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Shop Tool Box Tour

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Susquatch

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OK. What tool is this?

Not sure, can I have 2 guesses?

1. Oil pump primer - but I don't know why the small bottle of clear fluid.

2. Grease fitting reconditioner - used to clear grease galleys when grease gets hard and zirk fitting won't take grease anymore.
 

Susquatch

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Third guess....... After more closely examining photo.......

Far right item replaces spark plug.

Cable is a plug wire extension.

Tube goes over extension and fits over spark plug adapter.

Liquid is PCB insulting dielectric oil now banned.

Provides a way to evaluate the upstream components for high voltage leaks.
 

Susquatch

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Tach cable lubricator

Yes! I don't recall ever lubricating a cable but I do remember that cable noise and the difficulty routing them were huge problems. In fact, some of my first designs when I was first hired were electronic tach, electronic speedometer, electronic ignition, and electronic voltage control. Nobody liked those cables!
 

Susquatch

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I was totally guessing but it looks cable tach related

I think it's a WAY BETTER guess than mine. But I wouldn't ignore a speedo cable lubricator. Some principal but the difference is that every car had a cable driven speedometer back in the day and only a few had a Tachometer. And man were they ever noisy creatures!

Forget about wind noise! What is that horrendous clickety clack noise behind the dash panel!!! You didn't need to look at the speedo to see how fast you were going, you could tell by the frequency of the clickety clack!
 

Susquatch

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A problem with both our guesses is that we are assuming this tool is automotive. I wouldn't put it past that @jcdammeyer character to take advantage of the conversation direction to slip a fast direction change past us. For all we know it could be a sewing machine gizmo......

We should start another thread for "what is this tool" and throw a few back at him! The only rule I would advocate is that the person posing the question has to physically own the tool. No fair cruising the webternet for wierd tools.
 

Tecnico

(Dave)
Third guess....... After more closely examining photo.......

Far right item replaces spark plug.

Cable is a plug wire extension.

Tube goes over extension and fits over spark plug adapter.

Liquid is PCB insulting dielectric oil now banned.

Provides a way to evaluate the upstream components for high voltage leaks.
I believe this is a tool for visually determining the air - fuel mixture for a (typically) carbureted engine.

EDIT: Colortune.

EDIT-EDIT It isn't necessarily automotive, could be used for your airplane or.....lawn mower LOL!

Never seen one in person but I've seen the ads and I'm not that old, they can still be bought new.

After the last annoyance with looking for a small open end wrench I went out and bought both sets when they came on sale. I've even used them but not on the points distributor project car I have.

I still own a dwell meter...
As do I (CTC Dwell-Tach), my excuse is that I started out on that car thing when I was young and you needed those things and I still have a car that I can use it on.

Truth is though I'd just set the points gap (after using a points file on them) and be done with it.

D:cool:
 
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Tecnico

(Dave)
OK, since @Susquatch has thrown down the gauntlet here's a whatsit tool. The post still complies with the toolbox tour since it's from my toolbox and shows my everyday wrench filing system for that toolbox..... Inch on the left, metric on the right! ;)

The tape isn't part of the tool, it covers my labeling for what it's used for since I throw these things in the bottom of the tool box and forget after a while. :rolleyes:

Hint: it replaces one of those factory special tools that @Susquatch is so fond of.

EDIT: Thinking about this it's a bit obscure what the tool is made to work on (the water pump of an Audi CAEB engine) so let's make the question: what do you do with the tool?

Tool1.JPG


D:cool:
 
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jcdammeyer

John
Premium Member
I believe this is a tool for visually determining the air - fuel mixture for a (typically) carbureted engine.

EDIT: Colortune.

EDIT-EDIT It isn't necessarily automotive, could be used for your airplane or.....lawn mower LOL!

Never seen one in person but I've seen the ads and I'm not that old, they can still be bought new.



D:cool:
Dave wins the the prize. I can't make out the Halfords price but knowing that we were in the UK in fall of 1977 that makes it 46 years old.
Colortune500.jpg
 

terry_g

Ultra Member
I have been collecting and making tools for 53 years. Some of these are now obsolete.

7tKFVT4.jpg


N9ARrn9.jpg


azbglru.jpg

Machining tools are replacing some of the mechanic tools.
gyFOU0I.jpg
 

Susquatch

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Machining tools are replacing some of the mechanic tools.

I like your tool box organization. A few notables that I plan to copy. You put your swivel sockets with your Allen heads and what looks like crowfoot pipe fitting wrenches. I dunno if one of my smaller drawers is big enough for that but it makes more sense to me than mixing stuff like that together like I do now.

You don't seem to have a lot of machining tools, but I think we all know that will change as time passes. I made a decision to acquire a few more tool chests to deal with that issue. Although I'm still not where I'd like to be, I bought a new long tool box that I put opposite my lathe to store lathe tools and my metrology stuff. I also reconditioned and painted an old Toolbox my neighbour gave me to hold my mill tooling. That meant I could just leave all my mechanics tools in one cabinet and not mix in any machine tools. I also have a 4th cabinet I bought at an auction that has odds and sods in it. Basically, it's a disorganized mess. I much prefer organized chaos over a disorganized mess. I don't like total zoos and jumbled up messes that you can't find anything in - which is exactly what that 4th cabinet looks like. I need to dump it out and start sorting it into the kind of organized chaos that works so well for me.

My advice is to consider starting now to look for another tool chest to hold your machining tools instead of constantly fighting to maintain both in one cabinet.

I freely confess that I envy guys like @Chicken lights and @SomeGuy who are so well organized with showcase tool drawers, but my mind is just not built that way. I think I've already mentioned on another thread that I visited the Steelcase R&D center 20 years ago or so where their workplace efficiency psychologist told me that there are basically two kinds of people - pilers and filers. Their research showed quite conclusively that trying to change either one into the other will destroy their productivity, efficiency, and creativity to the detriment of the company. They also showed that companies who tried to filter their employee base to only employ one or the other also failed in short order. A healthy competitive company needs a balance of both. Well designed office furniture appreciates this difference and can be structured to empower both kinds of organizational personalities and still leave the larger office looking great.

So I am a piler. I'm not gunna try to be a filer no matter how much I might envy how drop dead gorgeous it looks. To me, functionality and comfort trumps appearance. Instead, I take the view that both kinds are equally productive and creative and that neither one is intrinsicly better than the other. They are just different. As Maurice Chevalier was so fond of saying, "Vive la difference" !
 
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Susquatch

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Like this one? It even has the instruction sheet.

I found it in a drawer right next to my A/C charging manifold ca. 1984

Once upon a time I had a dwell meter. I gave it away the day I realized that you can do a much better job with an oscilloscope where you can actually see the setting that optimizes coil saturation.

I still have my AC charging manifold but I confess that I have not used it in 40 years.

Nice photos @eotrfish!
 
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