Recent content by Freeborn John

Just out of curiosity, what is the very earliest Snap-On tool (with provenence) that's turned up, I imagine that it would be quite the prize in the Snap-On world.

I bought a four year old Land Rover Defender from a main dealer once, it smelled just like a new one, that production line rubber, adhesive and paint smell. The 'utility vehicle scent' idea must have flopped, I never found anything like it since.

The Hansen trays are good, though unfortunately for anybody with heaps of 3/8 of whatever, the different sizes aren't available separately.

It was all new, they had no idea of the real danger of the stuff they were working with, there was a lot of pioneering work done by ICI in the early 40s in Widnes, UK, an ancient chemist told me 'I shudder to think about what we just threw down the sink!' I know for a fact that the main...

In the 90's the UK got a lot of used motorcycles from Japan, unofficial imports of models that only their home market got, they usually arrived bristling with aftermarket parts from outfits we'd never heard of like Beet and Over and the quality was always superb, the Japanese consumer must...

The words 'Snap-On' and 'warranty' don't normally appear together in the UK, a country where the length of a mechanics time in the trade can be measured by how full his buckets of broken Snap-On tools are...

In the early days the RepRap printer (Replicating Rapid Prototyper) was designed to do just that, I suppose the aim was to kickstart 3D printing, which at the time was highly specialised and out of sight of most people, as a tool for everyday use.

There were some handsome colours back in the day, Record vise blue springs to mind, so it's possible to go bright but stay period.

I suspect that car makers are more concerned that their plastics are easy to recycle than they are that they're still strong, durable and fit for purpose after 20 years. Things certainly seem to go 'crack!' if you look sideways at them these days.

I now need a Dual Overhead Cam Cylinder Head Organiser so badly that it hurts, curse you...

A chap called Drew Mori-man Jonsen who lives in Japan has a facebook page called Unobtanium where he specialises in motorcycle stuff of the nicest kind, he might be able to point you in the direction of what you need. Personally, I'd fill my boots with second hand Japanese tools, it's a golden...

I know people who spray it on a bolt that's been rusted in for 20 years, come back in 5 minutes and express surprise when it won't budge...

The quality of Italian made Beta hand tools is demonstrably higher than their Chinese made Beta Easy range, this seems to be a trend across the industry. It would be surprising if this didn't apply to power tools, AvE would certainly be the best man to put on the case.

Meanwhile, in the real world, lets find ourselves a horrible and heavily corroded bolt, those nice sharp edges have gone off it and it looks like a lump of ****. I'll have the six siders, you have the twelve pointers, good luck with that.

I'm rapidly going off ceramic brake grease myself, it seems to vanish in a couple of months. It's currently available for around 1/3 the price it was a year ago on the bargain shelf of many UK motor factors, I suspect I'm not on my own.