Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...

[Demelitia]

devnull said:

Can anyone recommend a super high quality superlative version of one of those thin box cutter knices please? The type with the long snap-off blades.

I spent a miserable few hours using a cheap one to try and cut freshly laid wallpaper and i'm sure it would have been much less stressful with a knife and blade that didnt feel like a cracker toy.

Swann and Morton retractable with a pack of 10a blades.
NT cutter or Olfa SVR2, both with 30 degree blades if you can. They’ve done me well for years of vehicle wrapping, mural application, wall wraps etc.
Having a wide, flexible metal blade with a handle to use as a straight edge is handy to hold paper in place so the knife doesn’t grab and tear if it’s gone dull without you noticing.
A skimming/filling knife for plasterboard joints is one option.

Creasing and folding, then slicing with a good sharp pair of scissors is still a better choice for wallpaper that’s anything other than completely dry.

[The Gauge]

I found when cutting wallpaper with a blade, it sometimes snagged and tore, so I used scissors which were much better. This was thick backing/lining paper. Never done it before and quite enjoyed it once I had the knack, but never hung printed wallpaper, not sure I would trust myself.

[Sheepshanks]

We used to have a tool, that was basically just a cranked bit of steel, that held a razor blade and it cut wallpaper perfectly. Sadly it’s disappeared and I’ve never seen anything like it since.

[Cold]

Car bon said:

wol said:

Cold said:

Coincidentally, I bought a lazy version of an oil transfer pump recently. Eighteen of your Earth pounds from the Amazon people for a 12 volt hand held thingy.
It's going to get put to use changing the oil in both diffs and the transfer box of my RR at some point this week.

Do report back, interested to see if it will handle the thicker oils well enough.

Mine does - even when I got water in the oil it was able to extract the resulting mayonnaise.

I had a chance to crack on with the oil changes at the end of last week.

As a thing it's absolutely fine and does the job well and more importantly mess free. However, I only used it to pump the new oil from the bottles into the transfer box and diffs which hold around a litre each.
Being a transmission oil, this stuff is fairly thin and pumps easily, especially on a warm day. I have no idea how the pump would cope with trying to suck up 6-8 litres of ancient sludgy sump oil on a February morning.

A couple of downsides, it obviously needs a good 12v supply and the attached lead is far too short to reach under the car where I was fiddling so I had to use a spare battery connected to a grunty charger. There would be no problem if you are just mucking about under the bonnet.

The pumped oil seemed to aerate very easily and I ended up putting a cappuccino version of the oil in each component. Of course this meant a delay in filling to the correct levels as I had to wait for it all to settle. Perhaps this wouldn't happen with a thicker oil being transferred and definitely wouldn't matter if you're just pumping out waste oil.

Overall a satisfactory purchase and I was almost disappointed that I was using it to pump such a small quantity of oil. It took longer to set everything up than time spent actually pumping.

[e600]

Bought a battery operated jet wash. Drop a hose into a bucket of water or whatever liquid and away you go.

Used it to demos the roof of the garage. Snow foam the cars and jet wash off snow foam. About £50. Wish I had one sooner.

[McGee_22]

e600 said:

Bought a battery operated jet wash. Drop a hose into a bucket of water or whatever liquid and away you go.

Used it to demos the roof of the garage. Snow foam the cars and jet wash off snow foam. About £50. Wish I had one sooner.

The Worx one is pretty damn good for the money. I hand wash my cars but occasionally jet wash the wheels so it’s perfect for the quick and lightweight set-up rather wheeling my Karcher out.

[Harry Flashman]

e600 said:

Bought a battery operated jet wash. Drop a hose into a bucket of water or whatever liquid and away you go.

Used it to demos the roof of the garage. Snow foam the cars and jet wash off snow foam. About £50. Wish I had one sooner.

Which one did you buy? I want one myself but have been reading lots of bad reviews...

[aka_kerrly]

McGee_22 said:

e600 said:

Bought a battery operated jet wash. Drop a hose into a bucket of water or whatever liquid and away you go.

Used it to demos the roof of the garage. Snow foam the cars and jet wash off snow foam. About £50. Wish I had one sooner.

The Worx one is pretty damn good for the money. I hand wash my cars but occasionally jet wash the wheels so it’s perfect for the quick and lightweight set-up rather wheeling my Karcher out.

There is also the Titan 18v from ScrewFix & Ebay for about £50-80 depending how many batteries you want. I bought a refurbished one about a year ago for £40. It's had plenty of use and proved very handy when I want to quickly snow foam/rinse the cars when I can't get them near enough to the house to run a hose.

[psi310398]

aka_kerrly said:

There is also the Titan 18v from ScrewFix & Ebay for about £50-80 depending how many batteries you want. I bought a refurbished one about a year ago for £40. It's had plenty of use and proved very handy when I want to quickly snow foam/rinse the cars when I can't get them near enough to the house to run a hose.

I’d love to see Milwaukee do one of these in the M18 range.

[hairy v]

28% off Knipex VDE Tool box on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000Y8K4JU?smid=A3P5RO...

[TimmyMallett]

I'm not convinced that's that much of a bargain, I got 3 of those for £65 not long ago online. I wouldn't think a plastic box and the one you'd use least of all 4 (the weird wire cutter one) is worth an extra £30 let alone £70. Amazon's 'from' price is often a bit suspicious.


They are really nice though.

https://www.viking-direct.co.uk/en/knipex-three-pi...

