Favorite tools?

I have a passion for tools, as well, mainly woodworking ones. My favs are 15" Delta planer, Leigh dovetailer and Dewalt 18v cordless drill.

What are yours?

Give me a pair of Vise Grips and a Phillips and a flat bit screwdriver and I can fix anything (eventually).

That said, a Dremel (or better yet a Foredom flexible shaft machine) and a MIG welder make life a lot easier.

But when you come right down to it, you can never have enough tools, and my favorite is what ever one I have in my grubby little hands or WANT at any given time.

I'd be interested to see how you'd fix a wooden coffee table with a MIG welder..

YC

Oh, excuse me- I better add Epoxy and Super-glue to that list.

But then they really are more supplies than tools

Hmmm? Most often used hammer,dial calipers and end cutters.

Maybe I can find another use for the spare 18v 2.4 amp battery (how many 5w ls's???)

My beautiful:

Mitutoyo 500-321 0.0005-6" digital callipers

Accurate to 1/2000", with ID and OD (of course), a depth guage, a display switchable from inches to millimetres, data/hold capability, re-zeroing, and even a tiny socket to connect it up to a PC if I should ever get ambitious.

I love the thing for it's usefulness and precision. Awesome.

lightlover

Yeah, Jahn, You can measure things really accurately with them.

But can you actually MAKE or FIX anything with them???

Well, I guess you could loosen a nut with them if it wasn't realy tight

(Just kidding you) You know how we Americans are: If you can't smash with it, bend with it, melt with it or cut with it, it "ain't" a tool...

I think Silviron summed it up perfectly when he said..

...you can never have enough tools.

The problem is convincing your SO of it..

Graham

Duct Tape!!!! Yea, yea, gotta have duct tape.

Duct tape is like "The Force" - It has a light side, a dark side, and it binds the universe together.

Seriously - Dremel Rotary tool.

Gotta love my Gerber-500 multi plier (currently a black-anodised one, but I think I prefer the silver kind like my old one). Goes everywhere I do and usually does the job, whatever it is. But a small flat bladed insulated screwdriver is essential in my job too- so many teensy little terminals inside fire alarms that the Gerber`s smallest blade sometimes won`t reach.

But the Gerber works great, whenever my enormous and ridiculously heavy tool box full of anything and everything is out of reach.

A nice big SledgeHammer! I figure if ya can't fix it SMASH it.

I spend my working days breaking a lot of crap furniture.
We used a variety of pneumatic and LPH devices.

The tool I wish for most in my job is one of those screwsdrivers with a red/black ball grip. Put in the red side, you can screw in one direction. Put in the black side, you can screw in the other.
The driver accepts the hexagonal bits, and the ones we have at home have magnetic retainers.

I also use a twatter at work. To **** nails into the floor.

I like electric screwdrivers. Black n Decker made a great one - small and powerful. Not like the drill sized brutes of today.

Masking tape is vital, just like duct tape.

In Dubai, I became dependant on electric tools. Attempting to manulize a screw will give my pretty keyboard hands, blisters.

Also, Being a leftie, I need lefthanded tools - ones with "The Other way you Freak!" clearly displayed.

We don't have digital-display meters. It would be great to have them.

Al

You mean I have to have a favorite!? If I had to pick a couple of my "most beloved"
tools, i think it would have to be my 14.4v
Makita cordless drill, and my 16oz. Hart
deck hammer. And my Gerber 300 Multi-plier
goes everywhere i do (except the shower).

Now that's just like our Administrator - he gets/needs special tools. Funny thing about my screwdriver is that I don't, at least I think I don't, need the multi-colored disco ball to tell which direction to turn the handle. Turn it to the left (or is it to the right for Lefty) and things are loosened. And to the right has the opposite effect.

I'm pretty sure the colors wouldn't help much but maybe having some arrows might. I'm off to my toolbox to study my screwdrivers.

[5 minutes later]

No, I don't think the screwdrivers care one way or the other. At least they didn't have a preference.

Atleast with powerdrivers, they have a toggle or switch clearly marked with screw-in / screw-out.

I'm the guy who can never put a visa card the right way in the ATM.

While I was student, I used a compass/clino that had a light! How kewl is that?
That's a tool for a Geologist.

Anyone else like that smell of freshly charged up Powertool batteries?

Al

Tools/toys/gadgets I use at home or work on a very regular or daily basis, but not in order of most-often-used:

Dewalt 18V drill, reciprocating saw, and circular trim saw combination set

Stanley 16 oz. framing hammer

Chris Reeve small Sebenza

Mitutoyo 500-series digital calipers like the one lightlover described

Surefire E1e

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Size15s:
I like electric screwdrivers. Black n Decker made a great one - small and powerful. Not like the drill sized brutes of today.

Al<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Al, I have one of these
Milwaukee cordless screwdriver at work which has been in use since '91 and is still going strong(Bought a new battery last year). Black & Decker and the Skil ended up in the trash bin pronto after the Milwaukee showed up. Try one if you get the chance. Keith

Toby, great topic, had the same idea, but forgot to post it the other day! I was going to call it, (after an article in Co-Evolution Quarterly) "a highly evolved toolbox" --
-- Metcal soldering station with highest and lowest temperature tips..
-- a hot-melt wire stripper;
( a piece of nichrome with a 'V' notch cut in it, just insert an insulated wire into the crotch of the V and pull the melted insulation off - zero damage to even the tiniest conductors..)
-- 15 in 1 Megapro screwdriver;
(all them dual ended tips in the handle) (edit; they call it "15 in 1" -- but there are 16 tips, why not "16 in 1" ?? sweet mystery of life..)
-- Makita 45lb electric jackhammer
(uses surprisingly little current..)
-- Keychain Swiss Army knife with toothpick
(same category as jackhammer, lighter duty..)
-- large gauge cable crimper that you smash with hammer, (easier than hand pressure!)
-- Sears 2-pound hammer for above

..Is anyone familiar with the Pfingst brand of cable driven power tools? Better than Fordham? I hear they have a riveting attachment that's to die for..

looking forward to checking out
the Mittutoyo calipers.. I was just looking for calipers the other day, thanks for the recommendation!

Ted TL,
The 500-321 Mitutoyo's I have are the last generation. (Oh, they'll do step measurements also). The new range is even better, and relatively cheaper too. For instance, I believe that they will hold the last 6 measurements, instead of only one. I think that the other brand to check out is Brown and Moore ?? Whatever you do, get a digital display, it's so much easier.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Silviron:
Yeah, Jahn, ... but can you actually MAKE or FIX anything with them??? ...
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not quite: but I can always find *precisely* how much I was out by ......

lightlover

I love my makita 14.4V drill/driver.I fix power tools as a hobby and I have found the Makita to be very well built and easy to work on.I hate tools that you have to pitch when parts wear out.I also love my Stabila level and my Porter-Cable framing saw.