My Wife's Tool Box

My wife loves tools almost as much as I do. She is fascinated with them and what they will do. Her tool box has a collection of hard to find specialty tools I have given her and that she has collected herself. I found early after I met her, that if I gave her a specialty tool, I could always find it in her tool box.

I get more than one project going and misplace tools. I end up looking for them at my different projects. By giving her a set of specialty tools, I know where I can get the tool I need quickly. If I leave her tool box out and open, I remember to put her tool back when I see the box out. If I do not clean and put HER TOOL back, I regret it. It actually is a very good system. I can always find the tool I need, and she always likes it when I get her a tool for me to use.
I do have to say she likes going to a hardware store better than going to the mall. You just gotta like that in a woman. 8-)

                                                 HERS                                       his

Extra Spring left over after it is put back together!

 When I finish working on something and I have an extra screw left over, I always try to figure out where it should have gone and if it could be important. Then there is the decision to disassemble to find where it goes or try it to see if it works OK without it. ­­

At times like these I remember a story that a co-worker told me about a ball point pen spring. The hospital where he was working at the time had a new CAT scan machine that was having a major service done to it. Two factory service men spent all day disassembling and working on the machine. They had laid out all the parts on a table like an exploded diagram in a service manual. They went home and were to reassemble the unit the next day. The co-worker said he was just looking over all the parts when he saw 3 springs that looked like springs from a ball point pen. He took apart his ball point pen and set the spring from the pen next to the other 3. All were the same. As a joke he left the spring there.

The service men returned the next day and started to re assemble the machine. Then they disassembled it again looking for where they had left the spring out. They spent over 8 hours trying to find where it came from. The co-worker figured if the hospital ever found out he would be fired and probably have to pay for the extra labor time.

The story was funny after the fact, but I have sympathy for the service guys, and it is too bad he had not been caught.

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My wife is an excellent mechanic, and when she takes something apart, she lays it out like an exploded diagram. She is up-tight till it is back together. When I see her parts all laid out I think of the spring story and get a passing thought of adding a spring or screw to the parts. If I did she would find an evil, non-fatal way of getting me back. Just thinking about it is more than enough fun.

Antique Man

When I heard that one of the young adults down the street calls me the Antique man, I was not sure if it was complement or not.  Bobby is a young man with more time on his hands and no full-time job, so he is often out and about.

He will often stop by to help me with a project I am working on, and ask questions and add suggestions. I enjoy using many of my granddads tools doing wood working projects. Granddad was a farmer in Indiana and did carpentry work for others. I have many of his old antique tools, and I enjoy using them.

Bobby had never seen tools like them and was captivated that you could do stuff without power tools. He was most captivated with some of the old wood planes I have. He had no idea you could make molding and different shapes using hand tools. He had never seen a brace and bit, a draw knife, or carving chisels that I used. I showed him some of the different tools and told him what they could be used for. His comment was you can buy most of that stuff pre made or use power tools to do it in half the time.

He needed to use the phone one afternoon; his cell phone had no signal so I let him use the phone in the work shop area. He had never seen a rotary dial phone and was not sure how to use it. The phone still works ok and it is just fine for the work shop. I must be the antique man because of the old tools, two boats that are older than he is, an old pickup truck almost as old as he is, and an old phone. I am not the oldest guy on our street so it cannot be my age. 8-)