What's something that gets on your nerves about tools?

[Phaedrus]

Speaking of, I don't know if guns count as tools, but there are still things about them that piss me off. British .303 is actually 0.310-0.312" in diameter, or about 7.9mm. .38 Special is actually 0.357", .327 Fed Mag is actually 0.320".

.308, .30-06, and .300 Win-Mag are all 0.30" (7.62mm) diameter. 7.62x54mmR does not conform to any existing nomenclature scheme except itself.

.380 ACP, .380 Browning, 9mm Kurz, and 9mm Short are all different names for the same thing and all are in common use, and all are 9.0mm or 0.357" in diameter. 9mm Makarov is actually 9.22mm, while 9mm Parabellum is 9.0mm.

.22LR and .22 Magnum use the same diameter bullets, and while .38 Special will fit into a .357 Magnum chamber and .44 Special will fit into a .44 Magnum chamber, .22LR will not fit into a .22 Magnum chamber; or rather it will but will cause the gun to malfunction.


There are reasonable historical reasons for all of these things. That doesn't make them any less infuriating.

[SeanB]

Reminds me of my Instrumentation instructor at college. He taught instruments, but his passion was gunsmithing. He could hit a pack of cigarettes at 3km with his 303 rifles.

As he was in his youth a gymnast and dancer he always would try the posers with a simple trick, and bet them that they could not do like him and hold a ballet attitude for a 10 minute period, and always won. Me, I knew way too many ballet students, so never took him up on it, I knew that he would win for sure. Longest time was 2 minutes, and he was there still walking around on the one foot, talking, writing on the board and even bending over to pick up chalk from the floor.

[lemmegraphdat]

If I don't pack the whole kit with me everywhere I go, I always... and I mean always... have to go back and get something.

[con-f-use]

.380 ACP, .380 Browning, 9mm Kurz, and 9mm Short are all different names for the same thing

"Kurz" is the German word for short, so actually the same thing as 9mm Short just using another language.

[notsob]

The tool that I need right now was borrowed by a friend last month AND not returned

[Phaedrus]

.380 ACP, .380 Browning, 9mm Kurz, and 9mm Short are all different names for the same thing

"Kurz" is the German word for short, so actually the same thing as 9mm Short just using another language.

See, I'd be fine with that, except that they use both the English and German names. We have 9mm Largo (9x23mm) but we don't also call it "9mm Large" or "9mm Long".

[Junction Runner]

Just bought a pretty big mastercraft socket set off kijiji for $30, excellent deal, especially since I need one, but the case doesn't hold stuff on place very well, even when all closed up, if you carry it by the handle things on both sides fall out of place (there is a plastic divider on the lid side but stuff in there still moves.

[GreyWoolfe]

If I don't pack the whole kit with me everywhere I go, I always... and I mean always... have to go back and get something.

I keep my tools in my van for work.  Everything is in a decent sized Husky tool bag.  I typically use only a few of the tools regularly, but I would rather carry everything all the time than have to stop what I am doing, go get the tool from the van and, depending on site security, work my back through having someone letting me in and getting back to work.  Since we have SLAs and the company tracks our time to complete the service call(not that we get called out on how long it takes)  I am all about getting the equipment repaired as quick as possible.

If we are going to do some work on our ham radio club VHF repeater system, I pack what I plan to take the day before.  First thing in the morning, I double check what I've packed.  The system is on top of a hospital and we have to pass through a secure area with a security guard to get to the roof.  There IS NO FORGETTING.  If you don't have it, you are out of luck.  Between the 4 or 5 of us that go, we always have everything we need between us because we have done it enough and forgot our share of tools in the beginning.