OldTools Archive
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268831 | Thomas Bruce <tom.bruce.trb@g...> | 2019‑07‑05 | New uses for old stuff |
Folks: I've always thought it would be interesting to compile a list of new uses for older tools -- not, for example, singing the ergonomic virtues of old hand saws, but collecting new applications. For example: -- Farrier's hammers are surprisingly useful for putting rush seats in chairs; there's a lot of tacking involved, and the chair rails bounce a lot, and the combination of extra weight, down-angled shape, and small striking surface are ideal. -- I know a guy who cleans up Corian seams with a #80. -- Yankee push drills are the greatest tool ever invented for putting up those annoying little brackets that come with modern window shades -- easy to work with over your head, and easy to get into the corners. Any interest? More? t -- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Thomas R. Bruce tom.bruce.trb@g... +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ |
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268833 | "jjb-aia@j..." <jjb-aia@j...> | 2019‑07‑06 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
Tom wrote: "I've always thought it would be interesting to compile a list of new uses for older tools-- not, for example, singing the ergonomic virtues of old hand saws, but collecting new applications." Most of my tool uses are consistent with their original intents, but I have found an adaptive use for adjustable brick mason's tongs. While perfect for carrying many bricks, they also serve as a handle for stove length firewood rounds. Perfect for those times a wheelbarrow or cart in the woods is not the right extrication tool. Just a slight bend to the corners of the pressure pads helps them grab, while not preventing their original use. Old tool content: Mine are likely half a century old (tag sale find) and they help me perpetuate archaic heating technologies. Jack Butkus, in hot and humid Trumbull, CT |
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268836 | scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> | 2019‑07‑07 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
Ohhhhhh I have a new use for an old tool, and its a dandy!! Once upon a time most water pipes were lead. Lead pipe had certain things designed for it. One of them was a reamer to take the rough burr off the inside of freshly cut pipe. The reamers were steel and as all water pipe went to copper or galvanized steel, the trusty reamers fell into disuse, and eventually into a "whatsit?" Several times a year someone will find one and wonder what in the world it is. Guys have theorized it as a kind of a wood reamer. But the angle of taper is too much for most wood uses. It actually will ream wood when its sharp (and they are easy to sharpen). But I don't need to countersink too many holes as big as the working rage of these. Well the wheels of life slowly turn, and now galvanized pipe is going the way off the buggy whip. But it turns out the classy little reamers are the exact perfect thing for taking the burr off of freshly cut PVC pipe! Nothing better. A quick twist of the wrist and its smooth as glass! http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/pipereamer.JPG yours scott -- ******************************* Scott Grandstaff Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca 96039 scottg@s... http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/ http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html |
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268843 | Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> | 2019‑07‑07 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
I thought they were barrel bung hole reamers, but I have seen so many of them I always asked myself “who’s reaming all those bungholes”. Ed Minch |
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268846 | Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> | 2019‑07‑07 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
More re-uses A cobblers hammer with polished dome shaped face is perfect for installing guitar frets From Paul Sellars - use a router plane with its final depth setting as a marking gauge for those depths. The good news is that now you need another router so you can leave the final setting on the one used for marking. Ed Minch |
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268849 | John Ruth <johnrruth@h...> | 2019‑07‑07 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
Ed, I had also thought those reamers were cooper’s tools, but my understanding was that they were TAP reamers, rather than BUNG reamers. My humble understanding had been that the bung stave of a wooden barrel was bored and reamed by a single tee-handled tool which has a regular screw-auger nose and then a reamer cone with a single plane-like cutting edge above that. ( How coopers sharpened that reamer edge was always a mystery! ) The tap hole in the edge of the head of the barrel I thought was bored with an ordinary auger and then ostensibly taper-teamed for a cork with one of these supposed “cooper’s tap reamers.” _I now believe that Scott is correct about these being lead-pipe plumber’s tools because the taper is “just wrong” for a cork._ Scott has done it again! Dissipated an old tool myth with true Galootish knowledge! John Ruth Who will move this tool to the plumbing tote. Sent from my iPhone |
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268853 | mick dowling <spacelysprocket@b...> | 2019‑07‑07 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
GGs A slaters ripper is a handy item for sliding in behind items (shaving cabinets etc) that have been glued to walls with dobs of various types of goop. Sharpen the end of the ripper, or at least get it pointy. The ripper can be pushed through most pliable goops, or you can use the hook as a crude saw. What's a slaters ripper? Google. There are more efficient tools for removing items of walls. A sledgehammer for example works quite well. Mick Dowling Melbourne ------ Original Message ------ From: "Thomas Bruce" |
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268856 | Michael Blair <branson2@s...> | 2019‑07‑08 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
Right you are, Mick! Actually, for any thing nailed but you can't get at the nail from the front. Took me a while, but I finally found one I could afford. Mike In Woodland |
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268857 | Michael Blair <branson2@s...> | 2019‑07‑08 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
John, there are bung reamers, but what you're thinking of are bung augers. Those with screw auger nose are a good deal more recent. The earlier bung augers had a screw tip like a gimlet, and sometimes not even that (those were more like spoon bits). Depending on how badly they need to be sharpened, I use a saw file or an Arkansas stone. Reamers are easier to sharpen, as they have a blade not unlike a wooden spokeshave set in a tapered wood core. Mike in Woodland |
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268905 | Michael Suwczinsky <nicknaylo@g...> | 2019‑07‑16 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
I’ve used a compass saw to great effect carving pumpkins at Halloween. Michael On Mon, Jul 8, 2019 at 7:08 AM Michael Blair |
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268907 | Kirk Eppler | 2019‑07‑16 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
