So Harbor Freight has been randomly stealing 10 mm sockets! Now they are offering a set of 10 various 10 mm sockets for $16.99. What's next? The 13 mm socket?
10mm Metric Essential Socket Set, 10 Piece (harborfreight.com)
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I saw that too, and I thought, The SOC guys would love this!
I really don't want to jinx myself, but I've never lost a 10mm, or any other socket.
Me neither, Danny. Now brass thingies, on the other hand…
You guys just wait. You'll be losing $#!+ just like the rest of us. Be working on something and put down your tool only to spend five minutes later on trying to find where the hell you left it.
You time is coming............
@Gordon Nichols posted:You guys just wait. You'll be losing $#!+ just like the rest of us. Be working on something and put down your tool only to spend five minutes later on trying to find where the hell you left it.
You time is coming............
Gordon's timeline is off a bit, I can put stuff down and under a &$@#*%^ minute forget where I put it.... this is the new normal but yet I can still wire an entire speedster with a VMC wire harness from memory.... A friend suggested that as he did buy a cheap Harbor Freight rolling cart. As long as I pile stuff on that while working the percentages are higher to be able to find stuff. You too will enjoy the so called Golden Years.
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I lost my glasses this morning. They were on the top of my head.
Maturity is not for the faint of heart.
@Alan Merklin posted:Gordon's timeline is off a bit, I can put stuff down and under a &$@#*%^ minute forget where I put it.... this is the new normal but yet I can still wire an entire speedster with a VMC wire harness from memory.... A friend suggested that as he did buy a cheap Harbor Freight rolling cart. As long as I pile stuff on that while working the percentages are higher to be able to find stuff. You too will enjoy the so called Golden Years.
Alan, I already do that now. But I always FIND what I'm looking for. The rolling cart thing works. Either that or a clean workbench. I find it a must to start each new project with a clean bench.
A clean shop and a magnetic tray can do wonders. My wife once asked me where to find a screwdriver in the garage. Not only did I direct her to the correct drawer in the roll-away, but the placement in the drawer.
When I took Auto Shop in HS we were required to check out tools and return them in a clean and serviceable condition. That probably kept a LOT of tools from going to a new home, but it certainly imprinted and solidified my tool care habits.
On a side note: I've still managed to lose a 10mm socket or two. It's so bad now that I tend to buy them when I see them hanging on the rack at any hardware store I visit!
Feint of heart, not faint of heart.
Another example of advanced maturity.
I must have somehow missed the 10mm gene. With me it’s 13’s. I still have every 10mm I’ve ever bought, include the regular and deep sockets that came with the first 65 piece metric Craftsman set I ever bought back in the 70’s.
I probably still have them because I’ve always kept them on socket rails. Makes it easy to see when one is missing.
The deep 1/4” drive socket has been on the 1/4” drive handle that came with that first set for at least 25 years, which makes it harder to misplace.
(Furiously knocking on wood currently) 
For me it's 11mm sockets. I have a bunch of them and they're all different. Some "regular", some deep, some fit wobble extensions, some have a built-in knuckle, while others have been super-magnetized. They go along with several different lengths of 11mm box/open end wrenches from real tight stubby to 6" long.
Why all the 11mm stuff?
Because that's the size of the nuts holding my intake manifolds to the heads and they're an absolute bear to get at - mostly blind - to remove/replace the manifolds. I usually end up using all of them, somewhere along the replacement process, some limited to 1/8'th turn til I get impatient and try something else.
It's becoming a science.
Or Black Art. I don't know which.
I bought SAE and metric socket sets and wrenches when I was in high school in the early 70s. I still have them all. What's wrong with me?
@Lane Anderson posted:I bought SAE and metric socket sets and wrenches when I was in high school in the early 70s. I still have them all. What's wrong with me?
OCD. Or extremely lucky.
@Gordon Nichols posted:For me it's 11mm sockets. I have a bunch of them and they're all different. Some "regular", some deep, some fit wobble extensions, some have a built-in knuckle, while others have been super-magnetized. They go along with several different lengths of 11mm box/open end wrenches from real tight stubby to 6" long.
Why all the 11mm stuff?
Because that's the size of the nuts holding my intake manifolds to the heads and they're an absolute bear to get at - mostly blind - to remove/replace the manifolds. I usually end up using all of them, somewhere along the replacement process, some limited to 1/8'th turn til I get impatient and try something else.
It's becoming a science.
Or Black Art. I don't know which.
IMO, the best dual carb tool ever is a 1/4” drive u-joint on the end of a 1/4” drive flexible extension.
@dlearl476 posted:IMO, the best dual carb tool ever is a 1/4” drive u-joint on the end of a 1/4” drive flexible extension.
Ooohh, I've never seen those...
@Gordon Nichols posted:For me it's 11mm sockets. I have a bunch of them and they're all different. Some "regular", some deep, some fit wobble extensions, some have a built-in knuckle, while others have been super-magnetized. They go along with several different lengths of 11mm box/open end wrenches from real tight stubby to 6" long.
Why all the 11mm stuff?
Because that's the size of the nuts holding my intake manifolds to the heads and they're an absolute bear to get at - mostly blind - to remove/replace the manifolds. I usually end up using all of them, somewhere along the replacement process, some limited to 1/8'th turn til I get impatient and try something else.
It's becoming a science.
Or Black Art. I don't know which.
Gordon - I've got to ask. Why are you still using 11 mm nuts (and presumably wavy washers as well) when everybody and their uncle sells 8 mm x 1.25 flange nuts with 10 mm heads? There's zero chance I could get 11 mm nuts on any intake I've ever had, and the shoulder nuts slide off an on with no drama.
Is this some sort of self-punishment? Like a hair shirt or medieval self-flagellation?
@Stan Galat posted:Gordon - I've got to ask. Why are you still using 11 mm nuts (and presumably wavy washers as well) when everybody and their uncle sells 8 mm x 1.25 flange nuts with 10 mm heads? There's zero chance I could get 11 mm nuts on any intake I've ever had, and the shoulder nuts slide off an on with no drama.
Is this some sort of self-punishment? Like a hair shirt or medieval self-flagellation?
When I bought my Spyder the Webers were attached with the 11mm nuts. Getting them off was a trick. And the Dells went back on with the proper 10mm nuts.
I don’t lose tools.
Like Lane, I still have the Craftsman starter set I put together in the ‘70s, with all the sockets, wrenches, and screw drivers.
What I lose are the small bits I manage to undo with the tools. The smaller the bit, and the more impossible to replace, the more likely it is to disappear.
I have long suspected the magic floor in my garage. Almost any metallic object, when dropped, somehow passes through the concrete into a fourth dimension. I hear the little clinking sound when it hits the floor and it is gone.
No amount of searching, with flashlights and mirrors ever turns up the nut or washer or custom piece that’s only available in packages of ten - or was until they were last made, eight years ago.
Occasionally, one of these transitioned objects does travel back from the fourth dimension and reappears in the garage months later, but never where I dropped it. They’re always 20 or 30 feet away, under a cabinet or behind a table leg or somewhere no law of physics could logically explain.
I think Einstein must have had a garage floor something like this that got him to thinking about relativity and all of the stuff that Sir Isaac Newton had absolutely no clue about.
@Sacto Mitch posted:I think Einstein must have had a garage floor something like this that got him to thinking about relativity and all of the stuff that Sir Isaac Newton had absolutely no clue about.
I've got the same garage floor. Maybe it's a pacific thing.
@Sacto Mitch posted:
I don’t lose tools.Like Lane, I still have the Craftsman starter set I put together in the ‘70s, with all the sockets, wrenches, and screw drivers.
What I lose are the small bits I manage to undo with the tools. The smaller the bit, and the more impossible to replace, the more likely it is to disappear.
I have long suspected the magic floor in my garage. Almost any metallic object, when dropped, somehow passes through the concrete into a fourth dimension. I hear the little clinking sound when it hits the floor and it is gone.
No amount of searching, with flashlights and mirrors ever turns up the nut or washer or custom piece that’s only available in packages of ten - or was until they were last made, eight years ago.
Occasionally, one of these transitioned objects does travel back from the fourth dimension and reappears in the garage months later, but never where I dropped it. They’re always 20 or 30 feet away, under a cabinet or behind a table leg or somewhere no law of physics could logically explain.
