Automotive tool kit

[Tim240z]

Stole this from another board, and many have likely seen it before, but funny nonetheless:

 

HAMMER:

Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive car parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.

 

MECHANIC'S KNIFE:

Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing convertible tops or tonneau covers.

 

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL:

Normally used for spinning steel Pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling rollbar mounting holes in the floor of a sports car just above the brake line that goes to the rear axle.

 

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.

 

VISE-GRIPS:

Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

 

OXYACETELENE TORCH:

Used almost entirely for lighting those stale garage cigarettes you keep hidden in the back of the Whitworth socket drawer (What wife would think to look in _there_?) because you can never remember to buy lighter fluid for the Zippo lighter you got from the PX at Fort Campbell.

 

ZIPPO LIGHTER:

See oxyacetelene torch.

 

WHITWORTH SOCKETS:

Once used for working on 541's, they are now used mainly for hiding six-month old Salems from the sort of person who would throw them away for no good reason.

 

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 the Rolling Stones poster over the bench grinder.

 

WIRE WHEEL:

Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar callouses in about the time it takes you to say, "Django Reinhardt".

 

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:

Used for lowering the Interceptor to the ground after you have changed the spark plugs and trapping the jack handle firmly under the exhaust system and cracking the exhaust manifold.

 

EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4:

Used for levering a car upward off a hydraulic jack.

 

TWEEZERS:

A tool for removing wood splinters.

 

PHONE:

Tool for calling your neighbor Chris to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.

 

SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER:

Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-doo off your boot.

 

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.

 

TIMING LIGHT:

A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease buildup on crankshaft pulleys.

 

TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST:

A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of ground straps and hydraulic clutch lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.

 

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER:

A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.

 

BATTERY ELECTROLYTE TESTER:

A handy tool for transferring sulfuric acid from car battery to the inside of your toolbox after determining that your battery is dead as a doornail, just as you thought.

 

AVIATION METAL SNIPS:

See hacksaw.

 

TROUBLE LIGHT:

The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin", which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, 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.

 

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:

Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads.

 

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 a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty suspension bolts last tightened 40 years ago by someone in West Bromwich, and rounds them off.

[johnc]

AIR HOSE

Theoretically designed to transfer comrpessed air to your air powered tool; in actual practice air hoses never have the right fitting to connect to your air tools. Most of the time air hoses are coiled around the shop ready to reach out and trip people as they walk by or jamb themselves under creeper wheels trapping a person under the car.

 

VICE

A mechanical device that is very effective at using Archimedes Screw Principal to crush anything placed between its jaws.

 

BAND SAW

A large cutting machine that very quickly takes $50 high tempered serrated steel bands and turns them into $0 low tempered smooth steel bands. Also good for putting jagged cuts into fingers and turning round tubes into ovals.

 

MIG WELDER

A fiendishly complex contraption that is supposed to be useful for attaching metal parts together. In reality its most effective at releasing expensive exotic gas mixtures into the atmosphere, spreading small bits and coils of wire around the shop, creating molten metal structures with porcupine appendages, burning holes in clothing and skin, and making large spots appear in front of your eyes that last for hours.

 

TIG WELDER

A mystical device that is used by a few wizards to attach metal parts together with erotic looking molten metal beads. For a normal person the incantations and precise movements needed to make this magic device perform are beyond comprehension and efforts to use this device usually result in emotional trauma.