Man of Many Vices
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2012
- Messages
- 366
I am an over-the-hill, semi-retired, eager to learn new-to-me subjects.... in other words, every subject in this forum. I have enjoyed reading GJ for the past year as a visitor, and now look forward to even more as a member.
As my tag implies, I was bit by the vise bug after reading about them in this forum. I didn't know the difference between USA and China made vises. I have now rescued close to 100 old USA made vises (Wilton bullets from 2 to 6 inches, Athols to 7 inches, Reeds to 6 inches, Rock Islands, Prentiss, and other oddball finger and post vices, 1-inch and up.)
A question I don't answer is, "Why?"
I have learned from this forum that there are so many more great tools out there in addition to the few excellent truck brands...., and a lotta junk elsewhere.
I am especially fond of the many great USA brands from a generation or two ago. I get great satisfaction collecting and restoring these older tools to the working condition and appearance they had when the mechanic put 'em in the box for the last time, often decades earlier, where they sat until discovered by a grandson or nephew.
Today's consumer wants something new and shiny. Now you can buy chrome-peel Craftsman and Snap-on stickered "tools" at Costco, one mile west of my house in Indio, California. The newest Harbor Freight just opened last month one mile east.
But with throwaway microwave ovens, computers, TVs, and cellphones, maybe HF (and IKEA) are onto something. As the recent thread about the guy who bought $4,000 in HF tools makes clear, he is now instantly in business. He can use his tools to make money to feed his family today, and replace individual tools as needed. Not for me, though.
I'm not going to surrender our Flag. Not when there are plenty of older USA-made tools waiting for younger hands, often at prices cheaper than HF.
I admit, on the obsessive-compulsive scale I am somewhere between American Picker and Hoarder, with no free space left in the garage to actually do much work other than cleaning up the old tools I drag home. So, maybe new and shiny makes more sense.
Wife wonders if I ever actually use any of the tools I have. I explain that I use this old screwdriver to scrape the gunk off that wrench to replace the rusty mount bolts on the beat up bench grinder to wire wheel that classic vise I will use to hold an old ball pein hammer head while I install a new handle so that I can flatten the tip on that old screwdriver that I dinged up because I used it as a scraper.
O.K., I hear you. I should spend more time reading the forums than yapping. Maybe I will learn a little more. This I look forward to, and I thank you all for this opportunity.
Dan Schmidt
Indio, California
As my tag implies, I was bit by the vise bug after reading about them in this forum. I didn't know the difference between USA and China made vises. I have now rescued close to 100 old USA made vises (Wilton bullets from 2 to 6 inches, Athols to 7 inches, Reeds to 6 inches, Rock Islands, Prentiss, and other oddball finger and post vices, 1-inch and up.)
A question I don't answer is, "Why?"
I have learned from this forum that there are so many more great tools out there in addition to the few excellent truck brands...., and a lotta junk elsewhere.
I am especially fond of the many great USA brands from a generation or two ago. I get great satisfaction collecting and restoring these older tools to the working condition and appearance they had when the mechanic put 'em in the box for the last time, often decades earlier, where they sat until discovered by a grandson or nephew.
Today's consumer wants something new and shiny. Now you can buy chrome-peel Craftsman and Snap-on stickered "tools" at Costco, one mile west of my house in Indio, California. The newest Harbor Freight just opened last month one mile east.
But with throwaway microwave ovens, computers, TVs, and cellphones, maybe HF (and IKEA) are onto something. As the recent thread about the guy who bought $4,000 in HF tools makes clear, he is now instantly in business. He can use his tools to make money to feed his family today, and replace individual tools as needed. Not for me, though.
I'm not going to surrender our Flag. Not when there are plenty of older USA-made tools waiting for younger hands, often at prices cheaper than HF.
I admit, on the obsessive-compulsive scale I am somewhere between American Picker and Hoarder, with no free space left in the garage to actually do much work other than cleaning up the old tools I drag home. So, maybe new and shiny makes more sense.
Wife wonders if I ever actually use any of the tools I have. I explain that I use this old screwdriver to scrape the gunk off that wrench to replace the rusty mount bolts on the beat up bench grinder to wire wheel that classic vise I will use to hold an old ball pein hammer head while I install a new handle so that I can flatten the tip on that old screwdriver that I dinged up because I used it as a scraper.
O.K., I hear you. I should spend more time reading the forums than yapping. Maybe I will learn a little more. This I look forward to, and I thank you all for this opportunity.
Dan Schmidt
Indio, California
Can't argue with that. 
Looks like another Garage/Shop renovation thread. If it's husband and wife, I'm not working through 273 pages to find out... (Although I like the building and the restore, I'd have kept/reused a lot more of the original stuff if it were me)
