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Discussion That One Tool You Never Expected to Love… But Now Can’t Live Without it!

I can’t answer this because my work is so varied that a tool that I never use can be useful later on.

I have never been a fan of the Dremel type rotary tool. In about 1970 I received a Sears Lil Crafty rotary tool for Christmas. I quickly realized that it didn’t agree with me or I with it. It was too high speed for use with wire size drill bits and it could quickly damage wood, so I learned to work without it.

Over 50 years later I’m building a steamship with dozens of scratch built metal fittings made from various brass shapes and I find myself using the Lil Crafty.

Roger
 
Hoss6262 said:
ROTF I love this. As we know, for the most part, there is no correct answer to this question. While I completely respect Bryan's talents, I bought one of those 90-degree Dremel attachments, and I could not tell you where it is or that I have a clear memory of using it.

I would have expected more responses, but I have an idea, Jim. If you'd like to see a LOT of responses, ask, "What tools did you think you needed and bought and NEVER used?".ROTF I would guess this thread would still be getting responses to that question when Christmas rolls around.

This gives me an idea. I need to straighten out my shop, to better organize it logically, by function. I will ask myself the question for every item I come across: "Have I used this in the last 6 months?" Everyone, keep an eye on the tools, items "for sale" area of the forums ROTF, seriously.

One set of items I know will be on this list will be my Foredom, cable-driven rotary tools, including multiple handsets.... pennies on the dollar. ;) These are great tools, but with my Foredom micromotor, they are completely redundant.

This brings me to tool quality questions. While not the topic here, some things just puzzle the juices out of me. Here's the question. Why do my no-name $30 calipers have "auto on, auto off" capability to extend battery life, and my $180 Mitutoyo calipers don't? Life is just full of mystery.
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But I have tools I haven't used in 30-40 years! Why? Because I no longer work on cars/trucks. Things like ball joint separators, timing lights, dwell meter, torque wrenches....and much much more. It's just that I cannot make myself get rid of tools. Any tools. Maybe the auctioneer might soon enough.......
 
glennb17 said:
I think I would have gone with violin scrapes if @RickNoyes hadn't gotten to it first. But here's one that surprised me how often it comes out of the tool chest. It's a set of broaches. They were recommended by David Antscherl in his instructions for the kits he design from Model Shipways. A quick twist and you remove any surface material from a drill cut, a very clean look. And they can be used successively to get the hole diameter just right. You'll find other uses as well. As a bonus, they are pretty cheap. I bought round and square ones for gentle to aggressive approaches.
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I would like to put in a quick plug for a cheap jeweler's hand vise as well, another David Antscherl suggestion in a magazine article. It's great for hanging on to small parts while you file, cut, whatever. Dirt cheap too. When it comes to reducing the number of expletives used during model making, it's a force multiplier. I was an aspiring detail carver, but I have used this with way more stuff than that, surprisingly useful.
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Bought mine today. Ebay australia for approx.$20. The old paws are gettin a bit stiff and this should help greatly for the fiddly bits. Thnks for pointing it out Glenn
 
rtwpsom2 said:
STOOPID AI/SEARCH OPTIMIZATION!!!!! When Glen recommended broaches I went on amazon to get pricing but stupid amazon would return NOTHING but BROOCHES! No matter how I altered the search, even if I searched in specific categories like tools, it would take me back to brooches. I even went to google to look on amazon and it wasn't until like third or fourth page before I finally was linked to some broaches. I am so over AI and search optimization. /rant
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Here's a link: https://eternaltools.com/products/watchmakers-smoothing-broaches-set-060mm-2mm
Search for "set of smoothing broaches".
 
Pete Leach said:
I am not much into expensive tools. I use hand tools such as an XACTO(R) knife, sandpaper, tweezers, etc. Then I purchased an Ultimation Sander with a Repeater last year and I am not sure how I lived without it.

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The Ultimation disk sander looks really small and light. I have an older craftsman disk and belt sander that is effective, but takes up an enormous amount of space and weights all of 20 lbs. I may consider making a change to this smaller hobby sander.
 
Tytis said:
The Ultimation disk sander looks really small and light. I have an older craftsman disk and belt sander that is effective, but takes up an enormous amount of space and weights all of 20 lbs. I may consider making a change to this smaller hobby sander.
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I have a Proxxon disc sander that is small and light. It works pretty well. I kinda wish I had the Byrnes Model Machines one, it has a higher precision table, but I don't use the tilt on the table much at all.
 
Tytis said:
The Ultimation disk sander looks really small and light. I have an older craftsman disk and belt sander that is effective, but takes up an enormous amount of space and weights all of 20 lbs. I may consider making a change to this smaller hobby sander.
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I have a proxon power sander that works extremely well and takes up little space. It costs about $40 less.
 
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