Maintenance?

[orbital]

Good to know those iconic names still reside in America 👍

+

Slightly different foundation in the upper midwest. There's honor, employment, paying taxes & building communities.

Those companies were built by hard working people who endured & stayed with it - (4 months a year it can be winter, real winter)
That's why it just drives nuts when people are payed to sit at home, only complaining for more.
To those,,, go apply to another country & tell them what you want from them.. see how that goes.

===
Remember; those companies I mentioned above, all need maintenance

 

[BVH]

I can say on good authority that Snap-On tools are not overrated but are indeed, expensive. I built up my set from about 1975 to 1984. My beautiful Snap-on box sits in my garage and I never tire of using all the Snap-On tools in it. There's just something about how good a Snap-On tool fits in my hand, how good it looks and how well it works. There's nothing like it. Good tools make the job more fun to do. I of, course, have a collection of other branded tools. I wouldn't want to build up a large set of Snap-On tools in a year or 5. They are expensive but it's not as painful if purchased over a long period of time. In the last year - 40 years later, I've added some of the tools I always wanted and could not afford to add to my collection. I really love the Pearl Blue screwdriver sets. It's just a joy to open the drawer and pull out one of those beautiful handled drivers to use. The images don't show the pearl-essence

 

[KITROBASKIN]

The handle design of those Snap-on screwdrivers really are good, one opinion. Feeling good about one's equipment is a sublime thing, whether wrench or tool for conveyance.

 

[alpg88]

I do not think beginner's maintenance mechanic salary is high enough for snap on tools, nor he needs them for his line of work, he would do just fine with common husky, or Kobalt tools, among other brands. the trick is to get the RIGHT tool for the job.

 

[bigburly912]

This thread is still blowing my mind. Do you at least have someone knowledgeable you are going to be working under for a while? I mean seriously, you are talking about welding and have no experience. I used to be a supervisor for a large manufacturing plant and I just couldn't imagine throwing somebody untrained into these situations. Be safe. Please. Wish you the best of luck and I'm not downing you at all, on the contrary I'm happy you can better yourself but not at the expense of yourself or someone else's health and safety.

 

[ABTOMAT]

Any topic that involves gear tends to focus way too much on stuff you can buy rather than the skill. Get tools that don't break and learn how to use them. Off the top of my head the only hand tools I stick to high end brands for are screwdrivers and slip joint pliers. Too easy for cheap ones to round off or break your fingers.

 

[desert.snake]

Any topic that involves gear tends to focus way too much on stuff you can buy rather than the skill. Get tools that don't break and learn how to use them. Off the top of my head the only hand tools I stick to high end brands for are screwdrivers and slip joint pliers. Too easy for cheap ones to round off or break your fingers.

Yeah, I would also add axes, knives and saws to the list.
Recently it was necessary to disassemble the knife with torx 2 screws, it is very difficult to find suitable bits or screwdrivers here. There are almost no quality ones on the secondary market, since these types of screws have appeared quite recently. It was possible to buy high-quality Wiha at the primary one, but waiting 1.5 months by mail was too long and too expensive for a one-time job. I bought a set of bahсo. The hardened screws broke the ribs on the screwdriver 4 times, I had to grind the damaged part with a grindstone manually. This process took about an hour. If it was not a hobby, but a job to order, I would not have been invited a second time))

The knipex has very useful pliers with parallel jaws (pictured above), they always squeeze the nut without licking off the edges. My plumber friend paid for them a long time ago, he is engaged in plumbing and sewerage for wealthy clients. They really don't like it when their shiny tub nuts scratch during installation. This also applies to cheap equipment. The bolts are sometimes practically not hardened, and when you unscrew / tighten often for repairs and the edges are licked off with ordinary keys, this causes a loss of time. If the bolts have become completely unusable, then toothed pliers help (pictured below), their teeth are hardened and bite into the metal, everything is easily unscrewed

About cheap axes - ax that dulls worse than bronze, that is, becomes dull after every couple of blows, this is annoying. I recently dug it (on photo) out of the ground while raising the foundation of a friend's house. The ax has been lying at a depth of 1.5 meters since the construction of the house ~ in 1950. The high-carbon steel blade is welded onto a soft base at the butt. After sandblasting and sharpening, it works at the level of very expensive modern axes. Mainly because at that time, if you make bad products / defects in a state-owned enterprise, then you are very likely to go to jail

Oh, 1 more very useful thing, saved my toes many times - boots with an iron protective cap. First of all, you need to choose them so that they are comfortable for the foot, especially if you have flat feet like me, so that you can move for a long time without pain. And a steel protective toe. They are not very expensive actually. It's about $25-50 here. Service time is about 3 years. After three years, the seams begin to rot, for no reason, it just takes about 3 years and they fall apart. Planned obsolescence((

Very good - Italian company Cofra, but they are more expensive - ~$100 and more

Well, skills are the main thing, if you give a fool a good tool, then this will not help him)) It is better to model all the stages of work in your head or even paint them on paper. This takes some time, but can be useful later, something like making a shopping list in a store.

 

[alpg88]

In 20+ years of being a building engineer neither me nor anyone from my crew ever used an ax. The knife we use 99.5% of the time is a utility knife with replaceable blades, from opening boxes, and cutting drywall to stripping wires, and everything in between. We try to not use a channel lock, or any other type of pliers for nuts and bolts, that is what open end and box wrenches are for, 6 or 12 points. Do not use ph tips with pz screw heads, and vise versa, you will strip them.

