Tools Tools Tools

[Rod.H]

I don't know if I've mentioned something along this lines before, either way. Meh.

Now, the one thing I've noticed about being a Roving IT Tech/Engineer is that you gather or collect tools. I mean you start off with a ratchet screwdriver and a swiss army knife and a few years later you're carting around something in the same weight class as many of the devices you work on and install, and it contains tools and items to let you get on with your job if another trade hasn't done theirs.

Or is that just me? For the tool box I cart around for work weighs 17Kg and off the top of my head it's got every tool I've ever used or needed on a job in it. With some spare & just in case tools. "The Shopfitter hasn't cut a hole in the countertop/cabinet, what size hole is needed? 'Cos I've got 10mm, 15mm, 22mm, 25mm, 32mm spades or a 54mm holesaw."

Hacksaws, aviation snips, socket set, FUBAR, drill set, duct tape, nitto tape, cordless driver & charger, epoxy putty, superglue, first aid kit, spanner, shifter, screwdrivers, SAK, knife, packing tape gun, extension things for the cordless, holesaw & spade bits, plier & sidecutter, vice grips that's just some of what's in this box. I've another one which is just dedicated for spare parts, butane soldering iron, a 8 port Ethernet switch & a selection of cat-5 cables (5m, 10m, & 20m). I joke with the guys I work with that with the contents of my tool box I can pull a car, or the kit we install to parts.

Now the main tool box pretty much follows me to each job, it gets checked in when ever I fly and I know at some point a Airline's gonna tell me that I can't check it in anymore. So at some point I've got to cut down the tools to just the ones I need and find a classier, standing out method to air transport them. Unfortunately it's not Fenspace or the Discworld as then I could have The Luggage, some may call that a fortunate thing for some have classed it in with the Elder Gods.

I hear Samsonite might have something of interest, if I didn't want to get lumped in with the SOCOM dudes for that's supposedly their covert gear packaging supplier of choice. Then there's aluminum framed briefcases. Nope, the one I've seen a workmate use may look okay, but good luck trying to find the tool you need. Let alone try to fit your cordless & its charger in there.

Oh for a portable hole or working hammerspace then I wouldn't need to worry 'bout stuff like this.

--Rod.H

[ECSNorway]

I have to ask, what is a "FUBAR" in this context?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[robkelk]

I hear Samsonite might have something of interest, if I didn't want to get lumped in with the SOCOM dudes for that's supposedly their covert gear packaging supplier of choice. Then there's aluminum framed briefcases. Nope, the one I've seen a workmate use may look okay, but good luck trying to find the tool you need. Let alone try to fit your cordless & its charger in there.

Sounds to me like you're looking for a German solution to your tool-collection woes... the Systainer®. Completely modular, scales from a small hand-carried box to a monster wheeled case (which has that small hand-carried box as one of its components). I'm assuming you don't read German, so http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... 3326,64664]here's a Canadian reseller's page for the system.

The nice thing about it being modular is that you don't have to take the entire thing with you. ("I can't take my toolbox as carry-on because there's a saw in the lower section?" snap-snap-snap "Okay, can I check the lower section and carry the upper section, then?")

I have to ask, what is a "FUBAR" in this context?

Beats me - "the right tool for the right job" assumes you've got the tool with you, after all...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Logan Darklighter]

Curiously, I've never heard of FUBAR being used as a term describing a tool. Or the name of a tool. 

I've primarily known FUBAR as a somewhat rude acronym.

Fouled **
Up
Beyond
All
Recognition

(** Fouled being the euphemism for what people REALLY say, of course.)

If something is FUBARed, then it is totaled. Messed up. Broken beyond all hope of recovery, etc. As in "He totally FUBARed the undercarriage on that landing, we're going to have to replace pretty much the whole thing!" 

[Sweno]

Fubar is a crowbar, but with a more functional end. google for 'fubar tool' if you are desperate for pics.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Rod.H]

The FUBAR is indeed a tool. I think I first mentioned it here in a zombie survival thread just recently. Stanley Tools made/makes it, and it's a combo of a hammer, crowbar/jemmy, nail puller & stud grabber. They make a version that even has a fire hydrant wrench shaped into a face. I first saw it a few years back on an episode of Modern Marvels (either the one on hand tools or hardware stores) and then in an issue of Popular Mechanics/Science.

*goes looking at Rob's suggestion*

Dang, well after seeing an episode of Grand Designs following the assembling of a German prefab house in the UK and the work truck the German builders turned up in, of cause they'd have something almost exactly like what I'm after. Just one problem with it - it's not lockable. Yeah I know, it's not like a padlocks going to stop them if they want in. It's the deterrent factor. Also I’d still have to check it in as tools, heck any object with a noticeable point, our TSA-equivalents’ won't let you bring through as carry-on. I was going through screening the other day and saw a TSA give a passenger the speal over some retail packs of roofing screws and the fly before-hand a set of fine screwdrivers I had in my backpack got confiscated by 'em.

