Letting go

[matthewsx]

For the past three and a half years my wife and I have been living apart for much of the year.

No, we're not getting divorced, we're just selling our Michigan home and consolidating into our (much smaller) place here in Santa Cruz. She's been there for a few weeks going through stuff, getting ready for an estate sale. I'm headed back in a week to get my stuff in order.

We're planning on bringing everything we want to keep in a small U Haul box and her car.

So, we're letting go of most of the stuff we accumulated there, plus many things moved from Arizona and California before that.

For me that includes the bulk of tools and machines I acquired through running my karting business and repair shop, literally tons of stuff.

I'll be posting more here, and on my for sale thread:

Any tips would be appreciated since I'm one of those "never sell your tools" kinda guys. If you've been through this what did you get rid of you wished you'd kept and what did you keep that you could have done without.

Fortunately, I've spent the last few years building up my shop here with the knowledge of what I had before and some idea of what I want to do going forward. There are a few specialized tools I'm not going to part with, but mostly I have duplicates of things in either place.

Thanks,

John

 

[Martin W]

Sounds exciting!
The end of one chapter , begins a new chapter. Unless you are at the epilogue! Which I’m sure you’re not Lol.
Im a firm believer that whatever you sell now, you can always buy again. Sometimes that is where all the fun comes in. The hunt for new tools
It’s also a good way to find out what you really need vs what you can do without.
Cheers
Martin

 

[C-Bag]

I’m with Martin. You are so good at finding deals and you are in one of the major areas for machine tools that are really suited for the hobby machinist. I had to get rid of a bunch of stuff when we moved here and I let probably 90% of it go. I looked at it that that 90% didn’t owe me anything because I wasn’t doing that kind of work anymore an it had paid for itself long ago. Lots of people got screaming deals and we were both happy. Moving sux, but it really cuts down on the clutter.

 

[projectnut]

Wow!!! You're traveling light. We just finished cleaning out the single car garage at the cottage so it can be rebuilt. It was originally built in the 1930's out of whatever was left over at the time. With nearly 100 years of service, it's seen its better days. We managed to fill 2 U-Boxes to the brim, took a tractor and trailer to the neighbors, put some tools in the boat house and more in the basement. We gave away a chipper/shredder and a mower and still there are still a few pieces of equipment setting under the deck. We did manage to take half a ton of junk to the local transfer center for disposal and recycling.

I couldn't imagine surviving on the tools and equipment that could be stored in a single U-Box. Like you I'm in the "never sell any tools" category. On the other hand, I've never purchased any that I didn't intend to use on a regular basis. I would have a hard time parting with a tool knowing that most likely in a week or a month I would want to use and have to buy it all over again. Add to that the perfectly good tool I just sold would now cost me double or triple what I originally paid and would often times a lesser quality tool.

If there's still time to reconsider, and if you have a vehicle that can tow 5,000 lbs. or more, I would rent their trailer that holds 2 U-boxes and tow it to your new destination. The U-Boxes here cost $70.00 a month and there's no additional charge for the trailer. In our case it was cheaper than renting a storage unit large enough to hold everything. Maybe it's not too late to rethink the plan and save having to repurchase thousands of dollars' worth of tools at California prices.

 

[Deleted member 69715]

"Sell the tools you've had for years and buy new later."
That's what it sounded like. I'll share my drivel about that...
I'm 74. When I was 10-12 years old I went to the local Western Auto when we went to town and brought a SK 1/2" drive socket set with ratchet, extensions and a breaker bar. Used them professionally and on my own stuff to this day. Never broke any of them. Until a couple of years ago. Snapped the 1/2" drive end right off the breaker bar.
SK honored the life time warranty and replaced it with another. Over the winter I snapped the 1/2" drive end off on a 7/8" nut torqued to 80 ft.lbs. previously.
Moral of the story is you may buy tools again but you might never replace them.

 

[C-Bag]

Moral of the story is you may buy tools again but you might never replace them.

You make a really good point that is true about hand tools. Most of what I buy is used as far as machine tools.

 

[jwmay]

Get rid of anything you can replace. The only thing I ever sold and regretted was a Grizzly G4002. I think I’ll always regret that. They don’t make it anymore, and mine was pristine. Sigh…

 

[matthewsx]

My shop here is packed already so no room for most of the things in MI.

I have a better lathe here, a baby knee mill, grinders, sanders, welders, lots of hand tools, measuring tools, carbide and HSS bits, and a few other pieces like a cold saw and die filer.

So, it's not like I'll be trying to replace stuff that I never had at the other shop.

Things I know I'll ship, my Hilco sharpener, reamers, specialized engine building tools, bearing pullers, some measuring tools, and maybe my dad's old bandsaw.

I really have bought better here than I had in the past, mostly because it was available locally and I knew better what I would use.

I'll start posting pictures when I get back there next week, and if anyone wants to come for the sale I'm sure stuff will be going cheap.

John

 

[wayback machine]

I couldn't imagine surviving on the tools and equipment that could be stored in a single U-Box

This made me think of something - OT, and nothing to do with metalworking, but just to illustrate a point -
I knew a guy that built a 26' catamaran - When I went to see the boat as it neared completion, I looked around the building, and asked where his tools were.
He pointed to a cardboard box in the corner, containing a circular saw, saber saw, a drill, and a couple hand tools - Those, a pile of wood, and a couple drums of epoxy, and he created a pretty decent looking boat, that he sailed to the Bahamas and the Caribbean last I heard.
Just sayin'

 

[C-Bag]

This made me think of something -

My grandfather worked on IH corn binders for 40yrs mostly harvesters and crawlers. I was out visiting him and he said his alt belt was slipping and could I tighten it up for him. I asked where his tools were and he told me out in the garage. His old 3 drawer rollaway was in the corner and I opened it and each drawer had a sparse collection of bent wrenches, bars and hammers. I asked where the rest were? They are all there he said….WTH? I went and got my emergency kit I kept in my car and tightened his belt. My grandfather was originally a blacksmith. His service truck had a OA torch, compressor and welder along with his “toolbox”. Now how he rebuilt crawler transmissions and the hydrostatics on harvesters in situ with that setup I’ll never know.