Work Aids

 A work aid is not a tool.  Semantics, to be sure, but evidently it is important, especially in the aviation industry. I have a buddy who has been in the aviation industry his entire working life, generally as a helicopter mechanic. Eventually, he started making small things that helped him during the work day.  This turned in to a full-time business, Helicopter Work Aids.  He's semi-retired now and his sons are running it,  But, he taught me the difference between a tool and a work aid.  A work aid can be as simple as a block of wood to help you hold a part on a bench.

I didn't realize it, but I've been making work aids my whole life.  Simple little things that help me when I'm doing a fiddly job.  Like these two wood blocks, for instance.

Two simple oak blocks, marked with an R, so no one inadvertently throws then away as scrap.  They fit the cylinder hole in a Ruger Vaquero revolver To help me hold it in a vise.

Just like that. A simple aid to hold a revolver so that I can get to the tiny screws without a third hand.

Which brings me to those tiny screws.  Like many of you, I have a cluttered bench and tiny screws are apt to get away.  Or, if someone bumps the bench, they might roll around.  It matters which hole they go back into, and having an aid to keep then segregated makes sense. And, there is one tiny little spring under the backstrap that might get away. Which brings me to my latest work aid.

It's a simple piece of scrap 1X6 with divots drilled into it. When I remove a screw, and that one bouncy spring, I can drop it into a divot and know which hole it came from. I'll have to mark it with a sharpy marker so folks will know not to throw it away.  

My buddy, who makes work aids for a living, has improved on every one of my ideas, with the exception of the wooden blocks.  I showed him my screw-holder yesterday and he looked at it sideways. I could see the gears turning, and I'm sure he will come up with something a bit more polished.  We'll see what the pro does with the idea.