This is not a conversation about guns. This is a conversation about items that have withstood abuse that are near unbreakable.
Some items I have heard referenced as AK47 of:
Gerber MP600: It’s a multi tool
Old Thinkpad Laptops
Mag lights
Toyota Hilux
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Cast iron skillets.
If you season and clean them the right way they will outlive you.
I’m using the same one that my parents owned for 30 years and hope I will get another 30 years of usage out of it.
I think there’s only 2 ways to actually kill a cast iron pan. Dropping from a height that causes the brittle metal to break, or putting lead in it. Obviously no one puts lead in their cooking vessels, but small pots are/were used to melt lead to pour in bullet molds, so if you find an old used pot, it’s good to check for lead.
Also, ceramic linings can get chipped.
You can mistreat bare cast iron horribly, never seasoning it, washing it in the dishwasher, or whatever, and it won’t get irredeemably damaged.
We have one my great-grandma got before WWI that we use several times a week.
Unless you put them in the dishwasher
If someone puts my cast iron in the dishwasher the cast iron will still outlive them
Thats the beauty of cast iron though. Even putting it through the dishwasher doesnt ruin the pan permanently. You just have to re-season it.
As long as you don’t use a heated dry it’s pretty much fine tbh. If any rusts you just wipe it down or sand it and re season
Same goes for carbon steel. Unless you’re frying sticks of dynamite they are practically indestructible.
The Logitech x3d Xtreme or whatever the hell it’s called. it’s a $34 flight stick, best one you can get for cheap, and after having and abusing it for years it only had any issues after a rottweiler puppy chewed the cable. Would recommend.
The Shure SM52 microphone (it used to be called the 58 but lost 6 due to budget cuts or something I dunno)
You might not have heard of it, but if you’ve been to a live gig, chances are you’ve seen one
You probably meant the SM58. The 58 is the prototypical singer’s mic.
The sm58 is the microphone, if you ask a kid to draw a mic, the kid will draw the sm58.
Aye you’re right I do!
If youre ever onstage and need a hammer but dont have one, just use an SM58
If you’re a musician or audio tech trying to get started, the Shure SM58 and SM57 are the first two mics you should grab. 58 for vocals, and 57 for anything that doesn’t need a screen (like an instrument or guitar amp.) Both have the exact same mic capsule, but the 58 has a larger filter that will make it a little warmer and less prone to popping on plosives.
Are there fancier mics out there that sound better, or are made for specific purposes? Yeah. But there’s diminishing returns on audio quality, you can’t use them for as many things, and more sensitive mics are also more fragile. For $100 each, you can get some mics that will be passed down to your grandchildren. If you’re trying to cover the widest possible range of uses, the 58 and 57 are your go-to mics.
Whenever you think of a stereotypical 🎤 microphone, you’re 100% thinking of a Shure SM58.
And the SM57 for things you don’t need a screen on.
Carolina Outdoor Work Boots.
Like wearing a bulletproof vest on your feet.
I feel like I’m being baited to mention Nokia
if they still ran on the phone network maybe
I’m seriously considering buying a Nokia smart phone to use with LineageOS. I’m a big fan of shitty android phones anyway.
Just be aware their newer phones are hot shit. It’s the older phones that got the reputation for durability.
Nokia of now is not the Nokia of yesteryear. Their new phones are just cheap Android smartphones.
a cheap microsoft phone isn’t a nokia
Who said anything about Microsoft
Pretty sure they’re referring to the sale of Nokia’s phone division to Microsoft in the mid-2010s. It’s since been bought back and is in the process of renaming to HMD.
Didn’t it get resold again to a Chinese firm? Please tell me they’re independent again.
Sort of. HMD licenses the Nokia name from the broader Nokia business and kept a lot of the old c-suite. Manufacturing is owned by a subsidiary of Foxconn.
ok, that’s cool. and their stance on repair ability means if they make a reasonably sized smart phone before I need a new one I’ll be getting one, and one of the stupid tablet sized ones anyway if not.
LineageOS wouldn’t run on a real nokia unless you’re talking about the nokia branded microsoft phones and they’re more like a 3d printed gun than an AK-47.
I think the argument still is, that those aren’t „real“ Nokias. At the very least they’re not the same Nokia that built the 3310, as that Nokia isn’t in the consumer electronics market anymore.
Ah I see. That’s a bummer
Rice cookers.You can get really simple ones that just work and due to little components they will last a while. IMO they’re really worth it if you cook rice often or can’t for the love of god not mess it up while cooking. They’re really cheap as well.Other people are saying “cast iron” or other broad brands/categories, but this is the only one that doesn’t fall under OP’s request?? Nonsense.
