Tool-use Stories ??

[graygun]

I once had to use my dremel tool and about 5 to 7 cut off wheels to cut a bolt on a flight simulator control loading linkage. The bolt was the same mil spec type used on the actual aircraft.

It was over 20 years ago and I can't remember the specifics of this maintenance issue but the hack saw we had was not doing the job at any reasonable speed. The tools provided were generally sufficient and high quality but not in this case.

 

[Fox Mike]

Having worked on helicopters for many years I can't begin to talk about the "special " tools that we came up with to complete many different jobs. Somehow the designers never seemed to think anything would ever have to be removed or repaired. I still have a number of these "special " tools floating around in my toolbox.

 

[SAJohn]

At work, our cabinets rated for confidential documents had pivoting lock bars secured with Government approved combination padlocks. One day a co-worker could not get his cabinet open. Normally, we would call for the base locksmith to come over with his large bolt cutters. We were in a hurry so out came my trusty dremel. It only took about 30 seconds to cut through that supposedly high hardness shackle.

Small flat bladed screw divers can be used to open most spring door locks.

Properly shaped paper clips can be turned into excellent lock picks.

Bird feathers are good tools for getting epoxy into tight gun stock cracks.

 

[gunzo]

I and a few others were passengers our employers private plane, a 10 or 12 passenger twin turbo prop.

The pilot turned to us & said, "this is probably silly question, but would anybody have a screwdriver? the knob has come off one of the throttles.
I said, sure.... Victorinox Tinker to the rescue.

Does that make me an airplane fixer?

But on a more serious note, I had a 40 year career as an Industrial Maintenance Tech & a Tool & Die Maker & have improvised and/or made 1 use specialty tools many, many times.

 

[WIL TERRY]

I---ME !!!--- drove a large nail once...with a ball-peen hammer, I tell you !!!
And so it went...

 

[gunzo]

ball-peen? I aint fallin for that story, I have a TV & have seen you westerners nailin up wanted posters with the but of your hogleg.

 

[Bull Barrel]

I once had to use my dremel tool and about 5 to 7 cut off wheels to cut a bolt on a flight simulator control loading linkage. The bolt was the same mil spec type used on the actual aircraft.

It was over 20 years ago and I can't remember the specifics of this maintenance issue but the hack saw we had was not doing the job at any reasonable speed. The tools provided were generally sufficient and high quality but not in this case.

Were you using the standard cut off wheels or the larger, fiberglass reinforced ones?
The latter cut better, last longer and don't shatter when you breathe on them.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

Kinda MacGyver like, a buddy and I made an emergency U-joint repair on a third guy's pick up coming home from a dove hunting trip out in the desert one time. Instead of a Swiss army knife we used my original Boy Scout folder, but applied to some garden hose (replaced lost roller bearings) and a bit of green string (acted as bearing caps) found at the closed gas station we rolled into in the middle of the night, it worked as well as Mac's SAK on TV!

It got us 60 more miles to home, and probably saved the life of the truck's owner. We had (but passed on) several occasions to "Just kill him!" over the years, and we're confident most would have passed the "justifiable homicide" test in front of a jury. This was one of them.

Rick C

 

[Mobuck]

I've cut and re-welded several wrenches to fit "unreachable" bolts/nuts. There are also some "sacrificial" wrenches that were left on the bolt they tightened cause they couldn't be removed. The "nut on a wire" trick for REALLY tough spots.
We had a piece of equipment that designers had foolishly built with a "blind nut" about 10" down inside a tube frame. This was part of a brace that had to be frequently removed for maintenance and soon the "blind nut" was stripped. Refitted with a nut welded to a correctly bent 1/4" x 3/4" strap, the outfit worked great for many more years.

 

[graygun]

I once had to use my dremel tool and about 5 to 7 cut off wheels to cut a bolt on a flight simulator control loading linkage. The bolt was the same mil spec type used on the actual aircraft.

It was over 20 years ago and I can't remember the specifics of this maintenance issue but the hack saw we had was not doing the job at any reasonable speed. The tools provided were generally sufficient and high quality but not in this case.

Were you using the standard cut off wheels or the larger, fiberglass reinforced ones?
The latter cut better, last longer and don't shatter when you breathe on them.

They were the old style fragile ones.

 

[Jeepnik]

Having worked on helicopters for many years I can't begin to talk about the "special " tools that we came up with to complete many different jobs. Somehow the designers never seemed to think anything would ever have to be removed or repaired. I still have a number of these "special " tools floating around in my toolbox.

I've got a garage full of homemade special tools. Wrenches bent just so, screwdrivers ground to just the right profile and so on. For some of the applications store bought tools were available, but generally at ten times the price.

 

[cas6969]

The right tool for the right job.

I had a bigger one but I don't know where it went. We must have loaned it out and it never came back.

 

[Fox Mike]

When all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

 

[737tdi]

A strange use for a wrench and safety wire. A few of us were off roading up above Huntington lake (10,000ft asl or so) east of Fresno Ca. and I ran into a slight problem. My accelerator pedal was on the lower end of a fulcrum type rod with the cable hooked to the top. Where the rod pivoted it slowly broke in half. Wow, no go pedal. Took the ball end out of the rod and wrapped safety wire and then attached a craftsman wrench to the other end where I could operate it while driving. Yay, a hand throttle while try to negotiate my IH Scout on trails with 1000 ft. drop offs and built for mules.


Karl

 

[AJGUNNER]

When installing trailer hitches it often is required to slip a bolt and washed inside a tube frame. When it is too tight or too far down the tube, we would simply use the wire feed welder to attach a nice long piece of wire to the end of the bolt. Slide the wire inside the tube and out the hole and pull the bolt and washer right down the tube and into the hole. If you leave the wire attached while lifting the hitch into place, you also don't have to worry about pushing the bolt back up into the tube.

