Oddest thing in your toolbox?

Toilet wax ring. Good for lubricating screws going into wood.

Gary Brady Austin, TX

regular soap bars also work quite well...

Silly putty is also good for sizing bolts, nuts, screws, hex, allen type heads and taking back to your tool chest to get the right size. Just use the SP to make a mold of the bolt/nut/screw.

-Tom

Toilet wax ring? what's that?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

You shouldnt use soap, it will "draw" moisture and rust steel screws. It will probably discolor wood also. Beeswax or parafin is safer. ...lew...

On 24 Apr 2005 04:21:50 GMT, the inscrutable Ignoramus31514 spake:

Soap is hydrophilic (absorbs moisture) and can corrode or rust the hardware (as well as making your project smell like your bathroom.) ;)

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A tube of K-Y jelly. Great for lubricating heavy walled hose so it slips onto the barb easier.

But it gets some really strange looks from visitors to the boat shed.

And I thought it was what you brought with you to the marine supply!:)

When are we going sailing?

Try Dow High-Vacuum Grease instead. I keep it around for the vacuum work, but it's perfect for any application where you can't use petroleum-based grease (plastics, rubber, etc.). It's a must-have for o-ring assemblies in everything from underwater cameras to the kitchen sink:

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in news:ogNae.33638$Zr.4592 @lakeread08:

And I thought I was kinky when I used it to slide new grips on my motorcycle handlebars...

"B.B." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news-ia.supernews.net:

Sterile syringes with hypodermic needles?

Depends on the toolbox - at work, one of them has ping-pong balls in it.

I spent a lot of time down at Brookhaven Labs once, and you had to have your own for the table they had in one of the rec areas.

At home, it would be the stack of outdated badges for different places I've worked. Can hardly recognize the guy on some of them...

Jim

An old lead souvenir of the Statue of Liberty - perhaps from around the time when it first opened. It's a small mirror case with Miss Liberty on one side and an eagle on the other. I look into it and think of my grandfather looking into it, and his grandfather...They were patternmakers at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York. It's always been in our toolboxes.

Charles Morrill

Oh, I see. We use a different fitting system here in Auz.

Thanks

Tom

Ah, like what? I thought the old wax ring was universal.

Lane

"GrumpyOldGeek" And I thought I was kinky when I used it to slide new grips on my motorcycle handlebars... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Whatever turns you on, baby. However, I am not sure that is the best product for this use, or the best use for this product. I use something like hair spray for installing grips--it's slippery when wet, but not after it's dry.

Cool, an original gadget! Would think it would be bronze or somethin' though?

Tim