some interesting stuff shows up on Facebook Marketplace.

 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2429701404176081

a solution for mounting even the most stubborn tire beads, the Smart Lever created by Bicycle Innovations. The lever has articulated parts similar in design to the lever shapes used when car tires are mounted by machines

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/products/youll-never-go-back-to-the-old-way-of-mounting-tyres-new-smart-tyre-lever-solves-one-of-cyclings-most-stubborn-problems

loving this garage eye candy

 

Love those tool displays

https://pipeburn.com/a-day-with-shinya-kimura/

nifty... how have I never seen a set of these until now?

 

I pulled 3 socket wrenches out of a tool box I got at an estate sale last year, it's amazing how many Craftsman tools were in it. And I found something interesting I'd never noticed about 3/8th wrenches before. An oil fitting

does anyone remember what is needed to inject oil in that spring loaded ball orifice? Some special oil can? 

when you've got a hobby of collecting swap meet stuff on the cheap, I bet something like this costs about a hundred bucks, tops

https://www.tumblr.com/cncenginedynamics

loving this, and missing working with machine shop guys.

I have one Starrett product not in this display case... a steel ruler. Damn right I snapped that up at a swap meet. Might never use it, but after the zombiepocalypse, someone will find it and rebuild the world, perfectly square and measured exactly to the micron

By the way, I love displays of tools, and Starrett. I have a couple micrometers, a set of adjustable parallels, that steel ruler, a depth gauge, and a dial indicator

https://www.tumblr.com/cncenginedynamics

what a Ferrari dealership tool board looks like

coming to auction in 3 weeks, in Paris 

https://www.artcurial.com/en/sales/6480

I just read a good write up about buying vintage Craftsman tools

it's a fact that if you're earning a living from tools, you must have some good ones that won't let you down, and Craftsman were those for sure, Snap On if you were making really good money, same goes for Proto.

But, for the past decade or so, it's been a waste of money to buy craftsman, because the warranty thing is done, over and gone. https://www.geekbobber.com/2017/01/craftsman-tools-sold.html is the write up. 

I've been buying a tool box of old Craftsman now and then, because estate sales sometimes have a mixed box of whatever

The above is the latest box I got last spring or summer, that's a good bunch for about 100. I'm pretty sure that's about what they charge now for tools that don't meet my standard for quality, and I doubt I'll ever be earning a living from them again. Plus, I don't have any one who is inheriting my tools. 

I do know I have to figure something out about that. I have to figure out who I want to give them to, so far, I'm undecided between the boy scouts, McPherson College students, Piston Foundation, or something on those lines. 

It's been on my mind for a long time. About 15 years ago I made the acquaintance of Jay, a reader that has a Superbird but no kids. He told me about his decision to give it to the kid in town that has been nuts about it for a long time, who comes over to wash it, and change the oil, and impressed Jay so much, he talked to his wife and they decided to give the kid the Superbird someday, or if the Jay dies unexpectedly. 

And that came on the heels of a friend of mine dying young of cancer. Younger than I am now. That's gut punch, and a sudden adulting moment which caused me to no longer ignore my bucket kicking someday in the future. So, the 35 years of tools collected, and the R/T, and the rest of my stuff, are things I need to figure out what will happen to them when I kick the bucket. Hopefully my nephew wants all of it, and handles the whole thing. I know my sister is my estate executor, and does not want to come to deal with my stuff in the chance I die before her. Specifically because having the 1st time being in California should not be to run a burial. I get that. But because her son, my nephew, has no such lifelong connection, lived together, talked on the phone for decades, etc, I think it'd be cool for him to just grab a flight, show up, grab the keys, and suddenly have a commuter, a couple garages full of stuff and a cool R/T, books, blu rays, tools, etc 

1931 build sheet check off list for a Cadillac

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/381/

probably a traveling salesman's inventory

I can read Black and Decker in the lower right side, is it a mill? Lathe? I don't know 

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/473/

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/archival-item/sova-nmah-ac-1441-ref165

Companies would sometimes deface tool sets when selling on industrial contracts (such as trade schools, military, mining) so that they did not end up being warrantied at a local dealer level. The discount to the schools and students could be as high as 60% depending on the vendor.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/483964356970950/permalink/1147500223950690/

remember when yardsticks were everywhere, advertising hardware stores?

