Saw a 1950s rivet hammer still running at a scrap yard in Gary

Stopped by a yard outside Gary last week to grab some plate steel and spotted an old pneumatic rivet hammer, the kind they used on bridge work back in the day. The guy running the place fired it up for me, it sounded like a jackhammer with a heartbeat. He said it came off a decommissioned boiler shell and they use it to seat stubborn bolts. Made me wonder how many of you still run vintage tools on the regular, or is everything cordless now?

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susan_wells17d ago

Grinning just thinking about that sound, my back hurts in sympathy for anyone who ran one of those all day. I still keep a 1970s Makita drill that weighs more than my dog, and the chuck wobbles like a shopping cart wheel, but itll outlive me and probably my grandkids too. Cordless stuff is nice for quick jobs, but there is something honest about a tool that needs a compressor and a prayer to start. Last time I fired up my old bandsaw, the belt snapped and hit me in the thigh, left a bruise shaped like a comma, and I still laughed about it. Vintage tools are like stubborn old dogs, they bite you sometimes, but you love em anyway. Honestly, Im jealous you got to hear that hammer, beats my collection of rusty clamps and one very questionable angle grinder.