Father managed a milk and butter factory. Newbies often had to go to the boiler room to fetch a bucket of steam.

Now I know who to blame for all the work I used to have to do JB - on a game ranch in my youth - 65 miles of boundary fencing to maintain - an ongoing job as white ants ate the poles and one running Elephant could take down 1/4 mile of fencing on its own - plus to top it all poachers used the 18 guage fencing wire for snares..........
Wish I had a quid for every time I used that stretching contraption from Kiwiland .......

Absolutely Marky - The Worlds Fastest Indian - one of my absolute favourites - bought a copy years ago - don't know anybody who did not enjoy it - even the ones who don't like motorbikes.......

Brilliant love the Munro special ,there's a great film about the man and machine staring Anthony Hopkins if my failing memory serves me well.
Cheers Marky👍

Ha-Ha- Funny!

How about a metric crescent wrench?

Hi JB, thanks for the link to Hayes. Brought back memories of our trip to NZ in 2014 ( when tourists were allowed in the country ! - remember those times?). Came across the store quite by chance while in Invercargill.

Graham93

"Prop wash"😂🤣
Now THAT I like👍👍👍
😎

That's the first time I ever saw "real" bolts. I saw drawing before, generally from the guys in the Fasteners group at General Motors.
One of my favorites was asking the new guys at the marina if they could find me a gallon of prop wash when I was getting the boat ready in the spring.

Re - Those bolts are really brilliant Graham
We're clever bastards down here Peter, we can do anything with a few metres of No 8 FENCING WIRE (not baling wire thankyou Douglas!) and a piece of wood😁 We quite often use these bolts for minor misalignment corrections.
(you'll notice Burt Munros' Indian (in the above link to the suppliers of these bolts) still holds the world record for its class, home made pistons, No 8 wire spokes, running on high octane Lanolin and refined sheep sh.t😁

We also won the Americas Cup (more than once,- notice how we had kiwis on the main rivals teams, and we built their boats for them😉,) we built in special slowness which is a secret new technology (which we trialed successfully in the previous cup) and put them completely off their game by putting bicycles on our boat to confuse them. We were also using the latest 'high country aerofoiled No 8.125 fencing wire' for stays in the early boats (designed to stop fences above 6000ft blowing down in the high alpine winds) and the later wing masts designed by Richard Pierce (the first man to fly, - yanks won't admit it of course) we have his plane to prove it, had ailerons and a motor, not bendy wings and a catapault😁, lots of No 8 and Kauri in that one!

These stories are all true of course, oh yes ( and don't forget who started the gumboot throwing contest! and produced the 'complete cooking guide for mountain oysters')
JB

Re,- I like the 'mismatched holes' version.
Think I've seen a similar thing years ago Graham, can't remember where, (might have been in The RNZAF mech training school in Hobsonville) I need a number of them every time I make something (bad eyesight due to years of arc /mig welding) also need weld straightening pliers cos I can't see where I'm welding any more😂
Check out the origin of this display https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/104495734/world-famous-in-new-zealand-e-hayes-and-sons-invercargill
JB

Think its fairly ominous that we have not heard from JB Doug - wonder what revenge he is plotting..........Especially for the bailing wire bit .
Don't forget Ajax of the River Plate was a Kiwi Doug
Mother in Law once told me her Grandfather was buried at the river Plate - wondered about it for a while - until she told me he was a merchant seaman Captain - died there before WW2......She was good at that - all told with a straight face

"With my technical level I could use most of these, can I have 2 please."
could be arranged Bill👍
BUT: Do you have the requisite stereo drill press?😉
😎

"wonder why the Kiwis needed so many types"
I wondered that as well Red🙄
They usually get on fine just using baling wire 😁😂
😎

"Doug, Can always rely on you to answer the question."
One does what one can Bill 😌😁
BTW: What do I win? 😂🤣
😎

With my technical level I could use most of these, can I have 2 please.

Bill

Doug.
Can always rely on you to answer the question.
Bill 👍👍👍🍷🍷

Those bolts are really brilliant Graham - wonder why the Kiwis needed so many types..............
Would have been fun watching someone try to use them ! especially the double misaligned......

Hi Graham,
I have had a few "Hayes" bolts mixed up with some proper ones, but when you complain about it they begrudgingly swop them for what you ordered in the first place.

Martin555.

Andy,

I like the 'mismatched holes' version. What amazes me is someone had gone to the trouble of making all those variations. They were on a display board in a hardware shop in NZ. I wonder if JB finds a use for their bolts? 🤣.

Graham93

Graham93,

Just love the binocular bolt. Wonder if anyone ever tried drilling the (in)appropriate holes?!

Andy

We used to smear bedding off blue around the rubber eye rests of the tool makers microscope. Had some real laughs seeing guys walk around with blue rings around their eyes having no idea as to what was so funny. This went on several times right up until the Technical Director went to the scope, Boy did we all scarper. Best one ever but never again. He spent weeks trying to find out who did it. Some chance of that!!
Peter.😁😁

Remember as an apprentice being sent to a tool shop with a line from the foreman for a long stand and a pair of harlots nipples ,After standing around the shop for about an hour the staff all came out from the back laughing their heads off and I had to trudge back to the yard for a Good ribbing ,15 year Old boys weren't as worldly wise back then .
Cheers Marky👍

In a similar vein, here's a few bolts you could send an apprentice for...

Re - Ours was a bucket of blue steam and a left handed monkey wrench.
When I started at the main NZ Toyota agency around 1972, the guys sent me up to the local performance shop to ask for a long weight (thought I was thick) walked up and spent an hour chatting to the guy in the shop and looking at all the carbs, extractors etc. Went back and told the guys that the shop said they had run out of long weights and they were on back order.

