Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...

[hidetheelephants]

Fidget spinners for adults. There's one in my toolbox for the same reason.

[guitarcarfanatic]

Fast and Spurious said:

Being Pistonheads and lovers of good tools, you'll want the best so you naturally upgrade to Wera / Wiha. But then you do some more research and discover PB Swiss, and upgrade again, selling a lot of the German stuff.

If you want a multi-bit ratchet screwdriver, these are amazing quality:
https://www.pbswisstools.com/en/tools/quality-hand...

This is a great set too:
https://www.pbswisstools.com/en/tools/quality-hand...

All their tools have a lifetime guarantee, not cheap but "buy once, cry once".

Part of my wall of shame...

PB Swiss are the BEST!

[boyse7en]

Just bought one of these with a stand for £50. Was absolutely filthy and covered in sawdust but half an hour with compressed air, a brush and some ACF50 and it has scrubbed up quite nicely. Should make my decking project a bit easier.

[Sway]

boyse7en said:

Just bought one of these with a stand for £50. Was absolutely filthy and covered in sawdust but half an hour with compressed air, a brush and some ACF50 and it has scrubbed up quite nicely. Should make my decking project a bit easier.

Bargain!

Grab a nice new blade (iirc, trend is the go to?) and I'm sure it'll save you a hell of a lot more than £50s worth of time!

[CorradoTDI]

Sway said:

boyse7en said:

Just bought one of these with a stand for £50. Was absolutely filthy and covered in sawdust but half an hour with compressed air, a brush and some ACF50 and it has scrubbed up quite nicely. Should make my decking project a bit easier.

Bargain!

Grab a nice new blade (iirc, trend is the go to?) and I'm sure it'll save you a hell of a lot more than £50s worth of time!

Looks decent!

If anyone else is after a Mitre Saw then the basic Wickes one is £50 at the moment and the Sliding is £85

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-210mm-Corded-Slidi...

[Lefty]

I quite fancy a pillar drill. Any suggestions?

I like SIP stuff, got one of their compressors.

[Lefty]

hidetheelephants said:

Fidget spinners for adults. There's one in my toolbox for the same reason.

Absolutely. Thing is a joy to use.

[boyse7en]

Sway said:

boyse7en said:

Just bought one of these with a stand for £50. Was absolutely filthy and covered in sawdust but half an hour with compressed air, a brush and some ACF50 and it has scrubbed up quite nicely. Should make my decking project a bit easier.

Bargain!

Grab a nice new blade (iirc, trend is the go to?) and I'm sure it'll save you a hell of a lot more than £50s worth of time!

Thanks for the tip.

Do you (or anyone else) know what sort of blade is suitable for composite decking planks? I'm assuming a fine-toothed one like a 60-tooth to get a nice neat cut with chipping, but also worried a bit about heat build up.

[monkfish1]

guitarcarfanatic said:

Fast and Spurious said:

Being Pistonheads and lovers of good tools, you'll want the best so you naturally upgrade to Wera / Wiha. But then you do some more research and discover PB Swiss, and upgrade again, selling a lot of the German stuff.

If you want a multi-bit ratchet screwdriver, these are amazing quality:
https://www.pbswisstools.com/en/tools/quality-hand...

This is a great set too:
https://www.pbswisstools.com/en/tools/quality-hand...

All their tools have a lifetime guarantee, not cheap but "buy once, cry once".

Part of my wall of shame...

PB Swiss are the BEST!

Where do you buy them. No distribution in the UK it seems?

[hidetheelephants]

Lefty said:

I quite fancy a pillar drill. Any suggestions?

I like SIP stuff, got one of their compressors.

Most of the available pillar drills are all to the same basic pattern, not brilliant quality but entirely serviceable for home use; for preference I'd go for a Clarke just because Machinemart have a lot of outlets and are a reasonable price if you get one of their VAT off offers. Whichever you go for I'd bin the chuck that comes with it and buy a pukka Jacobs or similar chuck, all the standard ones I've encountered want to drill eccentric holes. If you have the patience to wait for used equipment to appear locally literally anything british will seem like a rolls royce in comparison but that's in 'fidget spinner for adults' territory.

[donkmeister]

monkfish1 said:

guitarcarfanatic said:

Fast and Spurious said:

Being Pistonheads and lovers of good tools, you'll want the best so you naturally upgrade to Wera / Wiha. But then you do some more research and discover PB Swiss, and upgrade again, selling a lot of the German stuff.

If you want a multi-bit ratchet screwdriver, these are amazing quality:
https://www.pbswisstools.com/en/tools/quality-hand...

This is a great set too:
https://www.pbswisstools.com/en/tools/quality-hand...

All their tools have a lifetime guarantee, not cheap but "buy once, cry once".

Part of my wall of shame...

PB Swiss are the BEST!

Where do you buy them. No distribution in the UK it seems?

Looks like you can get some items through Bezos-mart.

Must be good, they have pictures of people mending helicopters in the description!



What makes them better than the Wera and Wiha offerings?

[MDT]

Lefty said:

I quite fancy a pillar drill. Any suggestions?

I like SIP stuff, got one of their compressors.

I would support the suggestion of a Clarke one, I have the one below, got it 5-6 years ago, use it far less than I thought I would. However when I do use it very pleased to have it.

Would strongly suggest you get a drill vice to go with it, much safer when drilling smaller objects.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cdp102b-ben...

[Lefty]

Can’t complain for £100!

[57Ford]

Lefty said:

skwdenyer said:

GeneralBanter said:

Lefty said:

SlimJim16v said:

Lefty said:

Screw extractor kit
Absolute game changer

Potentially disastrous. The extractors can snap and you're fked. The drills should really be left hand too, as they can sometimes get it out.

Hmmm, interesting. I guess from the point of view of already being fked with a stuck or broken screw or bolt you’re not any more fked if an extractor breaks than you were before you tried.

I have several sets bought in the optimism at the time that they would work. They don’t though - needed many times but the smaller ones snap and the larger ones exert too much force outwards so jam the bolt even tighter.

I think a cheap welder (which would not be any more expensive than a decent set of bolt extractors) might be a better bet for most situations: tack on a washer, then a nut, and work from there.

Ahhh well I’ll be careful with it, I’m taking the body off a cerb just now and used it a few times with no problems.

I’ve used similar carefully on various older cars and they are great.
I also found their corresponding mate for dealing with rounded nuts / bolts heads extremely useful:
Impact Bolt & Nut Remover Set

[Fast and Spurious]

donkmeister said:

Looks like you can get some items through Bezos-mart.

Must be good, they have pictures of people mending helicopters in the description!



What makes them better than the Wera and Wiha offerings?

Lifetime guarantee. As an example, screwdriver bits are the best tested (see project farm on YouTube) for durability, they are just lovely tools.
I'll leave you with this: every single tool has it's own serial number, this is a 1.2mm slotted:

[Fast and Spurious]

monkfish1 said:

Where do you buy them. No distribution in the UK it seems?

Some I've got from Amazon Japan, others from Haus of tools in the US.

Apologies to anyone that gets sucked into this!

[bodhi]

Fast and Spurious said:

monkfish1 said:

Where do you buy them. No distribution in the UK it seems?

Some I've got from Amazon Japan, others from Haus of tools in the US.

Apologies to anyone that gets sucked into this!

You're good - no corkscrew/pepper grinder/BBQ blower attachments.

Is it even a screwdriver if you can't grind pepper with it after building furniture?

[dirtbiker]

CorradoTDI said:

Makita 1.5 Ah LXT Batteries = £18.96 from FFX on eBay (with code applied)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395072328223

Handy, I've been looking for some smaller options seeing as most of my jobs are only a couple of holes or screws! Cheers!

[CorradoTDI]

dirtbiker said:

CorradoTDI said:

Makita 1.5 Ah LXT Batteries = £18.96 from FFX on eBay (with code applied)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395072328223

Handy, I've been looking for some smaller options seeing as most of my jobs are only a couple of holes or screws! Cheers!

Unfortunately the price has gone up now so the BL1820B (2Ah) maybe a better option if you can find for under £35

[sam.rog]

Pb swiss hex and torx keys are unmatched. Used to be able to get then in rs online about 10 years ago.

They were very good, but expensive. I’ve found vessel screwdrivers are also very good and cheap from amazon japan. Their ball handled ones are an ergonomic delight and I much prefer them to wera, pb swiss, bahco, facom, wiha (own them all).

https://supremehandtools.co.uk/products/vessel-vde...