Interesting Tool

What a great idea!  Why can't I come up with stuff like that?

Seriously. Cool find.

I posted about this on page 2 of Kelly's stripped wheel hub 4 pager:

<blockquote class="quote">
<div class="quote-header"><a href="https://www.speedsterowners.com/member/dannyp" data-mentioned-member-oid="2698552241872033">@DannyP</a> posted:</div>
<div class="quoted-text">
<p>Every Tuesday I get an email from Harbor Freight for "New Tool Tuesday".</p>
<p>This week featured Quinn torque gauges/adapters. These go between your socket and ratchet/breaker bar and indicate actual torque, like a socket extension. They are available in 3/8", 1/2", and 3/4" drive.</p>
<p>The biggest one is of interest to me, it registers to 750 ft. lbs. The 1/2 inch drive only goes to 250, which explains why I've broken MANY 1/2" breaker bars, even Snap-On.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Ok, don't shoot me, I don't know how to properly use the source code feature...

This device is really reasonable. My Prescott store actually shows on line to be in stock. I'm really surprised. I'll need to check it out.

Thanks Michael for the heads up.

@DannyP posted:

Ok, don't shoot me, I don't know how to properly use the source code feature...

• Go to the post you want to quote or copy
• Click, "quote"
• Edit the quote box in your reply to get it down to what you want
• Click the source code button
• Highlight everything you see
• Control X to cut it and remember it in your clipboard
• Click OK to return to the (now empty) reply box
• Type what you want, where you want it (in a different thread or a PM, if you want - anywhere on the site)
• Push the source code button again in your new reply
• Paste what you want to quote in there, where you want it
• Click OK, continue to edit your post
• Post the reply

There have been little items called strainserts around for ages.  They are actually the bolt itself, fitted with a small strain gage.  All us engineer dweebs have been using such stuff for decades. I'll bet even the Bureau of Standards even has a certified gizmo similar (costing about the same number, but add two decimal points you could buy to calibrate whatever you might have. They need to be hooked up to electronics to get a reading, and I believe this cool little number is just all of that in a wee small box.  Needs batteries, i'm supposing. there is a Harbor Freight nearby, I should check it out.  Great tip.

@Stan Galat posted:

• Go to the post you want to quote or copy
• Click, "quote"
• Edit the quote box in your reply to get it down to what you want
• Click the source code button
• Highlight everything you see
• Control X to cut it and remember it in your clipboard
• Click OK to return to the (now empty) reply box
• Type what you want, where you want it (in a different thread or a PM, if you want - anywhere on the site)
• Push the source code button again in your new reply
• Paste what you want to quote in there, where you want it
• Click OK, continue to edit your post
• Post the reply

Oooooor...

Drag the cursor over the text you want with the right button down to highlight.  Press control-C (cut).  Place the cursor is your input window where you want the text to go.  Press control-V (paste).  Done.

Thanks for the source code tips, gentleman. I always like to learn something new.

@Alan Merklin posted:

.........."You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn" :~)

I bought the Quinn mechanics tool set. It was $400 or so, and very complete. Picked up a rubber mallet, a couple hammers, and a plier set. Now you have a pretty complete set for not a lot of dough. I added all the VW special tools, my tune-up box(tach/dwell/timing light etc.) and my new 1/2" drive electric impact.

The sheer completeness of the socket and bit selection is pretty amazing, not to mention the combination wrenches both standard and ratcheting. All in metric and standard.

The quality is better than the latest Craftsman, Husky, or Kobalt, but not quite Snap-On.

I also bought the 5 drawer rolling cart(on sale) and have that ratchet strapped to a e-track on the trailer wall. It's PERFECT for a trackside FV tool kit.

Danny P wrote: "The quality is better than the latest Craftsman, Husky, or Kobalt, but not quite Snap-On."

But then, both Snap-On and Mac are something like 4X+ the cost of any of those others for no where near 4X the quality these days.  Snap-On is popular with some businesses that can write off their tool expenses, but they're too expensive for most hobbyists who would actually use them.

I've been a little dismayed to see the tools offered in the big box stores dwindling in recent years.  You're forced to look and order online for a shipping fee or a "Ship-to-store" a few days later but if you head out to buy something for use that day it's usually not in stock.  Difficult Tool Times we live in (with apologies to Tim Allen!)

Ok, let's see how Lane's tip works:

Every Tuesday I get an email from Harbor Freight for "New Tool Tuesday".

"This week featured Quinn torque gauges/adapters. These go between your socket and ratchet/breaker bar and indicate actual torque, like a socket extension. They are available in 3/8", 1/2", and 3/4" drive.

The biggest one is of interest to me, it registers to 750 ft. lbs. The 1/2 inch drive only goes to 250, which explains why I've broken MANY 1/2" breaker bars, even Snap-On."

Ok, it works, but that's just simple cut and paste. I added the quotation marks.

Stan's method allows the "reply with quote" feature to be in a little box AND be moved to an entirely different thread.

So Lane "IT-man" Anderson, not so much the same.

@Lane Anderson posted:

Oooooor...

