Posted on 02/27/2009 5:39:30 AM PST by shove_it
Can Vise-Grips save a life? Sure, and they can replace a stick shift, save a marriage and clamp blood vessels. They can do all this, and so much more. PM shares ten "unbelievable tales" of rescue and ingenuity from Irwin's "Tell Us Your Vise-Grip Story" contest.
In the movie Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood's character hands a novice tool user a roll of duct tape, a can of WD-40 and a pair of Vise-Grips. He tells the youngster that any man worth his salt "can do half his household jobs with these three things."
Well, Clint was right on the money, as Vise-Grip manufacturer Irwin proved in a recent contest called "Tell Us Your Vise-Grip Story." Over the course of four months last year, Irwin received 845 entries from regular folks using Vise-Grips for everything from ad hoc auto fixes to emergency bovine surgery to–perhaps most surprising–marriages whose very existence hinged on a special pair of pliers.
Irwin recently announced three finalists and will soon announce a winner, but PM got to check out all the entries. We've gathered a few of our favorites here–they don't all get our endorsement as proper repairs, and we can't guarantee that they're true, but we certainly applaud the creativity.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
(not mine, but wish it was)
bump for later
Note to all: Never buy a used motorcycle from capt. norm!
Vice-grips don't kill people; bad vice-grip jokes kill people.
to read later
If it's the building I'm thinking of, I'm surprised you're admitting it here. I've always wondered how the result of using Russian labor was not foreseen, especially in a Republican administration.
Well, I'll have to bury my extra Vise Grips then. I have well over two dozen - from the 4" up to the large welding types. I also have three of the needle nose Vise Grip pliers.
I even keep a pair in my tackle box. The sure come in handy when taking a hook out of a gar or when you fillet catfish. Lock one onto the mouth and hold while cutting.
Nope, original vise grips — it was a store manager sale at the local Lowes store. Regular $30.
Something to do with no business, need to sell something. Our tourist season has been a disaster, local home construction has virtually ceased, and businesses are doing all they can to get customers in the door.
It was a good deal, wish I had bought more.
Vise-grips, invented and manufactured in Dewitt (sp) Nebraska, is closing it’s plant there and moving manufacturing to China. That’s a fact.
TROUBLE LIGHT: . . . . Sometimes called a drop light because if you drop it, you will have trouble with it forever.
Also called a drop light, because it will drop on your face when under a vehicle and then you really have trouble.
Did you ever notice when someone holds a drop / trouble light to help you, they hold the light so THEY can see, but the light BLINDS you?
They work in a pinch.
No, they were used to smuggle the Vise Grips out of the plant...in the stolen, empty wheelbarrow.
This makes me want to cry.
“Manufacturing.Net - October 29, 2008
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Vise-Grips plant in DeWitt will officially close this week, ending about 70 years of operations.
The last day assembly workers will show up at the plant in the town of 570 people is Friday, but actual production will cease either Wednesday or Thursday. About 330 people work at the plant.
Irwin Industrial Tools, which operates the plant, is moving operations to China.
A spokesman for the company has said the move is necessary to lower the cost of the locking pliers so they remain competitive with other brands.”
Please tell me vice-grips were not used to hold up the panty hose.
If Vise Grips were that popular over there they should have been using them to get the girls pantyhose down. A smart man uses every tool at his disposal with the ladies.
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