I'm tempted to do a version of those ordinance pictures weapon makers do to show just what their system can use, just with the contents of the box…..now to find enough floor space to do it in.

--Rod.H

[robkelk]

*goes looking at Rob's suggestion*
Dang, well after seeing an episode of Grand Designs following the assembling of a German prefab house in the UK and the work truck the German builders turned up in, of cause they'd have something almost exactly like what I'm after. Just one problem with it - it's not lockable. Yeah I know, it's not like a padlocks going to stop them if they want in. It's the deterrent factor.

One reason why I like Lee Valley (that Canadian reseller) is that, if they get enough requests for a tool (or if they want to anyway), they will go ahead and make one if they can't find it elsewhere. Ask them whether they have a lockable Systainer - they might say "yes" or "we will next year".

Can't help with the other issue. That's a human problem, not an engineering one.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Rod.H]

Well when I looked on the proper Systainer website I did come across optional catches with built-in locks and a accessory to add a lock into the lid of one of the big boxes. The more I looked at them the more I thought "ya, that one's perfect for the drill & screw bits I've got, but what about everything else?"

[Wiregeek]

http://www.pelican.com/

?
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Rod.H]

I forgot about that brand, I wonder why....

*wanders off to find a local dealer*

That's why, very pricey, limited dealers and possibly single layered. Those 1700-series long cases look interesting, if I wanted to look like I was shipping guns around. Their carry on cases are almost perfect.

Either way I still have to contemplate just what tools I do and don't need, to make up a flying-friendly kit and from that what size box. It's one of the reasons why I keep an eye out on what Leatherman's are out there, but even then there's situations that a multi-tool's the worse choice.

--Rod.H

[Rod.H]

Right, I'd some free time and some floor-space so here's my attempt at the pics I'd mentioned before

First, is the tools I'd like to transport by air better, in-front of my existing box. They're sort of what your suppose to need.


The reality


Spare and just-in-case tools


And yes that poor defenceless cordless drill/driver has been used with those large hole making doodahs in the maiming of cabinetry.

--Rod.H

[Wiregeek]

While the Bosch is a bad little bastard, I'd almost consider upgrading to a Ryobi 18v One+ impact driver as your rotary back end. It's native to the 1/4" hex head quick change standard, and you already have the converter from that to friction-clutch, and to 3/8" socket drive.

I just gave away a rather nice lockable steel rolly-bit that would have been excellent (if too large, I think it weighed in at 30 lbs empty).

I also _saw_ what you want, which is about 1.5x the size of your existing box, multi-layered, lockable (I think) and had an integrated wheel-handle frame for pull-behind duty. I saw it in the golf area of my local Kroger/Fred Meyer, but I brainfarted it.

I'll be back in there tomorrow, I'll check it out and see if I remembered it correctly.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Rod.H]

That Ryobi cordless looks interesting, till you read the manual "CAUTION:The impact driver is not designed to be used as a drill." something I need to do from time to time. Plus it's not tourge adjustable, the screws I do up are of not very good quality, they strip if you're not careful enough - or look at them wrong. That black plastic wallet thing, that's a set of hex shank quick change drill bits & drivers.

I'm somewhat more concerned on the issue of weight for the plane I was on this morning, a Bombardier Q400, I was borderline on getting charged for excess baggage I probably should add my steel-capped boots to the box...

Either way I still need to drop the total weight of ~17Kg down. I think the scale at the regional airport I was at is borked for it weighed my box at 15Kg. I know one tool I'd be happy to leave out, that Crescent adjustable ratchet wrench for it's a pain to adjust.

I'll be, I just noticed that the main stickers on the front of my box are pretty much on the same axis.

--Rod.H

[Rod.H]

An update, I've acquired some of another German companies Systainer equivalent, http://www.sortimo.com/l-boxx they're Bosch branded and match in with my cordless. I got two each of the 102s & 238s. The contents of the first picture half-fill a 238 and I've got the weight down to around 7 to 9kg, I've chucked the socket set and some things in a 102. Now I just need some foam, the matching tool inlay (found on ebay) and some padlocks and I'll be flight ready.

The annoying thing, the store where I picked up the 238's also stocks Systainers. No indication on the website that they had either range. But man, AUD$33 for the smallest plain Systainer box (can hold a 3.5" hard drive) more $20 got me the L-boxx.

With the 2 238's in the back of the 'Rolla, I've now got some luggage space back. The other 238's got a 8-port ethernet switch & a bunch of network cables which filled another small tool box. Its a box I'd only pull out whenever a temporary small network's required.

--Rod.H