The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest got a favorite cheap tool ?

maybe should have titled it in praise of cheap tools.alot of them are crap but once in awhile you find a gem.in 1977 i was 18,gettin ready to graduate from a vo-tech school.always on the look out for tools.a local dept store ws closing its doors and was selling off.i bought a 40pc made in JAPAN tap and die set for $7 and change.figureing if i use it once its paid for itself.in the 30 plus years i've had it i cannot tell you how many times i have used it and how many times its bailed me out me out of a situation.getting ready to drill and tap my frame for line clamps.just made me think of it.once in awhile you find a good one.......dave

lol one of my favorite tools is a cheap japanese rachet i stripped out then welded up in use with a old chain link fence post almost no bolt i can't remove

I got a made in Taiwan tap and die set, don't remember what I paid for it but it was less than $20. It's never let me down either. It's about the only cheap tools I've bought that actually works great.

Way back in about 1965 I went to a tool sale at a local motel.I bought a set of offset box end wrenches that are forged in India. I have used and abused these wrenches,and they are still just like new.I paid $5. for them at that sale.

All the FREE tools I have gotten over the years. A friends parents passed away years ago she gave me her dads big tool box full of tools. I got a bunch Snap-On, Craftsman & Williams tools from the 50's & 60's out of that box & am still using them. Some I could use other I had no idea what they were. But I did make up a small tool box of tools for her since she had none & I thought it was a good idea to give her back some of her dads tools...Joe

I also got a great toolbox full when my father in law passed on.
All Craftsman and Stanley from the 50s and 60s.

It was in the back of the Jeep when my son "borrowed" the car one night. When the State Troopers found the car buried into a phone pole, the toolbox was still there. When we went to the tow lot, the toolbox was gone. The lot attendent said he didn't remember any tools.

Our insurance lady allowed me to just choose a tool kit in the Sears catalogue and copy the list of contents onto the insurance form. Then I got to look up the list price of each item and put that down. I ended up getting 700 bucks for the tools, but I had to spend it towards the replacement car.

My son walked away.

Best "CHEAP" tool I now own has to be my WELLER solder gun.
Wife picked it up at a yard sale for $1 in its original case.
the day before she heard me throwin a fit over my old pc. a crap solderin iron that took forever to heat up some 14ga. wires when I was installin a stereo, well no more bitchin from me!,,the WELLER is FANTASTIC!
Tim

Yes, I do mostly tools that I've made myself . Gasket scraper made from a discarded file, tight quarters oil filter wrench made from an old 1/2" socket and a timing chain several gear pullers I've made from scrap verses buying new ones for one use. Probably the most favorite is a Sibly camel back drill-press for a mere $100, there are bargins out there in the tool world if you are nice to the tool god they will take care of you!

Back about 1958, I bought a hand carried toolbox full of Craftsman hand tools from a wino for $3. Most of the stuff has worn out but I still have the ratchets,(a couple of them have been replaced under the Craftsman lifetime warranty, one of them 3 times), and the line wrenches and the crowfoot wrenches are still good. The toolbox bounced out of my truck in about 1965 and got trashed, but the tools survived.

Larry

Ah..... I had a skil brand half inch drill. I got it for christmas one year from my dad. I belive it cost $30 or so. No ball bearings, just bushings. All plastic exterior. Bright orange. A half inch drill with bushings! C'mon. It also had a keyless chuck. It was the biggest piece of crap. It was variable speed though.

But it would not die. I could never justify buying a new drill, untill the smoke came out of the old one. It would scream as soon as it started spinning.

I used that thing to drive, literally, 75 pounds of #14 3 1/2 inch screws. I used it with a 5 1/2 inch holesaw dozens of times. I drilled hundreds and hundreds of 2" holes with a ships auger, sometimes through 36" of wood.

It always screamed like it was being tortured. Finally died two years ago, while mixing drywall mud.

I bought a really expensive Milwaukee to replace it, which only provided one year of service before burning up.

Now, I have a seven dollar Black and Decker drill, all aluminum, old as dirt, and strong as superman. Bought it from a drunk I know.

That skil, though cheap, was a great drill.

I have one of those Skil drills. I go it when I was just out of high school and it is still going strong 16 years later. Cheap as dirt but very reliable.

Best cheapo tool I have and use all the time is a vacuum gauge for setting timing and checking the motor in general.

JiMerit,

You are spot on. I have an old vacuum gauge and when I work on these old engines it is the first tool I pull out and the last one I put away.

For $2 at a swap meet I picked up a gizmo for removing oil filters. Its a plate with three fingers and attaches to a 3/8 drive ratchet. As you crank the fingers grip the canister and spins it. Excellent for tight spots.

my craftsman ratchet.

I put a 10 ft pole on it one day trying to brake loose some axle bolts & I literally jumped up and down on the end of that pole for 10 minutes removing the nut.

That was 15 years ago & I still use that same ratchet almost every day.

I'll never need to buy another one as long as I live.

Yeah I do. I stick a peice of copper piping onto the end of my breaker bar, or rachet if I'm in a tight spot, to make life even easier. It's the least exspensive thing I have. It was free from the junk in the basement, although I might need to get a new peice since the ends are getting flared and the middle of the tube has a bulge in it. Oh well.

Still have and use a 3/8" ratchet that some mechanic had left on the frame of my Dad's '56 Ford wagon. I think that racthet rode on the frame for a year before the old man saw it sitting there.

This is by far and away my favorite CHEAP tool

http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-24067/Detail

It's a little claw grabber, that's flexible. This has gotten me out of multiple sticky situations (like dropping a bolt down the distributor hole on the day i was planning on starting my engine after a rebuild) it especially helps when working on newer cars and when working in tight spaces. I even use it to start bolts in places where my hand wouldn't fit. AWESOME!!! EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE ONE!!

Mine is probably an Ingersoll Rand grinder ( or " high speed sander") like this http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...id=YAHOOSSP01&sid=ISx20070515x00001c that my dad got me when I first started doing bodywork the week after high school graduation. He found it at a yardsale for $10 and it was pretty well beat. This was i n1994 and I still have it and use it, though not as often but it stil does the job!