Save the Cleco!

[longranger]

As long as we're doing groaners:

A guy walks into the doctor's office with a cleco in his ear. When the doctor asked "What happened to you?" the cleco replied, "I'm not sure; it started out as a wart."

[TThurston]

A friend of mine abondoned his RV-4 project about 15 years ago. All the pieces and tools spent the last 15 years sitting in a utility trailer parked in our dry Utah climate. Some of the clecos were sitting in an open-topped old coffee can, and the others in a leather pouch. The leather pouch was sitting in the bottom of a covered plastic toolbox.

All the clecos in the coffee can show significant rust, some so much as to not really be usable. All the clecos in leather pouch are just like new. I can't tell them from clecos I just purchased.

Perhaps the storage environment for clecos will have an effect on their long term health and happiness.

Another note ... The aluminum parts all look pretty good, even those that were not primed or painted.

[Don Jones]

Paul, Don't you have an airplane to finish or something??

Originally Posted by Ironflight

My friends consider the plight of the poor cleco. It works and slaves for you day after day, month after month, year after year. Despite the abuse of being thrown in a dark bucket with others of its kind, despite the abuse of being sprayed with primer, despite the abuse of being stuck in pro-seal - it toils away to do its master?s bidding. It lives a hard and difficult life, asking only that it be used again and again ? yet when it happens to tire and slip just a bit, what happens? It is thrown into a dark corner of the workshop to roll under a bench or chest. It lives in the darkness, surrounded by spiders, dirt, and aluminum shavings. Abandoned by its master, it dwells in the eternal shadow world between life and death ? a tool purgatory, forgotten by all?..

I say, gentlemen that we can do better by these hardy servants! I say that we can take the time to rehabilitate our sorry Clecos! Those that have given so much of themselves, those that have toiled and held through thick and thin! Those few, those poor wounded Clecos ? they can be SAVED!!!

A drop of oil can go a very long way towards saving the life of a cleco ? just a drop, a little mist, a tiny spritz down its throat can free a corroded mechanism. A little exercise can knock of that hardened epoxy. Even the dreaded pro-seal can be cut free with a razor blade so that the cleco can go back to a life of useful work!

We can no longer ignore the squalor in which the aged and infirm Clecos live I tell you ? we simply must make an effort to save these, our most humble (yet essential and maybe even noblest) little friends! Why, just today I saved ten Clecos that would otherwise have been discarded ? ten of our little helpers that will see yet another bulkhead through fabrication, another longeron held in place. All it took was a little TLC and a few moments of time?

Save the Clecos I say ? save them all so they may clamp again, and help to build another day?..

Paul

[panhandler1956]

Long Live the Cleco!

[videobobk]

Paul, Paul, Paul. Next thing you'll probably turn animal rights activist and ask us to stop shooting skeet. Enough aready!

Bob

[humptybump]

Personally, I think Paul kicked off work and got an early start of 5 o'clock

I wish someone could invent a cleco for woodworking! Until such time, my clecos sit in a bag in a cabinet on the far side of the shop. Vacationing but not forgotten.

[FlyingArcher]

Paul,

I really enjoy reading your posts and this one really made me laugh because I like when authors shift reality just a little bit to create their story.

These authors are usually classified in the Light Fantasy genre and my favorite are English writers Jasper Fforde or Terry Pratchett.

If you don't know them, find one of their books - any one - and enjoy. I don't know what these guys drink, eat or smoke but I'm sure my Lycoming would run on it.

[LeeM_2000]

What about lazy clecos? You know the kind. You buy them brand new and they decide not to spring back even with a few drops of oil. Bad cleco.

[zilik]

Originally Posted by Lionclaw

I have one with a #30 hole drilled in the side Should I put the oil in there? Poor little cleco...

I think we should drill a hole in the side of all clecos and stamp "Oil" above the hole.

I have found that a teflon spray lube works best for my clecos.

[Louise Hose]

Originally Posted by Don Jones

Paul, Don't you have an airplane to finish or something??

Paul's original post was made in the first month or two of Junior's build. He hasn't waxed on clecos in a while.