# Do you still use any tools that you made in shop class?



## Reeltor (Feb 27, 2017)

I was reading 2volts post on the tool maker's clamps that he made.   http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/toolmaker-clamps.54532/#post-463629

Very nice write-up and shop made tools BTW.  I noticed RandyM's post on cleaning up a set of clamps that he made in shop class and wondered if anyone else still uses tools that they made in Jr. or High School shop class?

I have 2 hand forged cold chisels that are my go to tools when a chisel is needed.  These were made somewhere around 1969 +/- a year or so.  Other tools that were made in Jr. High are long gone, tool maker's clamps and several light hammers come to mind.

Anyone else using old tools that were made in shop?

Mike


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## owl (Feb 27, 2017)

I have a tin funnel that I made in shop class, I don't know if that qualifies as a tool.


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## BGHansen (Feb 27, 2017)

I made a ball peen hammer in junior high shop class (no high school shop classes were offered).  Still use it for center punching holes.  I didn't know CRS from 1080 from 4140, etc. at the time and made the head out of a CRS round.  It was case hardened with Kasenite, but looks a little rough on the working end.

Bruce


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## Reeltor (Feb 27, 2017)

owl said:


> I have a tin funnel that I made in shop class, I don't know if that qualifies as a tool.



It's a tool to me, just try taking one of  your wife's kitchen funnels out to the garage or shop and see what happens.  If she is anything like my wife, ... you get the idea


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## MozamPete (Feb 27, 2017)

A couple of drifts I still use and a sheet metal tool box with tray that we had to fold and solder up. Everything else has got lost somewhere along the way.


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## WesPete66 (Feb 27, 2017)

I didn't make it, but I still have the architect's scale that I used in high school shop class to draw the plans for the gun cabinet which I then built. I keep it on my bookshelf at work, next to a scale my dad owned. (ok, I bought it when the school got new drafting gear! ha)


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## francist (Feb 27, 2017)

Ok, so I know they're not machine shop tools but it wasn't specified either ;-)

I made all of them in my grade 11 year I think, and actually did a presentation in my English class on the benefits of making your own hand tools and used these as examples. The two try squares I used for a while but they have since been supplanted by store-bought versions (there is a slight issue of accuracy with mine that does not please me). The mallet and Japanese-style marking gauge though are still my go to tools when I need one. Neither are fancy, but they just work. I guess they're coming up on 40 years old soon.

Thanks for looking.

-frank


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## moosehorn (Feb 27, 2017)

Reeltor said:


> I was reading 2volts post on the tool maker's clamps that he made.   http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/toolmaker-clamps.54532/#post-463629
> 
> Very nice write-up and shop made tools BTW.  I noticed RandyM's post on cleaning up a set of clamps that he made in shop class and wondered if anyone else still uses tools that they made in Jr. or High School shop class?
> 
> ...


Oh yeah, I still have a fly cutter and 1-2-3 blocks!


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## Hawkeye (Feb 27, 2017)

I often use the machinist's jack I made in about 1970.


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## jbolt (Feb 28, 2017)

These are the ones I could find quickly. I know there are others in tool boxes. I also have a drill point angle gauge and a thread tool setting gauge buried somewhere on my workbench. We had 4 lathes and 1 mill so we did a lot of lathe work.


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## road kill (Feb 28, 2017)

Reeltor said:


> I was reading 2volts post on the tool maker's clamps that he made.   http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/toolmaker-clamps.54532/#post-463629
> 
> Very nice write-up and shop made tools BTW.  I noticed RandyM's post on cleaning up a set of clamps that he made in shop class and wondered if anyone else still uses tools that they made in Jr. or High School shop class?
> 
> ...


I still use a center punch and drill sharpening gauge, the first things we made at tech.


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## Reeltor (Feb 28, 2017)

Looking at MozamPete's tool box reminded me that we had to make one in the 8th grade, that and tool caddies.  The tool box is long gone, I do have 3 or 4 of the tool caddies that I pulled out of the trash that other guys didn't want.  I still use them to carry tools from the garage to where I'm working and keep one with some electrical repair items in it.  I guess they sell new plastic ones, I like the sheet metal ones, I put a magnetic tray from harbor freight on the handle to hold screws/nuts/bolts when taking something apart.  I wish I had a box and pan brake (or is it break, I can never remember) to do some sheet metal work, it would come in handy; but not at what they cost today.  Even used they are about the same as a new mill.

I for one am enjoying the photos 1++


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## Uglydog (Feb 28, 2017)

Unfortunately I didn't participate in my high school shop operations.
My student peers seemed to enjoy burning text books with the OA torch, playing ninja with tools, and sabotaging other students projects, etc. 
I quickly abandoned HS shop as a dangerous place. 
I wish it had been different both then and now.

Daryl
MN


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## MozamPete (Feb 28, 2017)

Found a couple of others once I started thinking about it - a centre punch and a brass plumb bob with a steel tip.


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## Fabrickator (Feb 28, 2017)

In 7th grade shop (about 50 years ago now) we made a chisel and a center punch (forged), a Micky Mouse face in aluminum (cast), and a dust pan (sheet metal/bending/soldering).  That's about all I can remember.  I still use the dustpan all the time.


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## Bi11Hudson (Feb 28, 2017)

I didn't get to go to high school (or middle school) at all. At that age, I was on my way to the South Pole and had access to all of the ship's tooling. My father taught me carpentry, the Coast Guard taught me machinery, and I taught me electrical. I do have a number of tools from those days, most for model building when I didn't have the cash for store-bought equipment. The most useful would be a homemade hemostat(?) used for rigging model sailing ships. I will concede that the overall design, and concept, was from another sailer that also built models. He taught me as well, I suppose. Most everything I have from those days is small so it would be easy to transport. Too much Jack London as a kid, I guess.


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## 4GSR (Feb 28, 2017)

Dad would never let me or my brothers take metal shop in school.  We learned in our shop at home back then. He made me take drafting classes and such.  Somewhere in the attic I have a small "watchmakers" lathe I built modeled off of a unimat lathe but a little bit bigger.  Have a few other things around here I made too in my high school days at home.  Ken


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## pandreasen (Mar 4, 2017)

I don't have any tools THAT OLD anymore! But.. I do use several that my kids made! My youngest daughter made several better than I could buy! She rebuilds her own engines, you name it. (She just got done changing the engine to a bigger one in her husbands truck)


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## Okapi (Mar 4, 2017)

Hi Mike,
All my measuring tools I have as an apprentice are here, some were remplaced by more modern ones, the fantastic big Tesa caliper screen for tired eyes in place of my old with 5mm. screen for example, at time those tools were a biiiig part of my money, and now as an independent worker since(saying I pay myself the tools I use), when I broke(despite a simple 12mm. mill) or loose something it's a real drama…


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## NCjeeper (Mar 4, 2017)

We had to make our own set of parallels to use. Unfortunately they are long gone. That was back in 1982 by they way.


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## Moshe (Mar 4, 2017)

My Father's high school shop class ball peen hammer.  He is 90 years old.


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## mickri (Mar 9, 2017)

I still have two hammers, a ball peen and a small hammer that I use all the time.  My daughter has an aluminum pie spatula that I made.  This was in Jr. High in the early 60's.  My metal shop teacher's favorite saying when looking at something we had made was "that's a mell of a hess you got there" which was a pretty accurate description of most of the projects we made.


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## mikey (Mar 9, 2017)

Dang, I'm jealous. The only thing I got out of shop class was a stupid 3-legged stool!


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## Reeltor (Mar 9, 2017)

Some of these posts are really jogging my memory.  I know that we made heart shaped spatulas from ???.  The material was way too thick to be useful; on the plus side, learned how to set rivets.  I don't think the spatula lasted too long around the house.  I also remember making a small ballpein hammer, a center punch, a small tool box as well as the already mentioned cold chisel.  Only thing left is the chisel.
thanks for the memories guys  

Am I the only one who would like to hear more about Bi11Hudson, going to the South Pole ( Antarctica) as a kid?  I wouldn't mind hearing more about it.


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## A618fan2 (Mar 9, 2017)

I went and dug these out for the picture.  I made these in shop class in 1972 or 73.  They were fun casting and forge projects.  Took a sheet metal class too but that project (a tool tote) disappeared in my parents estate sale.

John


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## RandyM (Mar 12, 2017)

Well, look what I found. I had totally for got I had these. My shop class hold down clamps.


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## benmychree (May 17, 2017)

The projects in my HS machine shop class were a single hole paper punch made like a punch press, a cross pein hammer and a screw driver with hollow handle and milled hex. all the projects were nicely polished; I still have the hammer and screwdriver, now niter blued; the paper punch I gave to a girl friend from the day; I asked her if she still had it a couple of years ago, but sadly it was gone.  After I started apprenticeship in '64, I made a pair of parallel clamps, using brazed on carbide tool shanks for the steel, and two sets of hardened parallels of 0-1 steel and a pair of 1-2-3 blocks, also 0-1 steel, using scraps from shop jobs; since then I made several dial indicator accessories for deep holes, after designs from tools made at the local Navy yard.  I very much like the design of RandyM 's hold down clamps that are reversible; I'm surprised that someone does not manufacture them, at least, I have never seen anything like them


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## benmychree (May 17, 2017)

I had the advantage of having a shop teacher who I believe was head and shoulders above nearly any other; He was a Mare Island Navy Yard apprentice starting in the late 1930s, taught in their apprentice school and later in the Napa, Calif. High school and Junior College shop (shared).  There was no bad behavior tolerated in class, and he knew when anything was not right and was on top of it in an instant; the shop was kept meticulously clean and orderly, everything in it's place. I kept up a cordial relationship with him until he passed away.  His three period class for guys planning on entering the trade was the only time I ever made the honor roll at school (3 As)  Rest in Peace, Paul (Goldberg) Kruger.


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## The Liberal Arts Garage (May 17, 2017)

pandreasen said:


> I don't have any tools THAT OLD anymore! But.. I do use several that my kids made! My youngest daughter made several better than I could buy! She rebuilds her own engines, you name it. (She just got done changing the engine to a bigger one in her husbands truck)


More Valuable than Rubies! From the bottom of my Heart,......BLJHB.


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## dulltool17 (May 17, 2017)

Drill press vise- 1974, shown here holding Peruvian Mauser receiver.  I use it at least once a week.


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## Rustrp (May 17, 2017)

mikey said:


> Dang, I'm jealous. The only thing I got out of shop class was a stupid 3-legged stool!


You and I both know three leg stools are smart. Always steady, never wobble and always firmly planted.


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## mikey (May 17, 2017)

Rustrp said:


> You and I both know three leg stools are smart. Always steady, never wobble and always firmly planted.



It was actually nicely made, varnished and my Mom actually used it for many years. I have to admit that if I had the choice between that stool and a metal working tool I would have gone for the tool, probably to my Mom's disappointment.


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## Rustrp (May 17, 2017)

mikey said:


> It was actually nicely made, varnished and my Mom actually used it for many years. I have to admit that if I had the choice between that stool and a metal working tool I would have gone for the tool, probably to my Mom's disappointment.


Whatever the deciding factor was, it played well in your favor.


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## ddickey (May 17, 2017)

mikey said:


> Dang, I'm jealous. The only thing I got out of shop class was a stupid 3-legged stool!


At least it wasn't two legged.
We only had woodworking and we learned to weld. The only project I can remember was a small book case. Lame.


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## mikey (May 17, 2017)

ddickey said:


> At least it wasn't two legged.
> We only had woodworking and we learned to weld. The only project I can remember was a small book case. Lame.



Yeah, all we need is another member who made a table and we'll be on our way to outfitting a house. What were our shop teachers thinking?


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## Ulma Doctor (May 17, 2017)

i didn't attend formal machinist training in school.
i was trained on the job.
i learned from a wise shop hand who was a Bomb fuse technician in WWII, and  from reading anything related to machining that i could ever lay hands on.
i was lucky enough to have a lot of tools donated to me when i was first starting out, most of those tools are still somewhere in my mass of crap.

i have modified hundreds of tools to do specific jobs.

the very first tool i made was a grinding fixture for resharpening meat flaker blades.
my employer at the time sent out hundreds of flaker blades to be resharpened.
we had many means of sharpening different blades, but the flaker blades proved difficult to sharpen by the means available.
i took it upon myself to design and make the grinding fixture to be used in conjunction with a horizontal surface grinder.
the boss was ecstatic to not have to send out the blades anymore & i got major bonus points.
i gained a lot of respect from the veterans that worked for the company, that was no easy task.
the fixture has been in service since 1995


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## Silverbullet (May 18, 2017)

In the four years of vocational school we had the opportunity to build , make many of our tools. I have and still use them as needed. I couldn't tell you all of them by list but some were expensive to buy even way back then. Planer gage , hardened and ground , Jack sets like starrett , triangles , hammers all kinds. Angle blocks , Gage blocks, clamps, tap wrenches all types sizes. Some I'm not remembering , but we made good use of the learning and got lifetimes of use from our school , BURLINGTON COUNTY VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL. my almamatta. I put long days in school left the house by 7 am and got home at 5pm. Others went to regular high from 8am to 3 pm. Travel time made us use to long workdays. At one job I worked 72 hours a week straight time. 
 YUPP I've got lots of tools still in use.


