Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...

[GeneralBanter]

Sporky said:

EggsBenedict said:

All that said, I think this is a really nice saw: https://ffx.co.uk/products/bosch-bosch-gcm305-254d...

That looks like the new version of mine, which I like a lot.

I picked up a 10” Evolution Rage with stand for £100 off eBay. Used it countless times and with a metal blade it just chomps through steel like anything!

[Promised Land]

gtidriver said:

Ill have this up on the wall later over the weekend, my final few bits arrived today. I'm on the hunt for a 150mm ruler, should have bought it but didn't and now an out of stock item. Ill leave a space just incase I find it.

You mean a 150mm rule?

Rulers are kings and queens, you measure with a rule.

[dickymint]

Promised Land said:

You mean a 150mm rule?

Rulers are kings and queens, you measure with a rule.

I nearly posted that the other day - I had a rap on the the arm with a 12" rule almost 50 years ago from my apprentice instructor for calling it a ruler

Lamps and bulbs also irk me!!

[donkmeister]

Promised Land said:

You mean a 150mm rule?

Rulers are kings and queens, you measure with a rule.

Mitutoyo calls them "rules" on their website.
Stabila uses both "rule" and "ruler" on their website.
OED has both.

I think this is a clamp Vs cramp situation; both are correct, both boil the piss of anyone who strongly prefers the other term. I was taught clamp, and my dad cramp, so when helping me he would angrily refuse to hand me a clamp unless I called it a cramp.

I just bite my tongue when I hear someone refer to a spinny whirly tool as a "rooter", and it's everything I can do to not give them a lengthy explanation of why the "rout" part rhymes with a pig's "snout".

(Obviously the electronic network postman "routes" packets, so is a router. But the woodworking router "routs" wood, so is a router)

[The Gauge]

if you have 1 x rule and then add 9 more, do you now have 10 x rules, or 10 x rulers?

[72uoba]

The Gauge said:

if you have 1 x rule and then add 9 more, do you now have 10 x rules, or 10 x rulers?

Or 10 x gauges?

[Promised Land]

dickymint said:

I nearly posted that the other day - I had a rap on the the arm with a 12" rule almost 50 years ago from my apprentice instructor for calling it a ruler

Lamps and bulbs also irk me!!

The same here! I was working for an engineer a few years ago, very nice chap and high up and I said steel ruler to him.

I got told off! Nearly 50 years old and being told off. Brilliant.

So it’s rule now all the time just incase I come across another engineer.

[Sporky]

dickymint said:

Lamps and bulbs also irk me!!

That one is easy. A lamp has a reflector.

[mickk]

Sporky said:

dickymint said:

Lamps and bulbs also irk me!!

That one is easy. A lamp has a reflector.

Bulbs you plant.

[dickymint]

mickk said:

Sporky said:

dickymint said:

Lamps and bulbs also irk me!!

That one is easy. A lamp has a reflector.

Bulbs you plant.

[Sporky]

Nope.

That's the standard answer (though usually "lamps glow, bulbs grow"), but a lamp is a light emitting assembly that includes a reflector. No reflector, not a lamp.

It's one of those interesting ones where a lot of people who think they're right are actually wrong.

[dickymint]

Sporky said:

Nope.

That's the standard answer (though usually "lamps glow, bulbs grow"), but a lamp is a light emitting assembly that includes a reflector. No reflector, not a lamp.

It's one of those interesting ones where a lot of people who think they're right are actually wrong.

I can find nothing that states a lamp has to have a reflector

[Sporky]

There's my post! You even quoted it!

[dickymint]

Sporky said:

There's my post! You even quoted it!

Go back in history - the first electric 'lights' (I nearly typed bulbs ) Davy and Eddison were called 'Electric Arc Lamps'

[Sporky]

Sorry. I just like annoying pedants.

I'm OK with "light bulb" when it's used to refer to just the incandescent/arc bit. Or even a screw-in LED thing if its rounded. When it goes into a projector it's definitely a lamp.

[donkmeister]

Promised Land said:

dickymint said:

I nearly posted that the other day - I had a rap on the the arm with a 12" rule almost 50 years ago from my apprentice instructor for calling it a ruler

Lamps and bulbs also irk me!!