 

[desert.snake]

In 20+ years of being a building engineer neither me nor anyone from my crew ever used an ax. The knife we use 99.5% of the time is a utility knife with replaceable blades, from opening boxes, and cutting drywall to stripping wires, and everything in between. We try to not use a channel lock, or any other type of pliers for nuts and bolts, that is what open end and box wrenches are for, 6 or 12 points. Do not use ph tips with pz screw heads, and vise versa, you will strip them.

Unfortunately, there is low-quality cheap equipment. The sizes of bolt heads sometimes differ from the standard sizes of wrenches that are made in Europe or the Soviet Union, that is, the gap between the head and the key is different, which causes jamming of the edges. There are also rusty bolts, the rust falls off and its size becomes intermediate between the standard key sizes
It doesn't happen very often, but at the most inopportune moment. Something like this

I remembered that for such cases there is also a ring wrench like a Catalan Garrote. They are cheap and work well.

Yeah, I really like these, they can be sharpened many times and it has a strong handle =)

 

[alpg88]

Unfortunately, there is low-quality cheap equipment. The sizes of bolt heads sometimes differ from the standard sizes of wrenches that are made in Europe or the Soviet Union, that is, the gap between the head and the key is different, which causes jamming of the edges. There are also rusty bolts, the rust falls off and its size becomes intermediate between the standard key sizes
It doesn't happen very often, but at the most inopportune moment.

Here we do not have any soviet stuff, but we do have low quality tools made in china, wrenches that bend jaws, drill bits that unwrap when you reverse them, plenty of junk in dollar stores. that stuff it to avoid at all cost. Here in usa we basically have 2 systems, metric and sae in use. very common mistake is to use wrong wrenches or sockets, it may feel like it grabs, but at slightest load they slip and strip. In some cases you have no choice but to use pliers, but i prefer a wise grip locking pliers, a lot less chances to strip or slip. same thing with cars, both systems are used, pretty much all bicycles here have metric hex bolts. It is a common myth that Americans do not know metric system, we do, we use standard system for measurements, but as far as screws n nuts and bolts, it is almost 50/50. you can not work on any car sold in usa, unless you have both sets of tools. It is just some always make sure they use right tools, while others do not case much, and use whatever get the job done, even if they strip half of the bolts and nuts. you can tell right away which type of a person worked on a car, or an AC, or pretty much anything else before.

 

[desert.snake]

Exactly, the measurement system. + 2 times I came across a set of nuts / bolts that was between metric and imperial measures, not a single wrench fit exactly. That is, it can be called a marriage, but the whole device was twisted by them. It was Pakistani or Indian, the compressor, which 2 months after the repair failed completely and had to buy a new one

 

[alpg88]

Sometimes it happens, but it is because the bolt/nut is rare size, it could be either metric or standard, for example, common sizes are 12 and the next one is 13mm, but that bolt is 12.5. most sets have common sizes sockets, but sometimes you come a cross an odd size, usually wrapping aluminum tape around the head tight, and forcing a socket that is the closest works,

 

[alpg88]

View attachment 46605

This is a though one. That is exactly what I was saying, you can tell right away what kind of person worked on this engine. there is no room there to use most stripped bolts removers. If I had to do it, I'd lower the piston to its BDC, remove vavle springs, drop the valves, and use a wise grip pliers, the biggest ones I could fit

 

[ghostguy6]

Exactly, the measurement system. + 2 times I came across a set of nuts / bolts that was between metric and imperial measures, not a single wrench fit exactly. That is, it can be called a marriage, but the whole device was twisted by them. It was Pakistani or Indian, the compressor, which 2 months after the repair failed completely and had to buy a new one

Likely the British Whitworth sizes. https://www.samstagsales.com/whitworth_table.htm#table Those can be a real pain in the ........ I remember I once had to restore an old neon sign that was going to be displayed in a museum that used those. Looking back I wish I had purchased a set of those wrenches. I ended up buying a set of cheap Craftman wrenches and welding the flats with hard surfacing rod then grinding to fit. Buying the right tool for the job is usually cheaper than trying to make something. At least here in North America is unlikely you will see those unless you own a British car or are working on an antique.

When it comes to Snap on Tools I will say this. The ratchets are worth the money. I bought a set about 25 years ago and they are still going strong. Compare that to my mastercraft, which would wear out after 3 months of industrial use. My most used ratchet is the1/4'" TL27 long handled. The chrome has just began to show signs of wear after 20 or so years of use. Their screwdrivers are good. I like the handle geometry but I find the blades are not the best. However if you break the blade they will replace it with a new one. The soft grip ratcheting screwdriver is expensive but I love it. It comes with interchangeable shafts so you get a long, standard, short or 1/4" square drive. It uses the standard 1/4" hex bits so you are not confined to just snap on bits. I usually use Wera bits. Bits with the anti cam out ribs (ACR) are a god send. They are all I use now. The wrenches and sockets have the tightest tolerances of any major tool brand but they come at a price. Unless you use them a lot I would look elsewhere for these.


I cant believe I forgot to mention this in my first post. You will need a good set of damaged bolt removers. They can literally make or break a job. Something like this photo ( photo for reference only, I cant speak to the quality of this set) The internal sets you drill then hammer the bit into are also a great thing for then you enevitably break off the bolt head.
Watch these videos. and

 

[letschat7]

Right now I spend more time painting things than anything although yesterday I had to fix a hose on a machine. They seem really keen on me being maint but there is a lack of skilled persons. I have no one knowledgable to show me the ropes just the internet.