For a while I worked at the Danaher tool plant in West Hartford where (at least some of) the Allen Screw production was moved to. I worked on the hand-tool side but I remember seeing Allen wrenches so small they were shipped with the screws glued onto the tip of the wrench so they wouldn't get lost (for medical devices) and so large they had to be moved by forklift (for bridge construction I was told).
The plant was built in the late 19th century and the floor was made of end-grain wood blocks saturated with waste oil. We used beef-tallow based lubricant for our cold-heading operations so the smell was like that of a continuous barbeque going on inside of a tool shop. I couldn't get enough of it!
My wife was working as a black-oxide coating chemist in the industry when we met so I'll always have a fondness for Allen screws.
That kind of wood floor lasts forever. Where I work (steel coils pickling, laminating and galvanizing plant), the floor is a mix between wood blocks slabs and reinforced concrete slabs. Guess which is the one always in need of repair...And the wood blocks were laid in 1968...
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The original location on Sheldon St, is now, wait for it......a parking lot. Still kicking tho!
For a while I worked at the Danaher tool plant in West Hartford where (at least some of) the Allen Screw production was moved to. I worked on the hand-tool side but I remember seeing Allen wrenches so small they were shipped with the screws glued onto the tip of the wrench so they wouldn't get lost (for medical devices) and so large they had to be moved by forklift (for bridge construction I was told).
The plant was built in the late 19th century and the floor was made of end-grain wood blocks saturated with waste oil. We used beef-tallow based lubricant for our cold-heading operations so the smell was like that of a continuous barbeque going on inside of a tool shop. I couldn't get enough of it!
My wife was working as a black-oxide coating chemist in the industry when we met so I'll always have a fondness for Allen screws.
That kind of wood floor lasts forever. Where I work (steel coils pickling, laminating and galvanizing plant), the floor is a mix between wood blocks slabs and reinforced concrete slabs. Guess which is the one always in need of repair...And the wood blocks were laid in 1968...
Love to hear these stories...
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