Drag the cursor over the text you want with the right button down to highlight.  Press control-C (cut).  Place the cursor is your input window where you want the text to go.  Press control-V (paste).  Done.

That's just cut-n-paste. You get no gray box when you do that. I like the gray box, even when I'm quoting something from another thread.

More generally, I'm always curious that more people don't use the "reply with quote" feature when they're quoting in the same thread.

This serves several functions - 1) it's far easier to read, and to instantly understand what is going on with the reply - to know specifically what's being referenced. 2) it automatically alerts the original poster that he's being quoted, and alerts him to the thread. It shows up as an Alert the next time the quoted user logs into the site. It's easier than cut-n-paste, and then doing the whole "@username" hyperlink thing. 3) It breaks up the length of text. I'm super-guilty of this, but if something gets to be 4 paragraphs long without a picture or quote box, or something to break up the text - nobody's going to read it all.

Regarding tools - All the action is in the building trades tools. The cordless stuff is otherworldly in variety and quality. Everything is made for the mobile tradesman, and everything in that world is much, much better than it used to be. Drive-bits, cordless pin-guns, everything. It's great and getting better by the day. Go to a construction jobsite and look for a corded tool - it'll be a rotary hammer. Everything else is cordless. The cordless framing gun is coming. It might take a while, but it'll come.

As mentioned, mechanic's tools are becoming less and less a thing, as less and less people actually work on machines. Nobody I know (who isn't a professional dealership mechanic) buys Snap-On or Mac hand tools because (as Gordon correctly points out) they cost 4-5 x what a set of Craftsman or Kobalt tools does, and they don't last 4-5x as long.

I've got 2 of the biggest socket/combination wrench sets Craftsman makes, but I only bought them because I like to have all of the wrenches and sockets of the same make, if possible. Out on the trucks, I don't care - because we lose them there, and we piece together sets from other incomplete sets in the shop. I do the same thing with my Speedster travel-tools.

It's been a long, long time since I broke a socket or combination wrench from any manufacturer, though. Ratchets, yes - but I've always been doing something outside design when they broke. The days of rebuilding them are over, but I replace them with 3 or 4 of the best teardrop ratchet I can find for a normal price. Stanley made one that was excellent quality, before they became NLA. I like to keep sockets of the same brand, but my theory on ratchets is that I've never opened the socket drawer and thought - I'm so glad I only have one 3/8 drive ratchet.

Like most things, more is more. More ratchets is a great thing.

I end up with a lot of incomplete wrench/socket sets, because when you lose tools out on the truck, and the choice is to buy a single 5/8" combination wrench from Ace for $12 or a whole set from HF for $20, the choice isn't hard. I like saving the incomplete sets for "special" tools - you know, the 13 mm combination wrench ground down because it didn't fit in a certain spot unless you ruined a wrench to do it. That fella' is definitely a Pittsburg HF wrench from an incomplete $19.99 set (the one missing the 10 mm or the 1/2").

Running counter to most guys' thinking - I'm glad/sad that HF is moving upscale. In one way, it's nice that they've got some stuff approaching professional level, but you can't buy individual sockets and wrenches, so I wonder what you're supposed to do when the 10mm socket goes missing. OTOH, the world needs crappy tools, like the sets that Japanese motorcycles used to supply or what HF used to be - super-cheap throwaways for places where the quality really doesn't matter.

The thing I feel most strongly about is keeping tools. Giving them away or selling them is just foolish. How is a man supposed to fix or do anything at all manly without tools?

Some thoughts on @Stan Galat's piece:

Cordless framing guns (gas driven) have been around for a long time from Passload.  That's what they all had when they built my current 2-car garage 15 years ago.  Electric versions are starting to appear, too.  

https://www.paslode.com/

Watch for them on "This Old House" as Tommy Silva and his teams always seem to have the latest tools out there, as subtle advertising from the makers who provide them (usually free) to the show.

I've noticed, especially with Craftsman ratchets - and I'm talking Sears stores, here (Lowe's may be different) - That if you have the old style with the bar on the back to change direction (which was rebuildable when they still offered rebuild kits) and it finally wears out, if you take it in to get a new one under the lifetime warranty they give you a new one that's one grade lower in quality (and not rebuildable), like the finger-flipper style with a poorer gear set inside.

Re- More is more:  When we had two homes 1,000 miles apart, I would bring my Go-To tool box with me - A three drawer box, stuffed to the gills, but eventually had I got a stand up tool chest when they went on sale at Lowes or HD.  When we went back to one home I combined everything so I not only have a stand-up chest each for Metric and English, but there are several duplicates of everything in both.  More is more.  You can't beat that.

I still have the 7/16" X 1/2" dual box wrench that I put a 90 bend in to get at the distributor clamp bolt on a GMC 350 V8 over 50 years ago.  Sacrificed a wrench for the greater good but made life a lot easier.

Harbor Freight saw a hole opening up in the market when Craftsman and Stanley and others started outsourcing their tools to Asia about ten years ago.  As quality went down the demand for better quality tools increased.  Craftsman et al shouldn't have let their quality slip in the first place, but the demand has been decreasing for tools, in general but especially for automotive-style tools, for the past decade.  I believe that HF saw the hole and is beginning to fill it.

