Tool kits, then & now.

[Old Mod]

So got to thinking today as I cast my eye over my array of tools and equipment that I use on a daily basis to carry out the work that I do.
And what a difference 30+ years make!

This was my kit back in 1983 oh plus a string line,
What was your kit back when you first started???

I'll post a pic of my current kit tomorrow, let's do yesteryear first 🙂



Yes, they're original Bal nippers, no, they're not for sale 😀

 

[Spare Tool]

Walked out of North east tile training (a professional tiler 😉) with more or less the same bucket of gear Marc, plus half a bucket of addy on my JEANS 🙂 oh and an angle finder and two batton stands that are still today unused. Only did course to tile my own bathroom, got home and it was erm "oh sh#t" ...what the hell am I gonna cut tiles with 🙁

 

[LM]

The only thing I can add to that apart from the said string line is a TS40. The best new bit of kit I ever got was my first Sigma.

 

[Old Mod]

Yeah it was a while before I got my first slide cutter. Can't remember how long tho. 🙂

 

[Blunt Tool]

So got to thinking today as I cast my eye over my array of tools and equipment that I use on a daily basis to carry out the work that I do.
And what a difference 30+ years make!

This was my kit back in 1983 oh plus a string line,
What was your kit back when you first started???

I'll post a pic of my current kit tomorrow, let's do yesteryear first 🙂

View attachment 93417

Yes, they're original Bal nippers, no, they're not for sale 😀

Didn't have a squeegee like that was handed a length of rubber to make one, and where's your mixing stick, pointing stick, hacksaw, wooden float and small boat level

 

[Chris Gibbs]

My first ever job was a herringbone on the 45 with a two tile border... they were 20mm thick and 200x 100. I had a bucket with a stick. An 8mm notched trowel and a grinder (borrowed) His mate, a tiler of 10 years came round for a brew and saw the floor. He offered me a job on the spot. I did a pub for him in Cheshire out of the back of a borrowed fiesta with no clutch and never looked back.
My dad took me out and bought me a load of tools, then some scumbag Stanley knifed the window out of the car and robbed everything. On the plus side I started seeing the copper that gave me the incident number 🙂

 

[Albert]

 

[Spare Tool]

View attachment 93425

That then or now? 🙂

 

[Chris Gibbs]

View attachment 93425

can you back butter with that?

 

[Albert]

The way tile sizes are, maybe

 

[Old Mod]

Didn't have a squeegee like that was handed a length of rubber to make one, and where's your mixing stick, pointing stick, hacksaw, wooden float and small boat level

Yep you're right about squeegee, that's the oldest one I could find. And I did look at my boat level and wondered whether to include it, and believe it or not I did consider putting in a mixing stick haha
But I don't believe I had more than what you see above. And a mixing stick would have been sourced on site. And yes the squeegee would have been a rubber blade, but hey, my memnory isn't what it used to be Dave. 🙂

 

[Albert]

And you would be lucky to have a sponge like that🙂

 

[Blunt Tool]

And you would be lucky to have a sponge like that🙂

Yeah I know, bloody Toffolo used to source sofas from homes that the auld biddies had went to meet their makers and the sponge smelled of *** and other things

 

[Blunt Tool]

And their pyjamas to buff up the walls

 

[Albert]

And their pyjamas to buff up the walls

We used wet towels to wash of floors or sawdust.Sponges as stated from old
seat cushions or gray corrugated foam from the lagging

 

[Blunt Tool]

@3_fall your threads been jacked and it wasn't me this time!! 🙄

 

[Old Mod]

You should know better Mark!

 

[Blunt Tool]

You should know better Mark!

He was advertising fake passports,money and other things on the rug pushers site aswell Marc!

 

[Old Mod]

He was advertising fake passports,money and other things on the rug pushers site aswell Marc!

Who Mark? Haha

 

[Blunt Tool]

6 months trial to see if you were Suitable to serve your time, after 6 months trial sign your papers for apprenticeship of 3 years then you were given your tools then was £2.00 per week off pay for them.
1x 600 mm green canvas tool bag with zip.
1 hickory handle heavy hammer.
1 pin hammer.
1 tungsten tipped chisel.
1 cold chisel.
1 rubber mallet.
1 6mm tyzack steel serrated trowel
1 10 mm tyzack steel serrated trowel
1 tyzack steel trowel
1 spear and Jackson hacksaw and 3 blades
1 pair steel pincers
1 pair tungsten mosaic snips
1 bal tungsten scriber
1 wooden float
1 pair tin snips
1 600 mm Rabone Chesterman box level
1 Rabone Chesterman small wooden boat level
1 plumb bob
1 tyzack guager
1 length black rubber to make a blade squeegee
1 Rabone Chesterman metre wooden ruler

 

[Old Mod]

The first course or so called professional training I ever did was a 3 day Bisazza course 4 yrs ago.
Since then, a stone restoration course. Lithofin day course, and the schluter wet room course, twice!
And of course, a Porcelthin acquaintance course.
That's the total sum of my professional training in 35 years.

 

[Flintstone]

Where was the stone resto course ?

My first tools were inherited from my dad as he started to double up on tools so I had some of my own. very basic but there was a ts30. A tungsten hammer and clamp for knocking holes out of ceramics.

 

[Old Mod]

Where was the stone resto course ?

Here Andy.


Stone restoration

 

[Italy]

did not this have anyone?

I never had a tungsten hammer.
I always used angular grinder.
at the beginning a 230mm 🙁.
but I remember this.

 

[Blunt Tool]

Just used heavy hammer and pin hammer to make holes in ceramic tiles

 

[Simons70]

My first cutter

 

[Andy Allen]

My first cutter

 

[Andy Allen]

Grouting was done with this kind of tool.

 

[Andy Allen]

And one pair of overalls between 10 of us... 🙁

 

[Time's Ran Out]

 

[Old Mod]

And so today?.......
along with all the usual hand tools we need like trowels and stuff, there's this
Respirator
Dust extraction
3.6m slide cutter
120mm slide cutter (on site)
Small slide cutter.
Heavy tile breaker
Really heavy tile breakers 😀
Rail guided grinder
Array of grinders for grinding, cutting, and polishing.
Lifting system for large awkward and delicate pieces.
Along with mixing paddles
The list appears to be endless.


Can you do without them?
Yeah course you can, there's always a way to get by.
Doing it day in, day out, it can make life a lot bloody simpler.
But hey!
It's just tiling eh! 🙂