do you have one table saw , drills , miter saws etc. every few years they come out with advances and i just upgrade with them. 3 chopsaws, 3table saws , 2 recipro saws 2 miter saw stands , two jig saws, it goes on and on . I think im comming to a point where i have enough .just wanted to see what its like out there in tool land.
dogboy
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Replies
My redundency is redundently redudundent
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
every "critical" tool i have has a spare even its just the "old" one
let's see; 3 chop saws, 2 table saws, 4 cordless drills etc etc
my idea is that if i have 3 cordless drills for example, i then have 6 batteries, 3 chargers and any one drill will last 3 times as long, one has a #2 robertson bit, one has a small pilot bit and the other a clearence bit, i dont spend time searching for bits all day, its much harder to misplace a drill than a tiny bit
routers at the last count was 6, from 3 1/4 horse to lam trimmer, all set up for a particular operation, all of which i do almost everyday
then theres "field" tools vs shop tools, i dont need to unload anything from my truck to work in the shop, a real time saver
key thing is time is money and broken down tools are time wasted and a pain, so keep a spare or at least some spare parts
caulking is not a piece of trim
Yup but they all do something a little different than the other one. Drills. Swimming in them. Several cordless, right angle, 1/2", little hammers, medium hammers, a great big hammer, impact driver, hole hawg, . . . sold some stuff off though this last year that wasn't seeing much use. Figure somewhere along the line you have to clean the truck out in a more permanant fashion, so now I've only got 3 routers, 1 jigsaw, two chops. But the good news is you can use the garage sale money to go get more clamps.
"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
I pretty much just have one of everything, due to financial and space constraints.
My "spares" belong to my Dad, Brother, and Uncle. We borrow and swap stuff back and forth all the time.
No that my youngest Son is into tools I even borrow his now and then.
Burglars broke into my place and were so appalled, they left a donation!
Ditto Steve's reply. Redundant tools for shop and truck. Makes little sense to waste time getting a tool from the truck just to lose it's value in the time lost doing so.
Too many tools, too little time to use them all.
ya , you guys seem to be saying the same thing , well it goes for me too. lets see why , i can justify it all over the place and for good reason too. first i like tools and thats that, chop saws for example I bought one 15 years ago , a heavy 10in craftsmen and lugged the monster around for years and loved it and hated it.then a friend got the 12in black and decker that later became the dewalt 12in all they changed was the color i finally bought the yellow one and loved it it was bigger and lighterand have used it for years then wanted to get a new one to keep home so put the 10in under the bench where it loves to sleep , got dewalts 12 in dual slide saw for jobs and can keep 12in old dewalt at home in shop and have done same with table saw drills routers and so on . its nice being home and not needing to pull out tools that takes one hour at least just to do a couple hrs work. and when ever i work with anybody and they didnt bring there whatever with them i let them use that old thing, but dont touch this one. glad im not alone and crazy just crazy dogboy
Edited 1/13/2004 4:00:27 PM ET by dogboy
I only seem to have 2 of the tools that don't break down...
my week point used to be cordless drills, at one point I had 8 different models, gave most away and only left with 2 cordless drills and an impact driver, all 3 use the same bat and charger.
I'm long on drills. Milwaukee Hole hog, 1/2 & 3/8 hole shooters. About 6 (?) Makita cordless, one Makita corded 3/8, a dewalt corded 3/8 and a dewalt 12V with two dead batteries.
Had 2 Bosch 9.6V, but threw them both in the trash. Saved the chargers, but what the hell do I want those for?
An old Black & Decker Shorty Drill - that's a small corded right angle drill that is only about 2" by 7". Old but nice.
An old Rockwell 1/2" right angle drill and a huge B&D 3/4" that I bought from a friend just because. Don't know why, and haven't used it for anything but I might want to break my arm some day and that thing will do it for sure.
A Bosch Bulldog SDS that is one of those handy tools that works well for what it's for.
3 table saws. 2 band saws. 3 Sawzalls, but only one is a Milwaukee.
Lot of shovels, do they count?
Joe H
oh ya i didnt even think to mention shovels 7 or 8 assorted, two wheel barrows , two garden carts, 9 ladders, 2 ft to 32 ft the list goes on and on and on. sand blasters it gets crazy . up here in maine at different times of the year we somtimes do most everything . dogboy
Dogboy,
I kinda wondered about that myself: 3 mitersaws, 2 table saws, 9 routers, 2 cordless impact, 3 cordless drills, 2 cordless circular saws, 2 cordless sawzalls, 2 circular saws, 5 corded drills, 3 MS stands, 2 15ga, 2 16 ga, 4 18 ga, 2 trailers, 3 compressors, 2 hand planers, 2 bench top jointers, 3 sets of door levels.... well I still wonder if I have a problem but I have the tools I need and when they break I have one in the trailer. We become by effort primarily what we end up becoming
- Zig Ziglar
I only have room for one each of the big things: table saw, brake, lathe, vertical mill, drill press, jointer, oxyacetlyene set, arc welder, cement mixer.
There should be three circular saws, but one got loaned out to a cousin years ago. There should be two routers, but I haven't been able to find the little one for a long time. I have my BIL's compressor, and he has my big one. One Bosch hammer drill, one hole hawg, one cordless Makita drill, maybe 4-6 corded drills -- everybody seems to have lots of drills. One 4x24 belt sander, one electric ROS (maybe two if I could find the old one), one pneumatic orbital sander. Palm nailer, impact wrench, chipper, all pneumatic -- and a tire filler. Three bottle jacks, two of which I have to remember to get back from the guy who borrowed them. Three recip saws, one of which is the PC articulated one, really a whole different class of tool from the others. Two soldering coppers with furnace, soldering gun, small iron, electronics soldering station, two oscilloscopes. Two tap and die sets, US and Metric. Three levels, I don't know how many hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, clamps, tapes, squares ....
Now here's a question for you -- What's missing from that list? Do you see anything that I either forgot to mention, or that -- and here's the fun part -- that I should own, but didn't think to buy yet? ;-)
-- J.S.
Somewhat of a trick question. All tools loosely called by the same name may not really function the same. I have at least eight circular saws - four worm drives and four sidewinders. Yet for the worm drives, one is 8 1/4 which is too heavy for most work, two are 7 1/4 but one has a diamond blade, and one is the small Portter Cable trim saw, which is my favorite saw. Of the side winders, one is a small Makita that is great for fine work but certainly won't touch a 2x, one is a 16" (I think) for cutting timbers (haven't used it yet), one is a cordless PC trim saw, and one is an ancient Sears Craftsman from my dad - from back in the days of chromed steel housings and which hasn't seen action for a couple of decades...
They may all take circular saw blades, but they certainly don't all do the same job.
come on everyone , i can relate to everyone here including the fact when ive been on the job and it was closer to the store then going all the way home to get a tool ,small stuff for sure like screw drivers, chisels, drill bits, some tool ive bought then regreted it like a power hand planer then after using it cant and dont want to live without it. theres a reason for everything. dogboy
"just wanted to see what its like out there in tool land"
Dogboy,
A man can NEVER EVER own enough tools, even if they are redundant, Last count, I had 7 [powered] hand drills, and I'm a DIY!
Jon
what about measuring tapes ? i must have 20. I get them from a surplus type store buy them up when on sale 2.00 to 4.00 stanley fatmax cant pass them up at that price and they break just as easy as full price.
"what about measuring tapes ? i must have 20."
DB,
Yeah, me too. I've been doing a lot of rearranging and organizing in my home shop (too cold to work outside). I'll post some pic's when done.
Jon
Glad to hear somebody besides me busted the FatMax Tape. I tried to get stanley to replace the damned thing, but they tried to lay a guilt trip on me--like I abused it in the first three weeks enough to shred the blade. They finally told me to ship it to them Puro collect so they could inspect it. I oughta do it, but it's not high on my list since I don't believe I'll get a new one anyway and it makes a heck of a paperweight here in the office.
Spring on that thing is too strong for it's own good, that's the main problem. Plus you've gotta have hands like godzilla to hold it comfortably....Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Those Stanley tapes must have old garage door springs in them. Every time I forget, it whacks me.
Joe H
So Dinosaur, your only a nuclear test away from being mutated into Godzilla, what's so hard about that? I guess the entire FatMax line is supposed to look butch. That's all we need, industrial engineers doing more than picking colors and designing the lable.