 

[737tdi]

When installing trailer hitches it often is required to slip a bolt and washed inside a tube frame. When it is too tight or too far down the tube, we would simply use the wire feed welder to attach a nice long piece of wire to the end of the bolt. Slide the wire inside the tube and out the hole and pull the bolt and washer right down the tube and into the hole. If you leave the wire attached while lifting the hitch into place, you also don't have to worry about pushing the bolt back up into the tube.

This reminds me of a method we used to replace DC8 control columns and connecting torque tube. I wish I had a picture. The vertical column and control wheel were hi-locked to a torque tube that connected the Capt.'s and F.O.'s vertical columns and wheels. The pieces were match drilled and then assembled in the aircraft with the hi-locks with the head inside the tube. I made a tool out of two aluminum strips one solid and the other had a groove cut into it for the hi-lock. These two pieces were riveted together allowing the hi-lock to be held in the end. Then take a long piece of brass (weight) and slide it in with the tool and hammer the hi-locks through and put the collars on. Me and one other guy had the joy of doing all 48 of UPS's aircraft, why? we are both height impaired and very bendy. LOL.


Karl

 

[Dan in MI]

The right tool for the right job.

I had a bigger one but I don't know where it went. We must have loaned it out and it never came back.

Is that a 1911 sight pusher?? :mrgreen:


I should have a bunch of examples for this thread, but for the life of me none are coming to mind. I have used my reloading press to press fit threaded inserts into glue on broadheads.

How about a table saw top as a parallel drill press base?
It's a little tough to see how it works with the jig installed, but I wasn't going to pull it as I have more parts to drill tomorrow.



A close up to show that each drill press has a miter gauge bar bolted to it. The drill presses just slide side to side to keep the drilled holes parallel across your chosen width.

 

[exavid]

One quick and handy way to get a nut to stay in a box end wrench or socket is to lay a piece of paper towel over the wrench/ socket and press the nut through the paper into the wrench or socket. That will allow one to hold a nut in a difficult place while running a bolt into it yet be able to remove easily.

 

[eveled]

I had a job working on machines that made paper bags. I had a few custom made tools. The one I was the most proud of was a wrench cut from a plate that holds the rail to the tie (on a rail road tracks).

When I left that job, my fellow mechanics made me leave my wrench. It was something like a 4-1/16 inch open end wrench.

I also drove home after a wreck, with a pair of vise grips for a clutch lever on my Triumph.

 

[Taterman]

I've cut and re-welded several wrenches to fit "unreachable" bolts/nuts. There are also some "sacrificial" wrenches that were left on the bolt they tightened cause they couldn't be removed. The "nut on a wire" trick for REALLY tough spots.

What is the "nut on a wire" trick?

 

[Taterman]

As an electrician, we used to put a nut that fit tight into a piece of 1/2" conduit and pond the pipe with a hammer to the shape of the nut. It worked great as an extension to get the nut started on a hard to reach bolt.

 

[Rancher Will]

The inside tube of most Ball Point Pens can be used to open most handcuffs.

 

[jeffmb]

The inside tube of most Ball Point Pens can be used to open most handcuffs.

And you know this how????

 

[cas6969]

Most handcuffs can be opened with just about anything. I can pick most handcuffs with a thumbtack. If it's double locked I need a paper clip.

 

[JFB]

x

 

[graygun]

It was about "use" but the modded tool stories are interesting too.

Another dremel story: I once used one in their drill press accessory/tool to drill out a broken pin in a circuit board. The board would not be usable if the pin could not be removed because a new chip could not be installed. It was a mother board from a Harris mini computer...90s technology.

I'd like to have seen that 4 1/16" open end wrench mentioned above.

We had a large Snap On torque wrench which went up to 600 ft/lbs to torgue a clevis bolt to 400 ft/lbs on simulator motion actuators.

 

[toysoldier]

Another Dremel story. The starter on my '83 Tercel gave out, and in attempting to remove it, I rounded off the bolt head. Got out the Dremel and used thin cutoff wheels to undercut the bolt head as far around as I could. A tightly-clamped Vice-Grip then broke the bolt loose.

 

[graygun]

They are pretty handy.

 

[NixieTube]

We recently installed a new piece of mailing equipment that has a feeder that's supposed to "shake" gently via a cam-driven system that pushes a plate back and forth, with two captive springs supplying the rebound energy. It's a high-speed feeder and what that shaking does is to keep the pieces in the feeder from sticking to each other. Very important.

Well, it didn't shake when we got it. It "kind of" shook one way and then the plate got stuck and even though the springs were OK, it wouldn't "bounce back" when the cam mechanism rotated.

Why? The plate that's supposed to move or "shake" back and forth was bent, so it was binding in the guides. Before it got here, someone either pushed too hard in the center of the plate or put a large weight in the center and bent the steel plate enough to make it bind up. It was visibly bowed in the center by about 1/8th of an inch. Curved plate, not flat. Not good.

Time for the 3/16ths steel tubing and a few light taps with the "Fine Adjustment Sledgehammer."

A couple of modest whacks and everything's straight again and she shakes just like she's supposed to. I even put a little Ballistol on the guide surfaces to help make sure things slide smoothly, and it works perfectly. Don't neglect the Fine Adjustment Tool when it is truly needed.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Don't neglect the Fine Adjustment Tool when it is truly needed.

The Electronics tech in Commo shop in Korea called that "Fine Adjustment Tool" A "BFH Alignment Tool";
The first letter stood for "BIG, The last Letter stood for "HAMMER"; I'll let you guess what the "F" in the middle stood for. Remember this WAS the ARMY.