Game changer

[smokeywolf]

Back in the '40s and '50s only three brands of wrenches and sockets were permitted at Lockheed. They were SnapOn, Proto and either Williams or Armstrong (can't remember which). You got caught with any other wrench or socket in your box, you got pulled off the line and given your walking papers.

While Craftsman wrenches and sockets were of good quality, the wall thickness of the sockets & wrenches was a bit thicker than the high end brands and would rub against and scratch the walls of spot-faced or counter-bored areas around bolt heads.

 

[Pistolero]

Absolutely correct, smokeywolf. Thicker walls are usually not an issue....BUT, when it is, like my Continental
aircraft engine situation above, only the very strongest alloys, properly forged and heat treated will give the
necessary strength and impact resistance in thin walls.

Most of the time, not needed, not worth paying for.

Bill

 

[Rick]

Most likely Williams, quality that rivals Snap-On easily just not as pretty.

 

[smokeywolf]

Quite certain you're right Rick; "Williams Superrench". I think I might even have one or two floatin' around the shop.

 

[Pistolero]

Hmm. I have never run into Williams, but then again, I was never a pro wrencher, either.

Bill

 

[Pistolero]

OK--- Snap-on experts. Are their "flank drive" sockets actually any better than std sockets?
The concept is intriguing, wouldn't want to spend a small fortune on a socket set and then find
out it is hype and salesmanship, not really any better.

Bill

 

[fiver]

I got a set of wrench and ratchet Williams and an old set of Easco's, Proto wrenches, a set of KAL America sockets, and another set of KAL after they dropped the America name,,, went to airc japan [most likely at that time]
black hawk both wrench and ratchet sets, and both in craftsman.
I'm not totally sure what's in my old craftsman stack-on roll away box down at the sisters place in Utah, ain't seen it in like 20 years, don't even know where the key's are now, but I do remember it having a lot of air tools in the bottom roll around.
I guess I should go get it one of these days.


nope, never made my living turning a wrench.

 

[Rick]

Maybe this will answer your question Bill.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Snap-on+Flank+Drive+Bolt+Damages&FORM=RESTAB

Snap On's Flank Drive doesn't grab the nut or bolt on the corner which can result in it rounding off, grabs it by the center of the flat hex.

 

[Ian]

Most of the big names have a version of flank drive. They work fine IF the fastener is in good shape and isn't made of grade 2 cheese, otherwise you actually lose contact surface area as the fastener head collapses.

 

[fiver]

I remember seeing the original design on the TV commercials years back.
airc they had 2 versions and one was supposed to work on standard or metric [the 'improved' version]
the tools looked pretty cheesy even with their high bling polish, and the commercials were always on right before Christmas and fathers day.

 

[Pistolero]

I understood the concept, and it is intriguing, but wanted some experience from actual use. Not sure why
it would be needed once you get to a six point socket. Clearly, a worn or serverely rusted nut or bolt head
with a 12 pt socket will have issues. Sounds like flank drive is NOT the solution to rounded off corners
like I was imagining it might be.

At this point, I make sure I get out a six point socket when the nut is in bad shape. Sounds like getting
a set of flank drive sockets isn't really going to buy me much, especially compared to 6 pt, may be better
than 12 pt. I have six and 12 of all drive sizes of all the metric and inch sizes that I need.

Just wondering if I was missing out on 'the next great thing'. Doesn't sound like it so far.

Bill

 

[Bret4207]

We used to see a lot of Bonney wrenches on the flight line. I don't recall all the brands we dealt with in the late 70's/early 80's USMC aviation, but I ended up with Bonney and Williams that you could find in every pawn shop around the base.

 

[Bret4207]

type writers were used for carbon copies.

When I got on the job in '87 the NYSP was still using manual typewriters and, I believe, our criminal reports had 4 or maybe 5 pages. You hade to line up all the carbons and sheets and try and get everything perfect. If you didn't, there were crusty old Zone Sgts and even crustier old Zone Commanders and unbelievably crusty and anal Captains at Troop that would kick the reports back if an entry was off set too much from the little box it belonged in. A couple years later we started getting reports that had the carbons included as a 5 page package! Whoo boy, high tech. Then we got our first electric typewriter, an IBM Selectric that was old when I learned how to type on one in high school 10-15 years before. Seemed like it was only a year or 2 later that we got computers. Actually "A" computer for 10-12 guys and a Sgt, a word processor more or less with no capabilities other than doing reports. By the time I left maybe 10 years later I had a laptop with internet I carried everywhere with me that would work over much of northern NY. Quite a jump all told.

 

[KeithB]

I learned to type at home on a Smith Corona (WWII vintage) manual and used carbon paper for a while. Mom was a clerk-typist for Marine Corps in WWII, told me that they had to destroy the carbon paper of some of the things she typed.

 

[Ian]

My mother taught me how to touch-type on a Royal portable unit when I was six, I think the last generation of them and not the one with the round keys like Hemingway used. She had started teaching me piano a year earlier. I still bend my fingers and stab straight down on keyboard keys like I'm driving the hammers, and I'm going to teach my daughter the same way. You can tell someone who's run a manual typewriter before because their computer work sounds like a box full of golf balls dumped down a stairwell. In high school, we had the Cannon ball-head typewriters, I hated them with a passion because they only had a 10-character input memory and if you got ahead of them more than that they skipped.

 

[fiver]

yeah I remember the how hard you hit the key is how hard the arm struck the ribbon mechanical writers.
I still have the impression that I need to hit the letters sufficiently hard enough to make that impression from time to time.
went to type class in JR high and if you whacked one of those things like that it would type that letter out like 6 times, so i had to learn to just caress the letters just so.
to this day I use a combination of the 2 styles and only 3-4 fingers, but most millenials look at me like I am some kind of god when they see/hear me type.
they don't know that's my only computer skill and figure I'm hacking the pentagon or something.

 

[smokeywolf]

I'm a ten finger typist (not a very good one). Partly self taught, partly from a typing class in high school. Mom had an IBM Selectric. That was what I spent most of my time on while learning. Also had a early 20th century Underwood portable.

 

[Bret4207]

I still have an Oliver/Olivetti typewriter out in the shop. No clue where or why I got it, probably a box of stufff at an auction, but that old thing still works as well as the ribbon will let it. Like vinyl LP's, I hear type writer ribbon is making a small comeback for those who fear EMP/foriegn industrial espionage/etc.

 

[Gary]

Taught myself on a Olympia desktop in 1961. Ahh, memories. Then Typing Class in my Junior year of HS, got up to 60 words/per minute with out errors.

 

[RBHarter]

Never really learned to type ..........
I do for whatever reason have a thing for old machines . Maybe it is the idea that even when they are gunked up and stuck with a little time and effort they will work again until they are just worn to failure .
I have and have had several Underwood's of different eras . A current part time project is what I believe to be a pre Rand Remington open body . No I'm not a collector just like making old simple stuff go again .