Workspace

Finally starting to get my basement (radio/small machinery/small woodwork/leatherwork) shop set up. The "wall o' tools" is maybe half done: Interesting note, on the left-hand pegboard, the middle of the three hammers is a small cross-pein hammer of the sort still known in the UK as a "telephone hammer." Just the thing for those late-night calls, h'mm?

The screwdrivers on that same side that run from "gigantic" to "large" are cabinetmaker's screwdrivers, with tips that are thin for their width compared to the usual mechanic's driver.

The Yankee screwdriver at the top is the largest size made (or was, I think Stanley stopped making them last year) and is so large that it is unsafe to store it closed, with the spiral inside the upper tube, because the travel is so far and the spring so powerful that if you happened to be looking at the workin' end and released the latch, it'd go right through your face. Dunno about you but I so do not wanna have to ring up 911 to tell 'em I have stuck a screwdriver into my head by accident. "...And had you been drinking? Had your tinfoil hat slipped?"

At the bottom of the right-hand pegboard is a set of genuine "Spintite" nutdrivers. Not only do they have nice wooden handles and proper hollow shafts, the outside diameter of the driver end is quite small for the size of hex-whatever they fit. It's not that the old steel was that much better but that product liability was less of an issue; you can break them if you apply too much force --but they'll fit tight places where Xcelite's high-quality drivers or even the super-duper Klein ones don't have enough clearance. (If you're buying for yourself, IMO the Klein's are first choice, Xcelite or Vaco second -- and last I knew, you will own one of the latter if you need a full set 'cos there is one size Klein doesn't offer. Unless they've fixed that).

Note that these tools, while generally kinda pretty, are workin' tools. Screwdriver tips are kept properly ground and tools too worn to be functional go in a box to sell to collectors looking for wall-hangers. It's kind of fun to fix an old radio or whatever using pretty much what someone would have used when it was new!

Not seen, the workbench to the right of all this. 'Cos it's still a mess.