MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Well I'm sure you probably could, but more frequently I realize I was wrong to think I had enough of them.
I give you clamps. You can never have too many clamps. G-clamps. F-clamps. Mitre-clamps. Long, large, deep, medium, small, tiny. Etc. I think a couple of 3-way clamps might come in handy too, but don't have any yet.
What other tools can you never have too many of?
(excluding hex keys which accumulate every time you buy flatpack furniture or monitor mounts etc, and start cluttering up the place).
10mm sockets.
Clamps are a bit meh. Traditional joinery negates needing so many.
I think he means 13mm sockets.
Really the answer is tyre levers.
5mm hex key
Cable ties
Clamps are a bit meh. Traditional joinery negates needing so many.
Ahah! Relieved to hear that I won't be accused of a humble brag then 🙂 Yes zero joinery skills, but I do like making stuff, and clamps needed for that.
Sockets and extensions, so often you want one that's just exactly this long or this shape... And some jobs require elaborate constructions of different sockets, wobble bits, just the exact right socket (looking at you here Subaru sparkplugs)
Yeah true, with traditional joinery you don't really need clamps if you bang a couple of 6" screws in...
5mm hex key
See I was gonna say that but if you get a good set you don't need any more.
I'd vote hacksaw blades 😉
10mm sockets.
It is true you can never have too many.
A true n+1 tool if you will.
But that won't help you locate one when you need it.
The metric sockets that are just a fraction larger than the imperial one so you've rounded them before you realise it was 1/2" not 13mm.
15mm spanners, seriously? I've never lost one whilst riding the fixie, so they're in the house somewhere.......
Tyre levers. Does anyone make a durable plastic coated steel set?
T25 torx key, in all varieties, driver bits, Allen keys, all of them. Torx in general is just a rubbish tool, it seems designed to strip the tool before the fastener. If I wanted that feature I'd just buy cheap hex keys 🤬 It doesn't meaningfully transfer more torque.
10 mm sockets and spanners. 6 mm allan keys. someone steals them from my toolbox
Tape measures.
Pencils.
It depends what you are doing but for me it is clamps. You cant beat time spent with Bessey.
I found out this week that the easiest and quickest way to remove the rear shock from a new Enduro which is a 6mm hex key is with a long extension bar. Ended up going through all the old tool kits to make it fit with 3 bars slotted together and managed to find a 6mm hex end that would fit in the old windsurfing kit, I now need to find the right length bar 1/4 and a proper hex key so I don't mess up later, couldn't get any other hex key into the area and turn it.
Glad I've never binned old tools
Ohh, and old British cars use a square key that's fractionally smaller than 1/2" for various oil drains. If it's in good condition a 1/2" drive will do it, if not...........
Some say it's a tapered 1/2" bit, others that it's a whitworth size, some that it's 7/16".
Blunt saws and cheap shit drill and bit sets that came ‘free’ with something else
Some say it’s a tapered 1/2″ bit, others that it’s a whitworth size, some that it’s 7/16″.
And some say that moss grows on a south-facing wall, and a hamster shall give birth to a Jaguar…
Definitely tape measures
Pencils
PZ2 impact bits
Screwdrivers - in particular flat blade of various lengths, widths and tapers. Some old screws have a really wide head with an impossibly thin slot so a regular wide blade won't stay seated, some have a narrow head with a wide slot. Finding the right screwdriver to do the job is half the battle.
Measuring and laying out "stuff". There is always something that would be easier or better to mark if you had a slightly different to measure / layout.
Clamps yes. Mitre clamp no. Promised so much but delivered so little (joint kept sliding around).
Got a little spanner from my dad stamped "Fiat". 10mm one end, 8mm the other-would love more of them.
See I was gonna say that but if you get a good set you don’t need any more.
but when I put my good one down seem unable to find it and have to rummage for another and so on
The socket that fits all the hex bit sets (torx, pentalobe, allen and torx security).
Kant Twist clamps. Love em- got loads but still never enough.
G clamps can twist and distort themselves into the scrap bin.
https://www.mscdirect.co.uk/CGI/INSRCH?N=4294966345&Ns=manufacturer_name
Pencils - yup, forever misplacing them, despite 1/2 dozen supposedly immediately to hand, son as i need one its out of reach or simply cannot see it.
.
Clamps/cramps - Never enough, and not every joint or attachment needs a nail or screw, so clamps are something we shall always need, and always find we've less than we should have.
.
Chisels - obviously, when they blunt down so much easier to reach for another.
.
Saws - I've got about 5 powered and a further 10 or so 'manual'
.
Boxes of fixings - screws,nails etc etc. need every size available, because sure as fate....
I think I have more hoovers and dust extractors than I should have (or rather than anyone else would think I should have.
is ten too many or too few?
is this a cry for help?
Actually it’s 11
I think I have more hoovers and dust extractors than I should have (or rather than anyone else would think I should have.
Maybe. i've one, and a fine dust at that, which is totally unsuitable being used with my thicknesser.
Was thinking of getting something better suited - whats your opinion on this -
https://www.axminstertools.com/axminster-craft-ac118ce-cyclone-dust-extractor-105845?glCountry=GB&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItZWw6_nW8QIVg9xRCh108Q7SEAQYASABEgJv6_D_BwE
1/4” Whitworth spanners - since I found out this is the correct size for battery clamps, rather than a shoddily fitting 1/2” AF I can’t get enough of them. I even have a miniature ring one on my key ring, y’know just in case you have to remove the battery unexpectedly from an Austin 7…
Perhaps a bit worrying, but my immediate answer is....knives...
