A BFH and a lock to lock your shit up, the wife and ankle biters will lose your stuff quickly

I appreciate the suggestions. I got a lot of good ideas.

I have a bunch of these magnetic parts tray:
https://m.harborfreight.com/4-...arts-tray-90566.html

Sometimes they give them away.

A good pair of dykes.

Thermal imager & an endoscope.

Drill/driver, impact good to have. You might want to look at Rigid brand brushless 20V Ion-lithium tools. Plenty of power and recently I saw where they're claiming life time warranty.

Chapman screwdriver set
Small flashlight
A really good (Snap-on,Mac etc) #2 phillips
screwdriver
3/8"drive 15-85ish ft-lb torque wrench
Standard & metric extended ball allen sockets

A good torx set. Goodgoddamm the BMW is full of the little bastards.

Tapered drills. Tapered screws like them.
A level that lights up the bubbles.
An electrical copper pipe heater to solder with out flame.
Teflon tape.

A way to heat and cool your shop or garage so you can use your tools during extreme weather.

A few metal files and a wood rasp?

And a combo pack of assorted sandpaper grit sizes?

Do you have a hacksaw? Helpful hint: I use a hacksaw blade to cut/tear sandpaper. When you just need a quarter sheet to use, fold the sandpaper in half and quarters, then use a hacksaw blade to hold it down and grab the other edge to sort of tear it along the serrated edge. This makes a nice clean cut edge, never use a knife or scissors to cut sandpaper.

Oh, if you get a piece of safety glass, roughly 12x12, from a glass shop, you can wet a piece of wet-dry sandpaper, and place it on the glass. (The glass will be pretty much darn near perfectly flat for sharpening purposes). This is a good way to sharpen cutting edges. Look for grit as low as 600 grit and finer, 1,000 grit and finer. Don't do this with regular wood sanding sandpaper, make sure you get the wet kind, Home Depot and Lowes has it as well as any hardware store.

Have fun, enjoy, be safe.

If you don't already have the tool you need for the job at hand go out and buy one. The next time you need it you will have it. After buying the tools you need at the time you need them you will accumulate all the tools you will ever need. And won't be buying tools you don't need.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
All you really need is an old butterknife and some cheap, shitty, slip joint pliers. And duct tape. Use the heel of your shoe as a hammer, if the pliers aren’t heavy enough.

At least that’s what my Bride’s tool box had in it.

My wife swears by Gorilla tape instead of regular duct tape. We have several steak knives with bent tips, and a nutcracker makes an acceptable pair of channel locks. But she has now discovered my garage and my big vise, so I keep an eye out that the tools are being used properly (e.g., using a wood file on metal). Lots of good suggestions otherwise.
 

those bladed pvc cutters are marvelous. Spend the money, at least $25 and get a good one. Husky at HD has a good one.

Scratch awl

quote:

Originally posted by two-two-niner-romeo:
One of my favorite tools for working in tight spaces is this Husky Microdriver set from Home Depot. The quality is every bit as good as Snap-On for about a tenth of the price:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hu...WMD16PCSAE/202934673

I could have used one of those a few times this summer. I ordered one online today, the wife picked it up.

Not the same as pictured. HD carries two variations, one with a pivoting head and round handle, the other with flat handle, thumb wheels and connections at both ends (the one I wanted), same price.

Even HD can't explain why the store SKU# is the same for both items, the internet# is different.

round handle

flat handle

Safety glasses very important.

sometimes you just need a great big hammer.

quote:

Originally posted by Greymann:
Safety glasses very important.

And for us old farts, bifocal safety glasses are now available.

This thread reminded me of something I've been meaning to get - those steel auto body shaping blocks. They go behind metal you are trying to beat back into shape.

Like these
https://www.walmart.com/ip/7-P...yEAQYAyABEgK5UfD_BwE