Useful stuff in your toolbox

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Tom

Tom

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What "useful stuff" do you pack in your toolbox? One that I was just prompted to add is plumber's tape - that metal tape with holes in that comes in a roll and can be purchased at the hardware store. I can see it could be used to temporarily re-hang something that's falling off until I can make a permanent repair.
 
Beside the usual (duct tape, plastic tie wraps, etc.) I always have teflon tape for wrapping pipe joints.  A good crimping tool and an electrical connector assortment is always handy.  A coax crimping tool and an assortment of F connectors, both indoor and outdoor types.  Get a good crimper or you'll be crimping a lot as the connectors work loose from poor crimps.
 
A good crimper.... Well for F-Connectors I don't have one yet but for regular wire splices... Mine is professional grade, does a fantastic job, I've seen factory crimps that were not as good.

Electrial meters VOM are handy on occasion,,, Mine also does a few other things like temperture and frequency (it is a very nice Radio Shack closed out model,  I suspect made by FLUKE due to the case it fits like a hand fits a glove)

That is one tool I've found many RVers do not have, Even a cheap one can be very useful (though less accurate) and yes, I have purchased them at a dollar store.

"Goo" (a general purpose sealant/adheasive) finds many uses too. There is an old saying that you really only need two things... Duct Tape and WD-40.  If it moves and it should not, Duct Tape. If it should move and it does not, WD-40.  Sometimes, however, tape is not the best, then GOO works, Comes in a lot of flavors, Shoe Goo, Automotive, Plumbers, Household.. More or less all the same product, all interchangable
 
Well I have a tape (don't know the name, got it at a booth at the EAA fly-in at Mt. Vernon) that you use by first stretching the piece that you're going to apply (to activate it???) and then wrapping it around what needs to be fixed (a leak in a pipe) whereupon it sticks and tightens.  As an example, the drain plug in my hot water tank was weeping so I wrapped that tape around it and the weeping ceased--and so far I've been too lazy to remove the plug and fix it properly.

Ciao,

Doug
 
Doug, that sounds like self-amalgamating tape, aka "Tommy tape". (Why the heck did they have to pick that name?) Available at most hardware stores.
 
Doug,

Thats sounds like teflon tape if you put it on the threads. ?I have it on my drain plugs and all the fittings for my water filter. ?None of them ever leak.
 
I'd use teflon tape on threads prior to screwing a plug in. I thought Doug was saying he wrapped the tape around the plug after it was inserted and later leaked. Teflon tape is merely a lubricant, although most of us use it to "seal" threads, and wouldn't cling to itself if wrapped around the outside of something to stop a leak (e.g. Doug's other example of a leak in a pipe).
 
It's a lubricant, but it also fills in the tiny bumps in the castings to make a better seal.  I use it on all permanent plumbing jobs.  And no, it wouldn't work too well on the outside :)
 
Items I carry in or near my toolbox that I have found useful.
Plumbers tape
Coax F connector crimper - Not the Radio Shack variaty but good ones along with good connectors.
Teflon Tape
Black tape
liquid tape
Stretchy rubber tape as mentioned earlier
special plyiers with rubber lined jaws to remove water faucet screens and chrome lug nut covers
8 inch piece of rubber fuel line to remove valve caps on inside duals and front wheels
digital multimeter
Box of electrical terminals
Goo
WD40
I also carry a leatherman and 4 inch cresent wrench on my belt




 
OK, I went and dug out the packet.  It is "Atomic Tape": self-bonding, air tight, water tight, withstands 700 psi, resists 500F, insulates 8,000 volts--all according to the wrapper.

Check out:  www.flyshowproducts.com and look at the top right hand side of the opening page.

So, it's definitely not Teflon tape--I carry that as well (along with a bunch of other stuff other people are carrying) :).  And yes, I wrapped it around the spigot(?) and the plug of the drain spout to stop the weeping.

Ciao,

Doug
 
Yep, same stuff I used to use 35+ years ago, just a different name. (Self-bonding = self-amalgamating, or close enough). Back then I used it to wrap around temporary electrical repairs in wet & hot conditions. Steel mills don't like to be kept idle while you make permanent repairs  ;D 
 
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