The right tool for the job

[Night Train]

Not cycle related but one of my best tool investments has been a 2 1/2 ton professional trolley jack. Bought it back in 1985 and has been in regular use ever since.
Looks like this.

Another old one is my Bosch pneumatic hammer drill bought in the mid 80's. It has served me well and is still in continuous service.
Looks like this.

In my workshop is a Tormek sharpening system. Now I can have all my edge tools sharp enough to shave with.

My Leatherman Wave is a really good cable cutter, even Spandex was impressed during a recent ride and camping trip.

Sometimes it is home made tools that are the best. As an electrician, back in the 90's, I made a 24"" long 8mm round bar chisel with a small hole in the sharp end like a sewing maching needle. It was used for knocking through 11" of brickwork plus plaster and then pulling back with a telecoms cable threaded through the hole in the end.
I also made a bendy chisel. I used a 24" long bit of 5x15mm steel bar with a chisel ground onto on end. I then heat treated it so that the sharp end was cold chisel hard for about 4" but the rest was annealed. It allowed me to bend the chisel into a curve for chiseling curved holes behind plaster cornices for running cables. The flat walls could be chased and replastered but the bendy chisel saved many a decorative Victorian cornice.

 

[rustychisel]

a rusty chisel gathers no moss

 

[subaqua]

Not cycle related but one of my best tool investments has been a 2 1/2 ton professional trolley jack. Bought it back in 1985 and has been in regular use ever since.
Looks like this.

Another old one is my Bosch pneumatic hammer drill bought in the mid 80's. It has served me well and is still in continuous service.
Looks like this.

In my workshop is a Tormek sharpening system. Now I can have all my edge tools sharp enough to shave with.

My Leatherman Wave is a really good cable cutter, even Spandex was impressed during a recent ride and camping trip.

Sometimes it is home made tools that are the best. As an electrician, back in the 90's, I made a 24"" long 8mm round bar chisel with a small hole in the sharp end like a sewing maching needle. It was used for knocking through 11" of brickwork plus plaster and then pulling back with a telecoms cable threaded through the hole in the end.
I also made a bendy chisel. I used a 24" long bit of 5x15mm steel bar with a chisel ground onto on end. I then heat treated it so that the sharp end was cold chisel hard for about 4" but the rest was annealed. It allowed me to bend the chisel into a curve for chiseling curved holes behind plaster cornices for running cables. The flat walls could be chased and replastered but the bendy chisel saved many a decorative Victorian cornice.

did you also hammer it into the ground and use it to tie your horse to ?

drill bits are for walls not bloody chisels. I also had a "bendy"chisel for getting behind cornices , although my best ever effort was drilling a hole from the top of the wall deep enough into it, measuring from the front wall and drilling a hole meeting into the vertical hole.

 

[Night Train]

did you also hammer it into the ground and use it to tie your horse to ?

drill bits are for walls not bloody chisels.

There are some areas where you can't get a drill to. Also long small enough diameter masonary drills were not available in those days to make such a hole. It was an extension of the manual rawlplug drill that you hit with a hammer to make holes for rawlplugs. Didn't have small and lightweight battery drills in those days and a bit of elbow grease was all that was needed to get a small hole through Victorian brickwork and lime mortar.

Also it was 6mm diameter not 8, that was my typo.
Anyway, we are talking about the 'right tool for the job' and sometimes that means an unconventional approach where appropriate.

 

[subaqua]

There are some areas where you can't get a drill to. Also long small enough diameter masonary drills were not available in those days to make such a hole. It was an extension of the manual rawlplug drill that you hit with a hammer to make holes for rawlplugs. Didn't have small and lightweight battery drills in those days and a bit of elbow grease was all that was needed to get a small hole through Victorian brickwork and lime mortar.

Also it was 6mm diameter not 8, that was my typo.
Anyway, we are talking about the 'right tool for the job' and sometimes that means an unconventional approach where appropriate.

just reading the words Rawltool makes my wrists hurt. too many years as an apprentice and an evil boss who wouldn't buy drills

 

[youngoldbloke]

Pedal spanners (I have a beauty - 12 inches of Shimano steel) are great but sadly Crank Bros eschew such things in favour of Allen key holes in the axles. It's not and but only Allen key. Which is a blow as it's more awkward working from the back of the pedal not to mention I've never come across a 12 inch 6mm or even 8mm Allen key mind you I can bend the 6mm one on a tight pedal - it's about 5 inches - so I'd be able to snap a 12 inch long one As it is, I use an old ice screw to elongate the 8mm key to get sufficient leverage but with the 6mm one, it has to be clamped in a bench vice with just the end poking up and you have to remove the crank/chainset and bring the mountain to Moses as it were. I do sometimes wish Crank Bros weren't quite so purist and put some flats on the pedal axles like any other company

I have never had a problem removing Look pedals (also no flats) - use some copper grease on the threads next time - and invest in a torque wrench, or just a ratchet wrench and a set of allen bits.

 

[subaqua]

I have never had a problem removing Look pedals (also no flats) - use some copper grease on the threads next time - and invest in a torque wrench, or just a ratchet wrench and a set of allen bits.

as much as i hate the place for bikes, Halfords proffesional or advanced ranges of tools are the mutts nuts., I have the 3/8 socket set and allen bits to fit the low value 3/8 torque wrench work let me have. The socket set and the allen bits set weren't expensive.