I think Einstein must have had a garage floor something like this that got him to thinking about relativity and all of the stuff that Sir Isaac Newton had absolutely no clue about.
I have a phenomenal talent of finding little bits. I’ve almost never been skunked. When I lived in the Hudson Valley I lived in a 19th Century woolen mill cum “Arts Center” with 4” wide pine plank floors.
I got the bright idea to replace the battery in my iPhone and on reassembly, I dropped one of the screws that’s about the size of an ant’s head on to the floor.
Took me about 5 minutes to find it, but I did. In the crack between two planks. Luckily I had magnetized my screwdriver and I lifted it right out.
Pro tip: when you lose something one the floor, don’t look “down” for it. Get down on your hands and knees and shine a flashlight where you look, parallel to the floor. The light will make a long sundown shadow and it will be easy to spot.
@dlearl476 , Einstein discovered that light is bent by a gravitational field. This probably applies to light from flashlights, too.
I know in my garage it does.
You guys need to try working off a truck, at a jobsite, in the snow. Drop a screw 9or anything really) in the snow/slush, and it's gone.
Working a shop with a concrete floor is a vacation by way of comparison.
I do not have those fancy-schmancy manifold nuts.....yet.
The last time I was messing with the manifolds was right after Dave Hoaglund rebuilt my Dells and that was a year before the pandemic started so, what - 5 years ago? - And special, flanged manifold nuts weren't a "thing" back then. I'll maybe go that route the next time I have the manifolds off - We'll see. In the meantime, I'll just not be one of the "Cool Guys", I guess.
And as my late Uncle Tobe always told us, "If it ain't broke, don't peck with it!"
(Actually, Tobe was an old, cranky SeaBee and used more colorful language than that, but you get the idea).
Speaking of flanged nuts - don't buy CBR's 12 point manifold nuts.
Some of you might recall my tantrum about how the shoulders on my new, port-matched CBP manifolds had no clearance for nuts that worked fine on my other several pairs of manifolds.
Stan evoked his "you just didn't buy the special flanged nuts" theme and I responded that if CBR produced a product that needed special fasteners, they should include them or at least warn you. My problem was years ago fixed with several visits to local hardware stores and some grinder work on my brand new manifolds. No, I'm still not over it.
That being said, Stan is always right and never lies, so I ordered up a batch of 14 CBR item 3334 12 point 8mm x 10mm Flange Nuts for future use. The shipping cost for 14 of these precious beauties was $11 on a slow boat out to our balmy shores
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I decided to rework my approach to the Speeduino idle air and to change the spark plugs while I was there. I removed the manifolds did the work and tried to replace the nuts with the 12 point wonders that had been sitting on my shelf. No joy.
My contorted path to the nuts closest to the front of the car made the socket pop off every time I tried to torque them. I could get to them just fine, I just couldn't keep the socket engaged.
I gave up and put the old nuts on.
I did just order 10 of the CBR special flanged nuts that Stan linked to above in my ever optimistic approach to finding manifold nut nirvana.
In my case, the 12 pointers weren't it. Don't be like Mike. If you do want to give them a try, PM me your address and I'll send 4 to you for nada.
JayCee has some nice flange nuts too. I believe they are 10mm head size, in 12 point. I used them on the 2276 I built last year. CB 45 x 37 heads and CNC-machined port-matched manifolds.
Yes Mike, I had to grind the manifolds too.
I can't remember what is on my engine, I think 11mm. I never have to remove them.
But about losing and finding stuff. I just ask my wife to help. Eagle-eyed, that one. She spots 4-leafed clover like breathing. At Carlisle this year, she got 6 in a few minutes. Ask Paul Mossberg, he'll confirm.
Anyway, I just ask for her help. She hasn't let me down yet. I dropped a nut on our gravel driveway. She got it in less than a minute!
@Stan Galat posted:You guys need to try working off a truck, at a jobsite, in the snow. Drop a screw 9or anything really) in the snow/slush, and it's gone.
Working a shop with a concrete floor is a vacation by way of comparison.
I found a lug nut amid the similar covered gravel on the shoulder of a road once after the stereotypical comedy routine of stepping on the hubcap and sending the lug nuts within flying.
Have you ever worked on a car and dropped something, a screw or other small part, and then you look and look and you can’t find it?
