Stuff that was never made, but you thought it was...

[jeejay]

I'm in between connecting the dots on some things, or has everything been done with tools already, besides automating everything?

For example, I didn't know about automatic tire inflation, until I got into trucking, then ended up tearing it apart to replace a valve underneath, which they retrofit it to, so whatever (I don't think it was ever really made). All it did was overcomplicate replacing the one field replaceable part on the wheel, which in turn defeated the whole system anyway (that's the problem with automation, nobody does enough maintenence without it, so how do they expect requiring more maintenance with it to work)...

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

Are we supposed to reply to the title or the post?

There are new ways of cutting, shaping, forming, joining, moving all types of materials coming out all the time. There are new materials coming out regularly.

 

[bobcatdan]

I find it some times weird looking in old tool catalogs and find stuff I think is common as dirt and existed forever is not in there. Always makes me wonder how 1952 mechanic survived without something I use 30 times a day.

 

[jeejay]

I'm usually thinking something is a given, then have a hard time finding it. Like today I was looking for a black denim vest, nothing much around town though, so I check online, and what do you know, Levi's called theirs a "trucker vest", like some classic piece of equipment, and then discontinued it!

Finally found something of the kind at Burlington... I figure if it doesn't fit, at least that would be home decor, garage style.

 

[BioNerd]

18V power de-quiffer

 

[redmondjp]

A Lisle deframulator socket; essential for working on 1970s domestic car emission systems.

Not to mention the muffler bearing installation tool which was equally essential back in the 1950s - those are getting pretty hard to find these days, and not many people even know what they look like.

 

[mike.zeiderman]

Striped flight line paint, been looking for it since I was in The Marines 89-93, also looking for an ID-10T Tag, Sarge said it was next to the paint.

Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

 

[ambenz]

I have been looking for a rice peeler, no one seems to sell them!
Also, my hardware store doesn't sell gig line or bulkhead remover. For the truck, a ash reciever would be cool.....in all joking aside, I would love to buy that magic pill that would make cute girls swoon at my beck and call.

 

[four.cycle]

well... maybe you just aren't looking in the right places for those hard-to-find items, like .... blinker fluid:

http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=22

.... now if I could just get a line on a new water pump for a 1965 Chevrolet Monza coupe....

 

[four.cycle]

My cousin Loren worked the night shift at a Chevron station just off the 84th Street exit on I-5. They ran 2 service bays 24-7 there.
Customer drove in one night with a car that was chugging and huffing and puffing and the driver asked Loren if he could take a look at it.
Opening the hood, Loren quickly determined that the ************* the guy was driving was hardly worth putting money into, let alone getting a perfectly good wrench dirty, so he poked around a little bit and hemmed and hawed and in his usual deadpan serious tone told the man "I think what you need is a can of compression."
"How much will that cost?"
"Well, we sell it for $9.95, but I sold my last can a couple hours ago."
"Where can I get some?"
"Let me make a call and see if I can find some."
So Loren went in the office and called one of his buddies who worked at a different all-night gas station and told him he was sending a guy over for a can of compression.
After giving the man directions to the other shop, Loren made a few more phone calls to his other buddies, all of whom were on the same bowling/drinking team and all of whom worked at all-night gas stations.
They ran that guy all over South Tacoma the better part of the night.

(And I know it wasn't BS, because Monty was one of the guys, and he told me the same story a couple years later - he had no idea I even knew Loren, let alone that we were related.)

 

[PSYKO_Inc]

I'm still waiting for the Milwaukee M18 Fuel power chicken plucker.

 

[Milton Shaw]

Psyko, Milwaukee makes that only in the M12 line. They came out with it to complete the line, its on the page with power tampon remover. The M18 version was made for Canadian Geese only, it tore chickens up.

 

[redmondjp]

When I worked at a heavy truck assembly plant, whenever the wire harness or battery cable wouldn't reach, they would send the newbie down to the tool crib to fetch the wire stretcher (it never failed; somebody else in the plant already had that checked out).

Or if something got spilled, they would send newbie to get the bucket of steam (calling ahead to the tool crib to have it ready). Newbie would end up carrying a 5-gallon metal pail full of sand with a hose sticking out of it all the way back to the line . . .

Oh, for those of you in the electronics industry, here's a product that I have been trying to perfect the design on for the past 30 years, so far without success: the wireless wrist strap. That would turn the electrostatic discharge protection industry on its head!

 

[slow_mow]

I've been looking for the Keys to the Sea Chest for the last 10 years!! No longer in the Coast Guard, but I still laugh about it from time to time. The look On the LT. Commanders face was priceless when I asked him for the "Keys"

 

[PSYKO_Inc]

An air traffic controller friend of mine told me a story about how he and his crew sent a newbie all over the base for the keys to the approach gate. He eventually ended up at the base commander's house at 0430. The base commander did not appreciate the humor.

 

[jeejay]

This thing

It's like the next step in de-evolving the monkey wrench > crescent wrench > "total wrench" (except it keeps getting smaller)!

 

[twertsy]

Completely legitimate; I watched a show years ago talking about the potato industry. They were showing how they peeled mass amounts of potatoes with a steam blaster. They claimed that they lose at least 1/3 of the "meat" from every potato. They also claimed that if someone were to invent an industrial peeler that took only the skin, they'd be an instant billionaire.

 

[creativecars]

I have been looking for a rice peeler, no one seems to sell them!
Also, my hardware store doesn't sell gig line or bulkhead remover. For the truck, a ash reciever would be cool.....in all joking aside, I would love to buy that magic pill that would make cute girls swoon at my beck and call.

It's called alcohol, only works on 2%... and it makes the other 98% crazy enough to kill you!!

BTW... wedding cake makes them crazy too.