Wrong tool for the job?

Bare rim bolted up to the rear of an old ford and a bunch of rope to winch an old chebby truck up out of the woods and over a bank.

Bumper jack as a bead breaker and spring leaves as tire irons.

I could actually do this all day. I can do anything wrong that someone else can do right.

 

I used my wife to figure out if I had spark once....

Needless to say that was the WRONG tool for the job...

(but I did find out if I had spark by the scream)

 

Eeewww... I'd rather use the tree for bending tubing and pulling motors, thanks.

 

HAHAH a screwdriver

 

Gotta be careful doing that, I ruined a skilsaw cutting up an aluminum topper. Melted the plastic surrounding the carbon brushes.

The funny part came later. Tried to save the saw by rigging it back together, cleaned it all up with contact cleaner, reassembled. Pull the trigger and whoom! Instant ball of fire about 2 foot in diameter. Guess the contact cleaner wasn't fully gone. Never before or since have I thrown anything on the ground that fast. Ground that unfortunately was covered by an old rug. An old rug that instantly caught fire, forcing a mexican hat dance to prevent burning the house down.

There's a reason they say there's a tool for every job. It's to prevent stupid fuckers like me from hurting themselves.

 

This is not a car story, but still wrong tool for the job.

Friend and I went boating and camping for the weekend and after a 12 pack each, decided we wanted to spit a chicken over the fire for dinner. He took the axe and cut some 4' long "trees" to tie wire between to spit the chicken.

However, when he tried to get the "stakes" into the ground, they wouldn't go so I held them so he could pound them into the ground...with the side of the double bladed axe.

I was 3' below him, however, the blade got off center and unbalanced, falling down and striking my right wrist. 1" cut but you could see the tendon...not much blood so we went and ran the trot lines, however, i noticed i couldn't hold my thumb correctly so we went to shore and to the hospital. Cut tendon, nine weeks in a cast and unable to use my right hand. My wife was NOT happy (we had 2 month old and I couldn't help much).

Anyway, the moral of the story is don't pound stakes with a double bladed axe.

 

I have an old old old 6' railroad spike puller that works great as a flatthead Ford valve spring compressor/valve popper! Sometimes a little to good, 6' of leverage goes a LONG ways!

I also have vise grips for interior door handles, yard sticks for hood props, and a broken camshaft for a soft plug installer (were yer saftey glasses)

 

Craftsman make a tool like that (but with a guard) that has two blades that spin opposite of each other. It give me the willies just looking at it!

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?cat=Portable+Power+Tools&pid=00925574000&vertical=TOOL&subcat=Circular+Saws&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

 

Wrong tool for the job???
How about Cresent wrenches.....I hate seeing my guys in the shop using 'em. More bolt/nut heads are rounded off using 'em, not to mention the busted knuckles when they slip, the smaller the cresent, the worse they are......get the right size wrench for fucks sake......(one of my pet peaves, I guess)

P.S.......yes, I have some................in the BOTTOM of my box, covered in dust....hahaha

 

ooohhh. the dreaded TwinCutter. the blades turn opposite directions, so it doesn't "bounce"

yeah right.

the one my old boss had once got loose and made it about 30 feet before it stopped. fortunately, I had made it 31.

scary, scary peice of equipment. it likes to do this little "up and down" dance before it bites. once the blade is buried, it goes like hell. untill that...well, I was trying to figure out how to make a steel nut shield for around a week. I figured out a torch is just friendlier all the way around.

 

1.Soldering Iron doesn't get hot enough to get the big copper battery terminal lugs filled: solution = O/A torch and 1/4 roll of solder and it's really quick too.

2.My buddy does the circular saw with the aluminum sheet thing - it works good just thorws chips everywhere (wear a face shield). I go somewhere far away from him as he is crazy

(He also does some scary stuff with the torch )

3.How about the 2 wrenches trick - put the boxed end on the nut/bolt and put another box end in the open end of the wrench being used to get a little more leverage.

4.BFH(Big F'in Hammer) to smack the spindle to loosen up ball joints instead of using the pickle fork (saves the ball joint boots too)

5.Cutting Pliers/Dykes for removing cotter pins - use them to grab and pull. also good for removing the wierd outer u-joint clips (pinch and twist)

6.Small Pipe wrenches are good for getting off Tubing lines that have been stripped (Powersteering, tranny to radiator, fuel, brake etc.)

ANYONE who is using a bumper jack - get rid of it and get a real jack. I know someone who lost his eye because it kick out on him.

 

i used the winch on my jeep with 2 snatch blocks to pull the cowl/door jam back into place on said jeep.

 

I worked at a marine dealer when I was 16 years old. The owner had a cresent wrench that was about 2 feet long. He used it to take the big nut off the bottom of trailer hitch balls. One day I'm at work, he sits down on his butt on the ground to take off the nut on the hitch ball on a customers car. Puts wrench on nut, pulls like hell, wrench slips, wrench hits him in the mouth, spits out 2 front teeth, nut still tight. That was a lesson I never forgot! Always use the right F%$#in wrench.

 

Military story.

