Tool wish you kept

[george wilson]

jjr 2001: your Sears vise WAS made by Palmgren back them. Sears rebadged several Palmgren products. Vises,rotary tables,for example.

 

[Bill Gruby]

I miss my Left-Handed Smoke Shifter the most. :lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:

"Billy G"

 

[Round in circles]

After becoming crippled for the second time in my life just over 20 years ago I had to sell up our small farming set up & move into a big city nearer the shops , doctors & hospitals etc. .

The down sizing saw us move from a 2 double bed dwelling built in 1864 along with the new railway line , now an ex railway gate keepers crossing house , moving into a 10 yr old modern 6 mtr x 7 mtr one bed bungalow as there were no steps and the locality fairly all flat.

Amongst the thousands of £ pounds worth of tools I had to sell off a was a rock solid beech framed butchers block stand that had had the chopping block planed smooth and was covered in a 1/4 inch steel plate it stood 40 inches tall & was brill for taking heavy engines /gearboxes etc.apart on , as well as for use as a welding bench , mounted at one end was a fantastic quality 6 inch RECORD parma steel vice ( it took two beefy guys to move it ) . Another thing I also let go was a water cooled hand held spot welding machine & an underpowered 1920's small metal lathe ( not screw cutting ) of unknown origin ... more of a conversation piece than a useful lathe

I'd love the vice and spot welder again as I now have a made from 2.5 " x 1/4 thick square aluminium tubed ex butchers chopping block stand .. it would only be a few pounds to buy scaffold planks to in fill where the block was and then plate it in a1/4 ms plate with a reinforced inset angle iron edge that is level /flush with the plate so it can take " a bit of wellie "

The spot welder is obvious it's one of those things that you never miss if you have never had one, but once you've had one for a dozen or so years and used it a lot there is a big hole in the new rationalised tool kit .

 

[extropic]

I had a beautiful 2" tool makers vise that was made by my father-in-law. I've never seen a small vise quite like it. When my ex-wife moved out, she took the vise with her.

I plan to make my own this winter but I have to work from memory. I really miss that vise.

Was your ex-wife a machinist too? :lmao::lmao::lmao:

 

[Fabrickator]

I recently sold my old 25 YO Campbell Hausfield air compressor that I bought it from JCPennys! Anyome old enough to remember when they sold tools like Sears?

It was really tired and needed rebuilding and it was cheaper to buy a new Taiwan one from HF. The main reason I opted to change was it was horizontal tank and I really needed a vertical due to limited space.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

can l change the concept a bit, to tools l wish l had brought?
when l brought my craftsman 103.xxxxxx 150 drill press for $45.00,
he had a power hack saw, probably a craftsman too, for $25.00.
Didn't think I had the room, (I didn't, but that never stopped me before) didn't think I'd use it much.
Wish I had brought it.
I had my hands on it does that count?

I wish I had bought dozens of '60s muscle cars in the late 70s, during the gas crisis. Many good GTO, Camaro, Firebird, etc. could be had for less than 1000$. I would have long been retired.

But back on tools that I wish I bought: It doesn't bother me too much because I'm very conservative about tools that I buy. Mainly because I don't want to take a beating if I had to sell out and I would go broke real fast if I bought all the tools that I wanted.