I remember my FatMax tape breaking the third time I used it. I have cheapos that have worked for over a decade, and an old stanley that has bounced off of steel and onto roadways that is still good. Okay, I can't make the blade stand out for more than six feet any more, but anyway, it still reels in without threatening to remove my pinky....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
Dear Stanley tools while you've been around longer then most tool cos. we are sick and tired of being taken advantage of by a co that pushes its good name of old on us but does not deliver any more. and what really sucks is because of your wall street savey and slick marketing stratagies you are the tool maker that we have come to depend on more times then not. Now to be fair , you are not the only manufacturer that has spent more money on ways to sell an inferior product then on how to make a better quality tool. you know Mister Stanley I would rather spend more money on a good tool then more on a tool then its worth . but i am being real here and i guess i havent gone to the big tool store in the sky. im probably asking too much but i beleave there was i time that you cared about us as much as we care about our tools. I might be speaking for millons of traidsmen , handymen do it your selfers and more but I think weve taken as much as we can stand and we wishie washie buy anything new and gimikey tool buyers want more and maybe well just go to another hamburger place or another big box because we are americans or at least some of us are and that is the american way or we'd be making these tools ourselves , there was a time america stood for the best, its time we stopped being so spineless and maybe its too late for us and maybe its too late for you or maybe its just too late for all of us, because isnt it really our own damm fault after all and we made you do it . we forced you to make the tools and we made cos. like Walmart . I dont blame you but i just wish somone could build a good measuring tape is that too much to ask for , i hope its not to late for us.................late nite rantings of an american fool. Dogboy
Edited 1/17/2004 4:35:26 AM ET by dogboy
Edited 1/17/2004 4:39:56 AM ET by dogboy
DOGBOY YOU SAID A MUZZLEFULL!!!!!
SIC 'EM, PARDNER!! ROWWWFFFF!
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Woof, woof. again
A good way to go out of businees is to try to sell low grade (but, not all are, JH buys his share from HF) Chinese tools for American, German, or even Tiawan prices. I'm a firm believer that that is what made Pay and Pak and Home Base turn BELLY UP.
Unfortunately, you are both right and wrong.
You're right in the long run. Eventually slime-ball operators that uppackage and upprice cheaply made and badly designed cr@pola do go down the sewer--or get bought by a bigger slimeball with a large enough cash flow to hide the crimes for a bit longer.
But in the short run, as any first-year MBA candidate kin tell ya, it's a fast, easy, and relatively sure-fire way to pump up the bottom line, which is all modern corporations--or at least the people who run modern corporations--care about.
And Dogboy was right too, sad to say, when he stated that it's our own fault. Instead of all screaming bloody murder and hitting 'em in the pocketbook RIGHT EFFING NOW, we idjiots let ourselves get starry-eyed over macho paint-jobs and label designs and paid good money for bad goods. It don't work? WTF!! Buy another one, bro--its da 'Murrican Wayyyyy!
Is it really too late? I dunno. If there's any hope at all, it may be forums like these or the communication power the internet provides to us poor unrepresented millions. Do you suppose if Stanley's big wigs started getting e-mails containing diatribes similar to Dogboy's from all over the world, in industrial quantities, showing the gazillions of serious tool customers they have POed...do you suppose the big wigs might actually DO something about the problem?
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Oh, don't get me started............
13 wheelbarrows, 6 trucks, 2 4x4s, 2 equipment trailers, 3 TS (had 4, gave one to Jeff), well drilling rig, 4 RAS, 5 chainsaws, hundreds of hammers and prolly a thousand plus screwdrivers, 50 VOMs, etc. etc. DW was happy I sold the 3rd bulldozer though, but wish I had it back just for sentiment now <G> Got 4 grandkids, gotta have 4 more sets of everything to give every one of 'em in a few years ...........
.. still don't have even a single pneumatic roofing nailer.....where's that harbor frt catalog, just to say I got one, it don't gotta work too good!
man im feeling better already . 13 wheelbarrows , I never want to move that much dirt . this is getting fun now. this is the biggest can of worms ive ever opened
dogboy
Edited 1/13/2004 9:56:32 PM ET by dogboy
Bad dogboy, bad, bad !!! I TOLD YOU NOT TO GET ME STARTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, only one is for moving dirt!!!
2 for firewood, 3 for picking up branches fallen off trees, etc, the others for storing other junk! I buy any wheelbarrow for $4 or less at garage sales. Forgot to add in the ones given to kids and down at the cabin, 4 more??
