Tools recomendation

[Anonymous No.141984]

Can we have a thread suggesting cheap tools (ok quality) for doing diy projects?

Screwdrivers, knife, tester, solder

[Anonymous No.141990]

>solder

Go ahead and buy that more expensive lead-free silver-bearing solder. It's just safer for you all around.

>tester

I prefer analog multi-testers. You can get them pretty cheap off eBay. For clam meters try harborfrieght.com since they have them for $11 and $17 last I checked while ACE has them for fucking $74.

>screwdrivers

You know those small tiny eyeglass screwdrivers you need to use for taking apart small stuff and of course eyeglasses and they always cam-out on you or are difficult to turn; especially when some screws have screw-lock on them? Well, it doesn't really matter too much what brand you get if you drill a hole through the handle and slip a nail through it in order to get more leverage for turning them as you press down.

Haborfrieght seems to have the cheapest tools on the block, fyi. I have a lot of their stuff. Don't be afraid to go to antique stores, yard sales, etc for good old tools that have stood the test of time (sometimes 100 years of more).

[Anonymous No.142008]

>>141990
> For clamP meters try

lol fixed

[Anonymous No.142038]

>>141990
Thanks, bump

[Anonymous No.142043]

[Anonymous No.142049]

flea markets are great sources for cheap tools. I got an electric drill, circular saw, and jigsaw for $20 total about 3 years back.

[Anonymous No.142058]

58-Piece Ratcheting Screwdriver Set with Flexible Shaft

[Anonymous No.142063]

>>142058
I have one almost exactly like that one. That little black plastic ring you see right were the switch is between the switch and end of the driver falls off all the time. It screws on, but damn it comes off far too often. I glued mine finally.

[Anonymous No.142076]

Skip the pencil iron and just get a decent soldering station. Easier to learn on and just easier to use all around.

[Anonymous No.142079]

>>141990
>they always cam-out on you

Those phillips heads are supposed to do that, to avoid stripping.

[Anonymous No.142085]

Couldn't find a decent picture of it, but I love my Craftsman 10-inch all-purpose file. It doesn't have that awkward tang bullshit you have to stuff into a handle, the coarse side eats the hell out of steel, and the fine side leaves a really nice finish, especially if you draw-file with it. Plus, today I found out it leaves an incredibly smooth finish on wood. Like, can't-feel-the-grain smooth.

Basically it, or any similar file, is a great all-around finishing tool for almost any material. Get one if you don't have one.

[Anonymous No.142091]

>>142079
Camming out strips them though. If you apply more pressure they don't cam out. If you have a nail through them you can more easily apply pressure and torq. I can't count the number of times I could apply the right pressure, but couldn't turn the driver and I'd get pliers to turn as I applied enough pressure.

[Anonymous No.142112]

>>142091
While we're talking about screws camming out and nice tools to have... I just got a 10" bit and brace and it can drive screws like there's no tomorrow. It was about $70 at lee valley. Kind of expensive but it'll never need new batteries and it's a lot more fun to use than a drill/driver for screws.

Impact drivers are also nice but that sort of goes without saying. They also have batteries that die and they can't drill 1" holes like a bit and brace.

[Anonymous No.142115]

>>142112
I always call it a bit and brace... I know those are two separate things. "Brace" is pretty vague though. You know what I meant.

[Anonymous No.142131]

>>142115
A brace is useless without a bit so saying bit and brace is like saying bow and arrow.

I have one. I use it for drilling and screws. It makes it nice. but, it's not small space friendly. For that I use a push drill/driver.

[Anonymous No.142161]

a computer or tiny set of screwdrivers and bit set for a single screwdriver with exchangeable heads. duct tape, krazy glue, knife (foldy kind), multitool

[Anonymous No.142282]

Bump

[Anonymous No.142304]

the dollar store has the packs of fine screwdrivers for... a dollar. amazing. get one of those diamond knife sharpener things to modify screwdrivers if you cant find one that fits

[Anonymous No.142305]

Do you recommend chinese eBay sellers/dealextreme? They have cheap tools.

[Anonymous No.142306]

a dremel tool, yup

[Anonymous No.142451]

Multi-angle vise. For light duty use.

[Anonymous No.142455]

>>142305

I love dealextreme for everything, but I'm a faggot so don't listen to me.

[Anonymous No.142463]

ebay

[ATSystems No.142503]

THIS.

Get a few sizes. So damn useful for making large holes in anything from 3mm steel or softer, and useful as hell for when you're prototyping and you arent too sure how big that hole actually needs to be.

Be careful on thinner steel, this can bite in and warp/tear your stock.

[cheap tool guy No.142504]

The solder and iron you choose may depend on what you find yourself working on. Most of the time I find myself using my weller 140/100w solder gun and .032 rosin core solder. Its primarily for automotive stuff so I wouldnt use a gun like that if you plan on working on some sort of PCB.
Ive got a test meter similar to the one in the OP pic. Its the harbor freight version but works ok. I just picked up a pretty nice Fluke meter so Ill be stashing the HF meter somewhere in case I need to loan one out.
Youre gonna be finding out for yourself what screwdrivers work best for you. If you get a large assorted set, eventually youll lose one or two so I hope you dont pay too much. Keep in mind that a large flat tip driver IS NOT a pry bar. I see people do this all the time.

[cheap tool guy No.142506]

Once you get a good sized collection going, these boxes are actually pretty nice. Quality is comparable to my Snap-On box at work. Im running out of room in this one at the moment. The top box is actually a roommates box so it doesnt really count. Not all the tools are harbor garbage. After a little trial and error, you learn what sets to stay away from at that store. Basically dont go near their power or air tools unless you want problems down the road.

[ATSystems No.142507]

>>142305
Cheap tool is a good tool if you don't thrash it, I have had a tap and dye set for 6 years that cost me about $10, and it still cuts like a new one, same for most of the wire cutters and files I have.

Same with cheap power tools. DO NOT IGNORE DUTY CYCLE, or you will cook them. Be gentle, give them a break every now and then on bigger jobs and they will last indefinitely.

>>141990
Whats your preference based on? I ask as an electronics geek who has used both flavours (DMM/AMM) and see's no real advantage in either (see also, parallax error on an analogue scale)

[cheap tool guy No.142513]

>>142507
Yeah I can agree with you on the cheap tool thing. I tend to put my stuff through quite a bit of abuse sometimes though. I decided to not be a cheap ass a while back and bought the Craftsman C3 1/2" dr. impact gun. Im pretty impressed by how much power it has. Even more so with the color coded HF sockets that I use with it since theyre not impact sockets. Been using them with that gun for well over a year now and havent broken a single one.

[Bacon.Trap !nWZUfBgi5c No.142514]

Cheap, friends and family as well as yard sales my friend.

Some of my best tools are either found or bought for silly cheap. Drill press, £30, it ain't great but beats the crap out of regular drill for most jobs.

[ATSystems No.142532]

>>142513
Nice!

I am a theatre tech, and I had the joy of using a rattle gun on a stage build for the first time some months ago. I didn't even realise you could get cordless ones, but there you have it. Fucking amazing tool to have on hand in that scenario. Need to add one to the kit when finances permit.

There are specific sockets you need? We were just using standard (though high quality Sidchrome) sockets as best as I could determine.

[Anonymous No.142566]

>>142507
If you have a problem with duty cycle not being long enough. Crack that tool open and reconfigure how it cools. Add heat sinks and fans and/or coolant. Sometimes just a simple thing can radically extend the duty cycle of a tool to the point of you going, "What idiot designed this thing?"

[ATSystems No.142576]

>>142566
Not much room in the chassis to add heatsinks, coolant, fans.. or anything really.. to the motors of my hand-held appliances. I'd rather operate within the manufacturers recommendations than "fix" a functional tool. That's a great way of destroying an already cheap and nasty appliance way earlier than simple care would see it survive for.

I did once add an extractor fan to an arc welder that was getting rather warmer than others
I had used, it had the pressings for the fan hole in the chassis, I just had to dremel the steel out and mount a fan. I dare say they used the same chassis for several models, and mine was the lower end of town.

The speed controller in my dirt cheap micro lathe could prolly benefit from some higher spec'd silicon in its PWM controller (variable PWM speed controlled motor), but again, the only advantage I would see would be an increase in torque and greater load on the motor, which is not so good when the tool decides to bury itself into the job i'm working on.

It's a fair thought, but honestly, the effort of dicking around with a $20 tool seems extreme when the thing only cost $20. Hell, I'd consider a $20 drill disposable if I wasn't such a tightwad, nevermind unnecessary landfill etc.

[Anonymous No.142617]

>>142576
>Not much room in the chassis
Modify it until it does.

>the effort of dicking around with a $20 tool seems extreme

No, it is not. You also learn at the same time, which is priceless.

>I'd consider a $20 drill disposable

Ah, the throw-away society.

Interesting story,

Back in the VCR era, I had a VCR that was overheating at the transformer to the point of it burning dust off. I slapped some heat sinks on it and problem solved. 3 years later some of the mechanical stuff binds up from being worn out. My mom takes it to a VCR repair place. They go fucking ballistic over the heatsinks and rip them off and toss them away detailing how someone with no electrical knowledge shouldn't be "dicking around with this shit" (actual quote). I didn't know that until later.

They slapped an anti-tampering sticker on it after replacing the worn mechanical parts. The next day my mom gets about half way through some movie and the VCR catches on fire. It burned half the entertainment system before it could be put out and caused quite a bit of smoke damage. She sued the shit out of that repair place. lol

[Anonymous No.142713]

bamp

[Anonymous No.142777]

A set of high quality needle files.

Good for a variety of tasks.

[Anonymous No.142783]

A countersink bit for a drill.

Ever drilled through wood or metal only to find out the other side of whatever you just drilled through is splintered/burred? This little thing makes everything neat again in about half a second. A must if you drill a lot!

[Anonymous No.142791]

>>142783
Seconding, though I just use a much larger bit to do it with. Using a block clamped to your work piece will also help prevent burrs and splinters to a certain degree.

[Anonymous No.142844]

>>142532
please don't call it a rattle gun. it's an impact driver.

>mfw I just want people to use the right terms

[ATSystems No.142850]

>>142617
> Modify it until it does.
And wind up with a tool with all sorts of garbage hanging off the side? Seems safe to me. How exactly do you propose adding coolant to a drill?

> No, it is not. You also learn at the same time, which is priceless.
Learn what? How to wreck a decent bit of kit for the sake of something you could far easier demonstrate and experiment with in a controlled test rig?

> Ah, the throw-away society.
I'll assume you were lamenting the fact, as opposed to implying that you didn't even finish reading that sentence by suggesting I was somehow part of it

Now. Lemmie get this straight.

You had a VCR, performing outside of spec and overheating. So you add heatsinks instead of addressing the root cause. You take it to a bunch of qualified techs who correctly rage at you for being an idiot, removes them, and returns the unit with the reported fault fixed. the device catches fire (before i'd even finished reading your post i'd thought "wow, he must really love his mum, exposing her to a fire hazard like that") and you think its the service guys fault?

> detailing how someone with no electrical knowledge shouldn't be "dicking around with this shit" (actual quote)
They are right, You should not be dicking around with that shit, as evidenced by your mothers destroyed entertainment unit.

> She sued the shit out of that repair place. lol
confirmed for troll. 6/10 though, you actually got my back up for a moment there.

Meanwhile, pic also related, pipe cutter. Makes a square cut on a round pipe a snap. Shouldn't cost you more than $10.

[ATSystems No.142851]

>>142844
Please stop pronouncing Solder as "Sodder" and we'll talk.

[ATSystems No.142854]

>>142844
Please stop pronouncing Solder as "Sodder" and we'll talk.

[Anonymous No.142880]

>>142844
I know, right?

For the longest time I've heard kids at school talking about how great Sawzalls are, but never describing one.
So years later, chatting with coworkers.
>dude, ,just use a Sawzall.
>what exactly is a Sawzall?
>It's kinda long, one end has a handle and the other has a blade coming out that goes back and forth.
>You mean it's a reciprocating saw?
>No it's a Sawzall.

>Looked it up later.
>It's a reciprocating saw.

[namefag No.142893]

>>142880
Except a rattle gun and an impact drill are indeed the same tool.

>>142844
If you're going to be pedantic, its an impact wrench, not an impact driver.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_wrench

[Anonymous No.142896]

>>142893
Yes and a Sawzall IS a reciprocating saw. But that's the only thing people seem to know it as.

[Anonymous No.142919]

>>142880
you cant possibly be that stupid

[Anonymous No.142924]

>>142893

> Except a rattle gun and an impact drill are indeed the same tool.

Enlighten me then. What's the difference between a sawzall and a reciprocating saw? I always thought they were the same thing.

I still agree on impact driver/impact wrench (rattle gun, wtf).

[Anonymous No.142931]

Sawzall is a brand of reciprocating saw. Simple as that.

[Anonymous No.142939]

buy quality tools, craftsman in the states as a minimum, Mastercraft if you are in Canada

they both come with lifetime warranties so its worth the few extra dollars over harbor freight garbage

[Anonymous No.142955]

Bump, wanna hear about multimeters/soldering stations

[Anonymous No.142963]

>>142939
>buy quality tools, craftsman in the states as a minimum, Mastercraft if you are in Canada
a lot of the cheaper tools work just fine, particularly for light home/DIY use.

[Anonymous No.142983]

>>142963
Craftsman and Mastercraft are the cheap tools. They are pretty much the minimum that should be bought any lower quality will break and frustrate you. They do have an excellent warranty if you manage to break something.

[Anonymous No.142987]

>>142783
Put a block of scrap wood behind where your drill will come out and it won't splinter.

[Anonymous No.143010]

>>142783

i.e. you aren't smart enough to use pilot holes. Countersinks are wonderful, however.

>Chisels

I don't have a preference of brand for woodworking chisels, they'll all do the job and last forever with proper maintenance.

One tip for sharpening/honing chisels: The goal is to maintain the angle(s) of the chisel. You can sharpen/hone them with a grinder, hand file (the finer the better), or a whet stone (my personal favorite). If you're using a grinder, routinely dip the chisel to avoid ruining it's temper.

Light strokes for a whet stone or file, just enough to make contact really. They'll last forever if you maintain the angle(s). I have a chisel that's got just over an inch of it's blade remaining from years of use and sharpening. It cuts just as good the day I got it.

The key to a sharp chisel is being able to cut through wood without the use of a hammer or mallet. Granted, you aren't taking out huge chunks but you are able to remove some of the wood just with your hand.

[Anonymous No.143012]

>>142987

Or just drill a small pilot hole the entire way through and then hit both sides with the desired size bit/hole saw and stop each pass roughly 60% through the wood.

This is how you successfully cut cross bores. You're welcome.

[Anonymous No.143029]

>>143010
if you have wore out inches of metal on a chisel you have no fucking idea what you are doing when sharpening it
I have chisels over 70 years old that were used by my great grandfather for a living then passed down the line, they have been in constant use and have not lost more then a quarter inch of steel after being sharpened several thousand times

[Anonymous No.143039]

>>143029

I sharpen my chisels at the end of the day, err day. I use them routinely.

As for losing the material, this is how I know you're fucking stupid. Imagine mortising a strike on a door jamb. You're obviously unaware on what's behind it, so you hit a nail, perhaps holding the molding or whatever else. Nick in the blade? There goes 1/16", time to file the metal back to flush and resharpen.

Repeat that for 5 years and let me know how much is gone.

Your great grandfather probably didn't know shit about proper upkeep and what it takes to keep his chisels sharpened to the T. Looks like you're carrying on that trait.

[Anonymous No.143045]

>>143029

Proenneke talks about his chisels shrinking over the years in "More Readings From One Man's Wilderness".

[Anonymous No.143228]

Bump

[Anonymous No.143267]

>>143039
you really are a retard

[Anonymous No.143286]

>>141990
>lead-free silver-bearing
>safer

Fuck safety, get some eutetic solder (63/37) and have orgasms while soldering. Expect to pay 15-30 bucks for half a pound of the good stuff, anyway.

>tester
Don't cheap out on this one. Consider spending at least $50. Doesn't matter if it's analog or digital, it goes down to personal preference.

>knife
Olfa. Accept no substitutes. The body will outlast most, if not any other brand, and the blades will cut through literally anything. A utility knife will be around $10 and the replacements are not that expensive.

[Anonymous No.143293]

>>143029
Can I just make a point
70 year old chisels - probably good/very good steel (if the old tools I have are anything to go by)
The chisels that
>>143010
has, who knows?
I can believe that he has taken inches off the chisels. I know from recent experience, the chisels in the workshop at my place of employment are shit compared to the ones I have at home.
We've had the ones at work for less than 9 months and I've had to regrind a couple of them already, so they're now approx 1/4" shorter than before. The fact that I had to take about a quarter of an inch off them should tell you something about their quality...or lack of.
Admittedly, the steel they're made of wasn't totally to blame, the (really) fucked up cutting edges were mainly due to a wazzock abusing the damn things, but still, the steel they are made of *is* terrible...

[Anonymous No.143298]

>>143039
>Imagine mortising a strike on a door jamb. You're obviously unaware on what's behind it, so you hit a nail

For that *precise* reason I carry a small metal/stud/cable detector.
I like to know beforehand if there are any hidden nasties I should be aware of before I start to cut/drill.

[Anonymous No.143634]

Bump. Good screwdrivers for electronics? (pcs,cellphones)