Having recently moved and even more recently — finally — receiving my shipment of tools, I’ve been doing a clear-out and re-organisation of all my equipment.
Needless to say this means I’ve been coming across a lot of older tools I had forgotten I have. One of the most intriguing ones was an Alfa Romeo special tool which was gifted to me somewhere around 1990.
At the time I worked in an Alfa Romeo dealership — it was only a dealer for a brief period — not that it was the fault of the workshop it was brief, Alfa at the time was going through an identity crisis and FIAT didn’t seem quite sure what to do with it. But for me it was probably the most enjoyable period of my early apprenticeship. Alfa’s at that time were still exciting.
Identifying the tool
Anyway, on to the tool. When I was first given it, no one knew exactly what it was for. It was in a drawer in an old long forgotten dealership which was now getting an overhaul and taking on one of the more mainstream brands.
If I remember correctly at the time most guesses cited it as a depth gauge for inboard brake systems which were still being used on some Alfas — like the Alfa 75, rear brakes were mounted onto the rear axle/gearbox — But this wasn’t the case.
Alfa Romeo Manufacturer Special Tool DIASS C 60168
I bought an old Simmonds machinist tool chest in a reclamation yard recently and it had a couple of tools in it I’m trying to identify.
Google and Chat GPT haven’t been successful in identifying them precisely.
The first tool: A pliers
This was stamped: AUTOCRAFT TOOL CO. STAMFORD CONN.
Chat GPT’s best guess was a wire crimping tool for wire fencing repair. It also suggests it has a wire cutting part near the pivot point but I don’t see that.
My guess is it’s a former or a tool for holding round stick without damaging it. Another tool that was in the box looks like a seam former for sheet metal, so that would tie into that.
Seam former?
This looks like a tool for shaping a seam into the edge of sheet metal. The handle end is chisel like, so it looks like it’s used with a hammer to form a shape on the edge of metal sheeting to match it to a seam or another panel.
I’m open to ideas and I’ll continue to check what these tools are.
To go with the 10 mm sockets I bought at Harbor Freight I bought an ICON 3/8 drive ratchet that was on special.
First impressions are good. It looks the part and feels good on the hand.
I’ve a few jobs to do over the next while and I plan on putting them to use and see if they live up to the hype.
This is not the G2 ratchet that’s all over social media this is the low profile head 90 tooth ratchet with a 4° arc swing. It also comes with soft handle but I prefer the full metal chrome design.
Will report back soon on the performance of all items.
I just got my first ICON socket as a free gift from Harbor Freight. If you spend $34.99 or more you had a choice of one of three free gifts. I chose the 10 mm socket set, a deep and a standard in both 1/4 and 3/8 drive.
The 10 mm socket pack is a play on the old mechanic story of always losing or finding a 10 mm socket
My sockets are mostly Snap-On so I was curious to see an ICON because of all the hype around this Harbor Freight brand. If you watch any YouTube car repair stuff you’ve definitely seen some of the creators use these tools and say they are equal quality to the high-end brands.
To put it in perspective this set is normally $9.99 and that’s for four pieces. I don’t think you’d get the 3/8 drive deep Snap-On on its own for that. At the time of writing this it’s just over $30.
First impressions are that this socket is an exact copy of the Snap-On. It feels the same, has extremely similar markings and its size is the same in every way – such as wall thickness etc obviously the size of being 10 mm is the same – it really feels like they went out of their way to make this a copy.
At this stage I’ve used it a couple of times but it’ll take a lot more use to say if the quality of the known brand is there.
Considering my oldest Snap-On 10 mm socket is almost 30 years old and still works well it won’t be a like-for-like comparison but I’ll see in a year or so if it’s still doing the daily grind.