Went to a co-workers father's place last Christmas and hauled home a free 1976 Datsun truck (why did I get that - oh yeah, there was an old 10 ton A/C in the bed), but didn't let him talk me into taking a running 2 ton box truck. His dad had just died and left about 300 vehicles and 3 barns full of tools, etc.
DW has started telling me to NOT GET ANY MORE STUFF!!!.
Frank can tell you about blowtorches, have distributed all but 3 since.
Did I say there is a pile of 2000 sheets of dry 5X10 baltic birch in the backyard too? Got enough lumber in stacks to build a 4000 SF house plus some sheds for Jeff, and all the electrical and plumbing stockpiled needed to boot.
Put a sign out on the roadway last summer for 'free stuff" and gave away 8 cords of firewood, 4 engines, actually sold a straight good running 72 Courier to a kid down the street for $50 just to get rid of it, etc. -- put a notice in 'keenjunk' a few years back and gave away 5,000 pounds of blacksmith tools, tongs, dies, anvil, swages - but, made'em come on Superbowl Sunday to get it free, got to separate wheat from chaff (aka dealers) you know..........
just curious where you accumulated much of this.
and I'd love to see your backyard/propertry.
My goal this year is actually to buy as few tools as possible because I'm finding the more I accumulate the less productive I am. Cordless drills are a bad spot with about 7 or 8 of them sitting around, as well as tons of corded ones. Lot of circular saws, lot of putty knives and trowels. I'm trying to standardize on one cordless battery system and a main set of tools so that the snake-eyes security drill bit isn't chucked in the drill that's back in the shop, or the metal circ. saw blade isn't in the saw box that's back in the truck all the time, theoretically this should save time and make me more efficient, we'll see. So far resisted the urge to buy any tools, went into the hardware store the other day and managed to walk out with the 1 drill bit I needed and nothing else.
-Ray
curious where you accumulated much of this.
Have "helped" friends, etc clean up for moves over the years, summertime hobby is garage sales (every Sat. morn excursion for 'recreation' with DW during spring and summer), local aerospace and hardwood surplus lots, dumpsters, etc. - keep eyes and ears open for 'deals'.
a Favorite quote: "You too can accumulate enough stuff to build a house for $500 if you are willing to take 40 years to do it" One guy at one of the surplus lots even recycles bent nails, but definetely some things not cost effective.
For more references, look at the "great moments" page of the FHB Nov 1990 Issue.
I like the bulldozers. I have not only mulitple tools but multiple shops at different addresses. I have one 2000 SF shop with my machine shop and welding equipment in it, that sometimes doubles as a paint booth in one of the bays. The usual aray of metal equipment there. Welder (3) Milling machine (2) lathe (2) Drill Press (1) Belt sander (2) Band saw (2) Iron worker (1) Air compressor (3) Torch sets (2) chain hoist (3) Steam cleaner (1) paint guns (5) and many assorted hand tools and specialty tools.
Then we have location 2. This one is 1500SF. It comes equipped with all the wood working stuff. Table saw, drill press, band saw, aluminum brake, tile saw, house jacks, airless sprayer, portable mig welder, generator, nail guns, shope vacs and all the assorted hand tools that go with that deal.
Then we have my work truck that carries a table saw, air compressor ............................ Well you get the picture. DanT
and I'd love to see your backyard/propertry.
You might. I'm not sure his neighbors (if any) are too thrilled with the view, however.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
The wheelbarrow fleet!.
Excellence is its own reward!
oh my god, im feeling better allready , im thinking i could use several hundred more tools after all. and not feel guilty one bit. ya know now that i think about it there must be thousands of tools out there i dont have , mmmmmmm good
dogboy
two table saws
Four circ saws
Two jigsaws
five handsaws
three flat bars
two wizards (hooked crowbar)
four routers, I think
three levels
I don't want to count how many hammers and hatchets
Not quite enough ladders to reach the moon yet.
four work vehicles
Getting ready for a second power mitre of some kind so they can mate
Half a dozen tape measures
How did all this happen?
edit - yeah, now that you mention it, I have more redundancy in drills than any other tool probably.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
Edited 1/13/2004 10:20:23 PM ET by piffin
because like women and shoes, men must have more tools than they could use...
"because like women and shoes, men must have more tools than they could use..."
