Mechanic's Tool Chart

[Jebb1978]

1. DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted part you were drying.



2. WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whirls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "****!!!"



3. ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until they get red hot. Alternatively, to make short drill bits out of long ones.



4. PLIERS: Used to round off hexagonal bolt heads.



5. HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle: It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.



6. VISE GRIP PLIERS: Used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand. Alternatively, see (4.) Pliers, above.



7. OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for setting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside a wheel hub you're trying to get the bearing race out of.



8. WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly as a sub for that 9/16 or
1/2" socket you've been searching for, for the last 15 minutes.



9. HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new disk brake pads, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.



10. EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 4X4: Used to attempt to lever an automobile upward off a hydraulic jack handle.



11. TWEEZERS: A tool for removing splinters of wood, especially Douglas fir.



12. TELEPHONE: Tool for calling your neighbor to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.



13. SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for removing dog feces from your boots.



14. E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit. See (3.) Electric hand drill, above



15. TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of bolts and fuel lines you forgot to disconnect.



16. CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large pry bar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.



17. AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.



18. TROUBLE LIGHT: The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a droplight, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.



19. PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used, as the name implies, to round off the interiors of Phillips screw heads.



20. AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to an Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last tightened 70 years ago and rounds them off or twists them off. See (14) E-Z Out, above



21. PRY BAR: A tool used to ruin all metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part. See (16) above



22. HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses 1/2 inch too short.



23. HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate impossible-to-replace parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.



24. MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door. Works particularly well on fingers and hands.