Hit 500 hours on a single injector puller tool and it made me rethink my whole kit

I was cleaning my box the other day and checked the service log for my Snap-on slide hammer puller, the one I got fresh out of trade school. The counter said 502 hours of actual use. That's just one tool, on one job type, over maybe eight years. I mean, I never kept track like that before. It hit me how much we rely on a few core pieces while the fancy stuff gathers dust. Has anyone else logged their main tools and been shocked by the numbers?

4 comments

4 Comments

zarat382mo ago

My buddy's a diesel mechanic and he's had the same socket set since his apprenticeship. The 10mm is just a smooth circle now, no edges left at all. He says it's been on every single job for fifteen years. The rest of his box is full of shiny new stuff he almost never touches.

owens.anthony1mo ago

...and that barber story hits close to home actually. I got a buddy who's a tattoo artist and he's had the same coil machine since 2007. The thing looks like it was pulled out of a trash fire but he swears up and down it's the only one that lines his lines right. He's got like six thousand dollars worth of brand new rotaries sitting in a drawer that he barely even glanced at. Told me last week he logged the hours on that old coil machine and it was over three thousand hours of needle time. Said it made him realize most of his fancy gear was just an expensive distraction.

owens.anthony2mo ago

Yeah, I don't even want to know the hours on my favorite pair of clippers. The rest of my kit is basically just for show.

charles6402mo ago

My old barber had these clippers from the 90s that looked like they'd been through a war. He refused to replace them, said they were the only ones that didn't pull. The motor finally gave out mid-fade on some poor guy.