CAG,
OK, shoes may be to women what tools are to men, but tools usually don't "go out of style" every season.
Jon
Jon, let's think about it for a minute, not that I like defending women and their purchasing habits..
but... when was the last time you bought a tool just cause it was better than the one you already had, or had some improvement over a previous model with out regard for the fact the one you had was still perfectly capable of meeting your needs... so they may not go out of style but there is still some redundancy there..
now on the other hand, I make money with my tools, so any purchase that allows me to do it more efficently or better is worth the purchase to me... women on the other hand... well there aint many legal ways they can money because of different shoes.
"well there aint many legal ways they can money because of different shoes."
CAG,
Studies have proven that attractive women, all else being equal, make more money, and get the promo's, and hook up with wealthier husbands than well....... Where shoes come in I have no idea, but we have a closet full.
Jon
BTW have you moved yet?
nope I'll be in KS till at least Aug when the leases run out on my and her apartments..
Eight routers, from 3.25hp to 1.5hp. Might be excessive, but it's nice to leave them "as is" to eliminate repetitive setups. Especially for 3-piece raised panel bit sets, and straight/flared bits for dovetails.
The only other thing is circular saws. I have 3, but don't think that excessive. One for cutting stone, one for grunt work, and the newest/nicest for everyday work.
Okay, I have several drills, but...
My worst crime is going through Lowes and Home Depot and going through the 'clearance' carts. I now have 4 of the same B&D Firestorm drills. The last I got was a display, body only for $20. Less than 1/2 what it'd have cost if I'd ordered it. Other than that, I'm like those folks with so little space. Everything has to fit in a small truck and then into and out of a rented storage locker. My worst sin is the 3 or 4 of somethings where I bought a hand tool I knew was in storage, but didn't want to take the time to pull all the stuff infront of the case it was in. Not to mention, Lowes is closer to where most of my work happens than my storage unit.
I like the numerous routers so you don't have to change bits.
Nobody's mentioned the old brace and bits, great for turning those big old 1/4" slotted screws, etc and a hole where it's too much bother to drag a cord. Attachment is a few of brace/bits 'hanging around', a few more out in the barn too.
Art, with the exception of Mrs. Junkhound, is there anything you have only one of?
Joe H
Hey.....I have WAY more tools than I have shoes....Even more "doubles" than shoes. (Or should I say boots?)
Dual compressors, framing guns,mag 77's, too many cordless drills to list, (don't really know why) sliding compound miters, (10" and 18v 7) Jig saws, table saws and gosh knows what else. And yes, I have truck-loads of estrogen flowin' thru the ole' body!
Beck
how do you like your 18v slider?We become by effort primarily what we end up becoming
- Zig Ziglar
Joe:
Gotta admit, only have one framing nailer (WaY behind others there), and only one vehicle newer than 1980 <G>
Is that the origional cordless drill?
Love it for small stuff......The 10" gets to be a pain to move around, especially for small pick-up work. Could do lots of damage to walls, etc. moving it around. (Love it sitting in one place). Now that I'm working only on our own houses, (flipping) I don't use it as much, but lovingly pet it every couple of days. What I really loved about it, was that it came with the 18v drill, all for $299!!! Already had a couple of 18v drills, but it was such a sweet deal I couldn't resist, and I really wanted the saw. But it really has a place on the trailer... Beck
my weakness is air compressors- at last count i was up to 7.
routers? only 4
tablesaws? only 2 (and that shouldn't count because one is really a big combo machine too)
m
Sure plenty of them, my worst offence is in the wide (6 3/4 inch wide ) hand held power plane department..
I have two of them.. both Mikita's both the same model and both used by mainly one person (me)
the reason is that when planing big timbers I can get the blade too dull to use in less than two hours of use.. If I stop and replace the blades it takes me over a half hour to do.
what I do is plane for two hours (or whatever then grab the other plane and plane for two more.. by that time it's lunch time and while I'm eating I replace both sets of blades.. that way I can go back at it for the rest of the afternoon..
In addition if I do two at once it doesn't take me an hour rather closer to 45 minutes so I save 15 minutes this way.
I do believe I hold the record for planer blades though.. I'm down to 15 sets from a high of 22 sets.. the other 7 sets have either worn out completely from resharpening them or they were damaged in some way.. (these all fit the same model planer)