wayneburgess

I am very old school.But I still move with the times as far as investing in tools. But I've sent a few guys off the job with a flea in the ear who turned up with rusty badly cared for bags of rust and ruin.

Please describe Biscuits? Because over here they are a sweet not a savoury.

I just have a couple for work.Most knives seem outlawed here.I can see the point.But in my job a good strong blade comes in real handy.

I find it very interesting that over here because we had a bad run of knife crime, the rules on the sales of knives are very tough over here in the U.K and anyone carrying certain ones can get locked up, but it does mean we don't get the choice you guys do on what we have.

Nice one LOL.

I will look at them

Lets just hope with forums like this manufacturers realise we can all compare notes on what they do and keep them in line and get them to pull out of China and come home and build quality product that are the same standard wherever you buy them.

I've got a cracking little U.S made pen knife I carry on the job site for opening stuff and sharpening pencils e.t.c. about 3" blade slight hook in the cutting edge folds nice but not a clue what make it is but its solid as a rock.

Gas fired are common but not air power.

Blackhawk

If you folks can get the BBC please watch and enjoy the events put on this next few days in the U.K for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

The quick is another drill all together and has no hammer action. My LTX hammer has impulse. But the L.T.X Quick is a drill driver with no hammer that has the quick chuck and accepts all the attachments. Then there is my fave tool that I bought the L.T.X Impact driver which is just a beast. I have to say I am interested how the Hammer drill shapes up and compares to the fuel. I have had a reply from Metabo who say it is a patent issue and impulse will be on the L.T.X range later this year. It takes a little longer for me to get information from Metabo because I have to translate the question into German and then back again when they reply. It seems patent law is slower in the U.S so that may explain why things happen the way they do.

England one Belgium nil This was the result of last nights football match by the way LOL

I think Hilti got sussed out real quick over here in the U.K. The word was yep they make a great tool, BUT you have to take it back to them, and only them for service, they were trying to strap you down to long expensive contracts at a time when there was not a lot of work out there. And using myself as an example, I bought a GX100 hilti gun to fire pipe clips e.t.c. on a job. Hilti brought out the GX120 and changed the nails and fixings, so now the older model is getting harder to buy nails e.t.c for and Hilti just expect someone like me to suddenly find the money to buy a new one. Well I am sorry Hilti, you have lost my custom for good and that of thousands of others with this kind of crap. And also a little bit of info I found out about Mr Martin Hilti.

It is a bit mad that some things are branded under different names but are exactly the same depending on which side of the pond you are. And it seems the majority have many if not all the components made in China to save money. The best we seem to be able to hope for is that the better brands will keep an eye on the quality of what comes out of these Chinese factories and have good quality control in place. I was interested to read that the company that owns Milwaukee is based in Hong Kong and also owns Ryobi and A.E.G, Hoover and many others. But like I said Stanley bringing some of its manufacturing back to the U.K does mean there is hope for the U.S.A too.

More and more Stanley products are now being made in sheffield England.

Furnished tools is another thing that is as rare as horns on a duck.

It wasn't that long ago that over here there was a notice up on trains saying "please do not use the toilet while the train is in the station" this was because when you flushed the toilet it just dropped right out on the track. LOL

A little different over here pal when you live in a country where we have 1 poisonous snake, and a Badger or a Dear are the two biggest wildlife threats to man.LOL The knife over here probably has more chance of hurting its owner than any critter hahahaha.

LOL Mr Crapper did not invent the toilet but he did invent the ballcock and was someone who help make it popular. Funny thing the toilet it's a true statement of fact that the real inventor of the modern flushing toilet John Harrington, must have sat on his idea for a bit. LOL

Is it getting to the point now where the old practice of sharpening and oiling and cleaning tools is in decline, and things are becoming far too disposable?

Over here in the U.K we don't use air tools on site. At least in my experience I have seen very very few.But it is always possible to clean up your power tools and get them serviced regularly to reduce down time.

The trouble is the drill the guys got from Metabo did not have this function and it seems it is not on tools sold in the U.S.A for some reason. I am trying to find out why but as yet have not had a reply from Metabo.

The drill will automatically go stop start stop start from zero on the trigger to pulsing on and off very quickly as you pull the trigger in. This means you can start a drill off on tiles or polished metal with a lot less chance of skidding across the surface and scratching it. It's one of those things that once you have it you never want to be without it. Another use is when you have a screw with hardly any guts in it where it has a head that's been partly stripped out, you put the drill on impulse in reverse and it takes out the screw in most cases. It also gives you a bit more grunt in reverse if a drill bit gets a bit choked up when you are pulling it out of the work.

What tips do you have for looking after hand tools?