Tool of the Gods

[Christian Williams]

Let's Talk Personal

Did the halyard go up but it didn't come down?
Are your keel bolts leaking?
Is your diesel expired?
Did your son quit high school to become a clown?
Is your daughter like her mother which wasn't the plan
And now comes at you with a frying pan?
Did a yacht like yours sell for less than you paid?
Is your bottom paint peeling after 16 days?
Is your bilge a repository of
Nickels and dimes
And rusty hooks and old french fries?
Do the Feds want to regulate your depository
Of dissolving metals and snipped-off cable-ties?
Did you drop a washer from a circuit breaker
Or the set screw out of your own pacemaker?
'Cause you know where they went, they went
Straight down
Down down down behind bulkhead or sink
Down to that place where the human hand
Is a foreigner from another land.
Is that what's troubling you, friend?

Then wake up and take a walk in the sun!
And meet the Tool of the Gods!
https://vimeo.com/85741500

 

[Afrakes]

Tools

Beats chewing gum on a stick. Al Frakes, Port Kent, NY

 

[Tom Metzger]

Than wake up and take a walk in the sun!
And meet the Tool of the Gods!
https://vimeo.com/85741500

I assumed that every boater over the age of 15 had at least one of these on board. One is not really enough because you need it when you need it. Not after a lengthy search.

 

[tenders]

This thread gets very, very high marks for title, rhyme, video editing, and music selection.

Raises the bar quite a bit, in fact.

 

[mi.dreaming]

I have had one of these since the 1980's-- robbed from my father's garage tool haven!
It now lives on my boat, and every job, I say to it: "Today might be your day"... but alas, it's grip is like that of my own pre-arthritic hand. However with a little blue painter's tape, it still earns it's place onboard.

 

[Rick R.]

Amazing and worthy of praise!



I know if I get one, I will NEVER need it. If I don't get one, I will always wish I had it!

 

[Christian Williams]

Got mine at a 99 Cents store. Which was good.

Then I asked at checkout how much it was, since nothing seemed to be marked. Which was not so good.

 

[Slick470]

so now I'm going to need that music to be playing every time I use mine...

 

[Rick R.]

Got mine at a 99 Cents store. Which was good.

Then I asked at checkout how much it was, since nothing seemed to be marked. Which was not so good.

You should have bought some malted milk balls too. The 99 cents store employees like it better when you buy candy!

 

[Joliba]

I had one, but it slipped out of my hand and slid between the hull liner pan and the hull down toward the keel beneath the shower floor where nothing is retrievable.

 

[toddster]

Hmm... I've got three sizes of those in the shop. Plus a couple with magnets on the end. But I don't have one on the boat.
I think my boat is carefully designed so that anything you drop will either roll into the scupper, or down under the engine sump, where they are lost, or you can't see them at all. In fact, that happens in Suburbasaurus too.
Now, one of those gadgets with a fiber optic feed to the inside of your sunglasses would be the ticket.
Or just a teeny tiny robot.

 

[paul culver]

I had one, but it slipped out of my hand and slid between the hull liner pan and the hull down toward the keel beneath the shower floor where nothing is retrievable.

...and where it continues to annoyingly rattle to this very day.

Paul
E29 "Bear"

 

[Tom Metzger]

...and where it continues to annoyingly rattle to this very day.

Ah... time to fill the nether regions with foam. Or, I did recently see a video of a builder turning a boat upside down with a travel lift. That would do the job. Foam might be easier, but you lose all those missing tools, fasteners, and stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se1V1cOFqDY&feature=youtu.be

 

[Rick R.]

Ah... time to fill the nether regions with foam. Or, I did recently see a video of a builder turning a boat upside down with a travel lift. That would do the job. Foam might be easier, but you lose all those missing tools, fasteners, and stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se1V1cOFqDY&feature=youtu.be

We did a marketing video years ago for Freeport Shipbuilding. They build megayachts and casino boats. We did a timelapse of them building
a yatch for a shiek that took months to build (and to film).

They turn their hulls upside down when they build a boat, then flip them over to add the decks.

 

[mi.dreaming]

I have had one of these since the 1980's-- robbed from my father's garage tool haven!
It now lives on my boat, and every job, I say to it: "Today might be your day"... but alas, it's grip is like that of my own pre-arthritic hand. However with a little blue painter's tape, it still earns it's place onboard.

Yesterday was the day!!!!! We were replacing our topping lift (which was rigged outside the boom) and our outhaul lines. I pulled the wrong line and in it went-- but our "TOTG" was able to grab the runaway end and bring it within 8 inches of the end of the boom. Then using it again to retrieve it out when it was safely anchored around the pin near the mast. Finally.

 

[clp]

A borescope goes a looooong way in retrieval activities.

 

[Glyn Judson]

On the subject or retrieval tools.

Guys, Generally within the area of Tools of the Gods, I'd like to share with you a simple yet invaluable tool that I use on occasion, made completely from scrap parts. It consists of a powerful stereo speaker magnet and the handle from a wet mop that I retrieved from the trash. All I wanted was the long handle and a bit of the attaching hardware at the end, the rest, sponges, hinges, etc, went back into the recycling bin in the alley. I stripped away all the light metal framework from the speaker assembly which left only the magnet remaining. I drilled and tapped a 1/4-20 hole in the center of the magnet along with a 1/4" clearance hole in the end of the handle and assembled my new tool. The magnet is angled such that it slides flat on the floor just as the mop would have. It hangs on a dry wall screw in the garage, always ready and waiting for the next time I drop a screw under the workbench or when a spring clip goes flying into the air landing silently on the shop floor. That trusty old magnet on a stick has saved my bacon more times than I can count. A buddy was over the other day working on a project of his own and I had to chuckle to myself when I saw him swinging that mop handle back and forth under the work bench on a mission to find some important lost treasure and he did. A tool like that can even be used aboard an Ericson if the lost part were ferrous (boat related link). Cheers, Glyn Judson, 1979 E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey CA