Cubist
Member
- Messages
- 1,438
- Location
- Shropshire/Herefordshire Border
Whenever I see a new addition to the Top Tools thread I have to take a look to see what particular piece of kit has prompted someone to contribute. In that sense the thread can be rather like a shop window in which I might find new some solution to a problem I may or may not have right now. But... as the boy scouts among us will advise - its good to be prepared.
It also brings to mind the time my brother threw himself down on the floor kicking and screaming because he was being dragged away from the shop display of all the - as he put it at the time - shiny things! by his very embarrassed grand-daughter.
The real thrust though of this post, and maybe the thread of members tales that follows, is the tools we have acquired over the years that, for many of those years have lain around in the shed gathering dust and rust having only ever been used once - or maybe not at all - but we have never got around to donating to a charity shop or otherwise consigned to the clutter collections of friends and family.
Truth be told there have been many occasions on which, as I have hunted through the infrequently inspected boxes, drawers, shelves and other handy receptacles, for some, at the time, much needed implement, I have come across an old - and irrelevant to the immediate mission - acquisition of mine that has somehow defied further opportunity for use but has somehow survived my rare purges.
On occasion though my determination to hold on to such apparently useless treasures is vindicated and that long ago acquisition gets a new chance at glory and comes to my rescue in an hour of need for precisely the purpose for which it was intended. The most recent example is a tool that has inhabited the nether regions of my much abused 'engineering' tool box for the best part of 40 years having been used only once when it was brand new. Having helped me then to complete an essential repair to a Mark IV Cortina it found its way back into the tool box to gather dust. Very recently though it came riding over the hill when I managed, rather effortlessly, to seize the engine of my ride on brush cutter which resulted in a full engine strip down and re-build.
The tool in question?
A simple device consisting of a length of turned hardwood with a sucker on each end - a Valve Lapping/Grinding Stick.
Sadly, I have not found a use for its mate, a valve spring compressor, purchased at the same time.
Anyone else with a 'shiny' or one use tool thats haunted their tool box?
It also brings to mind the time my brother threw himself down on the floor kicking and screaming because he was being dragged away from the shop display of all the - as he put it at the time - shiny things! by his very embarrassed grand-daughter.
The real thrust though of this post, and maybe the thread of members tales that follows, is the tools we have acquired over the years that, for many of those years have lain around in the shed gathering dust and rust having only ever been used once - or maybe not at all - but we have never got around to donating to a charity shop or otherwise consigned to the clutter collections of friends and family.
Truth be told there have been many occasions on which, as I have hunted through the infrequently inspected boxes, drawers, shelves and other handy receptacles, for some, at the time, much needed implement, I have come across an old - and irrelevant to the immediate mission - acquisition of mine that has somehow defied further opportunity for use but has somehow survived my rare purges.
On occasion though my determination to hold on to such apparently useless treasures is vindicated and that long ago acquisition gets a new chance at glory and comes to my rescue in an hour of need for precisely the purpose for which it was intended. The most recent example is a tool that has inhabited the nether regions of my much abused 'engineering' tool box for the best part of 40 years having been used only once when it was brand new. Having helped me then to complete an essential repair to a Mark IV Cortina it found its way back into the tool box to gather dust. Very recently though it came riding over the hill when I managed, rather effortlessly, to seize the engine of my ride on brush cutter which resulted in a full engine strip down and re-build.
The tool in question?
A simple device consisting of a length of turned hardwood with a sucker on each end - a Valve Lapping/Grinding Stick.
Sadly, I have not found a use for its mate, a valve spring compressor, purchased at the same time.
Anyone else with a 'shiny' or one use tool thats haunted their tool box?