I was real serious and they didn't twig that I was having them on. Got out of an hours work quite nicely. Later I ran the tool store, reco'd pressure plates etc, used to charge a distributor capacitor and leave it on the counter,- got most of these bright sparks numerous times. Some of them never learnt!
JB

Amongst many other real and fictional things Hilly😉
Cheers, Doug 😎
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhook

with reference to a sky hook, there is such a thing used by climbers.

Nice one Bill👍
"A truck is a wooden ball, disk, or bun-shaped cap at the top of a mast, with holes in it through which flag halyards are passed.[1] Trucks are also used on wooden flagpoles, to prevent them from splitting.

Without a masthead truck, water could easily seep into the circular growth rings of a wooden mast. However, the grain in the truck is perpendicular to that of the mast, allowing the water to run off it. "
😎

Glad you liked the onions Bill - not as nice as spuds of course........

All the appys on my friends Mechanic course were at one time or another sent off for a tin of sparks and the usual long weight. One of the guys sent for a left handed spanner came back with the spanner saying that the stores fella told him this was a special one you could use with either hand.............

Love the one about the onions Red 😂😂😁
When I first joined the Merchany Navy I was sent down to the Engine Room stores to ask for a spare wheel for the truck.Now obviously I know the answer, does anyone else?
Happy lockdown everyone.🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
Regards Bill

My Mum's favourite was asking for 'A tin of baked beans on toast please.'
First time was accidental as she was thinking about what she could make for a quick snack when we got home from our marathon shopping trip.
It caused such an outburst of laughter and general jocularity that afterwards she did it deliberately just to liven things up.
BTW: NEVER play poker with my Mum😉
Cheers All. 😎

Remember asking for a chain and sprocket set for a bmw motorbike poor lad went off to the stores coming back 15 mins later saying they where out of stock while his mates where laughing there socks off ( bmw motorcycles are shaft drive )


and who remembers yellow and black striped paint

Ours was a bucket of blue steam and a left handed monkey wrench.The other was to send the new guy back to the shop for a long (weight) wait.At the shop they would tell him to hold on and they would check.Coming back a time later and sending him back saying they only had short waits (weights) Some caught on right away but every once in a while it took time.
Rick

jbkiwi,

Don't forget the butchers sky hook either, we couldn't use the butcher, it was for 'posh' folk, but I do remember being asked to get an 's' shaped sky hook, to give to the local butcher!

By the way, RookieSailor, Is Tea what we used to get when Dad dried the grass cuttings and I know what milk is, we used to get it by pretending the neighbours milk bottles had been attacked by birds!

what's sugar anyway?!

Andy (who seriously has no complaints, apart from the ones the special clinic is clearing up!!)

Aye, - Many's the time as a kid I had to walk 5 miles to the local garage to ask for a bucket of steam and a long weight, (or a left handed screwdriver so my grandfather could undo the cupboard hinges)😐
JB

We all have something to complain about during this lockdown, but at least were safe, 'for the moment'.
'We had a cup of tea, no milk,no sugar and no tea'!
what a great sketch by the talented Python team😊😀😁.


Cheers, Pete

We only had a onion to share between 6 families Bill - made us cry a lot..............
Still cant believe you had a spud - we only got one every other year for the whole community!

(Reminds me of one of these evangelical church pastors questioned here as to why he and his wife had Mercedes Benz's - his reply was they only had small ones - after kicking out poor people from church housing in favour of wealthier ones paying high rentals - claiming the Church had financial problems.......)( they "only" had 230 E's)

Funnily enough it was Rick - had a dip in the middle . But we had to walk sideways of course because of the sub zero wind.........

My Dad would say to me walked to school in the snow up hill both ways.It worked for a while then he got older. Rick

"Are you sure it wasn't up hill both ways ."
Nice one Rick👍
As I saw this in my Notifications this morning something niggled at the back of my still half asleep mind.
When I later opened the site and read it again I nearly spat out my cappuccino laughing 😂🤣
Cheers, Doug 😎

Hi Red.
It was only a small Spud though !! 😂😂😂👍
Bill

Are you sure it wasn't up hill both ways .
Rick

Told my daughter that we had to walk barefoot for 5 miles through the snow to school - took her quite a while to realise that I grew up in a tropical country............

You had a SPUD Bill ? - talk about Richie Rich...........

We had our war - another country from this one - it was bad enough.

RE,- our well off Pete,must be on a good pension.
Luxury!------
JB

Oh so right.
Born 1938 so can see just what you mean.

Anful of Gravel.....
Your well off Pete,must be on a good pension.We can only afford grit,and then only on Sunday with a roast spud cut in arf.
Bill😂😂

Wow. That puts things in perspective.

I always remember the stoicism of my Grandma (Mum's mum).
Whatever disaster befell us she would just shrug, say "Worse things happen at sea." and just get on with whatever needed doing.
The last of the tough generations!
😎

A friend whom I play golf with was born 1936 Holland he tells of trying to find a bit of coal to cook with and stay warm hiding from the war around them.Many more stories of how they survived. When I look at what we are doing to help our countries and our cities to survive this pandemic it is small but needed.I don't like it but this is our war and to cry about it in my mind only makes it harder.For me there are many people over the years who have gone through more and harder time.Only my thoughts .
Rick

I think it's also a reflection that the older generations who fought tooth and nail to give us/our younger generations unbridled freedoms never foresaw that those unbridled freedoms have recently been given with a total lack of any teaching of self-responsibility.

Therefore all that they endured and conquered is now replaced by feelings of 'I/we deserve everything now' and 'just give it,you have no right to take anything away from me/us', oh and 'I don't need to contribute or pay in any way for anything".

Society has, to a degree, fallen apart and I suspect the generations who gave so much for us would be ashamed of our modern day attitudes.