Tool maintenance

[sierraman]

Any top tips here for tool maintenance? One of mine is to strip your ratchet down every 6 months and regrease the gears and the direction levers. I've had the same ratchet almost 15 years and done this and it still works perfect despite almost weekly use.

[Timewaster]

Don't leave things out in the rain!

[purplebargeken]

Never even thought of that. Good idea!

 

I use a small brass wire brush to clean out the collected gunge from the tips of my Phillips screwdrivers. 

[sierraman]

Don't use your Wera screwdrivers as paint stirrers or chisels!

[purplebargeken]

or body filler scoopers.

 

All of the old imperial spanners I have get a wipe down and spray of WD40.

[garbaldy]

I have never ever stripped down a ratchet and I've had some for 25 years, that's even using them in 90s style scrap yards, I have managed to break a couple though,

 

I only wipe down tools with a rag a stuff them back in the box.

[mercrocker]

When Mrs R. isn't looking I bring in my plastic handled screwdrivers and wash them up.  Never stripped down a ratchet but I do use GT85 on anything that moves.

[Timewaster]

A mate of mine used to have an enormous collection of snap on stuff that cost as much as most of us earn in a year.

 

He would return snapped screwdrivers so often that the snap on rep did him an unmissable deal on a set of pry bars.

 

2 weeks later he returned a broken pry bar with the words "no, I was not using it as a fucking screwdriver!"

[sierraman]

There must be some truth in it for a ratchet to survive regular use for 15 years and the internals be still good to go.

[garbaldy]

There must be some truth in it for a ratchet to survive regular use for 15 years and the internals be still good to go.

The truth is they give long service whether you strip them and clean them or not.

Now that you have brought this up I might just pull one of my oldest ones to bits and see how worn it is.

[Bren]

Clean behind the foreskin.

[Bren]

On a serious note, mid range tools that are looked after will give better service than any top of the range items that are abused.

 

Another tip - dont lend out to cack handed gorillas.

[PiperCub]

^^ That was my first thought! Loaned tools soon become broken/bugggered/lost tools. 

[RustyNuts]

I don't lend tools out now, people have no respect for what they didn't work for.

 

Years ago I lent my trolley Jack to my neighbour. Unknown to me he didn't believe in axle stands and left his car up on my Jack for most of the day. The next day when I went to use it it would not even let me pump it yet alone lift our car.

 

I forgave that as you do and wanted a proper one anyway so it gave me the excuse to get a proper workshop Jack however this then made my neighbour and his brother feel like they had a guaranteed platform for holding their cars up. I ordered them not to do it and went round again one day to find one of them under the car being held up purely by my £85 Jack. The excuse was "to me it's just a tool that can be replaced".

 

Enough said. Tool lending stopped.

 

I had already had a few other things broken and lack of favors returned so that comment was the last straw.

 

The most offensive part though was that they then treated me like I was at fault for it despite all the money they saved thanks to me. I lent them everything.. Breaker bars, sockets, engine crane, grinder (never got any replacement disks) etc and never even got so much as a bbq invite.

 

We moved now thankfully but the tool collection hasn't gone unnoticed here by the new neighbours who clearly saw the engine crane going into the garage and then tried to break into it. There is now a dead car parked in front of it stopping it being opened.. Funny thing that.. One of the neighbours asked me the other day if I do car work. He was clearly hoping to get me friendly and get the tools into the daylight.. My immediate answer was NO!

[sierraman]

Your old neighbour is presumably incumbent in a lock up somewhere after the trolley jack he was using gave way onto his chest. My old trolley jack started to leak, a Halfords one it was. They'd stopped doing overhaul kits so it got binned.

[billyboy406v6]

Stop buying shite cars !

[tooSavvy]

Don't leave things out in the SNOW!

EFL (N.E.)

 

 

TS

[djimbob]

Seconded for the don't lend tools out to all and sundry - you rarely get them all back, much more of an issue than maintaining tools.

 

Only thing I do is occasional spray with WD40/GT85 if stored somewhere damp, or if it's rained on an open box, and wiping tools down with a dry rag when greasy/oily in use, otherwise they are cheap enough to replace, couldn't be arsed stripping a ratchet, but kudos to those who do, shows their workmanship is probably top class

[Station]

I only ever wipe the grunge and oil off as I don't want my hands filthy before I even start fixing one of my many knackered cars.

[strangeangel]

Don't leave things out in the rain!

 

You'd think people wouldn't need telling this, but I am reminded of a chap who gave me a broken Aprilia scooter some years back. The mirrors were stopping us throwing the thing into the back of djimbob's Scorpio estate, so our hero was despatched to fetch some tools. He returned from the garden clutching a socket set; water pouring out of the box behind him as he walked. He is definitely not someone I would lend tools to.

[sierraman]

I can't talk. I once erected a shed, couldn't find my spirit level and G clamp after. Found them when I knocked the bugger down years later... Underneath (it was raised up on bricks)

[Timewaster]

When I was working on plant in outdoor sites we would occasionally get caught out by a shower and discover the tool boxes half full of water.

 

This was offset by the times that the pipes split / valves left open / let the apprentice near the pump etc. filled the tool boxes with oil.

[fatharris]

Keep it clean, keep it dry, keep it lubricated, keep it away from morons and don't buy the cheapest thing you see.

[JayW]

Buy decent tools and never maintain them. Just use them.

 

My Teng ratchet still going strong after 20 years, the Signets fine after 10.

 

You can't break a spanner if you use it properly.

 

Don't lend out. Ever.