The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Road Kill Tools

Kevinski brought up an interesting topic the other day -- found or "Road Kill Tools" -- Freebies you find along the road or just out somewhere.

My score today was at our trash and recycling convenience center. Rather than throw it in the trash compacter, someone had set aside a smallish yellow plastic tool box. Being a tool junkie, I went over. Charlie, my Marine Corps Brother who is the attendant, picked it up and said, "ooooh, it's heavy!" So we carried it back over to his office and we opened it. It was fill of rusty tools. Just flash rusted like they had been on a boat near the salt water for a few months. Charlie said I saw it first so he gave it to me. I brought it home and started going through the tools with PB Blaster and the wire wheel. Most of them will be fine! Most of them are run of the mill tools (you don't use expensive tools around the water here ...), but the 12-inch "Diamond Tool and Horseshoe Co." adjustable wrench is pretty cool!

Great score John!
I’m lucky just to find my own tools in my shop?

Don

Did you find any of those ultra rare 10mm sockets?

Cool find. I once found a 7/16" socket attached to a 1/4" SK ratchet just down the road from my house. It doesn't get used much, but is still in my tool box.

Hard to beat free tools.

I rescued a 12 foot piece of 3/8" chain from the fast lane of a 4 lane divided highway just outside of Atlanta one day, with heavy duty grab hooks on both ends- - - - -and managed not to become "road kill" in the process!
Jerry

Hey what a great find ! That Diamond Tool adjustable wrench (crescent wrench) is an awesome wrench to have just because its made in the USA! Whenever I use "old tools" , in particular ones my father had....I'm reminded that once upon a time someone else used these very same tools to do some work.

Never ceases to amaze me how so many folks can't keep track of their tools for anything.

Oh well, their loss, our gain!!!

Score . I like it ,Interesting Duluth in my neighbourhood .

My brother in law used to drive a bus and had a big collection of roadkill stuff. He gifted me a plug in propane fired "stovepipe" heater that I still use.

Speaking of Duluth there mall roof collapsed from the snowfall yesterday ,lucky no injuries.

Had a tire go flat years ago... this wrench was the culprit. It still sits on display in my "office."

When I was patrolling on night shift I would find hand tools laying in the road 2-3 times a month. I would pick them up and at the end of my shift I would take them to the station and put them in the special box I built for found tools. The box resided in the dispatch center and available to anyone who needed the tools or came in looking for lost tools. When I retired at 20 years the box and contents were given to me by the City. Approximately 150 various wrenches but no 10mm sockets!

"but no 10mm sockets"
The really important ones are 1/2" and 9/16 for stovebolt stuff.

No 10mm sockets? Well what do you beat on a 7\16 rounded off nut or bolt?

Jethro has the idea

PICTURES, gentlemen. We need pictures, or you're making it all up.

John, You should send a pic or two of that wrench to Alloy Artifacts, because they don't have one. They might even be interested in buying it from you. $$$

Since you commanded, stand by for pics of my roadkill stuff.

I worked for the State DOT for 26 years, traveling doing pavement evaluation. It is simply amazing the number of tools to be found on the road-some in the main lanes and some on the shoulders. Best spots to look for is at intersections where vehicles are turning and on down the road for about a 1/4 mile. Stuff slides off bumpers and off flatbeds upon turning and accelerating.

Kevin -- Apparently, Alloy Artifacts is suffering (?) from its own success. They don't take pictures of tools not actually in their possession, they're not adding to their collection due to a storage space constraint and they're not even accepting donations at this time. So I guess I can save my electrons for other purposes ...

I have been to that site many times over the years

Yeah, it's a cool site. It's probably a one-man show with all the tools they have stuffed in a single car garage.

I once found a green Stanley thermos on the side of the road. It has a bad case of road rash and is completely unusable as a thermos.
It has resided in the bed of my work truck for 15 years. It is my "lucky thermos". Twenty years and running and I haven't been fired yet.
The feds recently had us install spyware on our trucks so I am now being monitored by SkyNet. I'm going to need all of the luck left in that thermos the way I drive.

Carl ... hate to tell you but even as a retiree, I still have clearance and access into that system. They are onto you and they are closing in (they'll have a grand jury indict you for something ... probably this Tuesday...). The black SUVs should be on your lawn any night now ...

But hey, I hear Gitmo is nice this time of year ...

Come get me coppers! I ain't goin easy!

The road kill tool I just brought home weighs a couple of thousand pounds. It's a surface grinder that can be adapted to mill stovebolt cylinder heads, and I got it for scrap iron price plus a 2-day road trip! I also got to meet Papa Joe and share a meal with him on the way!
Jerry

Jerry -- That's not a roadkill tool. A good deal, yes. But you didn't find it on the side of the road or at the dump .... so no soup for you!

I found this ROAD KILL fire extinguisher on the side of the road. Contents were used by previous owner. So I turned it into a ROAD KILL TOOL BOX for my truck. I already have a smaller version of THIS ONE in my 1965 truck but this one is slightly larger. Made this one last week.

Here’s the first one I made a few years ago. First one I made.

I hope the drug runners down on the border aren't reading this post. That would be a really sneaky way to get a BUNCH of deadly stuff through a checkpoint!
Jerry

Back on topic or no soup for any of you!!

Mark
That should be, No Road Kill Soup for any you.

Can't remember finding any tools on the road but, I'm sure I have lost a few over the years.

Don

I almost deposited a roadkill tool while giving my 3 year old a ride to daycare. I was going around a corner when I heard a clunk and metal hit the road. I knew what it was right away. It was a Craftsman screwdriver which I had left under the hood to adjust the carb.
I did not cuss, but sort of growled a little bit.
My 3 year old, in his carseat looked at me and asked, "(Expletive deleted), Dad?" "(Expletive deleted)?
I couldn't stop laughing to tell him, "No, I don't need any of your help son."
He must have picked that up from his foul-mouthed mother...

I've found a few hammers over the years. One of my sister's boyfriends found a really nice Dewalt skilsaw.

I saw a Snap on 2 tier tool box fall over in the back of a truck and deposit about 200 sockets among other things on the road. I would've stopped and helped the guy, but the location wasn't exactly great for life and safety.

Of all my acquired "found/Road Kill Tools", I think my favorite is this pair of visegrips.

They were "found" holding a broken exhaust pipe hanger together under my wife's '66 Chevelle that I bought for her as a daily driver in 1984. At the time they were covered in road grime and basically invisible when I first crawled under the car to inspect before buying it (didn't actually see them then).

They became "found" when I went to disconnect the exhaust for engine removal (cam was bad and decided a full rebuild was in order). Cleaned 'em up and what you see today has been used frequently over the past almost 40 years.

Dan

Dan, that reminds me of a "road kill" tool I acquired. We bought a used Mazda pickup for my youngest daughter when she was headed off to college. Included in the purchase was a pair of small vice grip needle nose pliers that were clamped on the seat adjuster lever. I commandeered those and fabbed up a proper lever handle out of wood. The wood handle is still in place, and the pliers are still in my tool box.