5 Problem Solving Tools

these five tools that I'm going to share with you are not complicated tools and they're not expensive tools but they are almost legendary around here for their ability to solve a wide variety of problems or at least make serious problems better because problems happen in life I mean forces are unleashed and things fall down and cars run off the road and and boats get beached and tree you know limbs fall down and pipes break and things happen and you can't have every tool all the time but I'm going to show you five tools that I think about it I think are among the most versatile multi tools that you can have at your disposal when things go bad so these five tools are in no particular order except for the last one which is the undisputed king in terms of enabling someone to help at crunch time so the first one I'm gonna mention is a hi-lift jack these things are useful they're powerful they're heavy they're a little bit tricky to get used to they have an element of danger associated with them but if you need something really lifted a long ways or pushed out of the way or pulled out of the way if you're stuck and really stuck and you need to get the back end of that car up in the air this is the tool if you don't have it come along if you don't have a pulley in a line but you have the ability to get this thing hooked on to opposing objects it'll even pull them closer together so I've got to put in this list of five tools one of the tools that I've been really glad to have in the back of the truck on more than just one occasion the next one is a tool that frankly I got to say it I consider myself an expert with now I'm not an expert with all of these but I'm an expert with this it's a Burke bar this thing is a pry bar it's a sledgehammer it'll jack up your car it'll pry open a car door that's jammed shut I think you could reorient Stonehenge with one of these things if you had to and you know how to use it as a matter of fact so I'm in Arizona right now I don't know if you can pick up on that but about three months ago about 250 feet from where I'm sitting this very Burke bar got us out of a real Jam was getting shipping containers delivered they're heavy they're 8,000 pounds and there was an equipment malfunction that the owner operator of that truck had never run into before and that shipping container was bound the equipment was bound that dolly was bound it was just locked up and the fact that this thing was in the back of the truck solved the whole problem I think that that young couple delivers those shipping containers is probably carrying a Burke bar with them right now because if they ever get into that bind again they're gonna know the only tool on the planet short of a tow truck they would solve the problem the next tool is a hammer now everybody's got some kind of a hammer or should and so as I was debating which of the really wide range of hammers that I use all the time and that Nate has here in his shop I should use as iconic of the versatility of this tool I mean is that it yeah probably not is that it well no because this one will do some things that this one won't and so continuing to think about it you know maybe this may be the first tool maybe an axe is that yeah probably because I mean both sides that are useful and then as I thought about it just a little longer I got back to what for me is the answer and I used one of these for 10 years exclusively framing because it will chop and it will function as a hammer and so if you don't have a rig an axe you don't have to run out and buy one but in your in your trouble in your trouble rectification setup you've got to have some kind of a hammer so the fourth item it's a come-along and you know this is this is related of course to the high life jack and it uses leverage in the same way that a Burke bar uses leverage but this is different this will pull items together over quite a distance it will hold things together it will hold things down it will lift so something can be loaded it will put tension on something and hold it permanently I mean for years this would resist weathering outside in the elements for years and remain just as strong as it was at the time you initially tightened it up it gives one guy the strength of 10 men over I think there's 50 feet of line on here I don't know maybe I don't know many feet of line but over the distance that is wrapped around that windlass it enables one man to work as hard as ten it doesn't weigh much you can put it in a toolbox like all the rest of these tools it doesn't cost much relatively speaking and anybody can learn to operate it if you've got to pull a car out of a snowbank if you've got to pull a tree off of a building or if you've got to I mean fill in the blank you've got a four-wheeler that's over the edge or you've got a horse that okay can I admit to you I've used one of these to pull a recalcitrant horse into a trailer now I don't advise that and I was careful but there's all sorts of things you can do with this that nobody's gonna get done if somebody doesn't have a come-along these can be dangerous if you use them improperly or for the wrong reason so get familiar with it and I have a video out that will help you get familiar with it so before you stow it away and put a checkmark in the box that says got it make sure you know how to use it before crunch time shows up this is a pretty pretty heavy little collection isn't it I mean you don't just pick these up and run away with it but the last one the king of problems problem-solving tools is not that it's not that heavy you've got no excuse for not having one in every car have one on your dirt bike have one in your camping box and in your hunting box you ought to have one in the house and I mean they're easy to take along with you this last tool I think I will assert is the most universally available and applicable problem-solving tool ever invented it has without a doubt solved hundreds of thousands of problems and I will say without a doubt saved some number of lives not a small number of lives it's helped me out in more times than I can tell you if you haven't figured it out yet I'm talking about a pocket multi-tool and let's be honest I'm talking about Leatherman I've lost probably five of these I've broken a couple they replaced they did not sponsor this video they don't need to I'll be bragging about these tools till I die now if you have another multi-tool good on you I mean there are plenty of other brands Gerber and on and on and on and they will all get you out of trouble one thing I would tell you is you know if you buy a cheap one and you certainly can just remember that you're counting on that thing to do something important when something important has to be done so think hard about cutting a corner here whatever the brand wherever you buy it whatever you pay you got to have a multi-tool if you're gonna be the guy that solves the problem that absolutely has to be taken care of right now as you figured out if you've watched the channel or you've recognized if you watch this video up till now I love tools I love all kinds of tools and the reasons I love tools are complex but one of them is because tools enable me and they will enable you to help people because I can tell you there's been plenty of times that people have done things for me that lifted my burdens and most the time if it wasn't just good advice which is also important it involved the use of a tool or tools or equipment or supplies that they had that I needed and there's nothing like that feeling of being helped in that way and that the only thing that's better than that is the feeling of being able to help in that way so if you haven't experienced that yet start looking for those chances keep some tools close to hand so when you're driving down the road and you see that person that needs help and you know it's the right thing to do you can do it and I will assert that the more of us recognize that wonderful feeling of satisfaction of engaging with people even strangers to solve their problems the better our lives will all become thousands of you have used tools to solve problems for yourself or for others those stories are interesting to all of us so you if you've got a story about how a tool that you had on hand at a critical moment made a huge difference for you or the people around you send it in put it in the comments we would all love to read it thanks for watching

Channel: Essential Craftsman

Views: 1,033,801

Keywords: tools, problem solving, helping, high lift jack, burke bar, leverage, hammer, rigging axe, come a long, multi tool, Leatherman, helping people, versatile, birthday presents, Father's Day Presents

Id: TBLV6MGX31A

Length: 8min 34sec (514 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2019