What's Your Oldest Working Tool?
 

No, not that one. One you still use that's been passed down or you've had for ions and it still works a treat.

Pics required.

So my boss don't count then? everyone calls him a tool

I have a home-made drill press that my grandfather made back in the 1930s. It has poured babbitt bearings that are now sort of sloppy, but it actually works!

Pictures!

You'll have to wait for the pictures, but my great grandfather was a blacksmith and I've got a lot of tools that he made, all stamped
Jacob Weaver
Muir, PA

Everything from ball-peen hammers and dead blow hammers to hatchets to fireplace tongs to straight razors.

You'l laugh. It looks like crap, but it's sort of a family heirloom. I keep dragging it around each time we move. I'll try to remember to take a pic...

This doesn't really count, but I ALMOST bought this forge on Saturday.

For $200, I am really kicking myself for not buying it:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_p71v9ofBM6...1600/forge.JPG

My wife was away for the weekend too, she wouldn't have caught me sneaking it into the garage

very cool. The fact that it's hand made and still works today is awesome.

Early Sun Distributor Machine, not sure of the year. Last used to check the advance on my 911's distributor.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219237124.jpg

Its an oldie. 110 volts to power the electric motor (to spin the distributor), 12volt leads have to attach to a battery. And it uses two, D-cell flashlight batteries (under these covers) ...for what purpose, I have no idea?


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219237344.jpg


Another:

Black And Decker Body Grinder (circa 1940s?).

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219237433.jpg

So you think that new Dodge Ram pickup with the Hemi has torque?....Pfffft! Lightweights! This was previously owned by my BIL's father who was a body man for about 40 years. It must weigh 10 lbs! No wonder his forearms looked like Popeyes! I cannot imagine using this thing all day.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219237477.jpg

Hummm...Type "R"? Probably the sound you make between your clinched teeth ...as you operated the heavy bassturd!

He also said working.

I've got an axe handed down through at least three generations of Higgins. It's absolutely indestructable. I wish they still made them like that. Hell, in the whole time we've had it, it's only needed two new heads and four or five new handles.

Ummm, so where's the original part?

I have a mid 50s vintage Sears electric drill that Dad bought new. Other than that, I still have most of the original tool kit from my '65 356. And I still have a working IBM 286.

How long is an "ion"?

I've got an old Thor drill I use every now and then and a Craftsman radial arm saw. I also have used this a couple of times, a Unimat hobby/jewelers lathe that I'm probably going to put on Evil Bay.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219249962.jpg

I've got a full set of wentworth wrenches from the 1920's that are still like new. I haven't worked on any old Rolls Royce in years and hope to never touch one again, but I'll keep the wrenches anyway.

My 1906 Winchester .22 pump-action is probably the oldest working tool I have. I still have my grandfather's Army Air Corps tool chest from when he wrenched on planes in WWII. It's a beast.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219251521.jpg

i have a screwdriver that is older, and i use that much more often than this. but this is much nicer.

I have an old Craftsman hand drill that belonged to my wife's grandfather. It has a wood screw-off cap that threads onto the hollow wood handle, and inside the handle are a full set of non-twist drill bits. I also have a set of calipers that belonged to him as well.

I don't use the old bits, but I use the calipers frequently, and the drill all the time (to drill pilot holes in tight spots where an electric drill won't fit).

I think about him every time I use them, and wish I had been able to know him. I hope to pass my tools on to someone who appreciates them...

You've probably all seen ones like them before, but I'll try to post a picture later.

I see if I can remember to get some pics...

But my friends dad gave me his heathkit VTVM and heathkit analog vacuum tube O-scope, I have vowed to clean them up an get them working.

Also found my dad's old slide rule digging through some drawers.

I should take a picture of the DeWalt radial arm saw at my in-law's lumberyard. I'd guess it's from the '40s or so. Apparently DeWalt actually invented the radial arm saw. It's a big SOB, everything on it is steel. Still works like new.

Serial number range on this Colt is around 315,000....give or take a few thousand.


I have a Padlock on my gate where the Patent date is 1905. I have quiet a few old Wescott Wrenches, A RR Pipe Wrench that all belonged to GP. I still even have his Mould making tools that he used at Ford. GP started at Ford in 1916 and retired in 1959. So a lot of the tools I have date from the turn of the century...1900 that is...

Every Ford car made between 1916 and 1959 had parts where GP made the moulds for them. GP did a lot of the moulds for restoration of stuff in the Henry Ford Museum.

The old southbend still working great! Along with some of the tools from my Grandfathers machine shop.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...91/testbar.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...er91/tools.jpg

Those look like .45 Colt rounds. Unless I'm mistaken, and they are actually .44 WCF's (aka .44-40), they don't go with that Peacemaker. The only Peacemakers marked "Frontier Six Shooter" were .44 and .38 WCF's, meant to go along with Winchester's '73's and '92's. I do see five in the cylinder, so maybe the angle just makes it hard to see the bottleneck on them. Very cool gun at any rate.

If we are including guns as "working tools" (and why not?), I'll throw in my 1872 vintage Ballard Pacific in .45-70. Unrestored original condition. I still hunt with it regularly, having taken one of my biggest mulies with it, a non typical 5 x 7.

Care to sell that to me?

I just donated my oldest tool -it was a 1954 homelite chain saw. Blue and cream case. We referred to it as "the widowmaker"

No chain brake, no safety features, no kills switch - the throttle would stick on it all the time and you would have to pull the spark plug off it to stop it. Scared me everytime I started it.

Good riddance...

My oldest "tool", dragging the ring:cool: She'll kill me if you ever sees this!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219261372.jpg

LOL, sorry, meant aeon. Was a long day.

My 1950 Ford 8N tractorhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219269172.jpg

"Serial number range on this Colt is around 315,000....give or take a few thousand."


tabs is right on the money.......... ser.#301xxx. manufactured around 1908.

1959 Evinrude light twin outboard motor.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219270432.jpg

just remembered another very useful old tool. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1219270810.jpg

? Sapporo Beer?

:D

I want a Ford Tractor. I used to ride one when I was a kid. I liked how cute it looked next to the Fergy :)

Another long day?

Don't you mean eon?

hehehe

You could spell it either way.