Best Misused Boat Tool

We all have used boat tools for unintended purposes...like using a screwdriver to pry open a bottle top. Once you try it and find it works, it gets filed away as a useful 2nd purpose for that object. Maybe it even becomes its primary use.

Sometimes it's boat components that get misused. Dswizzler told me about the rail on his Gibson houseboat that was open at the bottom and worked perfectly as a bottle opener....anywhere around the perimeter of his boat! Genius!

That happened to me with my laser pointer thermometer. I'm supposed to use it to monitor engine and water temps and I do use it for that sometimes. But more often than not, the tool is being used to find the very coldest beer in the fridge.

I like it so much, I even bought one for home!

What's your favorite misuse for a boat tool or a boat part??

Bought Another One

FlyWright said:

We all have used boat tools for unintended purposes...like using a screwdriver to pry open a bottle top. Once you try it and find it works, it gets filed away as a useful 2nd purpose for that object. Maybe it even becomes its primary use.

Sometimes its boat components that get misused. Dswizzler told me about the rail on his Gibson houseboat that was open at the bottom and worked perfectly as a bottle opener....anywhere around the perimeter of his boat! Genius!

That happened to me with my laser pointer thermometer. I'm supposed to use it to monitor engine and water temps and I do use it for that sometimes. But more often than not, the tool is being used to find the very coldest beer in the fridge.

I like it so much, I even bought one for home!

What's your favorite misuse for a boat tool or a boat part??

Click to expand...

Do you also own an electric razor company? On the other hand, releasable wire tires work great for supporting shore power cords.

A small wooden wire brush that comes 3 for a dollar works great for prying up Trojan 6V 1-piece battery caps. No splatter.

My arm is my most misused tool. Used it today.

Stainless steel screw , Phillip's head screw driver and a pair of channel locks to pull that wine cork when you can't find that corkscrew. Done it a bunch .

FlyWright said:

We all have used boat tools for unintended purposes...like using a screwdriver to pry open a bottle top. Once you try it and find it works, it gets filed away as a useful 2nd purpose for that object. Maybe it even becomes its primary use.

Sometimes its boat components that get misused. Dswizzler told me about the rail on his Gibson houseboat that was open at the bottom and worked perfectly as a bottle opener....anywhere around the perimeter of his boat! Genius!

Click to expand...

In the immortal words of Sebastian the crab, "I'm surrounded by amateurs ". Dude, Klein makes a tool for the professional, don't be an amateur!



Ted

My large vise grips make the very best pecan opener you will ever use. Set it once and crack away. I never crush them anymore.

A back scratcher also reaches things in the backs of lockers and pulls them forward for me.

A mallot for that sometime seized up davit!

Greetings.
Ms. D. Would that be a mallet or a Merlot? I think either would work in some cases...Just sayin'...

RT Firefly said:

Greetings.
Ms. D. Would that be a mallet or a Merlot? I think either would work in some cases...Just sayin'...

Click to expand...

LOL! no it really is a mallot!

Long BBQ tongs for reaching down, up and over.

Well there's abuse and there's abuse. I've modified tools to do my bidding many times over the years. Mostly, I make jigs to allow the tool to do something else. But sometimes I simply modify the tool.

Wrenches are often too long or too bulky to do the job. Two of those pictured were sacrificed so that a cheater could be used; a long pipe slipped onto the end.

The second from the left has a dual purpose: the upper end has had pins inserted to work as a spanner to remove the filter from a 70's Volvo overdrive; the lower end has been ground thinner to get into the narrow gap between the overdrive and the actuating solenoid.

The third from the left has had the box end cut open (to pass the cable) and the handle shortened to allow the new tool to adjust the clutch cable on a '72 Volvo.

The screwdriver has been ground many times to sharpen the tip to fit screws better and has once been ground into a wood chisel and then returned to screwdriver-tude.

The small cold chisel has been ground to form a different sort of chisel, probably to cut bolts or rivets in unhandy places.

The C clamps were cut to make replacements for the cheesy threaded things intended to retain the table top extensions and fence in place on an early '70s Craftsman radial arm saw.

O C Diver said:

In the immortal words of Sebastian the crab, "I'm surrounded by amateurs ". Dude, Klein makes a tool for the professional, don't be an amateur!

Click to expand...

I have Klein tools........I really need one of these!

Flathead screwdriver -> bottle opener
Flathead screwdriver -> oil filter wrench
Flathead screwdriver -> mini prybar

Now if I could just figure out how to tighten and untighten those screw/bolt head with the single groove (I call them 'half-phillips' heads).

Even though I have systematically hunted down and eliminated flat-head (slotted) screws from every aspect of my life, I still wouldn't leave the dock without a flat head screwdriver. They have a thousand uses for which they are not intended. Once you have liberated yourself from using them for driving actual screws, you're free to abuse them without guilt or worry.

Son to his wife, "could you hand me a screwdriver?"
Wife response "plus or minus?"

