Doug Fattic 

This cast iron alignment table, bench vises and fork alignment tool I bought from Johnny Berry's widow in 1975. Johnny was a builder that lived and worked in Manchester, England and died in 1974. I consider him the best of the best British builders. I think there is something special about using a vise that was probably bought soon after WWI and has helped make many frames before I got it. Hundreds of my frame building class students got their start learning to braze at that vise. I'm sure these tools will have a long life after I'm gone.

The stainless steel laser cut and etched fixture on the table was inspired by one Johnny made. I've added a lot of bells and whistles. These "sizing boards" were commonly used in the classic era of framebuilding in England. London's F. W. Evans claimed to have invented it in his 1930's advertising. On the cover of his brochure he says "The sure foundation for truth in cycle frames is an accurate jig! Okay then. Inside he said it is superior to doing a full scale drawing. I wouldn't disagree now what he said then.

For a long time I used Johnny's oxyacetylene regulators and torch handle. The handle was made out of aluminum and had a nice light feel to it. Eventually I've gone to using propane with an oxygen concentrator. Propane is a lot easier and cheaper to buy and transport and concentrators provide an endless supply of oxygen at just the cost of electricity. In the old days I always seemed to run out of either at 4:59 Friday afternoon. In some cities acetylene purchase and delivery is very restricted and so propane is a much better choice for my students that want to build frames as a hobby. And the concentrators are way safer. Propane works best with multi-port tips that come from the jewelry trade.




I like teaching my students how to carve a design out of blank lugs. The transportation bicycle in the background is a prototype of the kind we make in Ukraine for pastors to get around. Since 2014 we have been placing them with those that live near the Russian border where everything is a real mess.

Sedgemop 

Last night, I encouraged a stuck bike lock to work with my grandpappy's old hammer.

Sluggo

Gian Robert chain plyers need a new pin.


Whitworth.

79pmooney

Reminds me - not a tool but the seatpin for my username Peter Mooney. Peter delivered the frame with a Campy pin but using it with a brake cable hanger was miserable. About 3 years in, my 1967 Peugeot UO-8 bit the dust. That plain steel pin and nut has been seen service on the Mooney now 35 years and very well, thank you. (I did cut it down to the proper length.) 12mm nut. It's a regular nut, not an acorn nut, no chrome. The bolt has the perfect nub for the cable hanger. Keeping it straight and adjusting the seat is a joy. I keep expecting it to go away from rust but it doesn't look very different now than 50 years ago.

merziac

Sluggo

Very cool, love the old Snap-on, have a couple with peeling chrome, no way I'm trading them in, they wear it well.

Plenty of newer ones as well, the Flank Drive Plus open ends are amazing and have cracked loose many nuts and bolts that were mangled by vise-grips and other crappy wrenches that weren't up to the task.

ramzilla

Pair of very old curved jaw pliers from grandpa's tool box. (Grandpa died in 1956). Used for holding brake pads while tightening post bolts.

branko_76 

You have a beautiful shop Doug ! Your workbench, fixtures, jigs, etc. are housed in what looks like a mid-century industrial building. I love the steel frame windows and patina on the concrete block. The cast in-slab forced air heating ducts are a cool feature of those buildings.

JohnDThompson 

VAR-303 replacement pins work in the Gian Robert pliers:


https://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.c...em_id=VR-303/1

steve sumner

you guys would like the facebook page: bicycle tools collecting and using
check it out!

Sluggo

Thanks for that information!

madpogue 

Interesting how Snap-On's nomenclature for Whitworth is "BS".

I've been called an old fool doing useless work, but.......

merziac

Join the club.

Wasn't Whitworth British Standard before "British Standard"?

madpogue 

I believe so, and I reckon that helps date that Snap-on wrench. I just found the initials amusing, in an eighth-grade fart-joke sort of way.

Kriscarr

Got around to getting some pics.

Kriscarr

I also have a very cool Hitachi dental air compressor from 1958 that I should dig out of storage....

ramzilla

Not that old. But, I bought it in 1979 and, it's been a trusted friend for all these years. This thing has busted off more bottom brackets & headsets than you can shake a stick at. And, has also taken care of quite a few solid axle bolts.

J-Shooter

Wow, what a great idea for a thread! I'll definitely be checking eBay for some of these tools. Creative idea to use a wood lathe as a polisher!

I bought a buddy a Handtool rescue adjustable wrench. As I understand, it's a modern CNC replica of an old King Dick wrench. It seems to grab much tighter and opens much wider than it's modern adjustable nut lathe counterparts. I have a properly sized park wrench for adjusting headsets, but this thing grabbed so much nicer on headsets with chrome or black finishes that always seem to get marred. I'll definitely be buying one for myself soon.

dddd

This one never saw use with bicycles, but imy favorite because I made it from a discarded aquarium air pump as a teenager, to vacuum-extract brake fluid from disc brake calipers on motorcycles.
By putting a machine screw under one edge of the cylinder, I was able to tilt the cylinder enough to reverse it's action, from pump to vacuum. Added a one-way valve to improve it's performance.
Found use recently extracting an extra quart of fluid from the pan of a modern "sealed for life" automatic transmission, since each pull of the drain plug was only removing 1.8qts out of 7 quarts in the system.
The motor gets really hot within a few minutes, no doubt why this 1950's(?)-era relic was discarded back in the70's. I doubt that I'll ever rewind the motor's coils since it's never left unattended, though one guy almost burned his fingers on the motor housing recently while I was bleeding his mc's brakes.

obrentharris 

Brent

etherhuffer 

my neighbor uses an old fridge compressor as a vacuum unit. Works well!

madpogue 

^^^^^ Who knew chilling improves flavor of brake fluid?

northbend 

Oldest tool by Matthew Pendergast, on Flickr

BFisher

Snack time

ryansu

This vice was in every house I can recall growing up. When Mom and Dad downsized in the early 2000s I took it home. It now resides with my ex-wife and daughter but I still get access to it, like when I used it to loosen a stuck seat post a few years ago and someday I will have a garage where it can live. It makes me think of my Dad, who I lost in 2012, every time I use it.

ryansu

When a I graduated college in (cough) 1986 my Dad gave me a set of craftsman tools the ones below get used on the regular in tinkering on bikes.