Don’t do that!!

[Busted Knucles]

I wouldn't be very happy at all if someone used my tools like that, at least without asking.

.

That's because you have never been in those circumstances and I can understand that.
You get the plant running where downtime is in the millions.
Limited resources logistically.
Tools are cheap compared to downtime.
Tool cost is not the issue in the grand scheme of things.
Make due with what you have on hand are your only choices.

 

[dwasifar]

The Craftsman pliers from my Channellock comparison thread show evidence of having been a hammer at some point:

The grips are also scarred from having been used to turn one of these by sticking them through the fork and twisting:

Although I remember doing that, I do not remember using them as a hammer. But clearly I did, at some point, and clearly they survived both experiences.

Typically I am a proponent of "The Right Tool For The Job"; but if I'm under a car, or otherwise in the middle of something where stopping to fetch the Right Tool isn't practical, then I switch to "The Closest Thing I Have At Hand," fully aware that it might result in a damaged tool. It's a tradeoff between Do It Right (eventually) and Git 'Er Done (right now). Sometimes Git 'Er Done is more important.

 

[Ralf11]

I use Crapsman Screwdrivers as a pry bars and chisels

 

[GaryM909]

I have been known to use my cutting torch as a hammer and then complain that the tips are f..ked


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[engineer2]

One of my very early GJ posts was about using a wood chisel in situations where you needed a small sharp pry bar. Predictably, I got flamed for tool abuse. I was forgiven when I said I would only inflict such misuse on those $6 Harbor Freight wood chisels.

 

[ajchien]

When it comes to MY tools, im allowed to abuse them.
But IF i loan them, i dont let others.

A thousand times this for me. I get to mis-use my tools when I choose to. But if I’m borrowing a tool, it’s used as it’s intended. If someone is borrowing my tools, they should be using it as it’s intended. It about respecting other people’s stuff.

 

[IndyGarage]

Tools are tools. To me they are used to get a job done.

They are not sacred objects, or things to be kept pristine. If that means I break a screwdriver prying with it, then I buy a new one. Would I rather have a pry bar - yes.

Yes I'll put my chrome sockets in an impact if I have to. Yes I will hammer with my pliers, or occasionally with my ratchet. I won't cause permanent damage, but I don't care about a few nicks or scratches.

 

[532r5]

It ain't the chrome that takes you home.

Sent from my SM-G965U using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[2ndGearRubber]

As a general rule, I don't loan tools. At work - if someone doesn't have the tools to do a job, they can grab another LOF/Rotate and pass it off to me. In my free time, loaned tools included loaning myself to use them properly.

All of this said, I'm certainly not delicate with things and do what needs to be done to finish a job. Difference is, I paid for the tools, so I can dictate their use. If other people want to dictate tool use, they can buy their own.

 

[dffay]

Someone cranking down on the handle of one of my c-clamps or vises with a pipe that would bend it would make my crazy. I see bent handles on vises on the bumpers of plumbing trucks. All they did was stretch the acme threads and begin its destruction.

You catch it, you clean it. You break it, you buy it.

 

[lardy1]

This thread prompted me to order one of these.

https://mayhew.com/product/60141-7-s-dominator/

 

[Shop-hound]

I see this is an old thread, but couldn’t resist. I’m in industrial construction and every job I’m amazed at the “creative” uses for tools.

 

[Formula]

Everyone has a million different slotted screwdrivers but there hasn’t been slotted screws around in ages. Especially in the automotive world.

 

[Kent_B]

At some point, all tools become consumables.

 

[zendriver]

Sometimes I'll catch myself doing it, start to scold myself and then, well....., whatever, I'm in a hurry.

Life seems to go on.

 

[M635_Guy]

That's because you have never been in those circumstances and I can understand that.
You get the plant running where downtime is in the millions.
Limited resources logistically.
Tools are cheap compared to downtime.
Tool cost is not the issue in the grand scheme of things.
Make due with what you have on hand are your only choices.

You're not reading my post. I was pretty clearly talking about my tools.

I can and do take chances/do the get-'er-done thing with my personal tools when I need to, but I'd expect someone borrowing my tools to ask before doing something abusive. I'd go to lengths to avoid abusing tools loaned to me too, but would certainly check in with whoever I borrowed it/them from if I was in a pinch enough where I needed to try.

In a work environment, where it's get things done to keep things moving, you do what you have to do with what you have.

 

[Meursault74]

One of my very early GJ posts was about using a wood chisel in situations where you needed a small sharp pry bar. Predictably, I got flamed for tool abuse. I was forgiven when I said I would only inflict such misuse on those $6 Harbor Freight wood chisels.

I was helping my brother with a wooden gate project. He didn't have a chisel and used a slotted screwdriver to mortise out part of the gate. I have chisels, but I left them at my place as I "thought" he'd have some. Nope not a one despite regularly doing projects with wood. Next time I went to Harbor Freight I bought him one of those sets. I did sharpen them on my wet stone before giving it too him. I don't know if he's ever used them though for shaving wood,.............but maybe as a screwdriver

 

[Ramblin Man]

I was helping my brother with a wooden gate project. He didn't have a chisel and used a slotted screwdriver to mortise out part of the gate. I have chisels, but I left them at my place as I "thought" he'd have some. Nope not a one despite regularly doing projects with wood. Next time I went to Harbor Freight I bought him one of those sets. I did sharpen them on my wet stone before giving it too him. I don't know if he's ever used them though for shaving wood,.............but maybe as a screwdriver

Or, he may use them as a gasket scraper.