There were once 3,500 Sears stores.  There are only 22 left.  At least Lowes picked up the Craftsman line of tools - They were once better than Kobalt.  Now, not so much.

https://www.masslive.com/busin...Alj4owrtXpl3r-eytXUo

@Stan Galat posted:

As mentioned, mechanic's tools are becoming less and less a thing, as less and less people actually work on machines.

Running counter to most guys' thinking - I'm glad/sad that HF is moving upscale. In one way, it's nice that they've got some stuff approaching professional level

How is a man supposed to fix or do anything at all manly without tools?

Sage thoughts. Since my other car is an EV, I've had to build my EV tool kit using vintage Harbor Freight tools (note to sensitive souls, this is an attempt to be funny and not an attempt to kick off a howling round of EV bashing).

@Gordon Nichols - I know all about Paslode guns - I've got one. It costs a fortune to shoot those nails.

I'm talking about a cordless (meaning "battery", not just that it has no cord) framing guns. I know there are some out there, but none that have the power and durability of a Milwaukee worm-gear skill saw (to reference a ubiquitous framing tool).

With a "Milwaukee worm-gear skill saw" you could fit right in on "This Old House".  😉

@Gordon Nichols posted:

With a "Milwaukee worm-gear skill saw" you could fit right in on "This Old House".  😉

Not hardly. Those guys are backstroking through Benjamins like Scrooge McDuck.

@Michael Pickett posted:

Bwhahahahaha.

Here's a couple pictures of the tools I spoke about above.

I have a big plastic bin full of spares: cap, rotor, points, condenser, valve cover gaskets, wheel cylinders, lug bolts, etc.

I bought a red kit from Milwaukee, M12 and it came with a rachet, I used it a few times works pretty well, but then I tried the 4 seting m12 fuel 1/4 inch driver and that is a handyman tool that senses and self adjusts for torque and putting in sheet metal screws without stripping them.

All the tools seem to be inferior quality these days for sure and years ago I bought one of these digital torque thingies they work but the click type is nicer to use. You can use this to check your click TW.

wrt the torque adapter from HF, it is only an in-store purchase.  Listed on website for about $25 -- cheap -- but no store near me has one.  I found similar item by Delco (??) on Amazon, I think, many more $$ but looks like the real deal.  Might be a handy tool.  I have never sprung for one of those gazillion piece tool sets with every socket or wrench known to man.  I Just buy what I need sorta when I need it.  After about 50 years of that, I have a lot of tools, and you'd think I'd have all I need.  But no . . . seems I'm always looking for one more this or that.  In all that time I think I broke one 3/8 drive ratchet (it was seriously abused) and split out one spark plug socket.  Along the way I came to really appreciate 6 point sockets vs the more ubiquitous 12 pt, and now have many of each.

I've become a firm believer in "Buy Once, Cry Once" over the years.  Numerous things over the years have been purchased repeatedly as the cheap ones broke, or I just needed to upgrade.  Binoculars come to mind...I've had quite a few over the years, thought I had the final ones, but of course new models have come out that really do outperform what I have, hard to not want.  I really have no idea how I ponied up for Snap On wrenches and sockets so many years ago, but I've only had to claim warranty on a 3/8" drive 9/16" deep socket in about 40 years, and the only reason I know is the font is different on the one socket.  Same goes with a Walker floor jack, pretty sure I paid just shy of $200 for it, but that was probably '81 or '82, sure it's needed a couple seal kits over the years - even had to build a special tool to pull the cylinder apart.

I have one drawer completely full of sacrificial wrenches, just eagerly waiting to be cut and welded into some goof-ball contraption.  I have a bunch of sockets for the same purpose, usually to weld onto something I've screwed up...oil filter socket wrench that the square drive stripped out, another donated itself for a PS pump belt tensioner, of course way before the spring loaded single belt cheating method came about.

I do have an assortment of HF stuff too...stuff bought for tool kits to live in the truck / RV / Off Road car, etc.  I also can't justify a set of 3/4" drive impact sockets from pretty much anywhere but HF for the couple times in a decade I need them.   I did by a set of the $20 combo wrenches to live on the manual mill work bench, hung them up on cup hooks 17 years ago, and haven't lost, bent or broke any of them, not even the 1/2".

In a previous life, I went to HF and purchased a 3/8" air inpact for our assembly guys to  "try", and to be replaced with a more appropriate "production" rated model when they proved its worth.  The guys had been using a pair of 7/16" wrenches to assembly heat exchangers, we were a production shop.  We purchased 1/4"-20 x 1/2" hex bolts and nuts in kegs (about 6-7 gallon cans), so yes, we used a few.  The idea was of course to speed things up, and spending $30 was easy.  The impact gun went into use, blew up within a couple of days, and of course HF exchanged it under warranty.  The replacement was still in production when I left, about 10 years later...granted it was fed dry air from a rotary screw with a dryer, and a point of use filter and oiler.  Some things from HF do work.

Overall, I'm happy HF and the others exist...they fill a niche.

Steve