Gouges, auger bits work well too. On Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 10:14 PM Michael Suwczinsky |
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268961 | Don Schwartz <dks@t...> | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
I discovered a new use today for objects that have been hanging around in my shop for ages. The discs which make up the storage capacity of hard drives can be separated from the stack in which they're deployed, and used as mirrors for peering into otherwise inaccessible regions. For example, I used one today to help me paint into the outside corners and edges of a window frame from within the basement. They are metallic, mirrored, a convenient size, practically indestructible and come with a factory hang-hole! FWIW Don On 2019-07-05 5:45 a.m., Thomas Bruce wrote: > Folks: > > I've always thought it would be interesting to compile a list of new uses > for older tools -- not, for example, singing the ergonomic virtues of old > hand saws, but collecting new applications. For example: > > -- Farrier's hammers are surprisingly useful for putting rush seats in > chairs; there's a lot of tacking involved, and the chair rails bounce a > lot, and the combination of extra weight, down-angled shape, and small > striking surface are ideal. > -- I know a guy who cleans up Corian seams with a #80. > -- Yankee push drills are the greatest tool ever invented for putting up > those annoying little brackets that come with modern window shades -- easy > to work with over your head, and easy to get into the corners. > > Any interest? More? > > t > -- Enough protectionist cr@p... BUY CANADIAN. - I said that. “Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. “Nature does not care for your opinion.” Robin Coope “You never know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.”—Warren Buffet “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” - Benjamin Franklin |
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268962 | Chuck Taylor | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
Don wrote: ==== I discovered a new use today for objects that have been hanging around in my shop for ages. The discs which make up the storage capacity of hard drives can be separated from the stack in which they're deployed, and used as mirrors... ==== The magnets in those disc drives are pretty strong too. Chuck Taylor north of Seattle |
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268963 | Don Schwartz <dks@t...> | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
On 2019-07-26 9:24 p.m., Chuck Taylor wrote: > Don wrote: > > ==== > I discovered a new use today for objects that have been hanging around > in my shop for ages. The discs which make up the storage capacity of > hard drives can be separated from the stack in which they're deployed, > and used as mirrors... > ==== > > > The magnets in those disc drives are pretty strong too. I have a bunch of them around the shop, attached to a waste stack, teleposts, lathe, bandsaw & steel conduit. Perfect for chuck keys, small wrenches etc. Some are very strong. The problem is separating them from the armature to which they're attached without breaking them. I haven't found a consistently successful method. Don -- Enough protectionist cr@p... BUY CANADIAN. - I said that. “Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. “Nature does not care for your opinion.” Robin Coope “You never know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.”—Warren Buffet “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” - Benjamin Franklin |
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268964 | james rich <jameslrich3@g...> | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
I use used hard drive magnets to hold chuck keys to my drill presses and to hold other tools pertinent to each machine. I mean I would if I had any electron chasing tools ! On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 8:26 PM Chuck Taylor via OldTools < oldtools@s...> wrote: |
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268965 | Dragon List <dragon01list@g...> | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
i leave them on the armature. i use them to collect metal grinder swarf, and to dampen the ring on my anvil. bill felton, ca |
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268966 | Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
> On Jul 27, 2019, at 12:58 PM, Dragon List |
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268967 | scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: magnets |
If you ever had any attraction to magnets, right now is the most amazing time in history. Every size and shape, buckets of them,.............. a nickel ninety eight, free shipping. I just had to order some. They come is a spectacular array of sizes. The best deal for me was to order 50 free shipping. If someone needs magnets to install magnets into an empty 1/4" hex bit holder? I would give you all you wanted, but shipping is cheaper to buy a sack yourself..... hahhahha They are super cool but there is a limit. I once got stuck between some. A guy had hired me to review some of his products and send a big box of swag It was drills and burrs and magnets and clamps, a run of his swap meet goods I think. Some of the magnets were about 2 3/4" X 1" X 3/16" A stack of these with a bit of your skin between...........is not good If you ever want to, .........you can kill neo magnets with a little heat. I ended up putting some in a tin coffee can and building a tiny fire in it. Killed em dead. I kept enough. I have one or two stuck to metal somewhere no casual observer would notice. In case I need one for something. yours scott -- ******************************* Scott Grandstaff Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca 96039 scottg@s... http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/ http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html |
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268968 | Michael Suwczinsky <nicknaylo@g...> | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: magnets |
My smithy is sheathed and roofed in corregated steel, and I’ve got pages and printouts and plans all stuck to it with an array of scrounged super magnets. Regular old fridge magnets don’t last and I’ve taken to harvesting 1/2”bits of 1/8x1/16 out of fancy booze and electronics packaging. Time to bite the bullet and order online, my sad devotion to the idea I can find what I want in brick and mortar world has not conjured up the droids,, I mean magnets I’m looking for. Michael On Sat, Jul 27, 2019 at 10:56 AM scott grandstaff |
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268970 | Don Schwartz <dks@t...> | 2019‑07‑27 | Re: New uses for old stuff |
On 2019-07-27 10:58 a.m., Dragon List wrote: > i use them to collect metal grinder swarf Particularly handy if you close the magnet in a sandwich bag, then turn the bag inside out to capture the swarf and retrieve the clean magnet. Don -- Enough protectionist cr@p... BUY CANADIAN. - I said that. “Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. “Nature does not care for your opinion.” Robin Coope “You never know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.”—Warren Buffet “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” - Benjamin Franklin |
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