Did you ever try dropping a similar thing from roughly the same point and see where it went and how it looked after it landed in an effort to find the first one?
I know, sounds crazy, but sometimes it teaches your eye what to look for when you see the second one on the floor and occasionally it lets you find the first one easier, too.
Of course, Lane might need a label on his part reading:
”I’m the Brass Thingie! Pick me up!”
@Gordon Nichols posted:Have you ever worked on a car and dropped something, a screw or other small part, and then you look and look and you can’t find it?
Did you ever try dropping a similar thing from roughly the same point and see where it went and how it looked after it landed in an effort to find the first one?
I know, sounds crazy, but sometimes it teaches your eye what to look for when you see the second one on the floor and occasionally it lets you find the first one easier, too.
Of course, Lane might need a label on his part reading:
”I’m the Brass Thingie! Pick me up!”
That's how I lost two throttle bar centering springs
Actually, in fairness things usually show up anywhere from a week to a month after I lose them, resulting in some forehead slapping.
I'm either going with Mitch's gravitational bending of light theory or the possibility of a multi-dimensional vortex.
.
@Stan Galat posted:.You guys need to try working off a truck, at a jobsite, in the snow. Drop a screw (or anything really) in the snow/slush, and it's gone...
If you can keep your 7/16 spanner when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on the snow,
If neither sleet nor freezing rain can hurt you,
Threading threaded pipe into plumber’s elbow;
If you can do all that in a blizzard
Whilst balancing loaded caulking gun,
Yours is Peoria and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
.
@Gordon Nichols posted:...
Of course, Lane might need a label on his part reading:
”I’m the Brass Thingie! Pick me up!”
I still maintain that it must have rolled under the water heater, which is now 20 years old and due for replacement. I removed everything else from the garage when I put in some work tables and moveable shelving units a couple of years ago, and the blasted thing was nowhere to be seen.
In removing my engine compartment lid I dropped several washers behind the fan shroud on the oil cooler outlet side. There is no way to retrieve them so I left them there.
I had a mixture of 8mm nuts on my intake manifolds and exhaust. Some took a 10mm wrench and some 3/8". I replaced them all with new self-locking 10 mm-headed nuts from Berg.
I just did a check of the old nuts. For some strange reason, 11 have 10mm heads and 1 has a 3/8" head. It probably was an error on the part of whoever I bought them from.
I would be happy to send them in response to a PM.
@Michael Pickett posted:That's how I lost two throttle bar centering springs
I have to edit my original post. I have launched a hex bar spring into an alternate universe, never to be seen again.
Then Justin told me the trick is to fill the holes with grease before you put the spring in there. Works like a charm.
@Michael McKelvey posted:In removing my engine compartment lid I dropped several washers behind the fan shroud on the oil cooler outlet side. There is no way to retrieve them so I left them there.
I had a mixture of 8mm nuts on my intake manifolds and exhaust. Some took a 10mm wrench and some 3/8". I replaced them all with new self-locking 10 mm-headed nuts from Berg.
I just did a check of the old nuts. For some strange reason, 11 have 10mm heads and 1 has a 3/8" head. It probably was an error on the part of whoever I bought them from.
I would be happy to send them in response to a PM.
Just about all retail tool sources sell an 18”-24” spring with magnets on each end. Invaluable for finding dropped nuts and washers.
Unfortunately, try as I might I’ve never been able to retrieve the washer that’s rolling around inside the tail of my clamshell that’s been there since I bought it.
Sadly, the dropped washers were stainless steel and they don't respond to magnets.
That’s when I get out the ShopVac with the tiny, flexible wand on the end of the hose and fish it around til I find something.
Doesn’t always work, but more often than not, it finds something.
Sometimes, even the things I’m looking for!
Tools found in the engine compartment of my Speedster after the 2006 build in Carlisle:
If anyone who participated in the build recognizes one or both of these tools from my description, tough. They're mine now! BWAH HAH HAH HAH!!!!!!
Well, every tool I brought to that build had my name engraved on it. Can’t say the same for Chris, but those two tools are pretty common and would have long since been replaced, so they’re yours, now.
It’s been so long, I don’t know if Drayer brought any tools or not. Between Chris and me we had about a full shop of tools there. Heck, we even had a compressor and air tools!
