In this letter to the editor, the author comments on Rod Zeigler’s recent letter, “When It Comes to Engineering Tools, Don’t Take the Cheap Route!” Comment on this or any article. Email [email protected].
I totally agree with you about each engineer having their own tools. And having tools of, at least, decent quality. Ever been twisting a bolt or nut with a cheap socket that strips not the bolt, but the socket? What about the socket splitting?
I always carried my own tools. Mostly because I may be called to the transmitter site, but (if they had one) the station’s hand tool box was back at the studios. Several miles, and an hour, away.
I also believe totally in the line from the Sydney Poitier movie, “Lilies of the Field.” He came upon a group of nuns that needed him to do some work for them. His great line was: “In order to do good work, you need good tools. And when you hire me you get good tools.”
Granted, we engineers are both looked at like a minor god (read that as a MacGyver), and also a necessary evil that just tells the station to spend money.
But then again, which of them could, in a pinch, pull a dime out of their pocket to loosen a screw to open up a piece of gear in an emergency? Or use a file to “repair” that cheap screwdriver so that it will work one more time?
It is just so much better to have what you will usually need with you at the time. And to know that what you have will work for the job in front of you.
And … don’t even get me started on surface mount components. And so called engineers that just swap boxes.
— Archie Stulc, former radio engineer
