Fit for its Intended Purpose

This guy bought a tool to adjust the sights on his SKS from Ebay. It was manufactured by a company named UAG. He couldn't use it because it wouldn't clear the hood over the sight. He was going to send it back, but I suggested we just modify it a little. We cut back one edge of the clamp far enough to clear the hood. We used a 10" double cut file; and then cleaned it up with a single cut file. It took about ten minutes to finish the modification. Here are some pictures showing the work:

The sight adjusting tool:


Close up of the cut:


The tool in position to adjust the sight:



I hate it when I go out and buy something - and then it won't do what I bought it to do. In this case, the tool probably works on other rifles - just not his; but many times the problem stems from a deficiency in the tool. Maybe it's too small or too big or too weak. You never know what kind of problem you'll find, but I'm amazed at how often this happens. I think the law used to refer to this as merchantability - "a promise, arising by operation of law, that something that is sold will be merchantable and fit for the purpose for which it is sold." I guess nobody really cares about that anymore. It's nice when you can make a quick modification to something so it will actually do its job.