What tools have proved to be invaluable to you?

[Cranky]

View attachment 1396719
\
Introduced to these in HS auto shop.

I found one about 10 years ago by accident, and found another a few years later. $100 for the first one and $125 for the second.

It's almost as good as having a lift without the potential stress on a questionable concrete floor.
(They even work on a dirt floor with carefully placed 2x6 stock)

They are super sturdy with a heavy positive stop.

I've never seen one that didn't work, even ones that spend their entire lives outside.

They even make models heavy enough to lift busses and dump trucks!

I made cushioned adapters for my 73 bumper slots.

A mentor of mine had one in his garage and always thought I'd have one later on but never was able to get one......

 

[Cranky]

That reminds me of the portable jacks we had on the railroad. I think they were rated for 50 tons each, we'd lift locomotive bodies and freight cars with them. They were 600V electric.

When I hired on at a steel mill in 73 I worked in the labor gang on graveyards for 2 years (my choice) and did some track work but not with anything like that. We use 'rerailers' to get engines and cars back on the rails then manual tools to get the rails back into place and nailed down. After finally bidding out of the labor pool and working in a 'regular' shop for a year or so, things went south and once again, I'm in the labor gang only on days and doing 'track' work again. The day guys caught hell and thought about quitting but hung on since the money was decent. The graveyard guys didn't do much track work but it was mostly because of no lighting and not having the best tools for it. However, it still sucked but working track crap sucked even more on day shift.

One thing I find to get small screws I dropped or to get into tight places is a set of forceps. Set of long and short, big and small ones. My fingers are just too fat. LOL.

Oh man, I know about that stuff!! Magnets are part of my day usually....

It’s nice that you can use the machines at work. A lot of companies won’t allow it these days

Sure miss the machines I had access to before I retired!!

My 1911 45 AUTO

Been there!! lol

 

[YY1]

A mentor of mine had one in his garage and always thought I'd have one later on but never was able to get one......

Pricing on these is all over the place too.....if you can find them.
I've seen asking prices as high as $1500(!) more commonly in the $350-$500 range.

I guess I really lucked out on mine, especially being two of the exact same model.
I went to buy some 5/16" "C" channel A guy had advertised on craigslist and my first one was sitting out in his extensive yard full of mechanical stuff.
The second one came from a "yard sale" at a truck oriented speedometer shop down the road from my shop.
I also bought a $100 240v 15 CFM compressor as a backup to my big shop one and for home/garage use if my wife's 2.5 CFM unit won't cut it for what I'm working on.
I just missed a $100 Speed-Air brand one. A guy who rents a shop bay from me bought it.

We used the hell out of them back in the mid 80's in HS auto shop.
I kind of forgot about them until I saw the one at the first guy's place.
When he said he'd take a hundred bucks, I couldn't say "sold" quick enough.

 

[Dfr360cuda]

Knife, Fork and Spoon

 

[Moms68]

Multi screwdrivers! This one is especially handy to have.

 

[Detective D]

Ha! I think this depends on timeframe.
I grew up on a dairy farm using hand tools. For everything. Change the plow shares? clamp a vice grip on the half gone nut and try to get it back off every spring. Drill a hole in metal? Sit the little brother on a 2x4 on top of the drill for more pressure. Farming did not pay enough in the 70's and 80's to buy power tools. We had a buzz box welder, a drill, and a skillsaw. Rest was hand tools. Right towards the end we bought a giant angle grinder. I still have all of it.

So things like cordless tools are amazing. I particularily like the cordless sawzall, but the drill and the little circular saw I have are also handy. I only use them when needed, i prefer the corded versions in my shop.
If you had to use those "flood light" from 50 years ago with the 60 watt lightbulb on a stick with a little wire cage around it, then you know how totally brilliant the new LED shop lights are. I have one on a stand and a small one to shimmy under the truck with me during oil changes.
Giant floor jack on wheels. I still have the bottle jack and "house jacks" (think 1930, not 2010) we had to lift tractors with. Sticking a wheeled jack under the car and pushing the long handle a few times sure beats the socks off of blocks of wood and a bottle jack or cranking those old house jacks.

Ratcheting box wrenches. Reversible, ratcheting box wrenches.
I don't own but used once a Millwaukee cordless automatic pop rivet tool. If you use pop rivets, BUY THIS.

So I think some of the answer is relevant to how long ago you are talking or what you had starting out vs. now.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I wish I'd bought a mill & a lathe forty years ago instead of the past ten years... I would have saved a ton of $$$ on special tools that I could have made instead of buying & since I've owned the lathe & mill they have easily made me more than three times what I paid for them.. And that's not counting the personal projects...

Nice thing for me is I'm close to retiring but I'll never really retire, I'd be bored to tears, I like getting up & having something to do... Machine work is a heck of a lot easier on the body than wrenching...

 

[padam]

Multi screwdrivers! This one is especially handy to have.

View attachment 1432790

I have that one, it’s really nice

 

[Mackman]

Ha! I think this depends on timeframe.
I grew up on a dairy farm using hand tools. For everything. Change the plow shares? clamp a vice grip on the half gone nut and try to get it back off every spring. Drill a hole in metal? Sit the little brother on a 2x4 on top of the drill for more pressure. Farming did not pay enough in the 70's and 80's to buy power tools. We had a buzz box welder, a drill, and a skillsaw. Rest was hand tools. Right towards the end we bought a giant angle grinder. I still have all of it.

