I was just wonder what all of you would class as your ultimate shop tool or gizmo. By this I mean the one thing you can not live with out. This could be something you use ever day or something that you only use once a year but when you need it you NEED it.
I really can’t think of anything that fits in this but I was wondering what you all think. Only think I can think of is a really nice hand plane. I don’t use it much (not as much as I would like) but when I need it I really need it.
Doug Meyer
Replies
A really sharp pocketknife :-)
My workbench! Knowing that I started with a stack of air-dried maple planks makes it special (to me) but I can't imagine doing anything in my shop without it.
Great looking bench, I'm picking up a bowling alley lane next week and the vises from Woodcraft. I'll get started on my new bench ASAP.
Mine is a proportion wheel, left over from when I used to paste up alternative newspapers, back in the day.
A proportion wheel -- basically a simple slide rule that lets you convert one complete set of dimensions into another complete set -- makes it easy to copy (see the 200+ message thread on copying) from a corrected photograph of an object.
Riverprof,
Oh Lord lets not start mess around here! :) I am stuck in the middle of that thread as it is.
Doug Meyer
PS: As long as you are coping from a dead guy the you should be ok. (Sorry could not resist)
Do you belive in reincarnation? Look out!
Ha that is a good point, I will have to bring that up on the ethics thread. IF you copy form a dead guy and he is reincarnated what do you do?
I like that one!
Doug Meyer.
<<Mine is a proportion wheel,>>Still have your Haberule for specing type? There is an electronic version of the proportion wheel. It's called ProWheel, and it works just like the original analog classic. I use it almost daily.
Hmm ... a digital proportion wheel, eh?Mike, check out this discussion I started some time back:http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00014S&topic_id=1&topic=And I promise I'll give ProWheel a chance.Rp
<<Mike, check out this discussion I started some time back:>>You're preaching to the choir -- I'm an analog kind of guy (not analog enough to run a slide rule though). That's one reason I like the ProWheel electronic proportion wheel. It's graphic interface is an easy jump from my old plastic classic. Mine was freeware for the MAC, but if you want to test drive it now, I think you'll have to pay (http://www.designsoft.com/products/prowheel.html).
This may sound a little simplistic, but the most used tool in my shop is a Starrett 6" metal rule.
Jim
Mine would have to be my Craftsman 25' 1" measuring tape. I love them. When the tape spring gets a little weak, I walk into sears and hand it to them, and walk out with a new one. I can't do diddly without it.
Lightsaber
May the Schwartz be with you!
The tool I find that I use the most is a utility knife! After that would be a pencil and a 6" rule.
Mmmm...
Something I only use once a year but when I need it I NEED it...
Mmmm...
About the only thing I can think of that falls into that catagory would be my brain. Or maybe it's my...
No. That's not it either.
I spent a fortune on deodorant until I finally realized that people didn't like me anyway.
Pencil Sharpener (manual of course).
If you build it he will come.
My woodburning stove to "conceal" all my mistakes....I mean "design opportunities".
Doug,
Your deep-quested question made me think... but, I just can't narrow it down and come up with just "one" tool. In pondering, I've come to think that my workshop is much like an old worn, but mellow piano... It takes all the different tools/keys on the peg/keyboard to make a worthwhile result and a content owner.
In the wonderful and seemingly endless days of working "ON" the always changing needs in/on the workshop, I've come to think that the simple two-wheeler truck-dolly with at least a 600 lb. capacity is the one piece of equipment that repeatedly helps me move, carry, and tote a wide assortment of things. In the absence of a neighbor or friend, usually at the most needed time, it helps me leverage and safely handle bulky, heavy, and large amounts of materials and cast iron machines. It helped me loosen and lift away the wooden forms from around some newly poured concrete. It was also the key tool that allowed me to handle dense and green 6"X 20" by 7ft. long sections from a huge Pecan tree I'm turning into lumber.
Investing a few dollars a large bottle of the green tube sealer will keep the inflatable tires from being a pain and slowly leaking down.
Bill
Doug: No ultimate tool but the one little thing/gizmo I'll mention is my mini-monitor hooked up to my shop stereo and CD/DVD player. That way I can sit on my shop stool and watch DVD's from Laguna Tools or how-to videos on planeing etc. It's different watching them in the house on my easy chair. Duke
"... Buy the best and only cry once.........
I think mine tool would be my low angle LV block plane. I seem to use it constantly. There are a lot, but that's probably mjy favorite.
Michael
Doug,
I think I could not do without my pocket double square. I use it for most of my small (under 6") measuring tasks including table saw setup. I keep it in the front pocket of my apron.
A pencil would be my second choice for most used/needed instrument.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=44279&cat=1,42936,42945
Starett 6" Dial Caliper without a doubt. All my work relies on it from setting up machines to wood thickness. Life changed when I started living it in 1/64ths of an inch!
Ditto -
6" dial caliper is a tool that I bought on a whim. I probably use it as much or more than my tape for short measurements. use it as a depth gauge, to size holes for matching hardware, and for about 1000 things that never would have occured to me before I bought it.
Doug,
boy what a thread!
I have a couple if I may:
Really big wooden handscrews. Just read a Mike Dunbar article on how to make them yourself in another magazine. I have 2 and they are really great. I made mine myself with another nice to have- a wood threading kit!
Striking knife. I wrote an article on this tool and published a fully dimensioned drawing so you can make your own.
How about good holdfasts for that new bench? Is this a present for your Dad? I bought jorgenson's from Highland Hardware and I really like them.
Tho I don't own one, I know many power tool guys like having starrett squares or straight edged rules.
Though its probably not what you're after, the one tool I really don't want to work without is my 12' tape measure. When I started I had this yellow 25' tape I bought at Sears just like Bones. I was in a lumber yard measuring stock with the owner of the place and I pulled out this big yellow block and the guy teased me about it saying "Whoa! What're you going to do with that thing, club me?" While I stared at it in confusion and wonderment, he took out his shiny little 12' stanley tape. I haven't used that 25' tape since. (sorry Bones)
Adam
PS- I'm a big fan of marking tools. When you work by hand, these things are in near constant use. Consequently, they become familiar in ways others tools do not. In earlier days, craftsmen would decorate these tools and not necessarily others (tho there were other tools that were decorated). But I take these decorations as an indication of the personal connection craftsmen had to particular tools. So I think its nice to have homemade or decorated or special marking tools. My friend Dean wrote a wonderful article for my column detailing the construction and use of a very finely designed french marking gauge. I think it would be a fun project, a cherished gift, or a prized possession.
Edited 1/4/2007 12:30 pm ET by AdamCherubini
I've got more than one.
1.)My 25' tape that I have my table saw fence calibrated to. You wouldn't believe how many tape measures are not equal after about 6 feet. It's also the same one I use to measure up jobsites for cabinet jobs.
2.) 3" square, 9" square, and try square. I can't accomplish a thing without them.
3.) 24" starret rule/straight edge
4.) 6" Inca sliding marking rule
5.) .5 (or is it .05?) mm pencil
6.) dial caliper
7.) marking guage and marking knife
Every single night, before I close up shop, I sweep up around my bench, and these items are sitting in the middle of it. That way, the next morning, I don't have to look around for them. I used to keep them in their own little pockets in my apron, but I don't wear the apron anymore.
Jeff
Gumption. I am always running out of it and it gets harder to find.
My 12" Starrett combo square, everything starts and ends with it.
Senco 23 gauge micropinner. Not an everyday tool but comes in handy when attaching tiny molding to a cabinet or glass door.
Okay, enuf is enuf. My cheek-by-jowl combo is a good, sharp Eberhart #2 and my 5.0 meter Stanley tape measure. How, oh how, can anyone work in 32nds and 64ths of an inch?? Try the metric system with the rest of the world and see why everyone else uses it. Let me know how you do when you have to divide 19 3/16 inches into five equal pieces. Yes, pencil and tape. And my digital calipers (metric, from the Communist Chinese).
Dear Carolina,
Welcome to the United Sates! Yes, we do use the Imperial system here, save for some hold outs! The schools tried pushing that Metric stuff on us in the 1970's. It ended up on the trash heap along with the "Great Society" and the Soviet Union. Rightfully so. The answer to your math question is that I take out my trusty calculator (Also from Communist (Capitalist?) China), and I get 3 7/8". What happens when you have to divide 487.3625 mm (19 3/16") into five equal parts? Don't hurt yourself, I still have my calculator in hand... the answer is : 97.4725 mm (3 13/16") In all seriousness, both systems have their positives. There is no magic in either system. Metric was easier on a calculator before the "Construction Master" line, but now Imperial is a piece of cake. So, in light of all that I'll change my listing to:Calculator.Best,JohnPS "Eberhart #2 "... Is that one of those hand plane things? Who is rooted in the past now? :-)
Well, I guess you're right. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
John
Jack,
"Nostalgia isn't what it used to be" Now that's funny.
Snort,
Ray
Having a father that is from Europe and having been in School in the 70's when the big metric push is on, I feel that I can safely point out a few things. The problem with the metric system is that for all of its logic (and it is MUCH more logical then our system) for some basic measurements it is a pain. The Kilometer is frankly a bit small the mile works better. But this may be because of the size of this country vs the size of others. The meter while it is useful is about the same as the yard. And frankly how many people use the yard? The Centimeter is to small on the other hand (yes I know their is a size in between but does anyone use it?)
Also the logic of the way metric handles temp is wonderful. But the size of the unit results in temps being used in half and quarter degrees. And if the logic is so great why do they still use Half a degree vs saying .5? Because the human mind likes the idea of fractions. When you say something is half of something else the human mind automatically figures out the size when you say something is 253MM and the other is 126.5mm is is a bit harder.
On the other hand I have lived with the US system my whole live and I still have trouble with the liquid measurements Quarts and such. And I spend a lot of my time backing so I do use these a bit. I wonder if this is not at least partly because when my school should have been teaching me the US system I was being taught the metric?
Oh well frankly I think both systems need help. The Metric because the sizes are either to big or to small for doing the job and our system because while the sizes are good (that is why the system evolved so strangely) it really needs to be fixed to be a little more logical.
Now what were we talking about before we got side tracked?
Oh yes most useful gizmo. After thinking about that for a bit (I did start this didn't I?) I have to say the most useful gizmo in my shop is the cranky Old Geezer. This is a useful tool as it can help hold things in almost any position (until it's back gives out) and it can help moves stuff. It also can be used to cut stuff and all sorts of other uses. Only problems with this gizmo is that it will generally tell you what you are doing wrong (but not until you have done it) and it will also tell you how you have it so easy as when it was younger it had to do everything with tools made of rocks or that new fangled bronze. And the maintenance of the thing! Oh man this can be the worst. Trying to get it to go to the shop for a fix when it develops a bit of a sputtering cough is just the biggest pain.
Still all in all it is useful. Now if I could just get mine back in full working shape.
Doug Meyer
Doug Meyer
Dividing 19 3/16", or its metric equivalent, into fifths by doing the math and then laying out the answer with a ruler, is equally hard, and equally prone to errors, in either system. I could, and would, do this with a pair of dividers and have an accurate, error proof, layout in one tenth the time.
For furniture making there is little or no advantage to one system over the other, and one is better off working in the system they are most comfortable with, which is probably what they grew up with.
Furniture making is mostly about good proportions and tight fits, neither of which is related to which measuring system is being used, and can be obtained without resorting to any formal system.
As an experiment sometime, everyone should build a piece of furniture without using a ruler. Just pick out nice proportions for the piece and then lay out the joinery with dividers, story poles, and by transferring dimensions from one element to the next by scribing.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
The tool in my shop that I could not live without is the best one on the market. It has great balance, wonderful engineering and performs better than anything out there. I have spent many hours with it, and it still has a perfect setup. I have not adjusted it one time. It is my far the one tool in my shop I couldn't do without............................its my coffee maker.
Best,
Jeff
Mind you I don't drink coffee, but I do have to ask, how do you keep sawdust out of it?
Doug Meyer
Doug,
Grocery stores sell these cool disposable cups with lids on them!! I admire you that you don't drink coffee. How do you make it thru the day????
Best,
Jeff
By being grouchy, very grouchy.
Uh I was talking about the maker not the cup that that was a good question also.
Besides I get my caffeine the way god intended me to. In a pop can.
Doug Meyer
(oh sorry about that for those of you in other area that would be a Soda Can)
Well Doug I'll just tell ya'. The dust that does make it into the maker, well, it's just bottoms up from there. ( My skin on my arm is starting to look like curly maple, I guess I know why now!)
Jeff
Doug,
Pop. Are you from Dixie? I say, from Dixie? Wheah the fields of cotton beckon to me?
Ray
John,Wisdom is always better than opinion! FWIW, I have done exactly what you described. The first time I used dividers was a real eye-opener. Here was a tool even older than I am, low tech, low maintenance and I could use it without referring to an instruction manual or free DVD! The accuracy was up to the requirements of the job and I'm (once again) convinced that if there are several ways to do a task, the simplest way is usually the best.Regards,
I've done a lot of informal research on old ways of measuring and its pretty amazing how well those seemingly simple methods worked.
John W.
Shop apron and portable vacuum fence that can be used on table saw,router table,drum sander,ect. My vacuum fence is made from 8020 aluminum.
I guess you have not been following the eithics of copiing thread? :) jk
Sorry could not resist.
Doug Meyer
Doug, it is the decimal inch Starret Measuring Tape I picked up at Lowes. Actually, it has 16ths on one edge, and the decimal equivalents on the other edge, and the numbers are orientated to the length, not the side so it is easy to read from both sides.
I tend to work and design in decimal inches, they are lots easier than fractions. And it makes the transition from designing civil engineering projects, (done in feet to the decimal hundredth of a foot), to wood working much easier on my mind.
By staying in decimal, I don't have to change any settings in the cad program, just design in inches, when I'm doing woodworking, and feet for civil projects, and display to the hundredth.
Plus, all the machinist tools, calipers, micrometers, etc, are in decimal inches.
Now all I need is a tape I can put on my saw fence that measures decimal inches, and I'll be happy.
Oh Good your one of THOSE. Don't you civil types realize that the world works in Feet and Inches? I keep getting the civil guys yelling that my building is to small and not scaled right. Well of course not the base is in inches, not feet. Sorry had to vent their for a second. Yea I can see where you are coming from but for me I work in feet and inches, and fractions the way some forgotten barbarian intended us to. :)
But for you civil types I guess the whole decimal feet thing works for you. Not sure how but I guess it does. I did a bunch of work for a Civil engineer and those decimal feet used to annoy the daylights out of me.
Now if you really want strange try doing a drawing in Metric. I have a client I work with that sends me metric drawings. And they cant seam to make up their mind if the base size is Centimeters or meters or even once millimeters. So I always have to mess around with it to get it to look right.
Oh and for those that asked no I am not from Dixie. Do they use the correct word for soft drinks down south also? (Pop that is) I thought that was a Great Lakes area thing. Being from Michigan I can tell you if you as for a soda around here you may be surprised when you get a drink with no flavoring or they just look at you kind of strange. I am telling you it was almost as bad as the time someone asked me where the lift was and I asked him what he was trying to lift. That was before I realized he was from London and thus did not know how to speak english. Once I had that figured out I pointed him to the elevator and he was happy. :)
Well I think I have caused enough people to have a fit for this morning so I will end this here for now.
Doug Meyer
Engineers like decimal, and we, as a group probably have as high a level of practical math skills and logic as any group that can be defined. Engineers don't use fractions if we can avoid it. (Mathematicians like fractions because they are exact, the square root of 2 isn't really 1.4142, and the sine of 45-degrees isn't really 0.7071, but engineers, being practicle, know that nothing really matters after the fourth decimal and have them memorized).
I wonder why the rest of the U.S. of A, and Architects in particular, haven't figured out fractions are just too confusing and prone to error to use every day yet.
Back in my youth, I was the forming and reinforcement inspector on a few bridges. The carpenter foreman, and lead carpenters had all worked for the same contractor for years, and all the contractor built was engineered concrete structures, and the related dirt work, with the plans in feet and hundredths. All the Carps were doing conversions from the plans to feet-inches-fractions, and writing them next to the dimensions on the plans.
I finally asked the general super if he realized how many dollars worth of Davis Bacon wages, he was spending to pay for it, and why he didn't just buy them all Engineer's tapes for Christmas? He gave me a funny look, and took off.
He was back before lunch with the new tapes, and told all the carps to put their old tapes in their trucks.
Decimal is so much easier than fractions.
Doug, pop,soda, tonic or 2 cents plain. You should have seen the look on my face when my Boston kin asked me what tonic I wanted and me a South Brooklyn kid who knew that 2 cents plain was a large seltzer (no syrup) .
See also the LV suggestion.
BTW. my favorites are a Stanley Rule and Level #32 1/2 in perfect condition with a very tight hinge and all of it's pins from my grand dad. It is either in my back left pocket or my shop apron. The next is a 2' blind man's rule in my rule pocket (right leg bib jeans) and a very sharp pocket knife. All the best, Paddy
J-n-F, you may find it at LV as they sell them in bunch of different scalings-left and right reading-but I am not positive. Paddy
There's no ONE thing that I couldn't live without, but I have a shop full of tools that I've bought and - within a few hours - wondered how long they had been legal and why wasn't I told sooner. - lol
Probably the first "can't live without it" tool I ever bought was a Makita 9.6v cordless drill. I bought it in '85 and was scared to death that I had blown $150. Within a few days, my whole approach to work had changed and I had started my collection of drywall screws in every available size and was wondering what I would do with all those nails I suddenly wasn't using anymore - lol. That old Makita is long gone, but now I have three full sized cordless drills in the shop and often use all of them while I'm building cabinets.
There are many others, but the most recent is a Black & Decker mini-cordless drill/driver. I bought it to mount some drawer glides in a narrow desk pedestal (for a computer desk), and figured that the $40 was worth it even if I only used it for that one job. Now, it's become my "go-to" driver for anything where a full sized cordless isn't really necessary.
A tool that I have owned for a little over a year, I now wonder how I managed without it, is a pin nailer. Tell me if there is a better tool in the world to quickly fasten small pieces than a pin nailer.
Doug -
My pin nailer is another of the many I've bought. I've had mine for about two years, now.
In that same catagory are the brad nailer and finish nailer. I'm less enamored with my narrow crown stapler. It always wants to "bounce" when I use it and I have to break out a hammer to finish driving the staples. - lol
Yeah I have seen that with staplers. I have one around here we picked up to do the finish trim on the outside of the house. (mettle) And it will do that sometimes.
Doug Meyer
I've figured out that it does that because it's trying to drive what is essentially two brads simultaneously. If I hold it down with heavy pressure, it generally works ok, but if I don't, I get "proud" staples - not the end of the world, but a nuisance. - lol
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