Craftsman tools.

ktup-flyer said:
It's called a centerlock lol
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From my MG days, I recall them being called "knock-off hubs". MG's came with a brass mallet to pound on them with.

hammer2d.jpg


This is allegedly from an MG-A.
 
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UPDATE: I stopped by my local ACE hardware, and they had added a very nice set of Craftsman tools. Even the individual sockets and wrenches... Maybe there is a good side to this!
 
FastEddieB said:
From my MG days, I recall them being called "knock-off hubs". MG's came with a brass mallet to pound on them with.

hammer2d.jpg


This is allegedly from an MG-A.
Click to expand...

.

Hmmm...MGs aren't known for their reliability and ease of maintenance.

I always thought the mallet was for beating the car into submission when it failed to start.
 
I work with an old machinist. He has a "brass knocker" that look like the head of that hammer. Probably close to 50 years of using it to tap on whatever he was machining at the time has left it mushroomed on both ends.
 
3393RP said:
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Hmmm...MGs aren't known for their reliability and ease of maintenance.

I always thought the mallet was for beating the car into submission when it failed to start.
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I've had 4-5 MGs, AHs, TR6, and they are a pain to maintain. Later I bought a Miata and man that thing was very reliable, never a problem. Last sports car I had was a Honda S2000, man what a machine, built for fun. The Japanese sports cars were and are what we wished the British ones had been.
 
Matthew said:
I work with an old machinist. He has a "brass knocker" that look like the head of that hammer. Probably close to 50 years of using it to tap on whatever he was machining at the time has left it mushroomed on both ends.
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They are commonly known as dead blow hammers. no bounce, no sparks.
 
Tom-D said:
They are commonly known as dead blow hammers. no bounce, no sparks.
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Also softer than nearly any other metal it's being used to tap.

The deadblow hammers I'm familiar with are the plastic covered shot-filled style.
 
GlennAB1 said:
I don't use my copper one much and have thought about trimming the mushroomed part off...
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I have two of my Dads tools left. one is my 5" wilton bench vice, the other is a copper mallet that no longer looks like a mallet.
 
FastEddieB said:
Interesting.

Was brass ever used, or is my memory faulty?
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Brass is still widely used! I have about a dozen brass hammers from 4oz all the way to 2lb. I have copper, lead, bronze and the sweetest of them all is an aluminum bronze ball peen.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
Brass is still widely used! I have about a dozen brass hammers from 4oz all the way to 2lb. I have copper, lead, bronze and the sweetest of them all is an aluminum bronze ball peen.
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I bet you wouldn't consider those as "dead blow" hammers....? :eek:
 
So you guys are all comparing your big brass ones? Yup, sounds like an aviation forum! Haha.
 
3393RP said:
.

Hmmm...MGs aren't known for their reliability and ease of maintenance.

I always thought the mallet was for beating the car into submission when it failed to start.
Click to expand...

30+ years ago I stopped in a shop in Santa Clara, CA that specialized in restoring and selling classic MGs. They had a bumper sticker that I should have bought and put on the 1976 MG Midget I owned for a year - "I'll have you know that the parts falling off this car are of the highest British quality!"

To the original drift of this thread, my main socket sets are S-K. The 1/4 inch set was received as a graduation gift from high school, in 1970. No parts are missing, nor have any broken and been replaced. A few years later I bought a 3/8 inch set. Same story - no parts missing and none have broken. Now, my metric sockets that I use with the 3/8 inch set are Craftsman. From the late 1970s. I split one in half in the late 1970s. Sears replaced it without question. No problems since. My 1/2 inch socket set is Husky from Home Depot. This includes a torque wrench. Not heavily used and they are holding up great. SAE and metric sockets. Probably bought them around 1999 or 2000 as they were for working on my Jeep (and I bought it in 1999).

Screwdrivers are a widely varied set. A bunch of them were from a set that I bought decades ago. Not the highest price, but they seem to be holding up. I have a kit of screw drivers, hollow ground for the flat blades, that I use solely for working on firearms. Nothing else. Bought them back in the late 1970s when I got involved in black powder shooting.

Everything else is varied, both in source and age. They hold up for my uses, and if they don't, they get replaced. Ace, Home Depot, wherever I happen to be at the time. Power tools are the same - some old, some not so old. Heck, I've got an orbital sander whose actual age is unknown. I remember using it in junior high, and it wasn't new then. Or does my brother have it now? Just got it out of the garage as Mom was moving from her condo and I don't remember which of us took it. I know it still works, in any case. And the vice on my work bench? I have no idea how old that thing is. Dad got it, probably from his brother's estate, in the early 1960s. Big, heavy and works like a champ. Some tools just don't wear out.

Sure hope I don't need anything new anytime soon. Now, if I could just find my 3 pound hammer...
 
Ghery said:
30+ years ago I stopped in a shop in Santa Clara, CA that specialized in restoring and selling classic MGs. They had a bumper sticker that I should have bought and put on the 1976 MG Midget I owned for a year - "I'll have you know that the parts falling off this car are of the highest British quality!"...
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Over the years I owned a MG, TR6, AH Sprite, all POS. Still love 'em though. Bought a new '99 Miata and what a world of difference! Kept it 11 years and so reliable, just routine maintenance. Last sports car I had was a Honda S2000. Wow, now this was a sports car. 100 more horsies than the Miata at about the same weight. Sold it a few years ago and still miss it.
 
@Ghery anyone who hasn't lost their 10mm sockets is lying. Hahahaha. ;) (kidding... but damnit the 10mm always wanders around the garage... ha!)
 
FastEddieB said:
From my MG days, I recall them being called "knock-off hubs". MG's came with a brass mallet to pound on them with.

hammer2d.jpg


This is allegedly from an MG-A.
Click to expand...

Those hammers were also quite useful to bang on the Lucas fuel pump when the car refuses to start. A couple of good whacks would usually do it.

flicker.jpg
 
SoCal RV Flyer said:
Those hammers were also quite useful to bang on the Lucas fuel pump when the car refuses to start. A couple of good whacks would usually do it.

View attachment 50855
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No, M.G.s and many other British cars used an electric fuel pump made by Skinner's Union (S.U.), the same company that made the constant depression/vacuum carburetors. It was a reciprocating design with points that opened/closed at the end of each stroke. When they got old the points would weld shut; the hammer blow would break them open and "fix" it for a while.
 
Seen on a Morris Minor: The British drink warm beer because they have Lucas refrigerators.
 
You guys would crap a brick if you realized how many Lucas components are installed on current build commercial airliners. Through mergers and acquisitions, it's part of United Technologies now, but a lot of the dataplates still say Lucas. Good ol' Wolverhampton, UK.
 
slacktide said:
You guys would crap a brick if you realized how many Lucas components are installed on current build commercial airliners. Through mergers and acquisitions, it's part of United Technologies now, but a lot of the dataplates still say Lucas. Good ol' Wolverhampton, UK.
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There was at least one Lucas component on the Mars Sojourner rover too, so they're a true interplanetary company.
 
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