Old tools

[Gritineye]

Early 60s, I remember my dad using a tin of blue fibrous stuff that he spat in, then he took out the damp wad of fibre and rolled it into a small sausage that went into the hole he had made with his 'jumper', he then poked a hole in it with a bradawl, when a screw was screwed in it made a creaking sound as it tightened, nothing held like that stuff.............used it a couple of times myself, it tended to blow back in your face.......wonder what it was?

 

[Welderpaul]

My Dad had the orange version of the B&D drill, and someone bought him the blue one for his birthday. He still has the blue one, unused, in a box, and the orange one is still going strong.

Goes to show doesnt it.

 

[zx9]

My Dad had the orange version of the B&D drill, and someone bought him the blue one for his birthday. He still has the blue one, unused, in a box, and the orange one is still going strong.

Goes to show doesnt it.

Thanks Paul, I was trying to remember what colour my dad's B&D drill was, it was indeed orange.

 

[julieanncharters]

yep used one of them as a youth while working with me uncle who was a sparky.
you made dam sure yer hole was marked in the right place before starting wacking.
they still supply fibre rawplugs with some makes of storage heater 's for fixing em to the wall..
some one told me they don't melt like plastc ones so are made for the job ,who knows.
also use to drill joists with a long manual auger drill bloody mad when you look back.
then i progressed onto a B&D sprained wrists and slapped knuckles

 

[Wedg1e]

Someone at the museum was using an old aluminium bodied orange coloured B&D drill today.

My dad had one of those, it spent most of its time fitted with a grinding disc or orbital sander attachment as he used it for car body repairs, late 70's - early 80s... it may even still be in his garage, we keep promising my mother to sort stuff out but never seem to get round to it...

 

[kelsham]

In the late 1960s the GPO telephone division used to use the Rawlplug tool to make holes in the customers walls to fit the clips that held the cable, fitting switchboards etc. I worked for them briefly as a T2B technician (lowest grade)

We T2Bs naturally got most of the cabling to do. One fellow apprentice was unlucky/ clumsy, and had a small stream of disasters, hitting the cable accidentally with his hammer whilst stapling to skirting boards, this would break one wire within the cable.

He capped the lot in the following way.

He was given the job of installing cable about 8foot height running along a newly built factory wall. It was made of breeze block. He was using the rawlplug tool and a big hammer. When he hit a hard spot in the breeze block, he hit the tool harder, the breeze block shifted in the wall and partially came away.

The interior wall in question had only just been put up, and the cement had not hardened fully.

Much hilarity amongst his peers, he made us feel competent. Until we did something foolish ourselves.

Which didn't take long, I still shiver looking at telegraph poles thinking of climbing them in the snow.

Regards kels.

 

[Titus A Duxass]

.... blue B&D workmate with squeaky legs

I have one of those' picked it up for 10 yoyos at a flea market.

 

[hareng]

Can you still buy those fibre plugs you cut to length?
Not noticed any for years and far better than modern stuff for most jobs.

 

[bill_gj]

I've still got my first B&D electric drill - 5/16" chuck, single speed. Can't remember what colour it was new, that was in 1966, all the paint has gone now. It was, of course, relatively useless compared to today's variable speed, keyless chuck, battery hammer jobbies.
Most of the time I used it in a stand with a flexi drive to port heads.

I always thought the Rawlplug wall jumpers/punches were a good way of getting through old plaster and cement render and marking the underlying brick - stopped the masonry bit from skating about before it got a bite. I've still got some.

My first home was a WW2 rocket hit and was rebuilt in 1948 from all sorts of brick, some of them seemed to be engineering bricks, right hard b@stards. If I didn't punch the hole to start it, I couldn't be too sure about it being in the right place.

 

[Tino]

You all have posh new Black&Decker stuff. This is mine.


Unstoppable and a bit dangerous.

