Ok fess up who here is a hand, power tool hoarder?

I certainly hope so.

All the pro mechanic I know have a box about the size one one of this top/bottom units, maybe a bit larger.

 

I remembered this thread from a while back, time to give it some life again. I went to two estate sales over the summer. One was a gentleman who passed away and the family was selling off his possessions. They basically set up tables and unloaded all his shelves onto them. He had everything in bins labeled and sorted. He had several rolling tool chests that were rolled out that you could pick through. The family said fill a bin for $10.00 with whatever you could carry in it. Here is what I got.



Most of the people picking were looking for something in particular. I should not tell everyone this, but I passed up about 10 different vise grips pliers, a few air driven impact drivers, welding rods, etc. I did not have an immediate use for them. I am not into flipping/selling tools, but just get what I could use. I personally thanked the family members and gave them $20.00 for the bin, which was still low but I felt better about it. Here is what I ended up with.



The ratchet on the left in the center is a Champion Plugmaster 2 with articulated head. No slop in the neck and it is from the 1960's from some quick research based on the model #. The vise grips are knock offs, I gave an extra bolt-on one to my dad. There is a large pair of Channel lock pliers that I have at work now that we use to loosen PVC unions. The fishtail gouges in the top left from American Machine and Tool I found on Ebay that sold for just over $150.00, for the three piece set. I use ball peen hammers for iron forging and copper work.

The other estate sale was the next street over from me where I picked up 15 feet of chain for 5 bucks. I am going to use it to chain my anvils to their wood bases. I did pick up a Coleman stove that looks like a lamp base with the pot grid on it. That was 5 bucks also. This tool hoarding is addicting.

 

Pete, the screw wrench or "monkey wrench" is a L. Coes from Worcester, MA. They made the first monkey wrenches. Circa 1890. I have a smaller 12" version of it. The larger has initials stamped in it. It must have been someone's pride in their work box.

 

Guilty!!

Where do I even start.

Collecting power tools is fun isnt it?

DeWalt20v set (hammer drill, impact, skill, sawsall, flashlight), and all the corded tools - skillsaw, jigsaw, drill, sawsall, dremel multimaster clone, dremel, biscuit cutter, router kit, orbital sander, detail sander, etc.. About half I bought, half Dads hand me downs.




Top of that bend has more power tools, and the wall of various hand tools including oddball stuff like electricians boring bits pop riveter, the old hand drill I inherted from Catherines grandfather.




More power tools out in the garage I havent even found good places for yet, more hand me down from Dad. thanks Dad

 

The garage also has the IR compressor I got this year, dads hand me down framing nailer and all the auto tools, floor jack, grandpas antique bench grinder etc. Not pictured is the wall of yard garden and woodcutting tools.

 

Back to the basement, here is where I keep all the painting tools, masonry stuff, the colllection of putty knives, paint scrapers, etc. Doing a lot of old house restoration very sharp paint scrapers and a couple of putty kniives I keep mirror polished for window glazing are some of the most useful I have.

You can also see one of 3 shop vacs that are around and my small collection of plumbing tools... Nothing interesting there except a couple large pipe wrenches I got for breaking the pipes loose on old steam radiators.

 

Electrical.

I managed to fit all my electricians tools into this little bag. Pretty standard stuff, all the electrical is on one side and the other side is data. I wired the house for data when we moved in so I invested in a good quality (Paladin) set of the proper cutters and crimpers for coax and CAT5. Also some inexpensive but very useful things like a breaker finder and a cat 5 data outlet tester. I keep the stud and wire finder in the electrical bag to check before drilling holes in the wall.



And here are the electronics tools for working on my vintage HiFi. Most of this stuff is vintage as well... big thing on the floor is a 1950s Hickok vacuum tube tester.. Ebay find and it works, my Dad made the custom case. Scope was my Dads when he worked for the Telcos. The other stuff, old VTVM, signal tracer and various I inherited from my wifes grandfater who was a Army radio tech in WWII then worked 50 years in electrical at GE.

 

And then there is the hobby tools.

Main bench has all kids of mini hand tools, mini wire and tubing forming tools, and tons of various clamps, sanding tools shapers, knives. About 15 different kinds of glue. All kinds of small rulers, squares, angle gauges and various measuring tools.




Cutting bench, with various micro version of typical woodshop tools - like a micro miter box that uses a hand razor saw.



clamps hanging from the ceiling... I need more.




And then we have a bunch of specialized hobby tools you wouldnt use for anything else. Bonus points if you can guess what all of these are for

 

It sure is
Have Tools, will get er done

 

Holy cow Pete. Nice set up