Useful tools

[tedmich]

invaluable for car work!

[Chuck H]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]39871[/ATTACH]
invaluable for car work!

You forgot:

home defense
marital disputes
frustrating amp chassis access
sleep aid alternative

Also works very well when your aim is off and your thumb was just too round anyway.

[big_teee]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]39871[/ATTACH]
invaluable for car work!

That reminds me of this commercial.

[J M Fahey]

Tough Love

[Steve A.]

I've always used nut drivers for volume controls, jacks, power transformers and everywhere you can use one. They make life so much easier and you don't risk slipping with a pair of pliers.

I think that we all do. My point was that the metric nutdrivers (at least the Craftsman ones) have a wider opening in the middle of the shaft than the SAE ones. So they are good to have around even if you don't need them for metric nuts and bolts.
BTW when I was starting out as a home appliance repair tech 30+ years ago I color-coded my sockets with the same colors that Craftsman used on their nutdrivers... still have a few of those sockets around!

I have real strong reading glasses that magnify, that has a short focal length, that I can see over.

Me, too! The skinny ones are like the bottom half of bifocals- you can look over the top for normal vision. StewMac and Dan Erlewine really push the OptiVisor but their price is too high: $57 for just the visor with a single lensplate.

A small pair of sharp point bent tweezers.


A telescoping magnet.


A Kill-O-Watt meter.


And my favorite: a rag that is used to catch overspray of DeOxit. I use the rag to wipe connector pins.

Great suggestions! Have you seen the new telescoping magnets with neos? I think that they are rated at 8 lbs! $3 at my local auto supply house... the type with one long counter with the clerks working behind it. (Lots of impulse buy items on the customer side of the counter!)


I have yet to get a Kill-o-Watt meter but I do have the Amprobe line adaptor for use with a clamp-on ammeter. Here's a knockoff for $15...


LCD Power Meter Energy Monitor Plug in kWh Watt Volt Amp Electricity Calculator | eBay


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Thanks for all of your great suggestions!


Steve Ahola

[The Dude]

I have a magnifier app on my phone for the real hard to read tiny part numbers. The nice thing about the app is that you can also snap a picture if you need to inquire about part numbers. Like many of us, I don't see as good as I used to.

[g1]

I use a 'max detail clip' on my reading glasses. It's easy to flip up out of the way, and has a working distance of 16 inches. It uses the Galilean telescopic system.
Not cheap though. My optometrist wanted over $300 but I found one on ebay for around $100.

Product Detail

[big_teee]

I use a 'max detail clip' on my reading glasses. It's easy to flip up out of the way, and has a working distance of 16 inches. It uses the Galilean telescopic system.
Not cheap though. My optometrist wanted over $300 but I found one on ebay for around $100.

Product Detail

I'm not that blind yet!
T

[The Dude]

The mounting is dangerously similar to the Opti-Grab©. I wonder if Steve Martin gets a cut.

[bob p]

jeweler's loupe

[bob p]

cheap headgear. probably worth trying:

http://www.amazon.com/LEMONBEST-Magn.../dp/B010FOSA0W

[tubedood]

Ha Ha its looking like one of the common denominators here is our eyesite... was mom right that we'd go blind!

[Chuck H]

Ha Ha its looking like one of the common denominators here is our eyesite... was mom right that we'd go blind!

Though not for the reasons she gave at the time.

And Dude, that's the guy version of a "change purse" as an age indicator

I don't have any specific vision issues. Just the hard, inflexible corneas that cause farsightedness. And that absolutely IS a consequence of age. When you're young your cornea actually flexes and changes the shape of the lensing like an auto focus. Age disables the auto focus feature. An awful lot of people seem to be going the laser surgery route to correct for it. I just don't see (no pun intended) how that could work very well. I mean, the surgery can cut your cornea for better near focus, but because the cornea isn't very flexible anymore I wonder how it affects vision at other distances. Because of my OCD I'm sure I'd find some reason to be sour about the results so I just use readers. Like most of you here I suppose. But...

I'm going to tell a short story about my own circumstance anyway (thought I wouldn't )

My vision started going a little early at 36. I was waist deep in a little trout stream with a fly rod. Having arrived, as planned at my favorite pool just in time for an evening rise in the dim light. Trout started feeding on top here and there. It wouldn't be long before they were rising all around me. So I cut off the wet fly I'd been fishing most of the day so that I could tie on a dry fly. In the dim light I couldn't quite see to thread the fine tippet through the small hook eye. I thought "Hmmm... Well I'll just move the whole arrangement closer to my face and I'll be able to see it better." Nope! It became blurrier!!! I tried and tried but never managed to get that fly tied on while a beautiful evening rise of trout came and went. When I got home I borrowed some readers from my wife. Miniature types with a fairly strong 2.5 power. I've been carrying them in the same fly vest pocket I put them in that night.

[The Dude]

Ha Ha its looking like one of the common denominators here is our eyesite... was mom right that we'd go blind!

Yeah, Mom told me that too, so I figured I'd just do it until I needed glasses.

[Steve A.]

Ha Ha its looking like one of the common denominators here is our eyesite... was mom right that we'd go blind!

Reading glasses take care of that just fine but shaving my palms every day gets to be a real drag!