 

[sardine]

classic

I remember my dad using them back in the early 70's, one of the the other things I remember he used was a Black and Decker circular saw attachment for his electric drill, that was even worse than fibre wall plugs.
Ummm Black Pudding.......

my old man had one of them saws, and every other Ronco crap product of the 70's, his greatest moment was the paint stirrer he put in the drill, he had to have a bath in white spirit after that great idea, then he ordered a comb with a razor blade in it, free haircuts ! took a big chunk out of my brothers hair, and i did a runner !

 

[brightspark]

my old man had one of them saws, and every other Ronco crap product of the 70's, his greatest moment was the paint stirrer he put in the drill, he had to have a bath in white spirit after that great idea, then he ordered a comb with a razor blade in it, free haircuts ! took a big chunk out of my brothers hair, and i did a runner !

lol i remember them showed on telly trimming away nicely and in reality they hacked hell and ripped your hair out

 

[KemppiFrog]

I remember getting an ally B & D in gold paint (around '69?), no plastic rubbish, and it came with lots of 'extras'. One was a circular saw blade with a mandril. No guard, just stick it in the chuck. I can't think of a more dangerous DIY idea. And, wait for this!, among the drills was a left handed one. Made in Japan IIRR, in the era that their bikes were also a bit dubious.

 

[graffian]

Unstoppable and a bit dangerous.

I was going to say snap[ish].

The only time I have had bad feedback on ebay was when I sold one of those BnQ drills, it was a brand new unopened drill and the bloke gave me bad feedback! The wolf and B&D are still used.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Tino, I have the same B&D drill, Gave it a complete O/H a couple of years ago,It had spent it's life working in a ship yard, still as good as new inside and enough power to rip your arms off.



What on earth is a Rawlplug?
It is a fastening which allows you to fix objects to brick, masonry, or concrete. A hole is drilled into the floor or wall, an insert (now normally plastic) is put into the hole, and a screw is driven into the insert. The screw expands the insert sideways, and it grips the inside of the hole tightly.

Why is it called a Rawlplug?
After the inventor, John Rawlings. In the early 20th. century, he devised a brass cruciform plug to fix something to a wall. Later on he created a plug made of jute bonded with animal blood. Due to the intervention of WWI the Rawlplug company was not formed until 1919. The term is now generic, like Hoover, i.e. any similar product tends to be called by the Rawlplug name.

 

[anto]

That's a modern Black an d Decker in blue.

Someone at the museum was using an old aluminium bodied orange coloured B&D drill today. Wish I'd got a photo now.

My dad has still got a brown coloured B&D one which must date from the seventies.

We have a beige/brown B&D as you describe, i was using it last night lol....
Must have been my granda's then my da got it and itl probably still be going when i have children.

 

[pedrobedro]

My old B&D drill died a few years ago after about 40 years of use. It was grey and pale green and the only thing I did was fit a longer cable to it. Round at my friend's bike shop there is a Wolf drill mounted in a press and it is a lethal weapon. He was drilling 12mm holes in some 50x3 RHS and it grabbed and threw a 1.5 metre piece across the workshop.

 

[Keith 66]

Early 60s, I remember my dad using a tin of blue fibrous stuff that he spat in, then he took out the damp wad of fibre and rolled it into a small sausage that went into the hole he had made with his 'jumper', he then poked a hole in it with a bradawl, when a screw was screwed in it made a creaking sound as it tightened, nothing held like that stuff.............used it a couple of times myself, it tended to blow back in your face.......wonder what it was?

It was blue asbestos, i used to mix it for my dad. Dont think you can get it any more.....

 

[Hitch]

Got one of them wolf gut-busters at work. Taper is a bit damaged and wont hold a bit very well though.

 

[brightspark]

It was blue asbestos, i used to mix it for my dad. Dont think you can get it any more.....

cough cough i hardly think so take that on a side and they would cordon it off . send a team in to clean it up with a hoover and do an air test afterwards they done it to me one day in a school . just because i took a tile down inan electric cupboard that had been taken down umpteen times before then they left the tile and told the caretaker to put in in a plastic sack they left WHATS THAT ALL ABOUT