Originally Posted by kerry edwards

I kind of like quirky little tools like the spring loaded three pronged claw. But the tool that probably saved me the most money was a hot water radiator disassembly tool. When we bought our house, it had been abandoned for a few years and the hot water heater system left full of water at 25 below zero. Most of the radiators in the house were cracked. The easiest solution was hot water baseboard heaters but putting them in an 1890's Victorian seemed almost sacreligious, not to mention pretty pricey. Having little money and seeking an inexpensive solution, I looked closely at the radiators, and with the fittings removed I could see that each section was screwed to the next with an left/right threaded nipple with internal ears. I found a plumbing supply house that sold a tool that fit inside the nipple and locked around the ears. With that tool, a couple of weeks of work with a 36" pipe wrench, a 4 foot cheater bar, and a 6 foot step ladder for getting a good jump onto the cheater, we disassembled the radiators, got rid of the broken sections, and reassembled the sections into functioning radiators, saving ourselves thousands of dollars at a time when the bank account was hovering in the hundreds.
The tool, worn and battered, sits on my tool bench. It is highly unlikely it will ever see use again but it put me in the elite company of people who know how to disassemble 100 year old radiators.