 

[Meursault74]

Or, he may use them as a gasket scraper.

nah. He doesn't take on those types of projects.

 

[Shiftless]

I pick up slightly damaged wood chisels at garage sales for a buck and use those for paint scrapers in tight corners where my actual paint scrapers don’t fit.
IMHO, the best tool for opening paint cans is one of these.

Like many of you guys, I have multiple freebie paint can openers. Isn’t it a coincidence that just about ALL of them have a bottle opener on one end? Does that say anything about painters in general?

 

[slowtwitch73]

My Dad used to jump on my case about opening paint with a screwdriver.

I have taken most of what he told/taught me to heart, but there's no reason in the world to not use a screwdriver to open paint, and I do it all the time. It does nothing to the screwdriver, and there's always a beater around anyways.

 

[minke]

I have a few sacrificial screw drivers. I got them free with a coupon and they came all the way from Pittsburgh.

 

[sparky 1971]

There isn't a week that goes by where I don't use a screwdriver as a chisel/prybar/persuader or a pair of linemans pliers as a hammer at least three times. Sometimes daily, sometimes multiple times in a day. Usually, the two go together as I beat on the screwdriver with the pliers. Whatever it takes to get the job done.

 

[Indexmill]

We are all solidly in one of about 3 camps on this subject... and all 3 are fully valid.

Can anybody name the 3 camps? Let's share the fun.

 

[gatewaysysop]

I have two classes of tools- the good ones, that are always used properly, and the beaters for everything else. Sometimes you can't get an impact wrench in there, so you take an old beater wrench and whack it with a hammer. I use old screwdrivers for all sorts of non-intended uses. Now, if someone else is using my tools, no, I won't stand for abuse. That's why the beater tools are hanging on the wall in plain sight, while the good stuff is in drawers.

This. While I won't loan tools to anyone, I also don't dare leave the good stuff out in the open. The basic tools in the house are 'adequate' import stuff, but nothing of good quality is left to for anyone to find in a pinch. Someone looking for a pry bar is not going to chance upon my PB Swiss screwdrivers, nor will those in need of a hammer be contemplating which ratchet looks to be the heaviest.

I wouldn't be very happy at all if someone used my tools like that, at least without asking.

I've done the "use what you have to make it work" thing, but it's a decision I'm making with my tools. I generally have a beater set for stuff that's likely to be put in that situation (e.g. screwdrivers) too.

... and this too. If someone's going to abuse it, it should be the person who paid for it.

I never cease to be amazed, not just with tools, by how people can mistreat other folks' property. I get different strokes for different folks, but the lack of basic respect for someone else's things (and the hard earned income that went into purchasing them) can be truly astounding. It's one of those things where if I see someone treating other people's property like ****, I more or less write them off as assholes and will have as little as possible to do with them going forward.

 

[slowtwitch73]

We are all solidly in one of about 3 camps on this subject... and all 3 are fully valid.

Can anybody name the 3 camps? Let's share the fun.

I'm in the buy good **** and use it camp. That's what its for.

 

[cannuck]

I get paid by day to be the mechanical guy in an electrical world, and missuse of tools is rampant in the sparky world. I am known as the tool Nazi there, but have to admit that often I will carelessly do something as ridiculous as use an adjustable wrench when the correct tool is only a few steps away. My shop helper today is our 10 YO grandson who is an extremely keen observer, and I find the need to discipline myself is now ultra-critical. Yes, he will abuse a tool by copying what he has seen in the world of screens or real life outside of our shop, but if I show him the right way, he will follow it to the last detail. I am 100% delighted that I must now practice 100% of what I preach.

 

[JradM]

I have tools relegated for abuse - and I have tools that are to be used only for their intended purpose. Despite the fact that they are in separate tool chests, my wife remains unable to grasp the difference.

 

[M635_Guy]

I get paid by day to be the mechanical guy in an electrical world, and missuse of tools is rampant in the sparky world.

In the world of casual users abusing tools, it seems like it's mostly about being unprepared or uninformed, though certainly there's a "doesn't give a ****" group. As I'm unprepared or uninformed about lots of things, I'm OK with those, especially if they ask questions/etc. I distrust the "doesn't give a ****" crew...

I have tools relegated for abuse - and I have tools that are to be used only for their intended purpose. Despite the fact that they are in separate tool chests, my wife remains unable to grasp the difference.

I knew exactly what you're talking about...

 

[Jagmandave]

When I taught college automotive courses I would do a big show and tell - I would hold up a hammer and a set of pliers or a big wrench - "one of these is a hammer, the other isn't" - and go thru all the usual tools to at least try and instill a sense of using the right tool for the job.

None of the jobs I do now are so time constrained that I can't walk the less than 10 ft over to the tool box to get the correct tool.....

 

[Al Borland]

DON'T give good tools to laborers! Give them something from the "Tools for Fools" collection.
They're not "Good' tools, but they're "Good Enough".

 

[kelpaso1]

I have been known to use my cutting torch as a hammer and then complain that the tips are f..ked


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I had neighbor do that when I let him use my torch. Told him WTF are you doing? He was not allowed to use it again.