Accurate description of common hand tools

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CabinetMaker

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Mar 16, 2009
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256
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Arvada, CO
DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands
so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted vertical stabilizer which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.
WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench
with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it
takes you to say, "Oh sh!#...
SKILL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing
jobs.
HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It ransforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
WELDING GLOVES: Heavy duty leather gloves used to prolong the conduction of intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.
TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps neatly off in
bolt holes thereby ending any possible future use.
BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet
into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line
instead of the outside edge.
TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to
disconnect.
CRAFTSMAN * x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A very large pry bar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws.
PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.
HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object you are trying to hit.
DAMMIT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling 'DAMMIT!' at the top of your lungs. It is also most often, the next tool that you will need.



Ain't it the truth! Do you have any more definitions?
 
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Daniel

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Jan 1, 2004
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Reno, NV, USA.
I so want a poster size real official looking chart of this to hang in my shop. But first I have to go find that last dammit tool.
 

jimofsanston

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Jan 6, 2009
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762
Location
Sandston, Va
also the OH Sh*t tool- the tool that you need when you are holding something together and it is on the other side of the shop and you can't let go because it will fall apart.
 

GouletPens

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Nov 9, 2008
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1,449
Location
Ashland, VA
The Skew Chisel- the tool you use on the lathe when you want to catch into your expensive burl and blow it apart. Also used for trimming pen blanks down below the bushings with 'one last pass'

Sandpaper- comes in a variety of grits and brands that are used most often for building up heat and burning your fingers. Also ideal for sanding metal bushings and permanently imbedding the dust it into the pores of light colored woods.
 

jleiwig

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Jan 10, 2007
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1,860
Location
Monroe, Ohio, USA.
Cresent Wrench - Tool common used for rounding stubborn bolt heads due to not being able to find the correct socket. Also useful for skinning knuckles, hammering thumbs in a pinch when hammers are not available or denting/scratching freshly painted surfaces.
 

jfoh

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Joined
May 27, 2007
Messages
390
Tape measure- measuring device which is used to tell you exactly how much too short you cut the wood. Kind of like a in-law who knows everything after the fact but never mentions them before the fact.
 

ngeb528

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Mar 4, 2009
Messages
808
Location
Deland, FL
Lathe- Used to imbed small bits of wood or acrylic deep under the skin where no one can get to it.
 

DaveM

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Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
136
Location
Houghton Lake, Michigan
Flashlight. A cylindrical tube used for storage of dead batteries.

(Not quite a hand tool, but really important when you need one.)

Unrelated, but sort of in the same vein...

Systems Engineer. An expert in selection of the right tool for the specific task. A systems engineer always knows what size wrench to pound the nail in with.

Great list... I can relate to a few too many of those. Especially the "One last pass" with the skew. This must be a model or homebuilt aircraft list due to the vertical stabilizer reference. I actually had a belt sander launch a coffee mug into a freshly finished model once... My Goddaughter learned some new words that day that got me in trouble with her Mommy!
 
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