The AK-47 is a specific product from the class of assault rifles, whereas “rice cooker” product class, not a specific product of a class.
Ah right, the post confused me a bit.
I recently bought a zojirushi rice cooker because of their reputation for making perfect rice and lasting decades. So it’s the AK of rice cookers. Or more like the AR because it was $200.
My man… 200 for a rice cooker, does it at least give you a reach around?
It even plays a happy little tune while it does it.
Okay, I’m sold.
To be fair there’s probably almost no moving parts in a rice cooker. Someone mentioned cast iron pans. I think that’s a fair example.
Sony MDR-V6. I’ve had them for 15+ years, only had to change ear pads to velour ones after the first 5 years of use, after that 10+ years, no issues.
Starrett tools. All of them. I’ve put them through Hell and back.
The P4$.FL 44 BF.A OBVIOUSLY guys why has no one mentioned it? Jesus Christ it’s like you want them to break!
^The comments in this thread
My only example are zippos
Honest question, how long is the fluid supposed to last? And I’m not talking about burning time. I have a zippo, I fill it, a few weeks later I go to use it and the flame lasts a few seconds as the fuel finishes.
You need to recharge it like every week, no need to be “zippo fuel” with any crappy benzine its ok. Its hard to get out of fuel by use, use it or not will last allmost the same time.
Pre GM SAABs. I’ve personally gotten 2 of my 5 to over 1,000,000 miles on the original engine and transmission. Both manual transmission. A couple hundred of them have made it to 2,000,000 world wide. The lowest milage I killed a SAAB at was 789,000 miles. I hydroplaned into a semi on I-75, and the car still technically ran, but I gave it to my parents as a parts car. Just read the owners manual, and be absolutely religious about basic maintenance.
Oh, and the turbos don’t like low octane fuel. It gums them up.
How does a turbo that intakes air get gummed up from low octane fuel? Maybe oil is the issue since turbos have oil seals. Maybe I’m missing some unknown factor on turbos.
It’s not the actual turbo that gets gummed, the fuel system is what gums up, but for some reason it’s far worse on the turbo versions of the cars. I could put low octane into the non turbo SAABs I had, and it didn’t gum up the intake the way the turbo versions did. I don’t know why.
Fuel lines degrade under lower octane perhaps. Sounds like a design flaw. I’ve always heard from my car auction and dealer friends that SAABs are junk through and through. I’ve heard it countless times. Hmm…
Nah, Americans just don’t like to read the manuals, and they got a bad reputation in the late '70s and early '80s when they first put turbos into the cars, because you had to pull into the driveway, and let the turbo spin down for at least 30 seconds to a minute. If you didn’t, the turbo would seize and then shred itself when you turn the car back on.
Also American mechanics don’t like the fact that the engine is not in the configuration they are used to. It’s rotated 90° on the z axis and 45 on the x axis. Absolutely solid tanks if you actually read the manual, and followed the routine maintenance recommendations.
Sounds like a giant pain to work on but I’m interested in doing some reading just to learn about something that can potentially contradict what I’ve always heard. Thanks. I’ll look into this.
Once you wrap your head around the new orientation of things, it’s actually really well designed to work on. I figured the mechanics just didn’t want to learn anything “new”
I’m just interested in super high mileage capable vehicles. For instance my cousin has a 12v Cummins diesel and it has over 1m miles. 750k ish when he got it 10 years ago.
Bodum French Press
Dynavap DHV
Buffalo Bicycles
Vitamix Blender
That metal toaster we got for a wedding present. It was apparently someone’s parents wedding present from the 60’s. We had it for several years until a friend jammed a bagel in it and melted the cord. I replaced the cord and we used it for another several years before losing it in a move.
I like to believe someone found it and it is still toasting to this day.
Thanks I don’t need any of this stuff
No prob! Just here to not help
I’m just 🙃 joking
Well, what do you need then?
Any chance you have any suggestions for any “buy it for life” items from your own experience?
Definently only old thinkpads. I had two new ones break on me so now I’m not buying them anymore. One had mouse pad just go numb, the other one had the left control key stop working. I don’t even travel with the laptops. :)
My stationary keyboard has worked for like ten years, and so has my mouse…
yeh plus old should be specified probably… i got an x230 for this reason, changed 2 screens and both hdmi outs are dead (second one being on the dock)
very sad about that, it even has an easy access hdd drawer :(
