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Mahan’s comment reminds me of my days woking my way through school, as a sales clerk in Division 9 of Sears, Roebuck. That’s the HARDWARE dept.
I was the ranking clerk one Sunday and so had to O.K. all returns & replacements. Bob, another clerk, presented me with a replacement form to sign for a dozen or so 6-point sockets, half-inch drive. So I ask Bob where the sockets are. We’re up on an elevated cashiers platform. He gestures to the counter. I pick up one socket after another and see that the side of each is split and that the corners of the drive end socket are all deformed–it’s clear that they’ve been heavily used on an impact driver. So I turn to Bob and say “Hey, look, some asshole’s been using these on an impact wrench!” Bob clears his throat and motions to this customer standing right in front of us…I think, oh, shit I’m gonna get my ass chewed by the store manager. I turn to the customer and in an Eddie Haskell tone say, “Excuse me sir, could these possibly been used on an impact wrench?” The guy acts guilty and says, “well, yea, maybe once or twice…”. So of course we gave him replacements and a suggestion that maybe he’d like to buy the impact-rated sockets…
That’s what’s great about Sears. And a hint: if a clerk on the floor doesn’t want to replace a Craftsman hand tool, go to the manager, or to customer service. You’ll get the replacement.
Replies
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I remember working on one of those large "volunteer" projects years ago.I needed a chisel to knock a little chunk of wood out of a cut. Since my chisels were out in the truck,but my cheap(but very usefull) 4in1 screwdriver was in my tool belt you know what I used.3 seconds later-mission accomplished----lets get on with the job.-------Thats when one of my volunteer assistants proceeds to lecture me( in front of about 5 other guys. It seems this guys father was a union carpenter for like 40 years and gramps would never have been caught dead using a screwdriver for a chisel. He would have gone out to the truck---got the proper tool for the job,and done it up right.
So I turned around,looked at the guy and said"well if we were being paid union scale here,I would probably do just that.I might even take the time to sharpen the chisel first.but since I am giving my time away here ,and results are what count,lets do it my way."
Screw driver for chisel---no problem
chisel for screwdriver---thats a flogging offense.Should have used a claw hammer for a screwdriver.
good luck,Stephen
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And just another scam to pull with those worn out or abused tools we have: Just before that tape is ready to break and fly back into its case, put it under the seat or in some other handy spot. Then retrieve it when that designer or homeowner asks to borrow your rule. With any luck, she'll break in their hand. Being so sorry, they'll buy you a new one. Serves them right for taking the one thing you should never be without. Same thing goes for that cracked, but not visible hammer handle. It puts em right back in their place.
The two things dearest in life are the tools of the trade and the darling wife. Don't ask to borrow my tools.......and I won't ask to borrow your wife.
*Forgive me guys... it was about 3 weeks ago. While hooking up a setback thermostat, I was short one of those miniature flat screwdrivers. (pause) So, instead of looking around for them, they weren't immedietly visible, I took 3 steps, picked up a nice robertson screwdriver that had served me well for years...and ....(gulp) proceeded to grind it down on the beltsander to suit my own purposes. I think I feel better...but I do have another confession. It was about 12 or 13 years ago. I was in high school and working my way through doing exhaust work for a small muffler shop. Hi again CAP! Nice to see you alive and well after all these years! LOL (we actually had to heat some of those sockets with a torch to get them off. In fact I cut a few off with a torch, but didn't have the nerve to return them too!)
*I need to pack up my tools and move to your town!!A true Guiness lover...Dave
*True confessions are getting out of hand, Lawrence is claiming to have worked his way through high school? Joe H
*I came home from work one day a few years ago to find my wife bustin the last few wall tiles off the bathroom wall, with a couple of brand new chisels from a nice set I had just bought a week or two before. Hadnt even used them yet.I lit in on her about using my tools and she said "isnt this a chisel, that's what this book said to use".So I calmly explained the difference between a wood chisel and a cold chisel. Wouldnt have been nearly as pissed if she'd used my brand new screw driver. Chuck
*A "wonder bar" makes a decent chisel in a pinch.
*Rich; .....well, I'd say something, but I'm not speaking to you.
*i Nowwhat did I miss??Rich Beckman
*If you can't find the hammer, A pair of channel locks will propel the chisel/screwdriver quite nicely.
*Geeeze Rob....*flinch*, that is the worst yet!!!Hey, gents...how about banning Rob from chisel use for a month or two. Suddenly my sins don't seem quite so horrible, channel locks??? That is excruciating!!!Lawrence *shocked and amazed*
*We have (had) an old rotted "bridge" (I'm being very charitable here) across the stream here. Worked fine until the 7-year-old decided to help me out, & delivered a pile of rotted/painted/nailed wood to my smoking area, informing me that he had helped me out by fixing the "broken bridge". Fair nuff/ I walked back to discover an array of rusted nails (minus the Heads) sticking out of the cross-planks (can't think of the correct terminology). So I went back there with my 3' crowbar. Started to pull nails. Found out that the support columns were bolted (galvanized) to the cross bars. I was p***ed, & didn't want to walk back to the house to get the wrenches & pliers. I had at the bridge with my crowbar....would have made an old Viking smile! Like something out of Monty Python!The bridge is down, my crowbar still works, nobody got hurt, and I'm planning the replacement. A big flat rock might be the answer.
*...and a wonder bra gives them a nice pinch to give them that chiseled look...
*Please, no channel locks! I'm due for a mammo and that sounds cold, baby!
*Pretty quick for an insomniac-pm
*Per, a little advice:Don't smoke the rotted/painted wood. You'll end up like Patrick M.
*You know, if you have those slip jawed channel locks lots of times you can forego using your screw-chisel altogether by simply getting a good bite and breaking the wood off in chunks. Very manly. Chicks dig it.
