All the tools are marked with orange paint. This fellow must have spent 50 years working in shared shop areas. Marking your tools with paint is an old mechanic's trick to keep them from walking off. The larger, more expensive tools are also engraved with his name or initials. And orange paint. There are hundreds of tools and all of them (every last dang socket and allen wrench) is marked with orange paint and years of old, solidified grease. I have been cleaning tools every night for 2 weeks. When I'm done I will clean and restore the box (an old Snapon upper and lower). I'm a happy man with my Winter project in the warm basement laundryroom. The shop in my garage is at -2 degrees as I type; not good conditions for working on boats and outboards.
The hacksaw does have a wingnut blade holder for the front, and had a blade mounted when I started. The wingnut holder was still in the parts washer when I took the pic. So the angle iron mystery is solved! This was his sheetmetal hacksaw (there are three hacksaws, each with a different tooth pattern to the blade). It makes sense that the square head T wrenches are for gas or air valves. Drainplugs do not require the reach that a T handle provides. You don't situate a drain plug so that the liquid drains through obstructions. But bleeder valves for compressed gasses may have hoses or something in the way, and a T handle would be handy. On to more tools. I'm still in the homemade and modified batch.
Here we have a set of what seem like homemade car interior door panel tools, but much more substantial. These are heavy steel - no flex to them. Are they common configurations for working with sheetmetal, maybe?
Next is an oldfashioned 1/2" hex drive handle that's been majorly modified. I know what 1/2" hex drive sockets and handles are, but this handle has been reworked in a peculiar way. The entire shaft has been carefully ground down on each of the six sides to make it less than 1/2", and uniform in all directions. The end of the drive head has been shaved down and the retaining ball driven in. The elbow of the head has been ground down, as if to gain clearance for some reason. Weird. Why?
PS - yup, a cat habitat is correct. It sits next to my compter desk. Tippy and Bullitt keep me company while I surf the net and catch up on the iBoats Evinrude & Johnson and Boat Building and Non-Boating Technical forums.