The same here! I was working for an engineer a few years ago, very nice chap and high up and I said steel ruler to him.

I got told off! Nearly 50 years old and being told off. Brilliant.

So it’s rule now all the time just incase I come across another engineer.

Just thinking, I've never heard someone say "slideruler"... Might have to use that to troll an old school engineer at some point Although I better hurry up, there can't be that many slideruler users who haven't retired yet.

Terms are often used colloquially to mean something more general or even different than what they mean in a field that uses those same terms...

Mechanical engineers presumably have to fight the urge to correct anyone saying "bolt" to refer to what is so obviously a machine screw.

Electronic engineers presumably have to bite their tongue when someone uses "bandwidth" to describe what is clearly the gross bit rate.

Electrical engineers must get really upset when people start trying to redefine "gender" as something to do with feelings or chromosomes, when we all know it means "something that allows two connectors to mate without letting the electrons fall out on the floor".

Sometimes it's best just to let it slide... Unless they are trying to use the letter j to refer to i. Bloody engineers.

[dickymint]

donkmeister said:

Promised Land said:

dickymint said:

I nearly posted that the other day - I had a rap on the the arm with a 12" rule almost 50 years ago from my apprentice instructor for calling it a ruler

Lamps and bulbs also irk me!!

The same here! I was working for an engineer a few years ago, very nice chap and high up and I said steel ruler to him.

I got told off! Nearly 50 years old and being told off. Brilliant.

So it’s rule now all the time just incase I come across another engineer.

Just thinking, I've never heard someone say "slideruler"... Might have to use that to troll an old school engineer at some point Although I better hurry up, there can't be that many slideruler users who haven't retired yet.

Terms are often used colloquially to mean something more general or even different than what they mean in a field that uses those same terms...

Mechanical engineers presumably have to fight the urge to correct anyone saying "bolt" to refer to what is so obviously a machine screw.

Electronic engineers presumably have to bite their tongue when someone uses "bandwidth" to describe what is clearly the gross bit rate.

Electrical engineers must get really upset when people start trying to redefine "gender" as something to do with feelings or chromosomes, when we all know it means "something that allows two connectors to mate without letting the electrons fall out on the floor".

Sometimes it's best just to let it slide... Unless they are trying to use the letter j to refer to i. Bloody engineers.

Here's another that makes my teeth itch..................





Not a vernier scale in site

[JoshSm]

B'stard Child said:

Cold said:

I bought one of these the other week. It's a template for making accurate cuts in pipe lagging. Pointless and invaluable in one 3D printed widget.
Along the same usage idea as tile levellers, a competent professional will have no need for such a thing, yet a keen but hamfisted DIYer (like me) will find this tool a helpful addition to their armoury.

Great tool except it’s only made for cheap DIY shop lagging - if you want thick walked lagging he doesn’t do one to suit

The 'proper' Pipe Lagger Pro that this is a sort of knockoff of is two pieces so adjusts to whatever size, plus its molded not printed (and chunky) so would hold up to abuse.

I got a Pipe Lagger Pro cheap, decided it was maybe useful in a way that the simpler ones weren't quite up to. Necessary? No. But handy at times and takes the effort out of getting things straight & tight.

Also a good excuse to buy an insulation saw like the Spear & Jackson instead of messing about with knives.

[skwdenyer]

JoshSm said:

Also a good excuse to buy an insulation saw like the Spear & Jackson instead of messing about with knives.

Are they better than the cheap serrated kitchen knife I use?

[donkmeister]

dickymint said:

Here's another that makes my teeth itch..................





Not a vernier scale in site

It's not a micrometer either. bds. If you can't read a Vernier scale you don't deserve precision.

I've got one of those cheapies in a drawer. I occasionally use it to measure pipes and fittings, i.e. for jobs where the level of precision required makes deburring the same as reaming.

You have reminded me I need to buy a proper one, I mostly use micrometers but that's not always as convenient as a caliper. Off to the Mitutoyo website I go for a browse. I'll tell the Mrs I'm looking at rude websites so she doesn't get suspicious.