Neat tool for getting what you dropped in the $%#@! bilge

C_Spray

Charter Member
If you've never dropped anything into the bowels of your bilge, you probably don't own a boat. The rest of us know that virtually nothing on a boat is magnetic, and we've all stood on our heads, scraped up our arms, and dang near gotten stuck retrieving (or trying to retrieve) some crucial part that we need to get back in order to get home or go boating. :cuss:

I bought this from McMaster-Carr (They DO sell almost everything!!!) for $41.77 - Item #57465A54: "Lighted Retrieving Tool, Claw Style, 42" Overall". It has a short flexible section about 2/3 of the way down, but the other sections of it are rigid, so it doesn't act like a wet noodle. The claws open up to about 5/8" by 3/4". It even has a pistol grip. :hurray:

This probably means that I won't drop anything into the bilge for the next several years, in which case is was more than worth the money.... :sifone:

If nothing else, it will be great for pinching people out of arm's length. :reddevil:
 

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About once a year I pick up a dozzen of those beefy telescopic magnets from Napa. I find bilge fishing somewhat rewarding, you find **** down there that you forgot that you had.
 
Have one minus the light. Also one thats telescopic with a magnet on the end. Both are must haves. Seem to get used alot.:D
 
Sh*t, I have found some of my tools 3 years later when a boat Came back for motor repairs, Pulled the motors and there was my test light and wrench (Replaced a long time before:ack2:)
 
The auto term is mechanics fingers! I have one in my boat! Also good when the ladies put bad things in your porta potti!
 
My buddys 53 sailboat devloped a really bad oil leak on the old Ford Lehman when a freeze plug rusted out on one of the oil galleries. After fixing the problem i spent a day way down in the sump area of the bilge cleaning 38 years of grime and 3 inches of compacted dirt.

In one chunk of dirt i found an old large Sears Craftsmen adujustable that the last 2 inches of the handle and the adjustable mechanism were rotted away from electrolisis .

Next trip i had to make to Sears in KeyWest to get another tool i brought it in to them to just show it to them. Guy comes back with a new one and says looks like the adjustable mechanism failed Here ya go.
 
In one chunk of dirt i found an old large Sears Craftsmen adujustable that the last 2 inches of the handle and the adjustable mechanism were rotted away from electrolisis .

Next trip i had to make to Sears in KeyWest to get another tool i brought it in to them to just show it to them. Guy comes back with a new one and says looks like the adjustable mechanism failed Here ya go.

Thats what I like about having Craftsman tools. They'll replace almost anything (except a torque wrench with a broken locking collar :rolleyes: ).
 
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