Do you use all your tools?

[Pete2501]

Do you use all your tools or are you a collector that has mutiple types of the same tool. :no:

After reading Japanese Woodworking Tools by Toshio Odate I started finding myself more and more in my workshop :C (it's the garage with a wood work table).

I wish I could say I use all of my tools but the buiscut jointer under the work bench hasn't been plugged in yet. Most of my hand tools other than the 2 Western style hand planes(One given to me I'm trying to restore) I have are shown the attention they deserve.

I look forward to the day that I have a real workshop with many tools all of which I can use to the full potential.

[munruben]

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.

[Sturdee]

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.:D

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.:D


Peter.

[wheelinround]

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

[echnidna]

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

[Burnsy]

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:D

[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.

[BobL]

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.

[Sheets]

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

[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.
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!!:p) , 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:rolleyes:, 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!!:cool:

Cheers,

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

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. :p ) 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... :~)

[Caliban]

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.:D
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.

[Waldo]

There's not one tool I have used... :think: , 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) :U

[Pete2501]

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.

[big_gumbo]

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

["il" Marzio]

I use more or less 90% of the tools I have.
And the ones I have not yet used are mostly drill bits or auger bits that are part of a complete set.

[jimbur]

Use most of mine but like everyone else, some rarely. However, I've discovered the easiest way to find a lost tool is to buy a replacement and the original is bound to turn up by the next day.

[Sheets]

Jimbur said: "However, I've discovered the easiest way to find a lost tool is to buy a replacement and the original is bound to turn up by the next day."

But only after you've used the new one and you can't return it for a refund.

Steve

[jimbur]

Spot on Steve,
Jim

["il" Marzio]

Jimbur said: "However, I've discovered the easiest way to find a lost tool is to buy a replacement and the original is bound to turn up by the next day."

But only after you've used the new one and you can't return it for a refund.

Steve

Murphy's law applied to tool search :roll: