Bring out your Dead! (tools) Bring out your dead!

No we won’t bury or burn them, but more like Dr. Frankenstein, resurrect it so “IT LIVES!”

Not sure this has been done as an “everybody post theirs” thread, certainly lots of individual threads or threads for particular tools…

The idea is, to show what do you do to resurrect a tool, hand or power, after finding a diamond in the rough.

Sometimes all that is needed is rust/grunge removal, sometimes it needs completely stripped, refurbished/repaired, and refinished…

This first one is pretty simple. It’s a sprung C clamp.



Pretty obvious what is wrong but I straighten these routinely. I’ve never had one break either in the straightening process or in use. (I have had a couple of really cheap clamps I got from my dad an age ago, that were brittle metal and simply snapped in use. Smaller clamps 2” or less…)

First step, get it into the vise for initial straightening. Getting it in like this insures the bent arm gets the pressure.



This is after the straightening and the pressure was released other than to keep it from falling out of the vise:



It didn’t come out completely straight and I often see them bent like this.
Clamp it sideways and a 12” crescent come to the rescue:





And here it is ready for use again and added to the collection as my ninety fifth C clamp!:




So, Post em up people! What have you fixed recently? Before and after, and how you did it please!

Ancient Milbar aircraft wire twister pliers, an odd variant type with locking by a pin on a bracket beside the twistarama thing. The bracket was held to the handle by a row of rivets which were worked out and shaky, and this allowed the bracket to move enough to release the clamping during use.
The only hard part was getting things set so I could manipulate pliers, hammer, punch, and backing with two only 2 hands...I need a slave or apprentice or something!
To avoid having to hold a separate set. I eventually found a way to set the handle down in the groove of a bench block so that the backs of the rivets were resting on the surface. Coupla whacks with hammer and punch re-set the rivets. If they work loose again I can use about the same process to put in new rivets, if I can come up with the necessary 12 cents. Ancient tool returned to service, ready for its next World War!

Outlaw: nice pics and explanation on how to fix a good old clamp that is bent. I'll have a few to post some day in the future and for now i'll just bump this thread out of the archives to see if any other members have other clamps or tools that they've repaired.

not a tool,but...well kinda

unspringing this motorcycle subframe to run a Sidecar

OK, it's been a while since I started this thread, but I have one to add.

I bought this Plvmb 5249 3/8 ratchet yesterday at a ayrd sale with a bunch of other stuff for a buck each. This one was pretty much DOA. Not just outer surface rust, but totally locked up.




I was going to start with the E-tank, but I hit the outside with a fine wire wheel to get the worst off and noticed the drive piece starting to loosen, not turn mind you, but it was wobbling a bit. so I used a pick to clear the old gunge out of the Phillips slots, and went at it with a driver and one came out pretty easy and the other with a little "persuasion" (set it on something solid and rapped the driver with a small BPH)

After that the drive was really loose but the plate was rusted solid, so the same BPH and the pieces rapped out


Pretty ugly inside....




After the parts were hit with thew wire wheel:




I was going to but the body into the E-tank, but decided to see what a Dremel with a plastic "wire wheel" could do, and dang if it didn't do quite well! this is after that and starting to assemble:




It is now alive and well, if not completely healthy, it could probably use a rebuild kit, as the drive is a bit loose in the head, but it's perfectly usable as is!

ps: Mods, this can be moved to Vintage Tools if you like, as almost everything will be that at least...

Nice resurrection!