"The story of the pliers" or, why I do this

Bikeguy Joe · May 6, 2012

I was prompted by an event or two today to tell this story...

While many of you think I am a grade "A" a-hole, and a sarcastic twit, I really am not (too much).

I am on this forum to try and help out when I can.

I do this because once upon a time, after my dad left and we were not too well off, I had to take over the "fixin" chores.

I had a very few tools, and included in them were a crappy pair of pliers. (They were pretty crappy then, non functional now)

I got by and after a few years, (I was 11) I decided to open my own small engine repair shop. (Never did get any real customers, but I had a couple of engines and mowers that I had gotten and actually made them run.) (Notice it says "four cycle engines" LOL!!!)

I have been working on engines, bikes- both motorized and unmotorized for 40 years.

Anyway, I was digging through the wreckage of what was once the house I lived in, and I FOUND THE PLIERS. I also found a photo I took of my sign I put out by the road for my "business"!!!

How these two items survived is another story all by itself.

So anyhow, I put the pliers and the photo up on the pegboard right over my workbench, partly to remind me where I came from, and partly to remind me that if you put your mind to it, and try a little bit, just about anything is possible.
Thanks for listening,

Joe

Al.Fisherman · May 6, 2012

Nice read......If yours was anything like mine, the minute I clamped on something, the handles would collapse. Deep six them.

Greg58 · May 6, 2012

Joe that sounds like me, my tools to work on my bike when I was young were, 1. Vice grips 2. Flat head screw driver 3. Eswing hammer with one ear that my dad broke. I repaired everything with these, we didn't need a Phillips screwdriver all screws were flats on my bike.

2door · May 6, 2012

Way back, years ago in the moderator's section I told this story, but I'll share it here:

My Dad trained race horses. He was far from mechanical and he always said, "I can fix anything as long as I can tie a knot in it". He didn't know which end of a screwdriver to use but I was born with and blessed, or cursed, depending on your point of view, with a mechanical aptitude. I had a garage full of tools and built my first hot rod at 14 with lawn mowing money.
One day I came home from school and found he had been trying to get the spark plugs out of a 4-CV Renault he owned and had used vice grips. The porcelians were broken off a couple of the plugs and when I saw the mess he'd made I took the vice grips and threw them out in the street. He told me to go get them, I refused and what followed was the closest my Dad and I ever came to a physical confrontation. My mom came out and put an end to the hostilities. Two days before my Dad left us him and I were talking and we brought up the subject of the vice grips and that fateful day. We had a laugh about it, probably our last, but I'll always remember that day. Crap, I miss him.
Tom

tooljunkie · May 6, 2012

ahhh,the fate of the pliers lies in the balance.i have had more than one pair of pliers draw blood.the best one was when i slipped with needlenose trying to pull a cotter pin.
they slipped and hit me in the mouth.broke two teeth.molars,i guess i was making some kinda face when i slipped.3 hours later i was good as new,have a great dentist,two kids with braces must put our clan on the priority level.

my first father son mechanical experience was a day dads car wouldnt start.he wouldnt even open the hood.i didnt know how.finally convinced him to open it,and he couldnt see anything wrong.i was like four feet tall,and noticed the coil wire off.he put it back on and car started.pissed him off cause i saw it and he grounded me.
he was an alcoholic,my jaw still clicks from when he backhanded me 40 years ago,he passed when i was 19.
hate to say it,i dont miss him much.
i dont treat my kids that way,and i rarely drink,i guess i should thank him for that.
my mechanical abilities are self-taught by necessity.and early poverty.

bairdco · May 6, 2012

nice story, Joe...

i learned at a very early age that pliers should only be used for holdin' stuff, twistin' stuff, and squeezin' stuff. NEVER for tightening bolts. they make flat sides on nuts and bolts for a reason, and that's so wrenches fit.

i got into BMX racing when i was 9-10, saved all my paper route money, mowed lawns, shoveled driveways, whatever, and built a JMC Black Shadow, with all the best parts i could find, and probably put over $1000 into it.

no pliers ever went near that bike.

over the years, i've bought many rusted out, old timey cruisers, and have had to deal with rounded off nuts and bolts on most of them. it's no fun.

