Repurposing an old tool

[olderdan]

Great idea Marv, and its nice to not have wasted your time making it for a one off, I just found a hand scraper made from a file at apprentice school around 55 years ago, I love old tools that have someones name on them as I feel a connection somehow.
A few of my holding gadgets for assembly work on motorcycles which by nature are compact devices, nothing is more frustrating than retrieving a nut for the umpteenth time of the garage floor so one has to be resourceful.
I have a set of three fishing forceps which self lock but if a nut pings out of those it will go a long way.
My favorite is a piece of lead wrapped round a ring spanner which a nut can sit in, a blob of grease for a washer on top works most times where a hand cant reach, also aluminum foil can be a help in forming a nest in the end a ring spanner.
Its all good fun isn’t it, isn’t it?

[mklotz]

Speaking of files into scrapers...

My favorite deburring tools are small triangular files with the tip ground down to three file-hard edges. The edges quickly remove burs and any resultant sharpness is quickly dealt with using the file in its intended role.

[C-Bag]

Great idea Marv, and its nice to not have wasted your time making it for a one off, I just found a hand scraper made from a file at apprentice school around 55 years ago, I love old tools that have someones name on them as I feel a connection somehow.
A few of my holding gadgets for assembly work on motorcycles which by nature are compact devices, nothing is more frustrating than retrieving a nut for the umpteenth time of the garage floor so one has to be resourceful.
I have a set of three fishing forceps which self lock but if a nut pings out of those it will go a long way.
My favorite is a piece of lead wrapped round a ring spanner which a nut can sit in, a blob of grease for a washer on top works most times where a hand cant reach, also aluminum foil can be a help in forming a nest in the end a ring spanner.
Its all good fun isn’t it, isn’t it?

It IS fun olderdan.

Because I was always been under the gun time wise when a wage slave mechanic I would mostly look at what was close at hand. My "stickum" above grease was the black putty stuff that came with A/C install kits to seal around lines when going through firewalls etc. It's like tar and extremely sticky. Came in rolls with wax paper. The guys always had a bunch left over after an install and I've got a couple of partial rolls that I keep in every tool box or emergency kit. Those old partial rolls are 40yrs old(!!!!) and still sticky and pliable like when I first picked them up off a bench where they'd been discarded. Because it only takes a pinch I've got several lifetimes worth of bailout!

[mklotz]

Duct seal is still sold in the big box stores...

Gardner Bender 1 lb. Plug Duct Seal Compound-DS-110 - The Home Depot

I use it as part of a backstop for pellet and BB artillery. (Allows me to recover the spent pellets so the birds don't eat them. I reuse them to weight various things that need weighting.) It's sticky but not as sticky as what C-Bag describes.

I live about a half hour drive from the La Brea tar pits, right next to the LA County Art Museum. Perhaps I should go up there and beg a pint of the stuff. From the looks of the ongoing excavations that stuff is über-sticky. It trapped mastodons and sabre-tooth cats so holding a nut ought to be easy.

[C-Bag]

Hmmm, interesting Marv. Don't know what that stuff looks like or consistency. This stuff came in rolls and I don't think it's as sticky as maybe your LaBrea tar, but it's sticky enough to be molded into firewalls and stay. And unlike your tar it holds to itself and doesn't leave a deposit. Never seen any of it fail, but probably they don't need it anymore as most cars come with A/C from the factory now.
It's somewhere between tar and clay. Dug the roll out of my tool box,here it is:

[gargoyle]

Noyce, a coaxial nut wench, just like my wife.