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Tool Definitions :-)

To: shop-talk@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Tool Definitions :-)
From: "Lin, Gary" <Gary.Lin@wang.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 1997 20:44:40 -0400
Please, no WOB flames.  A little humor for the list.
Gary

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is 
used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive car parts not far
from 
the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of 
cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well 
on boxes containing convertible tops or tonneau covers.

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning steel Pop rivets in
their 
holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling 
rollbar mounting holes in the floor of a sports car just above the brake

line that goes to the rear axle.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board 
principle.  It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable 
motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more
dismal 
your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads.  If nothing else is available,

they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of 
your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting those stale garage

cigarettes you keep hidden in the back of the Whitworth socket drawer 
(What wife would think to look in _there_?) because you can never 
remember to buy lighter fluid for the Zippo lighter you got from the PX 
at Fort Campbell.

ZIPPO LIGHTER: See oxyacetylene torch.

WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and 
motorcycles, they are now used mainly for hiding six-month old Salems 
from the sort of person who would throw them away for no good reason.

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat 
metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and

flings your beer across the room, splattering it against the Rolling 
Stones poster over the bench grinder.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere 
under the workbench with the speed of light.  Also removes fingerprint 
whorls and hard-earned guitar callouses in about the time it takes you
to 
say, "Django Reinhardt".

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering a Mustang to the ground after
you 
have installed a set of Ford Motorsports lowered road springs, trappng 
the jack handle firmly under the front air dam.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering a car upward off a 
hydraulic jack.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.

PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbor Chris to see if he has another 
hydraulic floor jack.

SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for 
spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-doo off your boot.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and

is ten times harder than any known drill bit.

TIMING LIGHT: A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease buildup 
on crankshaft pulleys.

TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile 
strength of ground straps and hydraulic clutch lines you may have 
forgotten to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool
that 
inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end 
without the handle.

BATTERY ELECTROLYTE TESTER: A handy tool for transferring sulfuric acid 
from car battery to the inside of your toolbox after determining that 
your battery is dead as a doornail, just as you thought.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

TROUBLE LIGHT: The mechanic's own tanning booth.  Sometimes called a
drop 
light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin", which
is 
not otherwise found under cars at night.  Health benefits aside, its
main 
purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 
105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of

the Battle of the Bulge.  More often dark than light, its name is 
somewhat misleading.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style 
paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used,
as 
the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning 
power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that 
travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty 
suspension bolts last tightened 40 years ago by someone in Abingdon, 
Oxfordshire, and rounds them off.

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