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Source for new and better tools?

Source for new and better tools?

Source for new and better tools?

(OP)
I'm always looking for new and better tools, anything to do a job better.

If anyone would care to recommend a source for this sort of thing I would appreciate it.   I get a lot of catalogs and follow several web sites but I am sure I don't follow them all.

I am especially looking for what we call page 7 tools.  These are tools from very small companies that show up somewhere after the seventh page of a Google search.

I would appreciate any comments anyone cared to make.

Thanks,
Tom          
 

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.    

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Tom - what kind of tools? Machine, hand, inspection?
  

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Thirty years ago, Brookstone was a great source for tools you'd never heard of. ... but they've jumped the shark.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Source for new and better tools?

(OP)
Pretty much any kind.

Woodworking, Machinist, Inspection, Construction.  Mostly hand tools and small power tools.  

Mike, used to love the catalog for the variety and the quality.

Tom

 

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.    

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Brownell's, if you're into gunsmithing.

RE: Source for new and better tools?

You might get a little light headed by paging through a Grainger or McMaster Carr catalog.  A couple of thousand pages of tools and parts.

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Here are some very nice tap extensions that will reach thru the hole. Can be a life saver.

http://www.tapextension.com/

RE: Source for new and better tools?

tomwalz,

   Your website is not an engineering firm.  It is a vendor site, full of tools and stuff.

   Are you looking for a store to buy tools from, or a manufacturer to supply your store?

               JHG

RE: Source for new and better tools?

You probably know Lie-Neilsen planes, since they're from your side of the pond. Very nice - too good for the class of work I have the skills to undertake. I still want one though. http://www.lie-nielsen.co.uk

I have a soft spot for many tools from the German company Willi Hahn. Nice quality and often showing a bit of original thinking in the design they are sold under the brand name 'Wiha'.
  

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Source for new and better tools?

I jealously guard my Wiha drivers.  I think I may need to start telling people that I got them as cheap surplus from the Hanford engineering site..."it's ok, they're only mildly radioactive"

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Better link for Lie-Neilsen: http://www.lie-nielsen.com/
  

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Source for new and better tools?

(OP)

Both, really.

Our version of engineering was cutting tools especially saw blades.  Started in 1981 with Weyerhaeuser.  Built better saw blades.   Developed technology to improve carbide wetting so that tips didn't come off.  Developed replacement braze alloys to replace Cadmium alloys.  Then designed and built brazing equipment.  Then cermet and ceramic saw tips and technology to make them easily wettable.  We still build custom tools but the lumber and housing market is about one-quarter of what it used to be.  

We put up the web site and are looking for tools for it.  Also I am 64 with a family history of arthritis and would like to find tools that help me continue to work in the shop.        

Mostly, I just like tools of all kinds.  I'm so old that I was taught that "Man is a tool using animal and the only one."   Since then other animals have joined the club.  

There is just something magic about tools of any kind whether it is the right screwdriver, a titanium hammer, a software program or a book.  The right tool can make something impossible become an easy, routine task.

There is still a lot of information related to our engineering side under brazing, carbide and coolant on the top bar.  I am slowly putting up the books "Building Superior Brazed Tools" and "Braze Failure Analysis" but it will be a while for those.      

Tom

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.    

RE: Source for new and better tools?

When i worked at the Ford assemble plant we used handtools and specialty tools from Belknap, Williams, Apex, George T Schmidt, and of course Snap-On. The big one on power tools was Chicago Pneumatic.  They are all USA and on the web.

RE: Source for new and better tools?

My husband really likes Dremel tools for working with minature figures: http://www.dremel.com.  

Patricia Lougheed

******

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RE: Source for new and better tools?

Knipex (German) make the nicest pliers I've ever seen, let alone used. Their 'Cobra' water pump pliers put anything else on the market to shame. The push-button adjustment feature is VERY nice - they don't change position until YOU push the button, and move them. Their other cutters & pliers are equally nice. One of my sons is a journeyman mechanic/auto and heavy-duty equipment technician. He took his Snap-On side cutters and pliers home for his box there, and uses the Knipex tools at work.

Knipex plier-wrenches are the nicest replacement for adjustable wrenches I've ever used. The same push-button adjustment as the Cobra's, and the jaws always stay parallel.

As mentioned above, Wiha make very nice screwdrivers - and so does Wera. I like their 'chiseldrivers'. They're not quite chisels in screwdriver form, but they'll take a TON of abuse.

I've bought a number of tools like this online from chadstoolbox.com  

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Another vote for Wera tools, good quality and long-lasting. I've had a pair of Knipex diagonal cutters for years, the only problem I ever had with them was when I accidentally chopped a live 2.5mm² twin & earth instead of the 1.5mm² 3-core & earth I was aiming for. Tiredness, bad light, carelessness? Those cables are the exact same width! Didn't do my cutters much good, but I replaced them with the same type without hesitation.
  

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Micro-Mark for small tools.

 

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Lindstrom for small ultra-precision pliers, cutters, and the like.
  

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Source for new and better tools?

Ditto on Knipex.  Just bought my first ones a couple of months ago.  Better quality than Klein, which I also like.

Bought a set of Wiha precision screwdrivers a few years back for camera repair...well, make that camera disassembly!  Have several in the re-assembly mode...we'll see!

tomwalz...our "mechanical aptitude, penchant for good tools and respect for quality and precision are probably what made us want to be engineers in the beginning!

RE: Source for new and better tools?

(OP)
The new roaster came without the two screws to fasten the handle so I went over to Tacoma Screw Products.

They found the right two screws and handed me a screwdriver to put them in.  It was a Megapro ratcheting screwdriver and it was smooth.  I had seen them before and passed because it looked like just an ordinary ratcheting screwdriver.  It's not.  It is a little expensive but I think the quality is worth it.  It also comes with 6 different combination bits built into the handle.          

I bought the megapro then the guys said I had to try the Proto Blackhawk 3/8" Drive Rotator Ratchet.  Beautifully built and you can set it up so that it moves the head the same way no matter which way you move the handle.  You can also use it like a standard ratchet.  

Both are pretty cool tools.  Neither one would qualify but both are very ergonomic with no slop.  I was amazed at how well the #2 Phillips head fit the #2 Phillips screw.     
 
Proto Blackhawk 3/8" Drive Rotator Ratchet
Megapro ratcheting screwdriver
 

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.    

RE: Source for new and better tools?

I recently became aware of the so-called multifunction tools that oscillate a variety of blades. It happened that a small re-model project really needed one of these, so I bought a Harbor Freight version to get thru the job and and as a trial.

What a neat tool, you can do things such as flush and plunge cuts (most metals excluded) that are very tough or impossible with other tools, and with great control. I pretty much thought I had all the hand-held power tools I would ever need. I wish I had had one of these years ago. When the HF tool dies, I'll bet I get a better (i.e. more expensive) brand. Or maybe not, but I'll get another.

Regards, and Merry Christmas to all.

Mike

RE: Source for new and better tools?

SnTman,
I just bought 3 of these for my maintenance crew at a local sailing club, I also recommended the same unit to a friend of mine who uses Fein tools. He bought, one only to have the speed control die after only 2 days. However they did exchange it right away. What I need now is somebody ( hint hint ) so come out with some better carbide faced tools for these things that will last longer than the factory supplied tools.
B.E.
 

RE: Source for new and better tools?

I meant to come out , not so come out with
B.E.

RE: Source for new and better tools?

When we were but lads, a younger brother found a 1/4" drive Snap-On ratchet wrench in the street and not being keen on tools himself, gave it to me.  It is about 50 years later and that little ratchet drive has been used as much as any tool in the box and is still going strong.  It is an antique now and I have been offered handsome sums by Snap-On dealers to surrender it, but not a chance.

I often look at my tool chests and they make me sort of sad.  After a lifetime of accumulating good quality tools -2 double decker tool chests full plus some that won't fit in the drawers - I realize that now have way more than I need or will ever be able to put to use.  One box is all Craftsman and the other box is Proto Professional.  There is a smattering of Snap-on mixed in for specialty items.

Some of the tools I still use I owned as a 12 year old to work on my bicycle.

In my 30's, I had a neighbor who claimed that the first thing on my vehicles that would wear out would be the hood's hinges.  I rarely go in there now.  Car is in the shop at this very moment having stuff done that I probably would have done myself 20 years ago.  The tools are sitting in their drawers cold and idle.

I do, however, when I have my trousers on, have a 6" water pump pliers in my pocket.  (Called Ignition Pliers at Sears now)  Don't all of you?  I have challenged several over the years to carry a pair for a week and stated that if they did they would carry them for life.  They did and they still carry.

Scotty,  How far did you jump when you trashed your diagonal cutters (called side cutters in my corner of the world)?

rmw

RE: Source for new and better tools?

(OP)
When I graduated from college I moved up from a '59 ford with nom reverse to a '67 VW Bug.   Anyway the best offer I could get on the '59 was $50 so I donated it to a trade school.  A year or so later I stopped by to see what had happened to it.

It had had a couple hundred brake jobs and the transmission had been rebuilt several times.  They took it completely apart and basically had a seat sitting on the frame sort of like a giant go-cart.     
  
They ordinarily worked on cars as though they were in an actual shop.  The instructor said it was really nice to have a car they could take apart without worrying about the owner.   

Sometimes a donation to a trade school can be a very good thing for everyone.  
 

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.    

RE: Source for new and better tools?

rmw,

It was domestic installation for a friend: a typical guvvy job, I got roped in on a Sunday afternoon to assist with a rewire in an old Victorian place which was running out of time. I hate guvvy jobs, and domestic ones are the worst by far. The bang was pretty big - the old rewireable 30A fuse lets a fair bit of energy through. Made a mess of the cutters, almost made a mess of my underwear too!
  

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

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