TIL a $9 lens spanner from a pawn shop in Tulsa saved a $400 repair job

Was rummaging through a pawn shop near downtown Tulsa last month and spotted a beat-up lens spanner in a tray of old tools. Grabbed it for 9 bucks, cleaned the rust off, and used it to open a seized 50mm prime that a client wanted scrapped. The retaining ring had stripped edges from someone using needle-nose pliers before me, but the spanner's pins gripped the leftover slots fine. Took about 40 minutes to free the stuck helicoid and re-lube it with synthetic grease. Now I keep it in my main kit instead of the fancy adjustable ones that cost 10 times more. Anyone else found good repair tools at weird spots like flea markets or estate sales?

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hayden_butler276d ago

Heard some old repair guys swear by pawn shop tools over new ones lol, cheap and they actually last.

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