Handtools, convincing mangement to buy high quality tools
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Tullamarine, Australia
Age: 37
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A handy anecdote from my apprenticeship: when we were issued with our basic toolboxes, a lot of us complained that they weren't a good selection of appropriate tools (quality ranged from Stahlwille to Stanley, Koken, Daiken, Knipex, etc). Some asked why we weren't just given a list of tools to buy ourselves and the following story was told.
Several years earlier, the company had handed a list to apprentices for tools they would need. One particular apprentice had bought rather cheap, Chinese manufactured tools to save money. On this particular day, he was helping build up a Rolls-Royce RB211, which was done with the engine vertical. Perched on top of the engine, torquing up a major component using torques in the hundreds of ft lb applied through cheap sockets, the socket failed and snapped into 4 separate pieces which fell through the fan into the engine. All present heard 3 pieces hit the floor below... meaning there was one piece missing inside the engine! A full strip down of the newly overhauled engine was necessary to recover that piece. All for a cheap socket!
Several years earlier, the company had handed a list to apprentices for tools they would need. One particular apprentice had bought rather cheap, Chinese manufactured tools to save money. On this particular day, he was helping build up a Rolls-Royce RB211, which was done with the engine vertical. Perched on top of the engine, torquing up a major component using torques in the hundreds of ft lb applied through cheap sockets, the socket failed and snapped into 4 separate pieces which fell through the fan into the engine. All present heard 3 pieces hit the floor below... meaning there was one piece missing inside the engine! A full strip down of the newly overhauled engine was necessary to recover that piece. All for a cheap socket!
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: England
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Devil's advocate
Starting position is it's always worth paying for the correct quality for the correct job, and my (own-bought) box is mainly, but not exclusively, Snap-On, Stahwille, some Craftsman because I prefer to work with good tools...nonetheless let me play DA for a moment...
1. If the bean-counters in question aren't prepared to trust your judgement over what's necessary for a particular task you have my sympathy and should consider changing Company.
2. If you're maintaining your own fleet, then your Co will be picking up the tab for poor-tool-induced damage, so the BC's are messing their own short-sighted doorstep....refer to point 1 above, as your operating/maintenance costs will make you uncompetitive soon enough
3. Cynically speaking, if you're damaging Customer's aircraft with poor tools, it maybe the Customer who is having to dig deep for those repairs (3 hours to drill out that hard-to-reach bolt with the rounded head?). That's OK while your invoicers get away with it, but in that case refer to point 1 above and get your CV up to date as you'll lose Customers once they find out..
Question - when the roof leaks, do the BCs pay for repairs or buy a bucket to catch the drips? The answer tells you whether to stay or go.
Anyone brave enough to argue that good tools are worth it shouldn't have a problem finding a better job in these days of hard-to-find-good-repairmen....
Who pays the beancounters when all the good guys leave?
1. If the bean-counters in question aren't prepared to trust your judgement over what's necessary for a particular task you have my sympathy and should consider changing Company.
2. If you're maintaining your own fleet, then your Co will be picking up the tab for poor-tool-induced damage, so the BC's are messing their own short-sighted doorstep....refer to point 1 above, as your operating/maintenance costs will make you uncompetitive soon enough
3. Cynically speaking, if you're damaging Customer's aircraft with poor tools, it maybe the Customer who is having to dig deep for those repairs (3 hours to drill out that hard-to-reach bolt with the rounded head?). That's OK while your invoicers get away with it, but in that case refer to point 1 above and get your CV up to date as you'll lose Customers once they find out..
Question - when the roof leaks, do the BCs pay for repairs or buy a bucket to catch the drips? The answer tells you whether to stay or go.
Anyone brave enough to argue that good tools are worth it shouldn't have a problem finding a better job in these days of hard-to-find-good-repairmen....
Who pays the beancounters when all the good guys leave?
