Thread: Do you use all your tools?

Good question. Actually, no I don't use all my tools, in fact I got tools I bought and never ever used them. A dovetail jig comes to mind. I bought that from Bunnings about 10 years ago and never used it. I also bought a biscuit joiner about 2 years ago and haven't used that either. I use the one I got for my Triton but not the hand held one. I got a Brace and bits and hardly use them but I know I should. I think you tend to have favourite tools and stick to them even though you may have a tool that will do the job better if you went to the effort to use it.

Also have a tap and die set that has never been used. Will come in handy one day. I very seldom use files either. so I guess when it comes to it there are a lot of things I don't use or only use occasionally.

Would be interested to know if others do the same or if they use all their tools.

Originally Posted by munruben

Would be interested to know if others do the same or if they use all their tools.

I only buy a tool when I have the need for it, so yes I have used all my tools.

But some only very infrequently, like files and rasps, cement sheet cutter or crowbar and sledgehammer.

BTW today I had to use my tap and die set, last used about 2 years ago, to help fix my daughter's car. So they come in usefull sometimes.


Peter.

I use what I need at the time some haven't been used for quite some time but then again other have sat idle are now being used

I keep buying tools that I might not use.
maybe I should start buying timber instead

I use all of my tools more often than my wife wears all of her shoes or uses all of her handbags - and some tools only get used once in a blue moon

I am a lot like sturdee only I dont have a die set. Would like to get my hands on a good set. Not the stuff they sell these days. I got cupboards full of stuff that WILL come in handy some time. The other day I made a flounder light out of an old plastic funnel and the extendable handle from an old window squigee. Works like a charm. Of course I had to buy the light.

Originally Posted by Pete2501

Do you use all your tools or are you a collector that has mutiple types of the same tool.

No and No.

I have a few tools and bits and pieces, some even in original packaging that have never been used, but I don't collect multiples.

Yes I do, but some tools were got for specific jobs and if I haven't repeated that job (or gone back to finish it, usually), those tools don't get used often. I don't collect tools in the classic sense, but I have more than one of the same type in a some instances (planes, chisels and saws - seems you can't have too many of some tools). I have a certain group of tools, as most people probably do, that I use regularly though.

Steve

Funny that this one is in "Japanese hand tools", do you mean tools that are made in Japan, or are we talking only trad Japanese woodworking tools?? From the responses so far I guess not! Good question anyway.
I don't really collect tools, like variations and models for display (eeek, I haven't got the 10 1/2, bit like train spotting!!) , if I have a tool in most cases its a user.
I have got a couple of tools that never get used, I guess I grabbed them at the time for the interest factor. Thinking here of a couple of worn-out woodies and the home made scroll saw from the dump...more shed decoration, of which I have many, and things like the corner mitre clamp made of cast alloy garbage out of the $2 box at Bunnies. There are a couple of tools that I have now which I went without for 15yrs or so working in the shed, and now I don't know how I went without, I use them that often: a gent's handsaw, and a couple things I made, like a whittling knife and a cats paw prybar.
As for the tap & die set, couldn't do without one, and not neccessarily for making threads from scratch. Really good for repairing threads, esp. when recycling hardware; or modifying threads (as in taking a stripped internal thread to the next size, esp. common on modern alloy components!) I also have a couple of thread files for quick repairs of external threads, and a thread chaser which alters to any pitch. This one sits in the top drawer of my metal work bench, and was one of those 'specials' that I bought expecting the worst, but has proved itself.
You can never have too many tools, even if it only gets used once!!

Cheers,

Hmmm... I don't buy any tool unless I believe that it'll see enough use to justify the purchase. (One reason I love Sunday Markets & Garage Sales. ) So all of my tools are users, even if they've only seen a couple of jobs.

This is not to say that I wouldn't like to be able to collect tools just for the hell of it. Au contraire, I'd love to! Alas, the treasurer doesn't see things that way. (Although I notice she collects bric-a-brac which has no apparent use apart from collecting dust and draining the bank account... )

Originally Posted by ernknot

I am a lot like sturdee only I dont have a die set. Would like to get my hands on a good set. Not the stuff they sell these days. I got cupboards full of stuff that WILL come in handy some time. The other day I made a flounder light out of an old plastic funnel and the extendable handle from an old window squigee. Works like a charm. Of course I had to buy the light.

Bloody sook, what sort of a do -it-yourselfer buys a light. couldn't you use a car headlight? There's shopping centre car parks full of them.
Seriously though, good on ya. I made all my underwater prawning lights from stormwater pipe, car headlights (5 1/2 " ones) and lots of silicon.
Always on the lookout for ways of recycling. Other people would say tight ar3e, but to each his own.

There's not one tool I have used... , hang on... a pipe bender, knife for cutting glass and a 6mm plug cutter but I will one day and know that's it's there for when I need it. (the only problem is never enough space for all the things you want - eg. a air comp', but I think I've sorted out a spot for it - oh and racks somewhere somehow for great whads of timber I want to someday get)

Originally Posted by Andy Mac

Funny that this one is in "Japanese hand tools", do you mean tools that are made in Japan, or are we talking only trad Japanese woodworking tools?? From the responses so far I guess not! Good question anyway.

Cheers Andy. Any tool will do but it was after reading Japanese Woodworking Tools that I got curious about people and their tools.

I recomend reading Japanese Woodworking Tools. It gave me a whole new outlook on how I view my tools.

i use all my tools because i only buy what i need