What is the most useless tool you still own?

[echnidna]

My 1/4" bosch router must be it. its about 5 years old and only been used for about 6 hours, its total crap.

[DarrylF]

A B&D Mouse sander - it sits absolutely still on the surface of the wood while the hand holding it vibrates like hell. Bloody useless, worse than that - bloody painful :)

[ozwinner]

A B&D Mouse sander - it sits absolutely still on the surface of the wood while the hand holding it vibrates like hell. Bloody useless, worse than that - bloody painful :)
You Dill, youve got it upside down. :D

Al

[bitingmidge]

Ahhh you choose:-

1) B&D 3/8" drill used with saw attachment to do the first reno in the early '70's. Bushes are shot, switch is dodgy haven't used it for twenty years, but hold onto it just in case I come across another one that's burnt out and can pirate the parts....how sad is that?

2) My rug tufting tool. Sort of like a freehand sewing machine for pulling rug wool through hessian. Hand looped rugs were all the go in 1970, before we discovered there were 3 year old kids in Turkey doing it much better and in dire need of exploitation.

3) My 22" scroll saw. Bought cheaply 5 or 6 years ago with some parts missing (found during rubbish disposal, taped inside the bottom flap of the box!!). Perfect condition, as featured on page 22 of the current Timbecon catalogue....NEVER USED IT!! (Would sell to good home ;) )

Cheers,

P

[DarrylF]

You Dill, youve got it upside down. :D

Al
I actually thought that too, so I tried it the other way up, but it just made a nasty buzzing sound and lots of little dings in the wood. Actually, it hurt less that way - maybe that's what you're supposed to do with it?? :confused:

Either way, it sleeps with the spiders & the cats in the garden shed now, to be seen again only during the next great shed cleanup.

[ozwinner]

My Arbotech power chisel is like tits on a bull, fricken useless.

If you use it for more than 1 minute you end up with dead finger, the fingers go all dead and numb, and you have this awful tingley feeling in you hand for about 1 hour after.
I even put a foam stubbie holder around the angle grinder to try to minimize the vibration.
The second most useless is the GMC grinder that came with the Arbotech power chisel.

Al :(

[Dion N]

My most useless tool is a a flat piece of aluminium plate that my Dad cut and bent to help replace circlips on the window winders of my first car, a 72 HQ Belmont ute. The ute was written off in 98, but I still have the "tool" in my tool box - no idea when it might come in handy........In terms of "real" tools, it would have to be the glass cutter I bought today a a garage sale. I have no immediate use for it and no plans to cut glass in the future, but at the princely sum of $1, I just couldn't refuse. :D

[Theva]

My collection of useless tools and accessories

1) Arbotech power chisel and associated tradesmen’s pack of chisels.

2) Set of hole saws, the one with detachable / clip on saw blades; long gone with garbage.

3) Some “quick clamp / vice” of sorts (yellow & black with wide jaws).

4) Plastic bucket with orange lid, suppose to be a dust collector, mmm, it is collecting dust alright :D :D .


Regards,

Theva

[Ben from Vic.]

It would have to be my portable-craft-drill-press-thing.
Very much like the one Carba-tec have in their catalogue, except mine doesn't tilt.
Even without the tilt there is so much play between the sliding collar that holds the drill, and the poles that it slides on, that there's a good 5mm wobble at the end of the drill bit. And it's imposible to hold the thing still. :(

Ben.

[vsquizz]

Medalist 7 piece 100mm engineers vice. Second time I used it it converted from a 2 piece unit to a 7 piece unit. Anybody want some cast iron ??

[E. maculata]

"1) B&D 3/8" drill used with saw attachment to do the first reno in the early '70's. Bushes are shot, switch is dodgy haven't used it for twenty years, but hold onto it just in case I come across another one that's burnt out and can pirate the parts....how sad is that?"
Actually really really, sad........Laughing my butt off here cause, Yep I got its twin brother in the bottom of the power tool cupboard in pieces, although it only had the front bush beggered, can't bear to part with it as it was my first very own power tool.......I was 15.

Bruce C

[Grunt]

My Ryobi 7.5v Guttless Drill. It does have a cord either. Use it for 10 minutes and it needs recharging, which takes 3 hours. Also, 1 of them hole saws as mentioned before. Took 3 charges of the above to cut through 12mm of hardwood.

[Shane Watson]

argh man, there are too many but the first that comes to mind is them cheapish taiwanese dovetail jigs. :eek:
Those cheap drill powered drill bit sharpeners are fairly useless as well.
I'll add more as I think about em.....

[journeyman Mick]

My @#%&!!* radial arm saw. I've had it since '91 and it still hasn't paid for itself. :mad:

Mick
(PS anyone up this way, well actually anywhere that's interested in buying a RAS, send me a PM)

[spbookie]

Gotta be the worst useless collection of chisels made mostly, from the way they hold their edges, from lead and old chewing gum.

Cut me more often than the wood, I still keep them to remind me of the delights in store when I try to save money by buying cheap tools.

[Ian007]

A set of sidcrome hole punches
got them as part of a set of tools 22 years ago and have never used one of them :o

[Iain]

Ozito belt sander, the belt has burnt through the case because I can't get it to sit still.
GMC linisher, soon as you get serious it just pulls up, swear I could stop it with the palm of my hand but won't try.
Cheap chisels, good for the first slice then buggered.
Cheap router bits, burn their way through.
Probably a few other things if I go and have a good look.
Garage sale coming up soon.

[Gumby]

Those cheap clamps you get from Bunnings. Put on the pressure and they just slide along the bar..........*&*())*)(*%^$%$ useless !

[outback]

This thread should have been started a cou[le of days earlier. I've just finished the freat shed clean up. Two trailer loads to the tip later and I'm not sure what my most useless tool is, I'll need a couple of weeks to wonder why I didn't throw ***** in the tip when i was cleaning.
BUT
I reckon the most useless one I did hae was a wet/grinder sharpener thingy.

You clamped it to a bench, (which didn't work) filled the resovoir with water (which leaked) Hooked on a drill as a power source (but ya couldn't cause of the clearance between it and the sharpener and the bench) set your chisel/blade in the supplied jig, (which would'nt hold it) and sharpened it to a "razor sharp edge".

Hell I can't think why I threww that out. :confused:

[goodwoody]

undefinedMy Brother!!!!!!

[Shane Watson]

Oh yeah, and then theres the level thats not actually level but still gets used....just flip it over and get the bubble somewhere in that happy median... :D

[Driver]

One of those Taiwanese dovetail jigs. In fact it's so useless that I even forgot to list it in the thread where we listed all our tools.

I've had two goes at using the bloody thing and given up in disgust both times. It's had one useful benefit, though: it persuaded me to try to handcut dovetails and I've consequently learnt something useful.

Col

[Zed]

a neighbour once gave me an old metal cupbard which I found a hand chisel that had a curve in it - It looks like a (very) short lathe roughing gauge. The interesting thing is the bevel was on the outside of the chisels - opposite to a lathe roughing gauge - so I spent the afternoon one day grinding it down so that the bevel was on the customary side. sharpened it to a razor edge and since that time (at least 20 yrs) it has sat in my chisel roll and never been used. WOFTAM it is and WOFTAM it will probably stay forever more - if anyone can tell me what its for I'l hit 'em with some rep points for thier trouble.

cheers

[outback]

Cear Zed,
Excuse my ignorance, I'mnot sure what WOFTAM means, you may need to PM me to avoid the censor god if I'm any judge.

I think your chisel is a reverse gouge. It's used on backwards lathes for the inside of stuff. :D :p :cool:

[bob w]

:( About 5 years ago I bought a must have piece of crap at a clearance sale. It is a "table saw" with a drill mounted horizontally to drive it. Take the table off and you can "use" it as a wood lathe. Lift the frame to the vertical and you have a drill press. Well as a saw or lathe it's a crock as the drill doesn't have the grunt to drive it, and in order to have your work at a comfortable height in the saw/lathe function when its lifted to the vertical it's too bl**dy low to use as a drill press. I've kept it with an ides of mounting a real electric motor under it one day but as I have a real table saw and lathe now it will probably go to the tip "one day"

[stevepay]

I've got a few of these, what's the old saying it seemed like a good idea at the time!!!!!

1) drill powered liquid pump....don't ask
2) bench pro 2000.....I must be a salesmans wet dream.
3) ryobi hammer drill that self destructed when used on hammer action.
4) old Falcon hand plane thats broken that I got in a deal with a level thats not correct.
5) one of those sets of hand tools for putting the brass rings on tarps which I never use because its easier to buy a new tarp than repair old one and generaly by the time I need to replace the rings the tarp has pretty much had it.
6) those miniture sets of screw drivers for glasses etc...I don't even wear glasses!
7) one of those really cheap dovetail guides for routers that I accidently routed a couple of fingers off, not my fingers the guide's. then I read the instructions.

8) and finally......the winner....350, yes 350 glass jars that I had always intended to put all my little odds and ends and nuts and bolts etc.. in.I got them for 10 cents each several years ago.
I have at last count approx 310 empty jars stacked up in my shed along with some old baby food jars and cofee jars.

please tell me there is hope for me... :(

[Zed]

woftam - waste of f% time and money.

