Original tool kit

[Slymo]

The King Dick adjustable is an object of such singular uselessness that even as a person normally obsessed with originality I would give one the swerve. Much like Mole Grips (awful) vs Vise Grips (brilliant) a decent modern adjustable is a great tool versus one that is really at best a bad hammer.

[Rex]

You, like anyone else stuck by the side of the road with a breakdown, would happily use a King Dick if it got you going again. They were more useful than the japanese "pressed out of Bacofoil" tools as supplied on bikes made by the japanese manufacturers though.
That said, ANY adjustable is an abomination suitable only for plumbers, although Mole Grips have their uses as a gripping/clamping tool.

[orabanda]

I am fond of my King Dick; perfect for adjusting to slide across a shaft spline (ie gearbox, crankshaft), and then rotate by hand. No damage to the splines and short enough to get 360 degree rotation.

Oh, and its also been my nickname since school..........!

Richard "King Dick" Orabanda

[groily]

Not familiar with the exact sort of King Dick to be found in the toolkit, but as dicks do, they come in all shapes and sizes, as do self-grippy things.

I agree adjustables are undesirable when a proper tool is to hand, but life savers when they aren't (just as slip-jaw pliers can be too). I have a few - American, German, French, British and from China too. Plus a home-made small adjustable made by my old Dad in metalwork class at school when he was about 12. A very small 'bad hammer'!

Not sure either about the trade names on self-lockers, I have only got one that says 'Mole' on it, one that says 'Vise Grip', and a few that are Eclipse, own-brand Sears from the USA, unnamed Chinese, whatever. They are all useful for holding separate things together for drilling, filing, soldering, brazing, welding etc. But spanners they ain't.

Every shed needs a few of these things, even if they are weapons of last resort. Here are some, unashamed as I am publicly to acknowledge ownership!

[muskrat]

G'day groily.
All you need now is a hammer (US screwdriver)!
Cheers

[Greybeard]

... Plus a home-made small adjustable made by my old Dad in metalwork class at school when he was about 12.

It's lovely that you still have it, and use it sometimes?

I have a few things I made at school. There is a small planished copper and brass 'pin bowl'. A brass plumbob made of hexagonal brass. A wooden tea tray I made in woodwork has not survived unfortunately.
When I left school, (at 16), I was lucky enough to get some weeks in the training school at the Permutut Water softener factory. While there I made a set of angle templates. They were an exercise in filing. I also made a simple combination padlock. I still have those items.

[groily]

If I Had a Hammer  . . .
If only I could sing musky!

On the home-made mini-adjustable, I do sometimes GB, yes, just because it is small enough to go in with a few odds and sods in toolboxes and could, maybe, be useful - he made it in 1937, guessing. Well done with your stuff too. I wasn't allowed to do metalwork like I badly wanted, I was made to do 'proper' subjects of no practical use whatsoever (apart from the French lessons we all hated that turned out to have been a bit handy later on for me!)

[Greybeard]

My sister went to the Grammar school. I was considered to be non-academic so ended up at a Secondary Modern school. We did no foreign languages but we had woodwork, metalwork and a little technical drawing. All of which have been incredibly useful my whole life.

[Rex]

Not familiar with the exact sort of King Dick to be found in the toolkit,

You have one, fifth from the right past all the shifters although given the size that one's probably from a lorry toolkit..

[groily]

You've got me all excited Rex!
It's a solid bit of kit indeed, maybe 6" long - but if anyone here thinks they want to lug it around in their toolbox as a bad hammer and worse spanner, they are very welcome to have it. One fewer nut-rounders wouldn't trouble me!

[Rex]

Don't be giving it away just yet...you might need it on next year's Moto Retro..

[groily]

If next year's anything like this year's retro rally, done last Sunday, it was more a day out for submarines Rex! No BS . . .
Not quite sure what sort of tools they need to stay unafloat, perhaps the very place for the big King Dick  . . .
I was luckily (as usual really, 'tis my lot in life) on a scruffy beast that didn't care, didn't sulk and indeed benefited from the presence of all that fresh water, to which it and I are averse in the normal run of things. Surprisingly few succumbed to the elements in fact, although we had a lot of van space lined up just in case - those few that did being, as ever, on the shinier side and  far too posh for an adjustable spanner!

[Rex]

Yep, I heard (from the few who went this year) that it was cold and wet.
Actually that seemed to be every year I went...

[Slymo]

You, like anyone else stuck by the side of the road with a breakdown, would happily use a King Dick if it got you going again. They were more useful than the japanese "pressed out of Bacofoil" tools as supplied on bikes made by the japanese manufacturers though.
That said, ANY adjustable is an abomination suitable only for plumbers, although Mole Grips have their uses as a gripping/clamping tool.

Stuck by the side of the road I would use twigs and chewing gum if I thought it would help but deep would be my disappointment if I opened a tool roll to discover someone had replaced my genuinely useful 6"Crestoloy adjustable for a King Dick. I spent my youth having chunks of my hand being bitten off by Mole Grips. The special release mechanism designed by a sadist who clearly wanted to avoid a patent fee would without fail leave me with blood blisters and barked knuckles. There is no room for bad tools in my tool roll however if I found one beside the road in a moment of need all bets are off. :)

[RDfella]

Not sure which is worse - an adjustable (probably tired) or an open-ended spanner that's opened out or, worse still, been 'adjusted' to fit something. At the other end of the scale, I still have a few Stahlwille spanners in my toolbox that I've been using since I bought them in the mid 60's (at that time, Britool were the worst). I see Stahlwille are still making spanners - at a price - but they're not as good as they used to be. They're now thicker and less springy.
As a footnote, my departed mate George ran a comprehensive engineering works - where adjustable spanners were banned.
Having said that, I have a few, including one that'll go to 2". They are useful at times but shouldn't be one's first choice.