Worthless Tools Gallery. What Tools do you regret buying?

What tools do I regret buying? Most everyone of them that I cheaped out on or didn't stop to think how many of the old timers did things with out all the new trick must have....make that well marketed... widgets.
Purchase in haste,repent in leisure as they say.

Darrell
 
Ok I have been thinking. Finally it dawned on me. Back in the 70's I wanted to be able to weld and braze small stuff, but didn't have much $$. So I bought a Solid Ox welding kit. Propane tank with Oxygen pellets that you lit and put in a tube to feed the torch. Oh my what a piece of work. I did manage to do some good stuff with it, but it soon went to the recycle bin.

David
 
David S said:
So I bought a Solid Ox welding kit. Propane tank with Oxygen pellets that you lit and put in a tube to feed the torch. Oh my what a piece of work.
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I had the same setup. You had to weld or braze fast, because those oxygen pellets didn't last very long. They were expensive as heck, and the only way we could get them was by mail order. You could also use Mapp gas instead of propane, but that made it even more expensive. The aluminum pellet canister was prone to corrosion because of the heat and oxygen rich environment. Very nearly worthless. I had forgotten about it! You're right, that would have been around 1976 maybe.

GG
 
Top of the line Craftsman "Commercial" series router and 7" angle grinder (bought in the mid to late '70s). Both run unreasonably hot in a short time on light work. Relegated to a poor use of storage space these days.

More recently, a Harbor Freight Gear Driven Ring Roller (#36790) is a real POS. Incredibly poor parts quality. The holes don't line up in the front and rear plates (which should be identical parts. That means, among other things, that the rollers aren't parallel causing it to roll spirals rather than rings. I can't imagine that those plates aren't punched complete in one hit on a big press. Apparently they have more than one press working and they produce considerably different parts. Also, the adjustable link that carries the adjustable roller is a plastic part, which distorts in use, contributing to the 'spiral' output. Rated at 3/16 x 1" capacity. I would suggest much less, maybe 1/8 x 1" would be OK. There were chunks of swarf stuck (really stuck) to the gears. The first one I bought had such obvious run-out of the rollers that I bought another, mixed & matched parts for best fit, and returned the unused set (I hope you didn't buy it). The unit is more of a project than a tool.
 
The most worthless tool was not the one I bought, but a two legged one that walked into my shop. My neighbor had an odd assortment of tools that he used to work on his pickup. He was of the ram-jam brute force type of mechanic. After he came into my shop, he immediately picked up a micrometer of mine. I watched him with consternation as he fiddled with the mike and then handed it back to me closed, all the while explaining what a fine machinist that he was. I then explained to him that no one touches any of my tools without my permission. I also explained to him that he just proved to me that he was full of it. Strange, he ended up being upset with me. Oh well. if one lends and is able to get a tool back from a guy like that, it would end up being worse than useless. Mark
 
silence dogood said:
The most worthless tool was not the one I bought, but a two legged one that walked into my shop. My neighbor had an odd assortment of tools that he used to work on his pickup. He was of the ram-jam brute force type of mechanic. After he came into my shop, he immediately picked up a micrometer of mine. I watched him with consternation as he fiddled with the mike and then handed it back to me closed, all the while explaining what a fine machinist that he was. I then explained to him that no one touches any of my tools without my permission. I also explained to him that he just proved to me that he was full of it. Strange, he ended up being upset with me. Oh well. if one lends and is able to get a tool back from a guy like that, it would end up being worse than useless. Mark
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At the risk of sounding as useless as your neighbor, may I ask the reason why handing the micrometer back closed proved that he is not a machinist?

Must admit I just leave mine in whatever measurement I last used it in.

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atunguyd said:
At the risk of sounding as useless as your neighbor, may I ask the reason why handing the micrometer back closed proved that he is not a machinist?

Must admit I just leave mine in whatever measurement I last used it in.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
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Good question. It was explained to me about 50 years ago by my shop teacher. Always put a 0 reading (like 0 to 1) mic away with it open a bit, (maybe 0.025 or so) so that if the temperature changes, the mic won't expand and spring the mic frame. There may be other reasons to do it also, but I'm not aware of them. But every machinist I know leave their mics open a bit. It just seems to be the right thing to do. Leaving it open further than 0.025 would be fine, like you I normally leave mine where I last measured, but just not 0.
 
Thanks guys. So in my case my laziness is a good thing. I have a Starrett mic that I bought from a pan broker (who did not know the real value) and came with calibrated 25mm ring and no case. I have always kept the calibrating ring sandwiched between the mic's jaws so as not to lose it. I may now change that practise.

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