So things like cordless tools are amazing. I particularily like the cordless sawzall, but the drill and the little circular saw I have are also handy. I only use them when needed, i prefer the corded versions in my shop.
If you had to use those "flood light" from 50 years ago with the 60 watt lightbulb on a stick with a little wire cage around it, then you know how totally brilliant the new LED shop lights are. I have one on a stand and a small one to shimmy under the truck with me during oil changes.
Giant floor jack on wheels. I still have the bottle jack and "house jacks" (think 1930, not 2010) we had to lift tractors with. Sticking a wheeled jack under the car and pushing the long handle a few times sure beats the socks off of blocks of wood and a bottle jack or cranking those old house jacks.

Ratcheting box wrenches. Reversible, ratcheting box wrenches.
I don't own but used once a Millwaukee cordless automatic pop rivet tool. If you use pop rivets, BUY THIS.

So I think some of the answer is relevant to how long ago you are talking or what you had starting out vs. now.

Didn't you just love getting those plow share nuts off? I was 20 years old before we bought a torch set.

 

[Sixpactogo]

I have lots of favorite tool all depending on what I'm working on at the time. This one comes to mind as one having to be made when needed since it is not a production piece. After making the mistake of drilling a hole in a new carpet for a seat belt bolt and having to replace the carpet because of it, I made this tool to burn a hole instead. When installing a new carpet I now push a scratch awl up from under the car through the carpet where I want my hole. Then heat the end of the 1/4" pipe with a benz-o-matic and slide it over the scratch awl. Perfect hole with no fraying. I use it for the seat mounting holes and seat belt bolt holes both. The tool consists of a 1/4" pipe nipple and a piece of 1" dowel. The best part is that both parts were free and are invaluable for a new carpet install.

 

[icetech]

Angle grinders... have at least 3 so you don't have to change cutoff wheel/sanding/grinder...

 

[JR_Charger]

Multi screwdrivers! This one is especially handy to have.

View attachment 1432790

I've got one that ratchets. I thought it would be great until I realized you can't easily switch directions to do things like center a screw/bolt before starting it. The ones that don't ratchet are good if a little bulky sometimes.

 

[ckessel]

Last week it was the hot wrench, aka oxygen/acet torch. I was not having much luck removing the trunk lid t-bars and after seeing some replies on upcoming human body damage, out came the hot wrench. Heated the bars up to almost melting in a few spots to kill the tension there. After cooling off, took the sawzall to them. Got them out in 4 pieces. Will be replaced by gas struts down the road. Had to remove them for the USCT mini tub pack I'm doing. I only use the torches maybe once a year but times like this, gotta have them.

 

[Triplegreen500]

NoCo battery chargers. I have four of them spread throughout the garage and motorcycle shop area - three "2x4" units (4-channel 2.0A units) and a single 3.5A unit. These will charge standard, lead-acid, AGM, all of 'em with no problem, and they'll do it from dead-flat. I keep bikes, the Charger, the Satellite, and the zero-turn plugged in pretty much all the time, and keep my Ram 2500 on the single 3.5A unit for constant readiness.

Magnets on a stick - either flex, or telescoping.

Cordless impacts - 1/2" for large fasteners and wheels; 1/4" for everything else.

A good, solid, stainless-skin work bench. Built the frame and plywood tops to MY height (I'm 6'4" and HATE bending over all the time), and bought some flat mid-gauge stainless skin. Love 'em.

Wheel skate dollies. The hydraulic foot-pedal roller-type, put them around the wheel like a fork, step on the pedal to squeeze the rollers together and pick up the wheel to move a car. Great for tetris-parking six cars, 2 bikes and a zero-turn in a 6 car space!

And I LOVE GearRatchet ratcheting box-end wrenches. Perfect for when you can't fit a socket in there.

 

[hemi71x]

Since i do lotsa suspension work, and the rebuild of lower control arms, for resale purposes, i have found these 1 3/8 inch taps invaluable, in getting the old bushing out of the LCA, by just pressing them out, together.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

Two 3/8 inch by 24 inch extensions for adjusting garage door springs. They are a bitch without them.

 

[BB BELLA]

Two 3/8 inch by 24 inch extensions for adjusting garage door springs. They are a bitch without them.

I use a couple pieces of rebar ground to fit! gloves really bite on them,not much chance of slipping!

 

[BB BELLA]

I keep one 4" grinder loaded with a "lenox metal max" wheel ,there a bit expensive $40 but the time it saves changing out wheels is way more valuable than it's cost!nothing worse than crawling into a hole to cut something and having to change wheels mid job!

 

[Photon440]

I keep one 4" grinder loaded with a "lenox metal max" wheel ,there a bit expensive $40 but the time it saves changing out wheels is way more valuable than it's cost!nothing worse than crawling into a hole to cut something and having to change wheels mid job!

Oh, I could imagine a few things off the top of my head that would be worse than having to change a wheel.

 

[munger77]

3 things:
1. For $1 at the Columbus OH Goodguys PPG Nationals you can buy tools that are helpful - like a pic (looks and acts like a dental instrument)
2. HEADBAND LIGHT AS OTHERS SAID
3. IPAD FOR SEARCHING THIS FORUM FOR HELP WHILE LAYING IN A PRECARIOUS POSITION UNDER THE DASH, ETC