I've always collected antique tools and hardware. Sometimes the old stuff is a bit too used or a bit too odd for delicate stuff, but it serves me well the majority of the time.
One of my pipes was feeling particularly patriotic on the 4th, decided to try and copy the nice fountains that some of our neighbors were setting off. It burst and I ended up with a bathroom full of water. I got lucky, the pipe looked easy to replace and I quickly found a new part at the local big-box hardware store.
The one tool I didn't seem to have was one of those slip-nut wrenches, or whatever you call it. You use it for messing with those really slim nuts that are on some of the pipes under your sink. I had to buy one.
The damned thing didn't even have flat/flush jaws. They were so cheaply made that the insides of the jaws were rounded and offset, making it impossible to get a grip on the nut. It took a good bit of grinding to fix, I feel bad for the poor schmuck who bought one and didn't have an angle grinder.
This morning I was looking through a basket of rusty junk steel that I keep around for sculptures and whatnot, happened to find an antique one of those wrenches. The a thin layer of rust had frozen it up, but the thing was still many times better than the shiny turd that I'd bought already. Thicker parts, steel instead of pot metal, and wider jaws that were already flush. I've got the wrench in an electrolysis bath to remove the rust, should be good as new after. I'm almost excited to replace another pipe like that, just so I can enjoy a well-made tool.
Long story short: New tools suck.
Complaint over.
Hmhaines wrote:
