Favorite tools 1

[rhodie]

I have a drawer in my desk that gets opened and closed about 2500% more frequently than any of the multitude of others.

No, I do not keep candy, mints, or the Snap-On tools calendar in that drawer. I do keep my most useful work tools in the drawer. I'll give you a breakdown, in order of ascending value and frequent use:

5. My cheap mechanical pencil set, .7mm lead only (lineweights? feh!)
4. A Hegeman Grind Gauge. (I'm in the paint industry)
3. A set of Mitutoyo Vernier Calipers
2. A roll of toilet paper (for my nose!)
1. My Ti-86 graphing calculator.

I am very curious to read what your most valued tool is.

If you'd like, you can also include the least useful thing in your office! Personally, I'll have to take an audit first!

Thanks!

 

[flamby]

Most of above + a pack of Aspartame which I use during my numerous tea-breaks. Not that I am a diabetic but just scared of physical exercise that I might have to do if I consume all that sugar.

Gluesticks, staplers, punches etc. to handle a few papers I dispatch to their destiny. And a whitener to cover any telltale signs of my stupidity.

Ciao.

 

[waskillywabbit]

This is way TMI on mechanical pencils and you guys sound like nerds/geeks! Oops, I didn't use a bigger font for all of you who need the 0.7mm line size to see w/o your bi-focals! ;p

I prefer pencils that you can sharpen w/ a pocket knife if need be (I've chewed a couple sharp too), put behind your ear w/o needing an ear the size of Dumbo to hold it up there, still use when they get about 2" long from over-use/mis-use, chew on when the anal retentiveness kicks in from time to time, and not worry about losing.

Brian
Pressure Vessels and Autoclave Systems

http://www.mcabeeconstruction.com

The above comments/opinions are solely my own and not those of McAbee Construction.

 

[haggis]

Any tool that is electronic...the HP xw 8000 with dual 3.2 Ghz processors and 3 Gb of ram...no more pencils, erasers (not that I had to use one of
those anyway ).

The online catalogues that used to litter my desk in hard form.

All my old tools are at home in a box in the basement including my 21st edition Machinery's Handbook. I access the 26th edition at the following site:

http://knovel.com/knovel2/Toc.jsp?BookID=309

 

[drawoh]

Computer with SolidWorks and a web browser.

Coffee cup.

ASME Y14.5M-1994.

Machinery's Handbook 26th Edition. I retired my 19th edition a few years ago.

USB stick.

Fountain pen. My printing has deteriorated since I left the drafting board.

0.5mm mechanical pencil. I have a 0.3mm which I used a lot on a drafting board along with a couple of 2mm lead holders. 0.5mm pencils are reliable if you have a sliding lead support. I have never had a 0.7mm.

JHG

 

[Latexman]

25' Tape measure
Volume Calculator by Lightnin Mixers
TI-85
Crane TP-410
Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes (1st Ed.) by Felder and Rousseau - I was taught by Felder when it was in manuscript form!
Process Heat Transfer by Kern
Liquid Agitation and Advanced Liquid Agitation - Brochures from Chemineer
Webster's Dictionary
Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook (5th Ed.)
0.7 mm mechanical pencil
Two drawing templates for vessels, pumps, valves and P&ID symbols

Good luck,
Latexman

 

[EngJW]

I forgot how to use a mechanical pencil-----


I use all those free pens that reps give away. I keep all the useless copies that people send to me and use the back side for scratch paper. Don't need no stinkin notepad. Wow, I must be saving the company a lot of money.

 

[astructurale]

I agree w/rhodie on the mechanical pencils.
It's also strange that when we all post mechanical pencils that we feel it necessary to include the lead size!

 

[whyun]

We are enginerds, I guess.

Anyone still using number 2 pencils?

 

[ewh]

I got tired of losing my mechanical pencils, so I pretty much use only no. 2 wooden pencils.

 

[astructurale]

I have not used a wooden #2 pencil since I graduated college. Even for the PE exam they gave me a mechanical pencil to use. (0.5mm though, unfortunately)

 

[MechEng13]

Computer
Excel
CAD, Solidworks if I can, ACAD if I have to
.5mm Mech Pencil
Clipboard w/Pad
TI-81
Cell Phone
Memory of the People building and using equipment on the floor



Alan M. Etzkorn
Project Develpment Engineer
Wabash National Corp.

http://www.wabashnational.com

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Pocket Protector, filled.
HP-48S

 

[jmw]

Computer with:
Excel, Word and Powerpoint, Serif Drawplus and Pageplus
Various fuel blend calculators.
Printer.

Mousemat/coaster - I work from home and my wife and I have a Null A (Non Aristoltelian) world view: to me it's a mouse mat; to her it's somewhere to put my coffee so we have the same one sided converstaion each day... "Don't put the coffee there, its not a coaster." and only solved this by getting a wireless optical mouse which is, on the evidence so far, coffee proof.

Ah yes, coffee, free pens, penknives and all the other clutter you go to exhibitions to collect.
Glasses, a mess of wiring with more cables in the drawer for camera downloads, enough different chargers etc for read write CD roms, phones, mouse (the downside of wireless) modem, router etc etc.
A Rotring pen and pencil set though I think the ink has fossilised by now.
A turbine meter rotor, a perspex PD meter, a model of a new water meter design, a stainless steel "float" from a VA meter.
Chemical Engineers Handbook, Fuel handbook, a stack of trade magazines I read and keep but don't seem to read again.
Two floating fish knives, an estate agents ruler, a folding boxwood carpenters ruler.
In short an unsegregated mix of the useful and the useless, the used and unused and some very occassional peace and quite to think in.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com