[Mike Conshafter]

When I was around 10 years old the neighbor two doors down was taking the transmission out of his car in the garage, it was sitting on cheap stamped steel jack stands, it started to rain so the wife moved the riding lawn mower in garage, her foot slipped, the mower bumped the car, the car fell on George. He was around 50 at the time, told my Dad the day before he just paid off the house, he spent the next 30 years in a motorized wheel chair unable to talk. He just died a couple years ago, she still carries the guilt. Sure you can say the jack stand wouldn’t matter but when you’re 10 and you watched all this from the bottom of the driveway it made an impression, the other neighborhood guys who helped get him free made comments of the sort in regards to the stands and jacks with no blocking. When I put a car in the air I go overkill... when I go to swap meets estate sales, auctions or on Craigslist I always look for industrial strength jacks and stands that are in the 40-100 year old range. I never buy anything new.

Hand tools much the same, old Craftsman sockets and wrenches, older Snap-on ratchets, proto, S-K, Matco, MAC, last year I bought a complete 3/4” drive S-K socket set from the 60’s/70’s for around the same as a new China set. I’m rarely disappointed with old quality name tools, as stated above the new tools from the quality names often disappoint. Thankfully I’m an old soul that likes old stuff.....

Mike