What - non Festool - tool / workshop related gizmo/stuff did you buy today?

[Packard]

Tweezers.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

I also consider tweezers mandatory for the shop. It is the most used first aid device I use for the shop (bandaids are a close second, along with bacitracin).  But I prefer the needle point versions.

The needle points on the cheap one I bought are sharp, but fragile.  They are made from stainless steel and bend too easily.  I have had to straighten the points and sharpen them (my regular chisel stone works fine). I think I paid $7.00 for this pair.  I’d like to find one from heat treated carbon steel.  It will still be fragile (subject to cracking instead of bending) but I think they would hold up better.  I got mine from Amazon.  If the ad says “non-magnetic” stay away.  Those are for electronics.  The 400 series stainless steel is mildly magnetic and is a better choice for this product.  It is the same as the stainless steel used for good knives.

 

[six-point socket II]

I bought the Knipex tweezers for workshop use, not for First Aid/ splinter removal. Couldn’t do anything with those needle point splinter tweezers.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Packard]

And I can’t think of a situation where I would use tweezers in the shop. 

I do have a pair of jewelers’ needle nose pliers (small, smooth jaw).

And a pair of jeweler’s parallel jaw pliers (small, smooth jaw, parallel action of the jaws).

So if I had tweezers in the shop it would probably not be be what I would reach for first.

There are lots of uses for parallel jaw pliers.  I used them for setting semi-precious stones in silver or gold-filled settings (purchased items).

 

[luvmytoolz]

And I can’t think of a situation where I would use tweezers in the shop. 

I keep at least one set of fine tweezers in each shed for pulling out splinters, and a large set for fishing out tiny stuff that inevitably and inconveniently falls inbetween other stuff.

 

[Packard]

And I can’t think of a situation where I would use tweezers in the shop. 

I keep at least one set of fine tweezers in each shed for pulling out splinters, and a large set for fishing out tiny stuff that inevitably and inconveniently falls inbetween other stuff.

Six-point said it was not for splinters.  The smallest thing I have to pick up in the shop are some screws, washers and nuts, and I can pick them up with my fingers.

6-point must be making clock movements or something.

 

[luvmytoolz]

For plaster sheet you don't use Ramset style expanding hollow wall anchors? These would have to be about the easiest and simplest to use, and the holding power is unreal.

Ramset carries quite a lot of different styles.  If you mean the wallmate expanding one, that's useful if you're using your own screw.  (NA equivalent is EZ-Anchor) It's huge though - which has its plus/minuses.  The duo is relatively slender and patching isn't a pain in the butt - but you are mostly relegated to using the supplied screw (which there's two different SKUs for flat and pan heads).

I just buy these in bulk in various wall thicknesses from 3mm-20mm, incredibly useful and never move or loosen. tremendous load support even in plaster.
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[Packard]

My first selling job included instructing carpenters how to use our product.  I learned more from them, than they learned from me.

For anchors going into concrete, they would first drill a hole, then stuff the hole with “lead wool”, which was like a coarser version of steel wool made from lead.

After they stuffed the hole, they used a large diameter punch to compact the lead wool.  Then they would use a regular lag bolt and screw it into the lead wool.

It was one size fits all.  I can’t imagine it worked as well as regular lead anchors, which were just coming to the market in 1970.

I don’t even know if you can buy lead wool anymore.

 

[woodferret]

I just buy these in bulk in various wall thicknesses from 3mm-20mm, incredibly useful and never move or loosen. tremendous load support even in plaster.
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Ah, those.  Here in Canada, Hillman makes those.  I've sheared the thread portion off at the bend point way too many times to count - just putting it into the wall.  I've phased them out for the fischer duo which I've yet to have any problems with.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I just buy these in bulk in various wall thicknesses from 3mm-20mm, incredibly useful and never move or loosen. tremendous load support even in plaster.
[attachimg=1]

Ah, those.  Here in Canada, Hillman makes those.  I've sheared the thread portion off at the bend point way too many times to count - just putting it into the wall.  I've phased them out for the fischer duo which I've yet to have any problems with.

That's strange, I just buy the no name cheap ones and in over 40 years I'm yet to shear one. The Hillman's must be pretty ordinary quality as it's a very old design and fairly bullet proof. About the only time I've ever had an issue was maybe in a tight squeeze holding the tool at an angle, causing a bit of a misalignment that's easily rectiied with a bit more squeezing. I've seen people put them in with screwdrivers, which often doesn't go well. Really need the tool for them.

 

[six-point socket II]

And I can’t think of a situation where I would use tweezers in the shop. 

I keep at least one set of fine tweezers in each shed for pulling out splinters, and a large set for fishing out tiny stuff that inevitably and inconveniently falls inbetween other stuff.

Six-point said it was not for splinters.  The smallest thing I have to pick up in the shop are some screws, washers and nuts, and I can pick them up with my fingers.

6-point must be making clock movements or something.

I use them on gaskets that I can’t get to with typical hook tools, for example. The jaws of most pliers are far too wide for that. Or I use them to hold really tiny nails when nailing a classic bronze/copper hanger to something.

Last but not least, I use them for maintenance on my mom’s hearing aids: separating the speaker from the ear piece for cleaning in the ultrasonic, just like her hearing specialist showed me. Also, sometimes the “one time use” tool supplied with each fresh filter doesn’t work that well or at all, then I use the tweezers to replace the filters of said hearing aids.

And there are so many more uses.

For my wrist watches I exclusively use Bergeon, and those get not used on anything else. And I don’t work on movements.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[luvmytoolz]

And I don’t work on movements.

Kind regards,
Oliver

Now there's a whole other addictive hobby!

 

[Cheese]

We have a Wolf stainless range that was purchased 18 years ago and being used on a daily basis, there has been a significant amount of surface scratches and scuffs generated on the front stainless apron surface...Hey...we cook daily...that's to be expected.  [big grin]

However, I've wanted a surfacing conditioning tool for many years to periodically clean up the front stainless apron of the range. The last time I enquired what the price of a new stainless apron for the range was I was quoted $525 from Wolf.

Consequently, it's been a Mexican standoff for the last 12-15 years, $500 for a new apron is too expensive while a good quality surface conditioning tool runs from $900-$1600. The obvious premium candidates here are Fein, 3M, Walter & Metabo.

A few days ago Northern tool advertised their Klutch brand surface conditioning tool for $114 which included 3 different brushes. I bit...as the conditioning brush alone for the 3M unit is $110+ depending upon the model number.

Well I'm impressed...I'll try to put more finishing time on the unit and report back tomorrow, but at this point if this unit craps out within a month...I'll be money ahead. I haven't moved on to the Wolf range yet but I will.  [big grin]

 

[rvieceli]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member]  I have the Harbor Freight version of that unit. I have had it for a couple of years and it has held up and does a good god for cleaning up stuff.

Ron

 

[Packard]

We have a Wolf stainless range that was purchased 18 years ago and being used on a daily basis, there has been a significant amount of surface scratches and scuffs generated on the front stainless apron surface...Hey...we cook daily...that's to be expected.  [big grin]

However, I've wanted a surfacing conditioning tool for many years to periodically clean up the front stainless apron of the range. The last time I enquired what the price of a new stainless apron for the range was I was quoted $525 from Wolf.

Consequently, it's been a Mexican standoff for the last 12-15 years, $500 for a new apron is too expensive while a good quality surface conditioning tool runs from $900-$1600. The obvious premium candidates here are Fein, 3M, Walter & Metabo.

A few days ago Northern tool advertised their Klutch brand surface conditioning tool for $114 which included 3 different brushes. I bit...as the conditioning brush alone for the 3M unit is $110+ depending upon the model number.

Well I'm impressed...I'll try to put more finishing time on the unit and report back tomorrow, but at this point if this unit craps out within a month...I'll be money ahead. I haven't moved on to the Wolf range yet but I will.  [big grin]

I have found Northern Tool to be an excellent vendor, and their Klutch line of tools to be excellent values (but I think they could have done a much better job of picking the name “Klutch”).

So far I have bought their Dremel equivalent and their horizontal band saw, both are very good.  I have also bought their welding table, but I have yet to try it out.

I also introduced the company I used to work for to them, and they were regular users of Northern Tool for their tool room.

If you join their “Prime” equivalent, they send regular specials that are very tempting.

I’m a fan.

 

[Cheese]

Ya, actually this Klutch thing works really well...I agree with Packard...the name is goofier than hell...they could have done a lot better with just a minimal amount of thinking. It rather reminds me of the goofy naming of the Cleveland Guardians...are they a motorcycle gang or an insurance company?

The surface conditioning tool does heat up rather quickly and that may ultimately be an issue, time will tell. So far, it's been used in short 10 minute intervals.

 

[Packard]

Some members might not be familiar with this class of tools.  I could not find a good video of the Klutch version.

Eastwood, the autobody tool and supply vendor had the lock on off-price versions of this tool for several years.  There are several videos showing the tool:

I would also note that Amazon and Harbor Freight now have cheap versions, no-name from about $80.00 from Amazon; $130.00 from Harbor Freight. 

Eastwood stuff is pretty good.  Harbor Freight and Amazon stuff is all over the place in terms of quality.

Note:  This tool is for working on hard metals (steel or cast iron mostly. If you use it on wood, brass or aluminum, you would be flirting with making divots, dips and bumps.

The video would benefit greatly with tighter editing. It is about 6 minutes longer than it should be.

 

[rmwarren]

Not available just yet but when it is I'm buying. Dewalt just announced a 20V Grabo lifter.


With some MFT jigs and fixtures I can replace the VacSys utility lost when I reluctantly parted with my setup. Just didn't have the space to fit it into my workflow. This is perfect given I'm invested in the 20V platform up to the 9ah 60V battery.

RMW

 

[Cheese]

Not available just yet but when it is I'm buying. Dewalt just announced a 20V Grabo lifter.

I was going to ask about the patent aspects but I notice Dewalt has purchased the manufacturing rights from Grabo...that makes sense. They refer to it as the Dewalt Grabo Lifter.
https://grabo.com/patents/

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I recently made a bit of a road-trip and stopped into the brick and mortar retail store for Hartville Hardware. I have purchased a lot of Festool products from them, through the on-line store, but the actual store is a little over 2 hours away.
I had heard that it was huge and very impressive, that is very true. It is a hardware store, Home Depot/Lowes, kitchen and bath store, all rolled into one.....on steroids.
The power tools area is dominant, right in front. All of the major brands have their own aisle or 2 or more.
The Milwaukee section has 4, and that just the power tools. The smaller things like sockets, screwdrivers, etc are in other aisles, specifically for that type of tool, all brands share those.
In all of that, I really didn't buy much, hadn't planned too though.
We have some pretty big places locally, but this is a mega-store, big enough to draw a charter buses.

I did get Festool driver tip set in the newer version of the old Twin-box, and a nut-driver tip from the Wera area. I have used a Dewalt 7/16" one for several years, but it is rather long, too long sometimes.
The Wera version is much shorter. It's really 11mm, but I will work just fine. (I bet they don't even make fractional)
I had the wrong pic, fixed.

 

[rvieceli]

[member=58857]Crazyraceguy[/member]  here you go:
https://www.kctool.com/wera-060412-7-16-x-50mm-nut-setter

Ron