I think that's why a lot of people don't understand us driving our old cars.

I have an old push mower that someone gave me because it looked old and the safety handle broke. I don't know how old it was when I got it but I've had it 11 years. I've replaced the wheels twice with trash-day curb-treasures. A friend's engine lost compression so I yoinked his carburetor. The body cracked at the mounting bolts so I used my friend's lawn mower's body for that, too. The pull-cord broke so I use a socket chucked into my cordless drill to start it now. It may be ugly, have different colored wheels, and have the engine mounted at the 8:00 position, but it's the only push mower on the block with electric-start!

I'm probably much prouder of it than is reasonable but it's fun to see how long I can keep it running. Oh my gosh - it's a Rat Mower!!!

 

My very old 6 foot AL ladder that I use quite often is getting pretty unstable and I really shouldn't be using it any longer. I really should get a nice fiberglass one to replace it. I think I'll start a list for Santa.

wsdad just reminded me of my lawn mower, which is over 20 years old and was just given to me by my Dad. I've actually been using it for 21 years as thats when I moved into my house which is located 5 houses down the street from my folks, borrowing it from Dad once a week to mow my lawn. It's been on it last leg for awhile now with one wheel being held in it position with a bungie cord. We've replace countless wheels as pushing on the cement sidewalk from Dad's house to mine and back every week probably wears them out faster then normal. Had the carb/engine rebuilt a few times and of course the blade sharpened a bunch. Dad finially got tired of it and gave it to me a month or so ago when he bought his new one, which he said I couldn't borrow. I guess now these wheels will laster longer as I don't have to push it down to Dad's now that it's "mine".

 

I have a snow shovel that every year I have to repair it. Hose clamps and screws and tape. It started at standard length but the son snapped the handle off so I cropped it back 6 inches. Then the handle broke at the shovel head so I trimmed it back and held it in with a screw. It's so short now a Hobbit can use it. It might be as long and a gardner's hand shovel by the end of this year. Too cheap and lazy to get a new one I guess.

 

Most of the tools at my work are broke in some way. Pillar drills, one the chuck key is so worn out you cant tighten the chuck properly, all my drill bits have score marks around them from slipping. Second pillar drill, doesn't return up. Third pillar drill you have to slide the handle thru as you use it. All the G clamps have lost their ends and half are twisted from being over tightened. The major cropper/punch release handle is held up with string, the belt on the lathe keeps coming off and the cross slide is so worn it jumps, and the oil pump on the power hammer is now two syringes! Both bosses have got nice new cars tho..

 

my back----after 35 years of construction, falling 35 feet off of scafolding, and stepping in to an open manhole, I'm all broke up. Oh ya , also half the tools in my tool box----either broke or highly modified over the years

 

I'm pretty stingy with my money , but once in a while I'll splurge. A few years ago I decided to buy a nice snow shovel . I bought a plastic grain-scoop type for about $30. Not too long after I went to use it to shovel snow and found that it was all cracked and broken where the handle attached. I figured it was one of my boys doing, but wasn't too concerned. I got some sheet metal screws and some baling wire and fixed it up as best I could and I continue to use it that way.

Funny part is that a few years after, I was telling my wife about the time one of the boys busted my new shovel. She fessed up that she had run over it with her truck.

 

Have a little vintage brass oil can.. leaks all the time, and probably spills more than you get on whatever you're oiling, but still works.

 

Tried to think of one or two tools that are on-the-mend...

I have far too many to count.

Now, I'm depressed....thanks for bringing this up...

Dale
Cleveland OH

 

Ive welded a pair of channel lock pliers i broke. still work good.

 

Pork/beans, sounds like your grinder has a broken wire in your plug in wires, and if you move it just right it will make contact.
Easy fix, but i know what you mean i keep doing the same thing till it won't work at all and then i HAVE to fix the darn thing.

 

This has been more than a few years but I have an old Snap-on portable ignition box I used to use to get those old tfi ignition cars in the shop so I didnt have to push it in. The switch off/on switch was broken so I just wired in a taco switch. It would shock the hell out of you. After getting jolted a few time I'd get one of the young guys there to "throw" the switch. It was always good for a laugh.

 

One small flat blade screwdriver with half the blade broken off that I keep around just for gouging/abusing.
But it never fails...if I ask the wife to do me a favor and grab a small flat blade screwdriver while I'm working on something - without fail, even though there are many good ones to choose from - here she comes with the broken one.

 

Denise, get yourself a new ladder before you hurt yourself seriously, or borrow your dad's and forget to return it. At least put it on you X-mas list.