[Backyarder]

I have one of those levels you are talking about. The bubble never actually sits in the middle it's either left or right and no in-between. It's was so frustrating. But my most useless tool is etc mouse sander that was half price. It vibrates like hell but doesnt actually sand anything. No wonder it was half price.

[silentC]

I've got loads of tools that I rarely, if ever, use. I don't call them useless because they do have a use, it's just not a use that is useful to me. I've tried to avoid buying gimicky tools or cheap rubbish. I do have a B&D Mouse sander which is rarely out of it's box but it was useful once for sanding the glazing strips on a cedar sliding door.

However, I once made the most useless tool in someone else's toolbox. When I was a kid doing metalwork at school, I turned up a nail punch, which I painted a lovely two-tone black and gold and presented to my Grandfather for his birthday.

A year or so later, I found it on his bench with the end all burred over. I didn't know anything about tempering and hardening and had given it to him as it came off the lathe. He'd tried to punch some nails with it, with obvious results. He never said anything about it though. It disappeared - no idea where it is now.

[barnsey]

I've still got the Skil jig saw attachment that used to fit the drill - 70's vintage. The drill long since departed this world but I've still got the attachment. Be bloody handy if I ever find a use for it!!! :D

[Zed]

outback my chisel is chisel size/length/dimension - would a lathe gouge be this short ? seems a tad small... anyway its still woftam to me. :D

tried to give you some points but i gotta spread the lovin' 'for I can give you more...

[silentC]

Zed, it just sounds like a carving gouge to me. I've got a set of them. Some have the bevel on the inside, some on the outside. It just depends on whether it's intended for concave or convex work.

They also make miniature turning tools for turning pens etc. but I don't think that's what it is.

[himzol]

My teenage son,

Good looking boy, however not the sharpest tool in the shed and requires kick starting to get anything done.

[LineLefty]

For me it would be the home made tail vise I jury rigged. It's still there but only becuase I can't be stuffed taking it apart.

[Rocker]

The Stanley hand-drill I got from Bunnings; it kept jamming in use, so, thinking it might just be a lemon, I got another one; same thing. At last after four years of frustration, have got a decent hand-drill (a Schroeder), which doesn't jam at all. Relief at last.

Rocker

[Frenchie]

There is no such thing as a useless tool. As soon as you get rid of something considered useless, there is always a situation that would be handled better if you had not thrown it away.

I had a variable speed Ryobi impact drill and found out when I had some concreting work carried out that the "impact" action was near to ineffective as you could get :( . The grano guy's used a kanga hammer and drilled about 20 14mm dia holes in about 5 minutes :cool: to my one hole that gave the drill a heart attack and got too hot to hold :eek: . After I had replaced it and thrown the old bugger out, the new drill was only two speed, not variable, and when mixing paint it become a spray painter. Useless I think not, just not appreciated. :rolleyes:

[HappyHammer]

I like SilentC's philosophy that tools aren't useless just unused although some of mine come close to the line as well;

1) I have the B&D mouse. After using it the first time I thought I was having a heart attack as I couldn't make the pins and needles go away and then I lost feeling in my thumb completely. The feeling returned and the mouse was banished back into its hole.
2) I nearly wet my pants when I read Stevepay's description of his glass jars. Mine are precariously kept in various locations and most are heinz salad cream jars which even if I put something in them, which I don't, are too slim for me to get my fat fingers in so I end up tipping them onto the bench.....oops forgot I said I didn't fill them...anyway....
3) I have several items that were just too cheap not to buy, I'm a sucker for the $1 and $2 bins at Bunnies. I recently went to Bunnies to buy a "6" and a "1" for a new post box I'm building. I found the numbers, a six foot crow bar, mattock, metal pole for post box and a new tool belt when I found the bins at near the exit. Also near the exit is the power tool section so after buying the following for a dollar, various hinge sets, a couple of padlocks I could chew through, a sponge, cheap brushes I tell myself I'll dispose of (Just thought of number 4), a framing vise that my 3 year old could cross thread, some other stuff and finally a $1 can of christmas snow that will go nicely next to the box of 600 fairy lights I'll be hiding in November.
4) The one use I have for the jars is to fill them with meths and leave dirty paint brushes in them until the meths evaporates and the brush is welded to the bottom at which point I have the dilemma of which bin to put them in (Bottles or Rubbish?)

To complete the bunnies story I end up in the power tools section to get some advice on how to adjust the height on my Ryobi router in my Triton workcentre and walk out with the height adjuster for my triton saw and a new Triton router which was of course the only solution. Then when the bank statement comes my wife wants to know why two numbers cost $700 and I try some feeble warbling about the 11 things I bought for a dollar....

I'm sure I have more but I'm exhausted just thinking about that lot.....

HH