Xmas in July

**BobL** · 13th August 2011, 12:36 PM

I've just come back from some extended OS travel to North America and picked up a few goodies while I was away.

From the top left, the 45 with almost complete set of blades was a gift to me from a Canadian woodworker. It's in good shape and just needs some cosmetic attention. The japanese chisels and the pair of Lee Valley skew block planes was the result of my first visit to a Lee Valley store. Subsequent visits to Lee Valley and purchases therein were somewhat stymied by my suitcase weights and tax free limits. The Mastercraft Maximum socket set I picked up on special for$68 and the 12 piece metric ratchet spanner set I purchased from the Snapon website for 60% of the Aus price. Perhaps surprisingly to woodworkers, in terms of tool quality the Snapon spanners are probably the best of the bunch

**Groggy** · 13th August 2011, 12:51 PM

Mmmm, Snap-On. Lovely stuff Bob, hide it well in the tool cave.

**BobL** · 13th August 2011, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by Groggy

Mmmm, Snap-On. Lovely stuff Bob, hide it well in the tool cave.

Yep - they are definitely going into the "locked cupboard". I used to have a full set of metric Snap-on sockets and regular spanners, but during the decade of my sons and his mates interest in fiddling with motor vehicles about half vanished from my tool box.

**jimbur** · 13th August 2011, 01:10 PM

The airport scanners must have been going berserk.
Cheers,
Jim

**BobL** · 13th August 2011, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by jimbur

The airport scanners must have been going berserk.
Cheers,
Jim

Not compared to last year when I had 3/4 of a chainsaw in one of my suitcases and the Canadian, US and Oz inspectors all left their calling card (a slip of paper with "Inspected by . . . " written on it. This time only the US customs left their calling card in the case with the 45 in it.

The most awkward part was packing the tools across 2 suitcases so as not to exceed the 23 kg limit and not leave the tools rattling around inside them. I eventually found some large-bubble bubble-wrap to pad out the suitcases. I ended up with 22.8 kg in one and 22.7 kg in the other. As one of my mates said - you still had 0.9 kg left!

It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't also toting a laptop, an ipad and a DSLR with 2 extra lenses. Plus I had also bought the 3 volume set of Guy Lautards Machinist Beside Books.

One momentarily scary thing happened on the way to an airport. The cabby had place the suitcases in the back of his people mover type taxi and I didn't see he had put them on the top of a large tool box. When we got to the airport he dragged out one of my suitcases and his tool box was dragged out with it and the contents of the tool box spilled all over the parking bay. I was still inside the taxi organizing my passport etc and heard the sound of tinkling tools and rushed outside to see tools all over the road. For a moment I though the driver had damaged one of my suitcases and it was my tools all over the road. Anyway I quickly noticed the tool box and of course the inferior quality of the tools.

Thread: Xmas in July

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Xmas in July

Similar Threads

xmas in july shed/stockimg filler

Dry July

July Pen VOTES TAKE TWO

July Pen Gallery

July Pen Swap

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions