The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest What was the last tool you bought?

A couple of months ago, I got a Snap On 1/2" drive, 250 ft lb. torque wrench.

Couple weeks ago, I bought a slide hammer from HF. Will see how it works when the weather warms up.

About a month ago, I bought a Solus Ultra scan tool.

...bought a serpentine installation tool with attachements....and bought an angle grinder....to go a long with my straight one.

A air-over-hydraulic bottle jack because I'm tired of pumping a handle 15 or 20 or umpteen times to raise the truck enough to work under.

a nice Dewalt die grinder, just to into places I could not before.

A good magnifying glass, darn bifocals just don't cut the mustard on the really small stuff.

Last tool I bought was an adjustable reamer and pilot for Kingpin bushing.

Last tool i bought was a husky 1/2 in drive air impact set w/ die grinder, air ratchet, and gravity feed paint sprayer. Figured I could'nt go wrong for the set at 75 bucks

Joe

Last tool I bought was O/A tanks. Boy they don't give them away.I already had a torch.

Complete set of impact sockets.

my very first skil saw

Conture finder.

Makita 16" scroll saw

Recently added some table saw goodies for the woodshop. OH, and a little pancake compressor so I can use the nailers/staplers over at the house. A lot more convenient.

Bought a cross pein body hammer to add to the collection

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2896717&postcount=40

Bought a new 26 gallon 1.5 Craftsman Air Compressor today.

Picked up a Empire 24" square to help with laying off some sheet metal for a bench top. Killing time while the wife was shopping, went in Sears and wandered up on it...made in the U.S.A. too. I hadn't been a Sears store in a couple of years. Last I remembered reading, they were going with China made product. Guess I got lucky

The last tool I bought was a cheap chinese made 9/16" combo wrench to cut up into a flare nut wrench to take the light switch out of my '38.

A Giddings and Lewis No. 25RT Horizontal Boring Machine
https://picasaweb.google.com/118082...izontalBoringMachine#5843688137290253746

Just ordered this one. ]Kreg Tool Boxx Master Set

Before that, more tools for fixin on aircraft.

I got a Kreg set many years ago. Still haven't used it yet!

I bought a new Steel Glide tool box. Top and bottom. 4ft.8in. length, 18in. deep, 5ft. tall, 24 total drawers. I can actually find the tool I'm looking for now!

I got The Mini-Inductor. Works well, a lot better than using a torch!!!
Scott

Was going to buy a Kreg pocket hole jig. Looked at a couple of woodworking sites and read good things about the Harbor Freight version. It's cast aluminum, and very adjustible, plus it combines two sets of guides so you can do thick and thin pieces.

I'm very pleased.

A set of thin Craftsman tappet wrenches this winter. I wanted a
full set of thin wrences but I'm ashamed to keep them in with
my other tools because they are the chinciest piece of crap
I've ever been stuck with.
They aren't forged like the old thin Bonney tappet wrenches
which I have a few of. This junk was simply pressed out of some
1/8" sheet stock with a dull die and zink plated, the burr is
still on the bottom edge of the (I hate to even call them a)
tool.
Sears has really gone down the dumper in the last few decades
and orta be ashamed to sell something like this which you
wouldn't even see on the shelf at Harbor Freight.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Water pump socket tool for a North Star Caddy .The TOOL cost more than the pump but without it i would never get the pump out or back in.What a trip!!!!!!

Well b, you know what they say, if you can afford a Caddy,
you can afford to keep it up.

Denny G

I feel you pain, I could not find a set of forged metric tappet wrenches when i was recently looking. Found some real nice FACOM stamped wrenches, the finish is nice and all edges were finished well. Lucked out and bought the last 6 sets for the tool carts at work.

Denny, I'm with you. My daughter gave me a gift certificate to Sears about a year ago. I checked, its still good, but I can't think of ANYTHING I want to from Sears these days. Maybe I should spend the $25 on some jeans from China :mad:

The "Craftsman 3-7/8 in. Handi-Cut Sears Item# 00937301000 Model# 37301" is actually a very handy tool for cleanly cutting hose, I have the sort version and use it a lot. Some day I'll get that longer one, I should have to start with.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...=cii_17588969&cpncode=30-120491517-2

I'm with you though, it's hard to find a tool worth buying at sears these days.

Grigg

Hi Grigg. I checked out your boring machine and it's a cool item but kind of large for most folks. I am wondering if your going to start making flintlock barrels or what exactly? Probably engin blocks & front axles, huh?

It's basically a really versatile horizontal milling machine and drill press type thing. I'll end up using it for larger jobs than fit on my vertical knee mill. I expect when I get it up and running I'll wonder what I ever did without one...

Grigg

A few weeks ago I bought a lug wrench tool that is tube shaped and expands to 2' like a cheater bar. It also comes with two different sized 1/2 sockets. It works great and takes up less space retracted and gives more leverage than a star wrench when cranking on lug nuts.

I just today received a set of JH Williams 8 point sockets, made in USA. None of the local parts houses can even get them any more. I hadn't realized that they had become that obsolete. A 14 piece set 3/8" to 1 1/4" for $109 on eBay seemed reasonable to me. My 40 year old set had everything missing that is commonly used on square nuts, and occasionally there is a square nut somewhere that can only be reached with a socket.

Cool G&L ya found there Grigg. First picture right out of the
box I was envisioning a block or head sitting on it's table. We
had some really big Horizontal Mills out at the lab I worked
at. You could have driven one of our trucks up on the table
of "Big Bertha".
I spent a week in Dayton for classes on G&L's Cordax measuuring
machines. One morning they gave us a tour of the plant where
they made the machines. They had some Hor. mills that were even
bigger than the ones we had at the lab. The tables were
actually on rails built into isolation pads sunk way down below
the floor.
You certainly take the trophy here for the "best last tool you
bought".

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks Denny,
It is a cool machine, I've run several of varying large and larger sizes and from then on wished I could have one in my shop. Had no idea until I stumbled onto this little guy that they even came small enough to fit in my shop, sure didn't take long to make the decision to buy it once I'd found it.
At the shipyard in Newport News the largest I ran (although briefly and trained on it) was a G&L with CNC retrofit or update, it had no table other than the floor, the whole column traveled left and right almost 30' I think and head went up 12 or 16', the only reach it had was the spindle travel, which was also significant. There were some other HBM's in the same room that were simply humongous in comparison, really really big. I wish they would have allowed me to take pictures, it's hard to describe the scale of stuff and all the neat machines in that shop.
The two machines I really enjoyed operating were about one size larger than the one I have, also G&L and almost as old, all manual.

Grigg

With all the new CNC stuff comming on the market there should be
a lot of those machines around still if they haven't been sold
for scrap. I was just in a used machinery shop the first of the
week and he's really loaded down with Bridgeports, some pretty
good deals now for the guy with a home shop. Most of the shops
are doing on their machining centers what they used to do on
the old virtical mills.

DG

I was sad when our machinist retired and they sold off the Bridgeport and this giant lathe, amongst other items. On the plus side, if I get nostalgic enough, there are two of those lathes residing in the belly of the USS Midway. Same grey color and everything!

On the plus side, If I want to see some really big machining equipment, I go here: http://pbs.twimg.com/media/A9ktQG0CEAAoT_k.jpg:large Stuff as big as the building is tall.