March 17, 2004
#40 :: Oil drill tie bar
At some point, some oil company magnate (whose name has been lost to the fog of time) decided what the fellas really needed was a trinket, a memento of their work on the rigs. He had some machine shop run off a few hundred of these tiny oil drill bit models in brass, had 'em soldered via swivels to cheap chrome-plated tie bars, and given out. This is a tiny, mechanically meticulous object smaller than the tip of my pinky, made by a machinist with deep affection for detail. The three toothed, conical bit components spin independently, and in unison when the whole thing is rotated as it would be when screwed into the hollow end of a drill and shoved into the ground or sea bed. The tie bar itself is cheap, almost an insult to the craft and care that went into the bit, which glitters and whirs when you twirl it.