I almost forgot..

Flathead screwdriver -> Paint can opener.

My biggest pet peeve is previous owners that have use pliers or vise grips on everything instead of using the proper wrench. My dad had a saying, "Pliers were never meant for nuts but it's often nuts that use them". My best tool modification is the little minnow net attached to a 1/2" wooden dowel about 4ft long. It is used regularly for all the "stuff" I drop waaaay down into my very narrow tapered keel/bilge. Saved my butt a few times.

Wet-Dry Vac
Mine has...
Opened up - black, fresh water, and diesel tank vents
Cleared up plugged sink drains (mascara dropped!?)
Inflated dink
Cleaned bilges
...

Blissboat said:

Even though I have systematically hunted down and eliminated flat-head (slotted) screws from every aspect of my life, I still wouldn't leave the dock without a flat head screwdriver. They have a thousand uses for which they are not intended. Once you have liberated yourself from using them for driving actual screws, you're free to abuse them without guilt or worry.

Click to expand...

So true!!

DHeckrotte said:

The C clamps were cut to make replacements for the cheesy threaded things intended to retain the table top extensions and fence in place on an early '70s Craftsman radial arm saw.

Click to expand...

I still have those cheezy threaded things on mine. I like the rest of your mods too.

Wet-or-dry vacs are really useful 'off label'.

My ex used to fairly regularly loose one of her contact lenses down the drain. She was quick enough to turn off the water and I'd have to trundle down to the basement, empty the vac, carry it up to the bathroom and suck out the trap. She never permanently lost a lens.

I've used one to pressurize one of my old, long gone Flying Dutchman sailboats and go 'round with soapy water to find leaks. ('68 Newport FD with a completely sealed hull, double bottom and integral, rolled side decks.) Did it with a Sailfish, too.

LaBomba said:

My biggest pet peeze is previous owners that have use pliers or vise grips on everything instead of using the proper wrench.

Click to expand...

Vise grips are the only way to unscrew fittings that go through the deck with one person...

mgrennie said:

Vise grips are the only way to unscrew fittings that go through the deck with one person...

Click to expand...

I think what really bothers him is letting the pliers slip on the nuts and rounding it.

mgrennie said:

Vise grips are the only way to unscrew fittings that go through the deck with one person...

Click to expand...

Vise grips also work well for twisting off hoses. Stopped destructively using flat head screwdrivers...

1. Small 12v cordless impact driver. Never strips,never over tightens. Nut driver adds same ability to stubborn hose clamps. By far most used tool.
2. Biggest PIA is being stuffed into a corner of the bilge and forget a tool. Or drop something under engine. Harbor Freight shelf picker. Have two in the bilge fore and aft. Yes, it can pick up a beer and core a apple.
3. Good portable storage cases. All my electric, with all crimps and tools is in one case. I take the whole case to the problem without trips back and forth. Same for Impact driver drill set.

4.Magnetic parts holder, sometimes free at HFT, use them at work site to hold all the screws and parts of any disassembly. This way I only lose 10% of the of those impossible to replace washers.
5. The one I'm missing? The youth by which to remember where I put that darn tool or spare part. I know I have at least 4. Is it in the dock box? The garage at home, the basement wood shop?

I'm not sure how much of a misuse it is, but I have found my phone to be an incredibly useful tool.

Taking pictures of things is the most obvious, but I also find myself using the time on a regular basis. If I want to stop my water maker and back flush the media filter before it does a fresh water flush, I set a timer to go off a minute or two before the flush cycle would otherwise start. Then when I start a back flush, I set another timer for 30 minutes so I know when it's done and can go turn it off. Same when transfering fuel. My transfer has a shutoff timer so I'm not worried about moving too much fuel, but my phone timer reminds be to go switch the valves back to their normal positions.

Oh, here's a genuine misuse of a tool.

I use a cuff-style piston ring compressor to compress large impellers and make it easy to slide them into the pump body. It works really well, and significantly reduces the wrestling match with large impellers. Small impellers are easy, but the big ones can be a real fight.

twistedtree said:

I'm not sure how much of a misuse it is, but I have found my phone to be an incredibly useful tool.

Taking pictures of things is the most obvious, but I also find myself using the time on a regular basis. If I want to stop my water maker and back flush the media filter before it does a fresh water flush, I set a timer to go off a minute or two before the flush cycle would otherwise start. Then when I start a back flush, I set another timer for 30 minutes so I know when it's done and can go turn it off. Same when transfering fuel. My transfer has a shutoff timer so I'm not worried about moving too much fuel, but my phone timer reminds be to go switch the valves back to their normal positions.

Click to expand...

Excellent point. The phone (and the Ipad) are also the best manual/diagram looker uppers not to mention a YouTube 'how-to' or a quick Amazon part buy at half the price of the marina store. When cruising, I ship to local Yacht clubs or such; many are very accommodating.