Hammers - tapety-tap=tap!
I'm in the sockets camp. I used to have more and I feel the pain of the missing ones! Which reminds me I need to start looking for some more sockets!
Another vote for tape measures, I keep a Versa downstairs and two normal stupid ones in the loft but never have one to hand.
And IKEA pencils, you can't have enough of them stashed around tool boxes.
Stanley knives. In theory I have at least five or six; in practice I can seldom lay my hands on one.
Oh, and new blades too.
And Phillip's screwdrivers. And steel rulers too.
15mm open end spanner thin enough for removing pedals and stout enough for wheel nuts.
Skinny 8/10mm open end spanner.
A small triple that fits in a pocket.
Tape measures
Pencils
PZ2 screwdrivers
Was thinking of getting something better suited – whats your opinion on this –
If you're feeling thrifty you can save a few bob by retro-fitting a homemade Thein seperator inside a standard 100mm chip collector. - cheaper and more compact. Bog standard chip collectors are already almost a cyclone so rather than adding a separate cyclone stage you can just tinker with the innards and create a separator inside the body of the machine. Its an idea I thought I'd dreamt up all by myself then I happened across a video of April Wilkerson doing exactly the same thing. Jet do their own proprietary version of the same idea which you could replicate by riveting a wok inside the machine
Clamps are a bit meh. Traditional joinery negates needing so many.
Not sure if being serious.....
The finest collection of sash cramps I have ever seen was at the Edward Barnsley Workshop - one of the most traditional (and expensive) makers of fine furniture and trainers of apprentices in the world.
You can never have enough clamps. Not traditional joiner per se but I love a bit of glue lam bent furniture making and clamping to a jig whilst gluing up with an infeasible number of clamps is the way ahead if too big or burley for a vacuum bag.
Tape measures, scribes, centre punches and good flat head screw drivers also all disappear down the rabbit hole never to be seen again just when needed.
Clamps are a bit meh. Traditional joinery negates needing so many.
If this is not some over-my-head joke, I don't get this. I'm a cabinet maker, traditionally trained, and clamps are essential.
It's the more modern methods with pocket hole jigs and pinned tenons that negate the need for clamps.
Anyway, for me in general DIY mode, it's unblocked nozzles for sealant/caulk
Tools, just tools.
I've got more hammers and tape measures than I care to count.
Guilty as charged: 55 chisels
Blunt saws and cheap shit drill and bit sets that came ‘free’ with something
Old drill bits, bent ones, blunt ones, they always go back in the box, than I never know which are sharp and which are blunt, so I buy a new one...and the old one goes in the box and the cycle repeats.
3mm pilot drill bits...i keep snapping them. Maybe my technique is a bit off??? 🤣
That tool that is just out of reach when you are working on your own and have finally managed to get all the bits to align and just need to reach the xxxx
If you just had one more xxxx within reach the job would be done in seconds
Old drill bits, bent ones, blunt ones, they always go back in the box, than I never know which are sharp and which are blunt, so I buy a new one…and the old one goes in the box and the cycle repeats.
Pretty much the same here. Have you considered a drill sharpener ? I know I have and oddly know, but still dont own one, but the benefit of always having sharp bits to hand must be exhilarating
3mm pilot drill bits…i keep snapping them.
You can get packs of 20 or sets of 50, ten each of five sizes. But a handy thing, and cheap too, is a drill guide. - https://www.axminstertools.com/axminster-drill-guide-500458
For small drill bits I no longer treat them as tools, but consumables. Larger ones is usually have a go at sharpening on the mini bench grinder which works ok if you’re careful.
Torx in general is just a rubbish tool, it seems designed to strip the tool before the fastener.
Ah but is it better than having the issue of trying to remove a rounded torx.
Ah but is it better than having the issue of trying to remove a rounded torx.
Except in the real world you're confronted with a stuck torx head screw, and a slightly twisted torx bit because however accurately you torqued them up, corrosion means they're harder to get out, and as the thread title suggests, you don't have enough T25 bits to always have a fresh one.
Now you've got a mashed tool and a mashed screw head.
There were good reasons to develop it:
The screw stick on the bit without a magent.
They work off-axis which is great on a production line with powered hand tools.
They're probably the perfect solution for computer cases. They're OK for things like bleed ports on brakes. They're a bit pointless for SRAM brake caliper bolts. And they're absolutely the wrong tool for the job for rotor bolts.
It wouldn't even be so bad if it was part of some effort to standardise tools, like make everything on the handlebars, seat clamp, saddle rails etc T30, but it's not it's just a random selection of T20/25/27/30/35 so it can't even be quick to build in the factories.
G clamps can twist and distort themselves into the scrap bin.
Or in my Dad's case, donated to me. Had this years now, and up until a couple of several years ago it was my second best clamp! Don't ever need to use it much these days.
That clamp is vintage as it's got the leaf on it. it's also been abused I've a few record ones that have suffed the same abuse
I have had an approach to collecting tools for over 42 years...
If i do a job and i think "if i had a "whatsit" that would have been easy and go and buy one.
I have a lot of tools....
Agree with most of the above including lots of clamps.. which reminds me i just need to go on ebay