Nothing to see here just an empty packet of Rawlplugs

[Oldman]

I would like to say I remember rawlplug tools with fondness, but I cant. I still have one in my box along with No8 and No14 bits though I hope never to need to use them again.
Memories of frosty winter mornings doing first fixes in shells of buildings with bolster chisels and rawlplug tools and club hammers, by 11am you start to thaw out and removal of your fingerless mittens shows that you were not able to miss clouting your frozen hand with that hammer after all.
Anyone remember using these? I still have enough to do a couple of homes I guess!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It's amazing what one does find under the floorboards of old houses. In my previous property I found all sorts of junk but the most poignant was a few saved pages from an Indian newspaper listing the dead from one of the battles of the First world war.

If I work under floorboards or in stud walls I always leave stuff there when closing up for someone in the (very?) distant future to find.

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

If I work under floorboards or in stud walls I always leave stuff there when closing up for someone in the (very?) distant future to find.

What a great thing to do ---- and discover. I recently found half a newspaper page from the 70's but couldn't see anything interesting on it. Sorry to say I screwed it up and chucked it: maybe next time......
Martin

 

[flying haggis]

I built some stud walls at a warehouse I worked in and put copies of that days paper in the walls before the final sheets of plasterboard went on. OK it might just be a few years and they are found but it could be tens of years. hope the finder enjoys the old paper though. And in my own house when I moved and rebuilt a stud wall I again put in the days paper.
Somewhere in our attic we have a box containing national papers, local papers, Argos catalogue. mail order catalogue etc and a notebook with fuel prices, food prices etc from the period we moved in (thirty years ago this month)
we might dig it out in the future and laugh at the prices.styles or we just leave it for who ever has the job of clearing it when we are gone

 

[Cozzer]

And a couple of photos of the Rawlplug drill.
View attachment 149255View attachment 149256

Crikey!
Can I just verify how the second photo was taken, please?!

 

[Farm Labourer]

In my previous rural home, I found a 1901 Harrington & Richardson .410 single shot shot-gun! It's still on my certificate and gets the occasional outing!

I clearly recall rawl-tools and remember the bruises I self-inflicted when trying to emulate father when he was sent overseas and mother wanted something hung up!

 

[Keith 66]

The Philplug stuff was the same as Rawlplug asbestos plugging compound (that was an orange & blue tin)
Both used proper blue asbestos, you could also buy cardboard refill boxes of the stuff.
Must be loads of it pluging walls in many old houses.
Three guys i knew who worked for local builder Wiggins in the 60's have died of asbestos related mesothelomia in the last 4 years.

 

[Robbo3]

Following on from the Rawl drill was a hammer attachment for an electric drill. Another attachment was a de-speeder as most domestic drills were single speed about 2400 rpm.
I bought mine from a DIY exhibition at Olympia probably in the 1970s.

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

Crikey!
Can I just verify how the second photo was taken, please?!

Just arranged the tool vertically, set phone camera to macro, moved back and forth to focus and took the shot. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Martin

 

[flying haggis]

If I work under floorboards or in stud walls I always leave stuff there when closing up for someone in the (very?) distant future to find.

Tools usually in my case..............

 

[Spectric]

And a couple of photos of the Rawlplug drill

Memorys of fixing dozens of back boxes and electrical switchgear by using one of those to make holes for the rawlplugs in the days of yankee screwdrivers and chippies using handsaws, yes we have not always had cordless drills !!

 

[whereistheceilidh]

Memorys of fixing dozens of back boxes and electrical switchgear by using one of those to make holes for the rawlplugs in the days of yankee screwdrivers and chippies using handsaws, yes we have not always had cordless drills !!

Strangely came across the Rawlplug drill box a few days ago, 3 different sizes...always tricky to swop the bits.
As Spectric says...not always cordless drills. For me the dangerous years were those between holes drilled with a hand drill or brace & bit & the wonderful low voltage cordless. These were the Darwinian years of using cheaper mains electric drills to put nail holes in fishing boat planking repairs on a rising tide .....just trying to finish & get ashore without slipping or dropping the drill.

 

[Keith 66]

. These were the Darwinian years of using cheaper mains electric drills to put nail holes in fishing boat planking repairs on a rising tide .....just trying to finish & get ashore without slipping or dropping the drill.

I remember working on an old wooden trawler down Old leigh in 82 using a big 240v mains drill, the power cable came out of the sailmakers across the dock underwater then over the wharf & down to the boat, It was winter time & very wet. We kept getting small shocks off the steel rail capping & cables. We tied the cable reel up & drill lead so that when using the drill the other guy would stand there with a bit of 2x2 ready to break the cable if the drill man started to fry!