Favorite tool - or 1001 uses for a Swiss Army Knife.

Apr 5 15:07 UTC 1998

What uses have you found for the blades of your Swiss Army Knife?  How about
some other favorite tool?

response 2 of 23:

Apr 5 18:07 UTC 1998

I think it's supposed to be a wire stripper.

response 4 of 23:

Apr 5 22:46 UTC 1998

Jim found that he could only get this to work if he first scored the wire all
the way around with a knife blade.  This tool works slightly better than just
the knife alone.  What other uses would you suggest for it?

response 6 of 23:

May 3 04:22 UTC 1998

Yesterday we took apart a Kiwanis portable radio to fix the FM-AM-FM stereo
switch and a small ball bearing fell out.  About 2 hours later we got it to
go back in, with the help of various parts of the knife.  Apparently the
plastic had warped so that the bearing was not held in place, so Jim put in
a small washer around it.  He also replaced a burnt-out light with an LED,
and tried out several resistors before finding one that did not cause it to
glow all the time, or glow too dim to see.  Interesting radio - it has 3
speakers, I think the middle one works in mono, the other two in stereo. 
Today's fix, also using the knife, involved cleaning some gunk (coffee
creamer) out of the mechanism and belts of the tape drive of a tape player
clock radio, and then spending half an hour coaxing a spring which controls
the eject to go into the door (it fell out of the radio when we opened it to
get at the belts).  We have a couple of other radios that seem to have been
victims of coffee - in one case it burnt out some component which was
electronically involved in the on-off mechanism (it is now always on), and
one fried the FM circuit somehow (can't identify the fried component).  THe
knife is invaluable in getting into tight places of odd shapes.  We thought
at first on this tape radio that the belts were the problem, but discovered
the mechanism was rubbing against the gunk and making rubbing noises.  New
symptom.  Today at Kiwanis we sold three combination radio-phone-double
cassette decks to kids who wanted to copy tapes, one turntable, and almost
two more turntables - for some reason a run on turntables.  For two days last
week we had fixed turntables, since everyone was asking for them.  They were
all frozen up - the lubricant solidified and the table did not turn or the
switch switch.  Clock radios usually have one of a limited number of problems:
dirty switch (off-on, AM-FM or time-setting on the electronic models), missing
knob (we have extras), no alarm, or sometimes no AM or no FM (usually the
switch), or the clock no longer works (the white on black variety freeze up).
Does anyone know a good use for 40 or so mostly working clock radios?

response 8 of 23:

May 5 17:51 UTC 1998

Nope, they are crammed onto a few shelves and not plugged in.  Yesterday we
did speakers.  Jim's knife was indispensable.  We had many pairs of speakers
where only one worked, the other had a burnt out woofer or a broken cord, but
they were cheap and had to be sawed open.  He drew a circle on the cheap
particle board slightly larger than the 5 or 6" woofer (using a spare woofer
or a small 45 record), sawed it out with the saw blade of the knife,
unsoldered the old woofer, sawed open the back of a working speaker that
looked terrible and was not part of a pair, and transferred the organ, then
hot glued the circle on to the back of the first (good, half of a pair)
speaker, threw out the bad case, recycled the bad woofer.  We now have about
5 more pairs of speakers.  Nobody wanted the singles.  Not the most efficient
saw, but it is always there when you need it.  We also replaced the midrange
speaker on one of a pair of huge speakers (12" woofers) that are painted black
but will probably still sell if you like loud noises.  What we need most nnow
is people to buy all these repaired things.

response 10 of 23:

May 23 22:01 UTC 1999

Jim was admiring these, but had no use for the grooming blades or bottle
opener and his knife has screwdriver blades already.
Yesterday someone came in to Kiwanis looking for a single, unmatched, medium
sized speaker, and we had used them all to make pairs.  Can't please them all.
He ended up buying an expensive pair at a nice moving-sale discount.

response 12 of 23:

May 25 15:12 UTC 1999

I wear my Leatherman when I go into the field. It has come in handy many
times. 

response 14 of 23:

May 26 11:04 UTC 1999

Ahhh, the infamous strap wrench.  I never though of using one as a bottle
opener.  That's one of the things my YL uses me for ;-)
I got one of those $70 Black & Decker power planers and found it to be a
very nice tool for the money.  HQ has a sale on disk grinders for $60.
I picked up one of those the other day.  I wish I had had it a few days
prior when I used my router, with a grinding wheel in it, to grind through
the flange on my old muffler to get it off the pipe.  Next on the tool list
will be a diamond blade tile saw and tile hole saw.  We've got 1,000 sq ft
of 1/2" tile to put down.  The disk grinder will be used on the tile job
too.  With a masonry wheel it will be used to radius and break sharp edges.

response 16 of 23:

Jul 18 15:03 UTC 1999

Two miracles of technology.

1. Locking wrench.  (Two locking wrenches,
actually: a curved-jaw and a straight jaw.)

2. Cordless electric screwdriver.

I can't begin to estimate how many hours
of drudgery those two tools have saved me.

response 18 of 23:

May 31 00:46 UTC 2001

You probably already know this, but *always* wear safety glasses when using
those cutoff wheels.  They like to shatter into sharp little shards,
apparently.

While I don't know if I'd call it my *favorite*, one tool in my toolbox
that's come in surprisingly handy is a small, flat prybar with a right angle
bend in one end.  It's about eight inches long.  I originally got it because
it was nearly the ideal shape for prying the spring-loaded bails down off
the valve covers of an aircooled VW I used to own, but I've since used it
for all kinds of prying sorts of tasks.  It's probably kept me from bending
several screwdrivers. ;>

Another tool that's come in handy surprisingly often is what I call a
'magnet-on-a-stick.'  It's a small, strong magnet on the end of what looks
like a telescoping radio antenna.  This is one of those tools that comes in
handy when you've screwed up -- it prevents a lot of frustration by letting
you retrieve nuts, bolts, and the like that you've dropped into places you
can't reach with your fingers.  A pair of long forceps is handy for similar
reasons.  Do not underestimate the value of these tools in helping you
maintain your sanity. ;>

response 20 of 23:

May 31 11:32 UTC 2001

The Moto is the one tool I *do* wear the safety glasses with... oh yeah, the
router is the other nasty one.

The type of aluminum box I work with most often is the molded aluminum "Bud"
box.  These have walls a bit thicker than my nibbler is happy with, and then
also I end up right against the sides rather often.

response 22 of 23:

May 31 15:10 UTC 2001

Jim has a right angle moto tool head (Dremel) for getting into difficult
spots.