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## 4ssss (May 18, 2017)

I still use my v-blocks, center punch, straps, and tap aligners. Wish I'd have kept the threading tool bit sharpening block for a surface grinder


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## pandreasen (Jul 30, 2020)

I do remember one "project" in Shop Class, but the instructor threw me out for a month because of it! I have always had a thing for  Bowie knives. I had a blade (1095C I think) with a 14" cutting edge and another 8" for the handle. I was using a surface grinder (instructions WERE posted, but what teenage boy READS THEM?) and ran out of patience with the required "only a few thou at a time boys!". I think I dialed in around 100 thou the next pass, and that big magnetic holder never had a prayer! The blade took off across the room (fortunately everyone else was seated or gone) about neck high. It hit the opposite wall and cut the cleanest hole you ever saw! I was told later, by a friend (not being allowed even NEAR the school for a while!) that it had passed through the next room right over everyone's head, and made almost as neat a hole as the first one. Then... ah, yes... thenit entered the LAB! The LAB Teacher was showing how to use a microtome . You know, that HIGHLY precision thingy that slices tissue to wafer thin for slides? the EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE thingy? Well it was made of good stuff. The base was cast iron, and the blade finally stopped when it hit it RIGHT BELOW THE Teachers fingers. That was good steel too. It buried about 1/2" into the cast iron, like it was a hot knife in a butter dish. (the Teacher actually had it left in there, and ground off 'til a little bit stuck out, and and showed it when he lectured EVERYONE who would listen for the next few YEARS about my "accident" (was NOT what he called it!)  I am still amazed (as was my Mother, who had never before RUN OUT of thorny rose bush limbs! (I think there are still a few thorns in "there" from 59  years ago!) that I hadn't been the first school serial "stabber ???"
 And THEN............ I got to earn the money to pay for the LAB thingy. HAD to take LAB, every day THERE sure was fun after that!

And ya know what? I ain't larned nothin frum it, neither! (ask my wife, who was in the next room)


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## MrWhoopee (Jul 31, 2020)

I had a shop teacher like @benmychree, retired Navy, precision flat-top, a place for everything and it had better be in its place at the end of the period. Each lathe had it's own tool cabinet and we had to stand next to the one we'd been using while he inspected. Only then were we dismissed. I still use my parallel jaw clamp, vee blocks and square collet block (never finished the hex after I broke a tap in it.) Haven't seen my ball-peen hammer in some time, but it's probably around somewhere.


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## Silverbullet (Aug 2, 2020)

Still have every tool i made in vokie , in three years of shop we made many copies of Starrett machinist tools. Hardened n ground too.  Hell we even used casenite for colors .


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## pontiac428 (Aug 2, 2020)

I don't have any shop tools that I can think of, but both of my parents have a couple of my projects decorating their respective houses.

My shop teacher was named Keji Sugiyama.  He was a American born, SF Bay kid with Japanese parents.  During WWII, he and his family were interned at Manzanar.  While there, Mr. Sugiyama volunteered for a spot in an all-Japanese American battalion of Infantry, where he fought his own relatives in the Pacific, ending in the Japanese mainland after the bombs.   He was light and friendly when he wasn't knocking heads.  You just don't mess with a guy like that, yet there were always some who did.  I can't say I learned a lot, I came in with a lot of knowledge, but I did get some great experience on machine tools that I couldn't get in my Dad's shop (he was between lathes when I was in high school).


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## Bi11Hudson (Aug 2, 2020)

Having never been to "high school", I never had any shop classes. However, I have been a model builder since before I was a teenager. As such, I had many tools specific to model building and electrical tinkering. Some of them were built because they didn't exist or were hard to find or too costly for a kid. Later, at 17(and more) there were times in the military that I needed something and being at sea it was simpler and faster to make it. Such items were crude, but functional. I *think* I still have a couple specific to sailing ships but I haven't built a sailing ship since the mid '70s. But I never intentionally let go of any tool, so they may well still be here.

Does that count???
.


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