Allen_Wrench · May 7, 2012

It must've given my mom chills when she saw that I'd gotten hold of some of Dad's tools and completely disassembled our electric clock. But I put it back together they way I'd found it (I think I was 8 or 9) and it ran.
Maybe Dad took note of that and thought he saw a good opportunity to pass on some of the home repair chores to me because, on my next birthday, I got a small toolbox with a few genuinely functional tools. What a great dad! I think I used half of those tools to death. BUT....

The flathead and phillips are not dead. Indeed, they have amazed me for how durable they are, even after 35-or-more years of steady use. Being small, light, and handy, they are now in the trunk on my bike. The pliers from that set are not with my bike, but they are in the kitchen drawer and have outlasted many other pliers I've bought as supplements. I do miss the little saw (handle broke off sometime after blade grew dull) and the little set of wrenches (cheap and jaws spread open easily, half were lost, half were ruined). I don't miss the coping saw: it couldn't cope.
But I love still having some of those tools. I don't think of them as antiques (yet). In fact, while it seems like I've always had them, there are days when it still feels like I just got them. Then I don't feel so old.

fasteddy · May 7, 2012

Funny that you should mention pliers Joe. Found an old pair a couple of weeks ago that have been around since I was a kid. More like a plier shaped blob of rust than an actual tool.
Sand blasted them and got them working with a shot of penatrating oil and lots of pushing and prying back and forth.

Showed them to my brother who remembered them but didn't know the story about where they came from so it's upstairs to ask my Mom who's a 100. Took one look at them and asked where I found my grandfathers pliers. He bought them just before they left England in 1929. Pliers were made in Sweden.
Now put away for the next generation.

Steve.

Bikeguy Joe · May 7, 2012

My pliers hang where they belong....over the workbench.

They were pretty bad (but one of the few tools I had) back then, and only usable now for the memory of where I started.

I found the items in the caved in wreckage of the house where I grew up. I am sure there are many other "treasures" in that old pile of rubble, but I ain't gonna go lookin'

I am glad nobody argued with me over the "Grade "A" a-hole and sarcastic twit part of the story!

Billy Thunder · May 8, 2012

Rust frozen needle-nose or other tight fitting pliers can be made to work better than new using a little heat and marrow from a beef bone. It is unreal! You may never need to lube them again. My friend left his marrow treated pliers under a blanket of snow and ice last winter and they work like new still. He treated them a few years ago and has left them outdoors ever since, as a test.
I'm taking my marrow treated needle-nose to the ocean this summer for the ultimate test. The salt water will mess up and freeze a set of pliers in two weeks.

Cavi Mike · May 8, 2012

No father-figure in the picture for me either, forced to figure everything out myself. Grade-A a**hole here, too.

Actually, not really. Just can't stand people who ask for advice but refuse to listen to it, or people who jump feet first into something they know nothing about but refuse to take the time to figure it out before they bother me with it.

"My bike doesn't idle" *facepalm*
"My chain keeps falling off" *facepalm*
"My $100 chinese engine blew up! The store I bought it from should go out of business!" *faceplam*

Bikeguy Joe · May 8, 2012

I think the pliers will just remain hanging.

I will still come here and help- even the helpless and unhelpable.

It's in my blood I guess.

fasteddy · May 8, 2012

Joe,
I think myself, that those pliers are right where they need to be. Just something that is an anchor to the past and tells you there is more good things yet to come.

As for you wondering why no one mentioned that your not the junk yard dog that you see in yourself, well that's your opinion and you were left to it. We may well see someone else as we look in. We just see a really great and helpfull person.
Much easier to say nothing.

Steve.

MEASURE TWICE · May 29, 2012

One thing I can attest to is rounding off bolts head. Kinda stupid yes. If you did not have the right size wrench then a vise-grips ehhhhh, maybe not!

I was told that putting a mark on the right size wrench for a partiticular job it was needed for, and buy the right wrench size and mark it if you did not have that one size.

I did this and I can say it is a lot easier now.

There are easyouts and superouts and boltsouts..... all kinds of stuff marketed when $&* happens, but preventing it an making things go more smoothly finding what tool you already knew worked fine last time maintenace or repair was done just goes a whole lot further!

MT

turkman · Jul 16, 2012

"we could jam in Joe' Garage, we didn't have no dope or LSD but a couple quarts of beer would fix it so the intonation would not offend the ear all we did was bend the string like" I stumbled on this thread looking into a real A-hole Joe I like your posts keeper coming

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"The story of the pliers" or, why I do this

Bikeguy Joe

Godfather of Motorized Bicycles

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