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2025/12/tooltime.html

the Walton tap extractor, a tool I didn't know existed

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=26212563814998520&set=gm.1135796671787712&idorvanity=483964356970950

I like this old Snap On design, but, why collect so many?

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2025/11/nice.html

the Torque Test Channel on YouTube posted a video putting the saying “they don’t make them like they used to” to the test. It's true, new tools were proven to be made of 8% weaker steel when testing 1/2 to 3/8ths adapters

https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/are-older-tools-stronger-than-new-ones/

Long before aircraft engines, Pratt & Whitney was a machine tool company, and a maker of precision measuring instruments, founded in 1860

Pratt & Whitney began in a small way in about 1860. The founders, Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney, were working at George S. Lincoln & Co.'s Phoenix Iron Works when they decided to establish their own firm but they both kept their jobs at Lincoln & Co. In 1862 Pratt & Whitney's shop was lost to fire. 

Messrs. Pratt and Whitney took on a partner, Monroe Stannard, who helped them establish a new shop; with Stannard joining the firm the name changed slightly to Pratt, Whitney & Co.. 

The Civil War led to a large increase in business, mainly for machines for manufacturing Colt firearms. In 1864, Messrs. Pratt and Whitney began working full-time for their own firm. In 1869 the Pratt & Whitney Co. was incorporated.

In 1925 the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co. was established to manufacture airplane engines.

http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=1412

https://www.lathes.co.uk/Pratt-Whitney-Precision-Measuring-Machines/#google_vignette

whoa... very cool

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10234700751732888&set=g.132380976935515

San Francisco has a 47-acre recycling and recovery center at the dump, where more than 100 tons or trash arrive daily, and for decades, artists have special scavenging privileges to rework the discarded things as art objects.

Acoustic Locator,  2012,  Terry Berlier
metal wheels, galvanized metal, steel, wood column, wood shelves, airline tie-down strapping

Impala,  2007,  Nemo Gould 

made from an electric sander, band saw blade wheels, projector flywheel, vacuum cleaner handles, meat grinder, motorcycle clutch lever, scavenged antlers, garlic press, conduit cover, and cheese slicers

the resulting creativity from dozens of Artists In Residence was on full display as 2,000 people attended the opening of a free exhibition featuring 35 years of artwork—a retrospective embodying the phrase ‘trash to treasure’

Nemo Gould makes a lot of cool stuff  https://www.instagram.com/nemomatic/

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/san-franciscos-trash-company-marks-35-years-of-stunning-art-made-from-recycled-garbage-by-local-artists/

https://www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/art-recology-artist-residence-program-1990-2013/gallery#1

https://www.instagram.com/nemomatic

https://www.bedfordgallery.org/exhibitions/exhibition-archive/reclaimed

https://nemogould.com/category/nemomatic/

A curious set of car tools, from an odd catch all tool box I got at the LA Roadster Swap Meet

 Left to right, 

A Fram brand filter wrench. I don't think it's big enough for a PH-8, but I'll find out eventually

A test light, doesn't seem to have been used, but was seriosuly made well to last for ever

A Dunlap tire puncture electric hot iron? 

A set of Wards Taskmaster (I think it was) or WardsMaster ignition tool wrench set. Built to last forever

A variety of lug nuts. Interesting that they are a mix of types, but all 7/16ths

and a very cool cigarette lighter flexi light! 

I doubt I will ever use them, true, but, they were in a good ol Craftsman metal tool box from the 60s, with a lot of Craftsman tools, both 1/4, 3/8, and some 1/2 inch drive sockets, three 3/8ths socket wrenches, and you can never have too many of those, a 1/2 drive socket wrench, some 4, 6, and 10" extensions, a handful of pliers from some other brand, good ones, a set of Stanley screwdrivers, a few real vice grips not the bullshit knock off no name brand ones. And one hell of a nice 1/2 inch socket breaker, about 16-20 inch long handle.  Also a LOT of craftsman combo wrenchs. 

I didn't pass on these, even though I don't need them... because simply, no one makes good tools at this price anymore, certainly not the good Craftsman quality we are familiar with. They'll last forever, even used daily.