*Uh...Rich, it's like "I'm not speaking to Rich because he abused his screwdriver." Okey dokey now?
*One of my first jobs was as a maintenance guy for a large university.One of the other mechanics carried a pair of channel locks and a roll of duct tape.He showed me that you really can fix anything with these two things if you file one handle down like a screwdriver and aren't afraid to use them like a hammer once in a while.
*Well, there you go. Just cause I missed it doesn't mean it isn't obvious!Okey dokey!Rich Beckman
*New Jersey Army Tool!
*Like my mechanic once told me...Every tool is a hammer, except a chisel....that's a screwdriver! I just "temporarily" fixed the garage door on the garage we rent.The cable slipped off the bottom due to a missing cottter pin.I bent a 6d finish nail , pulled it thru the hole and bent it back up. The question is how long(if ever) do ya think it will be until I get a real pin and replace the "temp"?
*I don't think that you should be ashamed . Ask any plumber . They all use them as chisels . So many plumbers I have seen working have a large flat head scredriver that they use to clean out a hole for a pipe they didn't quite place in the right spot . To the point of I joke all the time with this plumber whenever he wants a flathead screwdriver . I come back with " Oh! you mean a plumbers chisel "
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Does something I witnessed count.....If so, I once saw a helper not only using a screwdriver as a prybar to remove shoe moulding, but using a block plane as a hammer....Talk about cold chills up the spine..
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Yesterday. Thank God I was working alone, no one witnessed what I had done. I still can't believe I did it. I mean, it didn't feel nature at all, yet I proceeded as if I always had done it this way.
What I need to know, is there any hope for me. Will I act differently now, will I forever carry some sort of visible blemish. Will others know, just by looking at me, what I had done.
Will they say, "there he goes, the poor sod, he hasn't been the same since that day". "Why, didn't you know? He used a screwdriver for a chisel."
Can anyone tell me what's gonna' happen to me? Like I said, thank God I was working alone.
*Tell us my son, were you wearing safety glasses? Father Joe
*Wrong board, you need the mental health board. I use screwdrivers as chisels, paint stirs, to poke the end out of subfloor adhesive tubes,to pry on every damn thing, as an awl to hold chalk lines..can think of a million things.... Keith
*I'll never forget the Simpsons episode where Homer is trying to fix his camera by pounding on it with an electric drill. The drill breaks, and Homer says "Hmmm... I need a bigger drill"John
*Penance, my son, penance...To be absolved from thy sins, goeth to the Tavern and punish thyself by consuming one pint of Guinness for each woodchip ye illegally removed with thy tool designated for the driving of screws...and, ahh...if you see me there, yell "next round is on me!"
*I use screwdrivers for cement chisels all the time. I use the Craftsman ones. When they are screwed up (pun intended), I throw them in a bucket. When I have a dozen or so, I make a trip to Sears for new ones. You can even sharpen them.Using a wood chisel to drive screws is unforgivable.
*Rich, your're receiving nothing but understanding here, perhaps because we have our own unconfessed transgressions.Had you elected to use a chisel for a screwdriver (especially someone else's chisel) you would find less compassionate responses.Absolvedly, Steve
*Just as long as you used the correctly sized and shaped screwdriver for the job and it is properly boogered you need not worry. Why, in fact, these are exactly the tools I will lend to coworkers or friends without knowing or asking why they need it.Ralph
*...and, as I learned years ago as a kid when doing a "project" for my Mom...if you use a sterling silver butter knife as a screwdriver, you will be unforgiven.I took her to Rome last year...I think she likes me again. Just a little.
*I never can get my sharpening jig on my screwdrivers though, so I just sharpen them with the belt sander. There, I've admitted it and I feel better already.
*I distinctly remember buying my screwdrivers with the chisel option in mind. I look for the sales clerk that is uneducated in the use of tools. This way, when I bring it back cause it's all beat up on the handle end (from the constant hammer blows) they have no idea what I did to that poor, defenseless screwdriver. I usually say a few Hail Mary's, and smack away. Never knew I had a mental condition because of it.James "smacking the daylights outa my screwdrivers" DuHamel
*Mahan's comment reminds me of my days woking my way through school, as a sales clerk in Division 9 of Sears, Roebuck. That's the HARDWARE dept.I was the ranking clerk one Sunday and so had to O.K. all returns & replacements. Bob, another clerk, presented me with a replacement form to sign for a dozen or so 6-point sockets, half-inch drive. So I ask Bob where the sockets are. We're up on an elevated cashiers platform. He gestures to the counter. I pick up one socket after another and see that the side of each is split and that the corners of the drive end socket are all deformed--it's clear that they've been heavily used on an impact driver. So I turn to Bob and say "Hey, look, some asshole's been using these on an impact wrench!" Bob clears his throat and motions to this customer standing right in front of us...I think, oh, shit I'm gonna get my ass chewed by the store manager. I turn to the customer and in an Eddie Haskell tone say, "Excuse me sir, could these possibly been used on an impact wrench?" The guy acts guilty and says, "well, yea, maybe once or twice...". So of course we gave him replacements and a suggestion that maybe he'd like to buy the impact-rated sockets...That's what's great about Sears. And a hint: if a clerk on the floor doesn't want to replace a Craftsman hand tool, go to the manager, or to customer service. You'll get the replacement.
*...........if you put your shoe on the other foot..you will feel a lot better....suppose you had used your chisel ... for a screwdriver...in that case of course...you borrowed the chiselno matter what we do , we can always do it worser...
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Bill,
I feel no shame. IF a tool can not double as a hammer the next best use is being able to open a beer with it. The exception to this rule is 1) did I pay alot of money for this tool? 2) is it a finley made tool that I would regret ruining..
Other wise, see the rule.