Worst Tool Abuse / Misuse

[doozer]

I was just reading the "Worst Tool" thread and is struck me that I haven't yet seen a thread detailing, shall we say, alternative uses for a tool.

Some tools are just asking to be abused (e.g. screwdrivers as chisels) and some, like hammers used as screwdrivers (Birmingham screwdriver), just find alternative uses. I'm sure we've all broken a tool at some point through misusing it. Have you used things as tools that were never intended to be tools (old credit cards make great grout spreaders)?

I once made a raised platform for painting ceilings out of old blocks of polystyrene and a plank. It was great (for about 6 months) until one corner gave way.

[Bob Eager]

Stretching it a bit, perhaps...

1) Piece of copper tube 2) Workmate 3) G cramp

makes a nice cable reel stand when unrolling long lengths of cable and pulling them.

[bigcat]

chisels)

When you need to get a job done quick, dont have the right tools, and the cost of sacrificing a cheap tool doesnt matter, all sorts can be done. Last one of these involved cutting a screwdriver in half to get

2x 3" bits of steel rod. I made sure the victim was a 'black spur.'

NT

[doozer]

I don't know why but as I read that post just thought A-Team (perhaps crossed with MacGyver).

[dingbat]

Lost the alternator pivot bolt on my Lancia Montecarlo once. It's impossible to get access to the nut with anything that has a handle long enough to torque it adequately. The replacement had a Nyloc, as it should have done from the first.

But standing in a layby on the A1, wondering where the charge and waterflow have gone, you have to improvise. I still have the screwdriver I used instead and apart from the flat spot that a pullety wore into the handle, even the fact it was half the diameter it ought to have been didn't matter over the next 200 miles.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , doozer writes

Some years ago (I won't say how many), I was puzzled by a HSE advert showing a screwdriver inappropriately used to open a tin of paint. So what should you use?

The other job looking for an appropriate tool is removing fencing staples. Everyone I know uses a hammer and a point from a finger bar mower (agricultural).

regards

[Bob Eager]

Many years ago, when I was at university, I (and others) got fed up with cleaners bursting in without knocking, at some unearthly hour. One cleaner delighted in it.

We had Yale-type cylinder locks with a mastering system. I used an old box spanner and some insulating tape to make a jig for dismantling and reassembling the cylinder. Then we just swapped over two sets of pins with the same height 'cut' for the 'user' key, but a different one on the 'master'. Result, one de-mastered lock....well, several, by the time we'd finished.

I still have that spanner and the tape is still on it...30 years later.

[usenet]

Well, just to be different, I use electrical pincers and, if they're not man enough for the job, a pair of blacksmiths pincers.

[AlexW]

I alluded to a bit of this on the thread you ref'd ...

Spoon or other cutlery = screwdriver

Huge old tyre lever = wrecking bar and "slab lever"

Chisel = scraper

Scraper = chisel

Screwy = chisel or scraper or tyre lever

Power drill = hand held "bodge" router.

Shortened (broken off) jisgaw blade for removing floorboard tongues when circ. saw not handy (taught this one by a builder mate of mine).

Hammer = weight for lowering down flues to get a line in.

Weight in garage = hammer on occasion.

Brick = hammer when not in garage

Antique sheffield steel knife (with mods) = finger trowel (done by builder mate ... wife very miffed).

Bath = mixer

... I have given this sort of thing up for the most part now!

Alex

[Paul ( Skiing8 )]

Abused many tools over the years

Cutting the corner of a small screwdriver so that it fits a really small torks screw(didn't work so well) using a cordless drill as a starter motor for a strimmer that was having trouble starting (worked well) Spanners used as hammers(much success) cordless drill to hammer in a wall plugs (works but wouldn't recommend it)

used alot of stuff in the place of tools

bulldog clip as a screwdriver for computer case (worked but took ages) Bit of metal from back of computer case as screwdriver(slightly better than buldog clip) Paperclip for screwdriver on computer case(useless) Car keys for screwdriver on PC (somtimes worked) Car keys to open boxes (works good)

Paul

[doozer]

It was your post that really gave me the idea to start a new thread. I, too, have used an old power drill as a router but they don't last long (certainly wouldn't do that to my new drill).

Cheap and nasty spanners make great weights when trying to run a fishing line for cable pulls because you have something to easily tie on to.

Wish I had known about the jigsaw trick when I had to lift a load of floor boards.

[AlexW]

Mine was only casual gouging and it survived. You just know its wrong but do it anyway ;-)

I'll remember that one!

Handle with care though. The reciprocating action can catch cables, pipes and joists etc if the blade is too long. You also have to get it started by puncturing the tongue ... if we are keeping with the spirit of the thread this can be done with any old flat head screwy! I use my circ. saw these days though.

[bigcat]

Does self defence count as tool abuse? A purely hypothetical question of course.

NT

[Ed Sirett]

The back end of my Makita seems to have a thicker part of the case presumable designed with this abuse (which I own up to) in mind.

>

[Bob Eager]

I dunno, but self abuse probably does...

[RzB]

Well some time ago I tried to find out exactly what this tool was for...

opinion was that it was for putting rings in pigs noses.

However there were suggestions that that it might be used for some other seriously eye watering uses!

I think I claim this as the very worst misuse... :-)

Roy

[AlexW]

Esp. if you are abusing your (err) tool...

[Bob Eager]

Exactly.

[Lobster]

Where does the G-cramp go?!

David

[Lobster]

You use the dinky little 'Leyland'-branded paint-tin opening tool which was kindly thrust upon my missus when she picked up some mixed paint at the Leyland shop, and asked them not to put the lids back on too tightly cos she couldn't get them off. Thank heavens (on behalf of my car) they refused and gave her the tool instead!

David