Favorite tools...

[railfancwb]

What are your favorite tools? Not necessarily the biggest, most expensive, or even the most frequently used. And why?

I guess my favorite, or at least one in the top ten, is my powered hand plane for wood. Why? It changes the curing of a sticking door from a major PIA to a quick simple task. Usually it takes longer to vacuum the shavings than it did to make them. I do almost nothing else with this.

Another favorite is my Dremel hand grinder with the right angle adapter. This tool enlarges the latch opening in door jams and trims and cuts many metal items for me. I know it can be used for many more tasks than these, but they are what make it a favorite. Any other way to do these things would almost certainly take longer and be more complicated.

 

[Rbeckett]

MY favorite tool is my Power Max-1000 G3 Hypertherm Plasma cutter with 60 Amp machine torch. It is truly the original "Smoke Wrench" and will put one heck of a grin on your face that stays so long your face will hurt later. I love running it and watching it just gobble up plate like it is cutting butter at high speed. A laser is supposed to be even faster, but I don't see how any machine could get much faster than it is now... My second all time fave is my JD2 draw type tubing bender. Smooth and accurate bends make all the difference in the world on a roll cage and the JD does some nearly perfect bends everytime. And it saved a lot of waste which paid for this tool in it's first extensive project. Gotta love em both!!!

Bob

 

[jpfabricator]

My Dewalt 18 volt impact driver. Its with me on nearly every project.

 

[DMS]

This is a seemingly impossible question. It's like someone asking you what your favorite food is...

I have found a recent love for roughing endmills. Also, I recently discovered the joys of spiral point taps, and will never go back. And I can't forget my monarch...

Honestly, what tools aren't my favorite

 

[richl]

I purchased a 12 volt dewalt lion battery drill for my dad a couple years ago, he needed something lighternthan the heavier 18 volt version. I've been using it much of the summer, not as powerful asnthe bigger versions, and the battery runs down faster, but its light and fits in your hand easily... as tools go, its pretty cool:rofl:

I like my lathes and mill more by a long shot, but they are works in progress and the drill gets used most everyday.

rich

 

[samthedog]

Boy that's a tough one. I have tools I use all the time, and then tools that I really like but don't see as much use.

I would say that of all the tools I own I really dig my metal bandsaw. It's not that it does a ton of things or that it's a tool I use all the time. It's just that it is designed to do just 1 thing and it does that extremely well. When I need to use it, I save a lot of time which has already totalled hours (and I have only had it for 3 weeks).

Paul.