Quicksand Fans

Since moving back to my rebuilt house last March I have been gradually going through things that were in the workshop building and thus not burned up. This afternoon I found a Dremel type rotary tool I bought at Montgomery Ward for about $15.00 back in 1977, I tried turning its shaft to see of it was frozen. Nope, it turned smoothly. OK, let's plug it is. It runs perfectly. It survived six moves and 45 years without being used. And I actually have a use for it after all these years. Very surprising, especially considering most things made in the 1970s were rubbish to begin with.

It probably was designed as a simplified tool... By Dremel themselves. Now you would be able to get a comparable priced tool built by a company that doesn't have any higher quality standards. I have a Craftsman rotary tool kit with the box and that's what I found.

Almost all of my wrenches and socket sets are vintage Sears Roebuck that date from late 40's -- early 50's. Inherited them from my Pappy when he passed away in '01. The hand wrenches not surprisingly are pretty much indestructible but what amazes me is that both the 1/2" and 3/8" ratchets continue to function after 70 years of hard use. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Mynock wrote:Almost all of my wrenches and socket sets are vintage Sears Roebuck that date from late 40's -- early 50's. Inherited them from my Pappy when he passed away in '01. The hand wrenches not surprisingly are pretty much indestructible but what amazes me is that both the 1/2" and 3/8" ratchets continue to function after 70 years of hard use. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

You hit one of my favorite examples right there. Craftsman is sold at Lowes now and it's kind of okay for somebody who doesn't use it for a living but it's a far cry from my grandfather's tools I still have. I'm kind of a tool nerd and America appears to have hit it's peak in the 60's. If somehow you did manage to break a wrench, which could be done with a cheater bar or something, you took it back to Sears and they'd replace it right over the counter. It's not a good sign when you can buy a 297 piece socket set for under $100.00