Chief in charge of the tool crib on an aircraft carrier had signs all over about using the right tool for the job. Smart assed short timer (dude w/ less than a week left on his enlistment) shuffles up to the crib and yells "Hey, Chief. Gimme a wrench." Chief gives him the 5 minute right tool speech and then asked what kind of wrench he needs. Smart ass says "Aw, shit, Chief it don't matter what kind, just make it a biggun - I'm gonna use it as a hammer anyway".

Chief was red faced and sputtered so long the smart ass just walked off. Guys were laying on the deck laughing and kicking.

TC

 

i used me teeth to take the lugnuts off my ford!

 

Gasoline for hand cleaner.......And shirt for Fire extinguisher....

A breif story about an experience when I was 16 that I'll never forget.

I pulled a engine from My Dads truck, remembered it had a electric fuel pump. I thought it would be a good idea to just hook the battery cable back up, and wash My hands from the fuel line......Worked Great until I un-hooked the battery cable......

Once I got the flames on My hands and arms put out. I looked up and the ground and the fuel on the crossmember was on fire. I used My shirt to beat out the flames. All was well.

 

in tex smiths flathead book there is an example with a guy using a router to cut reliefs in a block. although i dont think it was used to do the entire relief, more or less to get the shape started.

 

"Any tool can be the right tool".-Red Green

 

SYPHONING GAS .....
need a bit of gas to get your car fired up? got a length of rubber hose pipe but dont like the taste of gas when sucking it up out of the tank?
SOLUTION...
1. Use a vacumn cleaner for suction, feed a length of suitable hose into the tank of gas to be drained...,
2. position the container to be filled handily on the ground..,
3. holding the suitable hose in one hand and the vacumn cleaner nozzle in the other..,
4. switch on the vacumn cleaner and insert the 2 hoses together just long enough to get the gas up out of the tank and flowing,
5. quickly insert the suitable hose into the container and fill until desired quantity is reached....

PROBLEM...
Somewhere between step 4 / 5 the fumes from the gas will reach the hot brushes of the vacumn motor and ...Whoooommphhh ! The vacumn cleaner being plastic is now CACTUS and spread to every corner of the shop!!!!!!
P.S. dont ask me how I know about this inapropriate use of a labour saving suction device. The best thing was that I was an innocent bystander on this occasion and that it seems a liberal amount of VB Bitter had been consumed by the 'perpitrator'of said science experiment.

 

According to the Snap-on man a screw driver ain't a chisel.

 

That may cause another tool to become unemployed for a while.

 

Needed to tow a car once, but no steering wheel on the car. Hooked the rope to both vehicles, put the vise grips on the steering column spline and away we go. Good thing it was only a mile. Not too much leverage to turn with...then they momentarily fell off. Scary.

.bjb

 

Thank you guys so much for the tips here. I'll try and use them every chance I get

 

Exactly what I was hoping for guys.... Things that make me feel better about my um....... "techniques"

 

I have done lots of these, here are some more:

to remove harmonic balancer: a long chain wrapped around frame connected to balancer with two bolts to hold it, and 1/2 ratchet with 3 foot long pipe as "breaker" to get balancer bolt off

to remove steering wheel without tool: lose temper, put feet on dashboard and pull while screaming obscenities, get surgery on nose afterwards.

Actually, I can't claim the second one. That was my brother.

I use a big f'n rubber mallet and <wrench of your choice> to break stuck nuts/bolts/etc.

 

I wasn't going to mention the bumper jack thing.

Used a pair of 'em to hold up the back of the '55 (victoria) in highschool while trying to change the rear. They folded of course. I ended up pinned for an hour or so until my mom came home. Not fun.

I got my first set of Ford axle bell jack stands donated to my cause over that one.

I learned the real use for a cresent wrench from my dad. He saw me removeing a fuel line from an older GM with a pair of water pump pliers, slung that cresent wrench across the shop and knocked me on my ass.

I used to use a plywood blade turned around backwards in a circular saw to cut sheetmetal. Makes a lot nicer cut that a torch and its faster than a hack saw. Lost of old cars got chopped that way when I was younger.

 

[QUOTE='29MurrayTub]That may cause another tool to become unemployed for a while.[/QUOTE]
That's good!

I once tried to use a Harbor Freight drill press to drill a round hole.

 

What, you're not supposed to do that?

 

In the oilfied we used 2 big 48" pipe wrenches to break tri-cone bits loose or to break pipe tool joints. One wrench on the ground holding the pipe and the other on the bit. When really tight, if the bit was laying on the ground, we would get the backhoe and use the rear bucket to put down pressure on the handle of the wrench on the bit. I've seen them so tight that we could raise the backhoe off the ground bouncing on the handle!
Now believe this: a guy who worked with us saw us trying to break a bit loose with the backhoe on the wrench. He suggested that we get a couple of clevices and hook a common come along between the two wrenches and ratchet the come along up tight. He said he had never had a tool joint that he couldn't break loose. We laughed at him but tried the come along just the same. Damned if he wasn't right. The ole come along trick worked great. Guess we can find another creative job for the backhoe!

 

I use a torch. Stu