Edited by TimmyMallett on Friday 2nd June 09:08

[DBPHiL]

psi310398 said:

aka_kerrly said:

There is also the Titan 18v from ScrewFix & Ebay for about £50-80 depending how many batteries you want. I bought a refurbished one about a year ago for £40. It's had plenty of use and proved very handy when I want to quickly snow foam/rinse the cars when I can't get them near enough to the house to run a hose.

I’d love to see Milwaukee do one of these in the M18 range.

I might try this Makita compatible one. At £24 I wonder how good it is!

https://www.onbuy.com/gb/portable-cordless-car-hig...

[wol]

Cold said:

...
Overall a satisfactory purchase and I was almost disappointed that I was using it to pump such a small quantity of oil. It took longer to set everything up than time spent actually pumping.

Perfect, thanks for the update.

I can't seem to find your original post about this, but was it this item from Amazon?:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/QWORK-Change-Extractor-Tr...

[stevensdrs]

stevensdrs said:

Sway said:

Tempted by the generator. We've got a marine aquarium and a power cut is my worst nightmare for killing all the corals.

I have ordered it as my 20 year old 2 stroke generator is on it's last legs. With this one being a 4 stroke machine I hope it will be more reliable and easier to start than the old one.

Well that turned out to be a poor decision. The box arrived and I could instantly tell by the layers of sellotape sealing the box that it had been opened before. When I opened the box it was obvious that it was not factory fresh and "quelle surprise" there was a part missing. The handle requires 2 bolts to attach it and there was only one in the box. Nothing was in polythene bags as you might expect it to be.

I sealed it up again and have, after a couple of attempts with customer service, received a return label. It is to be collected tomorrow so hopefully that will happen and I will get a refund in due course.

This has put me off ordering anything from Aldi online and in future I will stick to what is available instore.

As for the generator requirement, I will source a more expensive and higher power branded item.

[Craikeybaby]

DBPHiL said:

I might try this Makita compatible one. At £24 I wonder how good it is!

https://www.onbuy.com/gb/portable-cordless-car-hig...

Looks interesting. I have the Worx one, but the rest of my tools are Makita, so had to get one with 2x batteries and charger etc.

[Peanut Gallery]

stevensdrs said:

stevensdrs said:

Sway said:

Tempted by the generator. We've got a marine aquarium and a power cut is my worst nightmare for killing all the corals.

I have ordered it as my 20 year old 2 stroke generator is on it's last legs. With this one being a 4 stroke machine I hope it will be more reliable and easier to start than the old one.

Well that turned out to be a poor decision. The box arrived and I could instantly tell by the layers of sellotape sealing the box that it had been opened before. When I opened the box it was obvious that it was not factory fresh and "quelle surprise" there was a part missing. The handle requires 2 bolts to attach it and there was only one in the box. Nothing was in polythene bags as you might expect it to be.

I sealed it up again and have, after a couple of attempts with customer service, received a return label. It is to be collected tomorrow so hopefully that will happen and I will get a refund in due course.

This has put me off ordering anything from Aldi online and in future I will stick to what is available instore.

As for the generator requirement, I will source a more expensive and higher power branded item.

Dare I say I think for an aquarium I would be going for a battery UPS that covers the necessary things (pumps / air / maybe LED lights) - this will kick in straight away when the power goes, no noise, and the system can continue to run. After 24 hours when the temp of the tank drops, then use a generator to top up the UPS / run a heater / heavier pumps.

Just a thought! - if the power goes at 2am, I would not know, and don't think my neighbours would too impressed with a genny being started and then running continuously till the power is restored.

(If your aquarium is big enough for a standby generator, please proceed! - but yeah, an Aldi one wouldn't be big enough in that instance, sorry!)

[McGee_22]

Craikeybaby said:

DBPHiL said:

I might try this Makita compatible one. At £24 I wonder how good it is!

https://www.onbuy.com/gb/portable-cordless-car-hig...

Looks interesting. I have the Worx one, but the rest of my tools are Makita, so had to get one with 2x batteries and charger etc.

There are some immediate differences between that one and the Worx; the worx has a high and low pressure setting, has a nozzle head with (iirc) 5 different patterns/spray angles, has a longer lance and can be fitted with an angle before the nozzle to make wheel-arches/odd corners etc easily accessible.

I have full Makita kit too and hope they bring out their own hand held pressure washer but the Worx is really good for the money.

Oddly, that Makita compatible one doesn't say you can connect it straight to mains water pressure via a hose - again the Worx can.

[gareth_r]

I found a Makita battery to Worx tool adaptor on eBay.

[Cold]

wol said:

Cold said:

...
Overall a satisfactory purchase and I was almost disappointed that I was using it to pump such a small quantity of oil. It took longer to set everything up than time spent actually pumping.

Perfect, thanks for the update.

I can't seem to find your original post about this, but was it this item from Amazon?:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/QWORK-Change-Extractor-Tr...

Yes, that's the one.

[dickymint]

McGee_22 said:

There are some immediate differences between that one and the Worx; the worx has a high and low pressure setting, has a nozzle head with (iirc) 5 different patterns/spray angles, has a longer lance and can be fitted with an angle before the nozzle to make wheel-arches/odd corners etc easily accessible.

I have full Makita kit too and hope they bring out their own hand held pressure washer but the Worx is really good for the money.

Oddly, that Makita compatible one doesn't say you can connect it straight to mains water pressure via a hose - again the Worx can.

Fill yer boots...............

https://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/makita-dhw080zk-t...