by Captain Boggus Blastofferson and Mekgineer Davvi Dolittle
Hello everyone! How are you? We hope you're doing well! If you're reading this article, then, you must have an interest in building all sorts of super neat machines and gadgets to make the lives of you, your friends and family much easier and more fun! Unless, you don't like engineering and are reading it by mistake. Either way, welcome! We hope you like what you read! We're excited!
Tools: An Engineer's Best Friends!
For our first article, Captain Blastofferson and I thought we might go over some of the basic tools that every engineer from the littlest Widgets all the way up to the High Tinker needs in order to work! While specialized tools and instrumentation can be super fun and may be required to assemble higher-level schematics, EVERY engineer has to have their hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches and measuring devices. Not everyone might need an oscilloscope, spark-gap meter or nethertron detector. What we'd like to do, is share some tips for choosing high-quality tools and give some recommendations based on our own experience, so that you new engineers might be able to start out right! Our first article is sort of long, but, it's super important!
Hammers:
The hammer is the first tool ever invented! Did you know that? Ideally, hammers are used to shape metal and to carefully drive different components into place. In practice, hammers can also be used to knock stubborn bits loose, smash icky bugs and perform “percussive maintenance” too. A good engineer is going to need several hammers in a range of sizes and head-styles for use in three main hammering situations. Small hammers with flat heads are recommended for delicate adjustments, while a ball-peen, Machinist's or Blacksmith's Hammer is desirable for general use and for heavy metalworking. Of our two favorite hammers, the Jacksprackle Double-Headed™ Hammer is best for delicate work like clockwork and general tinkering, while the Otten 303™ is heavier and a tiny little bit more useful on an anvil.
Screwdrivers:
Screws are great little inventions meant to secure pieces of a machine or device to the whole by means of a threaded metal rod. Screwdrivers are tools meant to tighten and loosen screws in their holes! These tools also come in many types and sizes, such as flathead, Phillips-Head and hexhead, and a new tinker is going to want to be sure to get one of each in every size they available! For the most part, bad screwdriver sets are hard to find, so as long as you are a careful shopper, you should be okay! However, please please please do NOT buy from the Doc Driver™ line! These “screwdrivers” are made from the cheapest metal available, and can torque and snap under pressure! Also, every size they make is just the tiniest bit off, leaving you with stripped screws and bad feelings! Don't buy them!
Wrenches and Spanners:
Wrenches and Spanners are tools that are used to tighten and loosen nuts, bolts and other rotary fasteners. Generally, the nuts and bolts that wrenches and spanners are meant to work on will have a hexhead, but there are some that have pentaheads or even triangular ones too! Hexheads are the most common though, so, we recommend that your wrench set accommodate this type. Of all the sets out there, Weth and Sisson's Wrenches™ are supposedly built from the best surgical-grade steel to the highest machine tolerances available today, but also cost a great deal of money! For both beginning tinkers and long-time mekgineers who can't spend so much gold, we would suggest that they buy the Aces Spanneriffic™ set instead! They are much better than some snooty engineers claim, are sturdy and have good weight and balance. Captain Blastofferson can spin and juggle them no problem, so, you know they're good!
Gyromatic Micro and Macro-Adjusters:
The Gyromatic Micro and Macro-Adjusters are some of the modern marvels of the workshop! The natural evolution of the screwdriver and the wrench, these devices are motorized to reduce the time it takes to fasten and unfasten long screws and bolts while at the same time providing more torque and power when you need to make super sure that what your screwing in or bolting on won't come loose! But, you might say, “Boggus! Davvi! Why do I need regular screwdrivers and wrenches now, if I have the super-neat motorized versions?” and we say, “Because, although some Micro and Macro Adjusters have built-in torque gauges and safeties, it's always best to use a manual model when working with delicate components!” Of all the Micro Adjustors out there, we both agree that the Micro Naut's Adjunctor™ is the absolute best with a steady, smooth rotation, many attachments and several power settings! On the Macro-end, the Goblin-made Zizzix 570™ has lots of speed and power, but, again, don't you try to use it on anything delicate!
Pliers, Vices and Clamps:
In addition to all the tools we've mentioned already, every engineer needs a good collection of pliers, vices and clamps in order to work! The vices and clamps share the function of being able to hold whatever you're working on, to the workbench or together, and buying these won't be too difficult as long a you can recognize quality in their construction. We would suggest that some of your clamps be made of wood too, for work on things you don't want to leave tool marks on. A good pliers set will also be needed to strip wires, bend metal, reach nuts and screws fallen into hard to reach places and perform all sorts of grabbing tasks that the other tools simply can't do! As far as the pliers go, we would recommend Crocolisk Pliers™, as they use really high-grade materials, and they make every sort of pliers imaginable!
Measuring Devices:
As far as measuring devices are concerned, any engineer is going to need a number of rulers, tapes, compasses and angle-irons before they even THINK of starting a project or even drawing up a schematic! Because of the nature of measuring tools, most you find from reputable supply houses will be good enough, but beware! While Gnomish Metric, Lordaeron Royal Measure and Quel'thallasian Measure are all regulated and standardized units, things like Kaldorei Cubits and Ogre-knuckles are not, and tend to vary depending on which Night Elf community the plans were drawn up in, or how big that ogre's hand is!
Well, Captain Boggus and I both really really hope that you enjoyed our article! We really really hope that you were able to learn something, even if you're not an engineer and read this article by mistake. For today, we want to let you know that every engineer has to be able to depend on their tools, and having the proper ones to do the job is super important! If you take care of your tools, your tools will take care of you! Be well, and, enjoy the rest of this fine publication!
