The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Pawn Shops

I see a lot of complaining going on about cheap tools. Harbor Freight, Craftsman, etc.

Check out a pawn shop. 20 years ago, I bought a dirty worm drive Skilsaw for $30.00.
Still have it, works great. I got a $200 (current pricing) hub puller for $50. I had rented one for $10.00 a day on 3 different occasions.
You can get older, top brand tools, for small bucks. Give the places a walk through.

2nd that! I just picked up a $300 welding helmet for $150. Don't forget to take something with you to trade. . .a lot of pawn shops will barter for items.

Definitely a good idea. Have picked up some good deals thru them.

I used to go and hit various stores and picked up a lot of snapon and mac wrenches for $2 to $5 each. Finally got together a set of wrenches that would not strip out or round of brake line fittings. Still go and pickup replacement sockets and wrenches that seem to crawl off to never never land to live.

Pawn shops here sell garbage, prices are not much less than new and the stuff tends to be beat.

The few I've stopped in wanted about new prices for used stuff.
I'll try some more one day but so far no luck.
Did get a supper deal on a big snap-on impact driver set on ebay from a pawn shop

For about 30 years, I scored some real deals at pawn shops. Especially on tools that were very specialized and they didn't know what they had. Probably 3/4 of the hand tools in my shop came from pawn shops. But its not that easy any more since most pawn shops list a lot of their stuff on eBay. It seems like somewhere there are always two people who know what it is and they run the bid up. I did make a pretty good score on a large Jet brand brand belt and disc sander recently. It had a Grainger part number. They were asking $250 for it and it was new. I figured it was a bargain, but I went outside and Googled it on the Grainger web site on my phone and found it to be $2500 at Grainger. I offered $150 and got it for $200. I had to put it in lay away because I had flown to Houston. My next trip to Houston, I drove my wife's Colorado and it cost less than $10 lay away fees. Those kind of deals are getting few and far in between though. I did pretty good on a Rolaire wheelbarrow type compressor. They couldn't get it to start, but it looked almost new. I looked in the gas tank and it had about 1/2" of water in the tank. I offered $150 for it as is. I dried out the tank and found a drop of water the size of a pin head in the Honda carb. It ran good and was really handy for all the tractor, lawn mower etc. tires that keep loosing air. However, we had a big rain this week. I had left it outside, and the tank had about 1/2" of water in it again. For some reason the gas cap doesn't shed water.

I've gotten a couple great deals at pawn shops. Since I started working in aviation I've had to get a few items, and NONE of those tools are cheap,... I found a Cleco brand suicide drill with quick chuck and a screw gun at a pawn shop for $40 for the pair. The drill needed a trigger and the screwgun needed to be reassembled and calibrated (free at work) and now work great. The drills go anywhere from $250 to $500, and the drivers can run up over $800.
Some of the tools I use are really spendy, like $700 Souix cleco runner, or $1200 for a hi-lok collar runner, so I hit up pawn shops from time to time in case someone has a decent deal on a tool. even if it's broken, if it's a major brand I can take it to work and have them fix it, they pay up to $100 in parts and I cover the rest, if any.

always check the pawns but have never came across a deal yet. my best way to get what i want cheap is to list on craigslist wanted to buy and wait. i find i can pick up tools that arent getting used or from a estate at a better price this way. some people buy a tool for one job and then let it sit and they forget they have it till they see somebody wants it. thats how i seam to get my stuff. MO

I've not had tons of success at Pawn Shops. Around here they all seem to be overpriced for what they are selling. I'd rather spend a little more and get a comparable new tool with a warranty. I have had lots of success on Craigslist. Picked up a like new Milwaukee abrasive chop saw for about a third of new. My most recent score was a Millermatic 252 mig welder. Thing had maybe a half a roll of wire through it and was immaculate. I was lucky and called first.

That is one piece of equipment that I can cross off my equipment to buy list. M
Although, I did buy a nice little marlin stainless .22 WSM rifle pretty cheap. Pawn shop Guy said that the original owner said that it wouldn't cycle cartridges. I figured it needed some cleaning. I took a chance and figured out what he was doing wrong. .22WSM rifles won't cycle straight .22 ammo. I've bad not one issue with it since I bought it.