What is your favourite tool?

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#3230614 15-May-2024 08:20

Cheap drill bits are a curse. I was attempting to ream out a hole in a metal gate and naturally the bit snapped off in the hole. So now I need to drill out a drill bit and it's not being cooperative.

Ge0rge

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#3230622 15-May-2024 08:34

johno1234:
Cheap drill bits are a curse. I was attempting to ream out a hole in a metal gate and naturally the bit snapped off in the hole. So now I need to drill out a drill bit and it's not being cooperative.

May I suggest a hammer and a punch? It is often easier to get the drill bit to shatter and chip pieces off it than drill it out.

johno1234

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#3230625 15-May-2024 08:40

There's not much there to hit - it's flush with the metal. I think I'll need to get a self centering carbide or diamond bit for this job.

Sigh. Another trip to the hardware store.

sir1963

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#3230628 15-May-2024 08:46

Bung:
sir1963:

My set of good quality drill bits 1-6mm in 0.1mm steps (I also have a 1-13mm in 0.5mm steps)

Sharp, accurate, very low/no run out and just a joy to use...especially when I compare them to the junk ones at work...ew.

A friend had inherited a case of drill bits with the yellow titanium? coating so I thought why use my drill bits while helping put a gate up. Any strain on these bits and they'd shatter. I only had normal safety glasses with me so went back to my usual collection.

Most of my favorite tools spoil the experience with the cost of replacement blades. The one that impresses every time is a cheap pill chopper that produces 2 even halves.

Yeah those cheap coated ones are a joke, you may as well just pray paint a stick and use that...same effect.

tehgerbil

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#3230637 15-May-2024 09:39

If I was to only go through life with a single tool it would 100% be my Leatherman Wave (with multi-bit fastener add-on).

I just hope I don't lose it before I may pass it on to my son.

Best (most useful) present I've ever received, or ever likely to receive. It's the definition of 'buy it once, use it forever' tool.

Senecio

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#3230638 15-May-2024 09:44

A head torch. I have an expensive one because I go trail running at night but it doesn't have to be expensive. Just having a light source that points where your eyes a focussed while keeping your hands free to do the work. Just such a useful tool whether its crawling under the house to repair a burst pipe or trying to find that lost tupperware lid at the back of a deep cupboard.

jlittle

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#3230648 15-May-2024 10:14

tehgerbil:
... Leatherman ... It's the definition of 'buy it once, use it forever' tool.

I gradually broke my first Leatherman. I could have sent it off under the 25 year warranty, but I couldn't bear to be without it. When finances improved I got a Wave, but the 25 years had run out.

I was a Victorinox "director", stainless steel, man before that. Slimmer in the pocket, but I found the long-nose pliers indispensable; helps with fat-finger syndrome.

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Scott3

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#3230649 15-May-2024 10:14

I am really fond of my Dewalt DCD701. It's one of four drills that I own, but this one gets ~90% of the use.

It's on dewalts 12v xtreme platform that is not sold in NZ. It's tiny, lightweight, has great control for using as a powered screwdriver, and packs enough punch that there is rarely any reason to break out my bigger drills. I have a single 3Ah 12v (10.8v nominal) battery which has enough life for anything I have ever done with it.

It's absolutely fabulous how powerful this 12V cordless drill is, DeWALT DCD701 - YouTube

I got it for well under NZ$100 delivered on ebay when exchange rates for more favorable, and brought the 12v battery used locally (Some DeWalt lasers are sold with them, but as the 12v xtreme tools arn't sold in NZ they are worth peanuts on the used market.

Bung

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#3230812 15-May-2024 14:50

The Toolshed advertise some 12v Dewalt. Some other 12v brands have a more compact battery that fits in the handle rather than the slide on style.

reven

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#3230822 15-May-2024 15:34

Festool Domino. although my power switch has broken so it wont turn off when plugged in.

But its so easy to use, perfect alignment. super quick. very easy to change bits. just err somewhat problematic power switch (its not super common, but its been reported a few times on the net).

My tracksaw is real useful too.

eracode

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#3230832 15-May-2024 15:51

DIY: Bosch Multi Tool. Although I don’t use it a lot, for some jobs it’s literally the only tool that will do the job. Eg cutting out a section of skirting cleanly and easily while doing as little damage as possible. Jobs like that can be done in seconds and there’s no real powered or manual alternative.

Kitchen: OXO Good Grips potato and vege ricer.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

tehgerbil

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#3230839 15-May-2024 16:10

Senecio:

A head torch. I have an expensive one because I go trail running at night but it doesn't have to be expensive. Just having a light source that points where your eyes a focussed while keeping your hands free to do the work. Just such a useful tool whether its crawling under the house to repair a burst pipe or trying to find that lost tupperware lid at the back of a deep cupboard.

What features do you appreciate in your headlamp please while running?
E.g. battery type, wide/narrow beam and headband design to avoid slippage while running. Thanks :)

neb

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#3230997 15-May-2024 20:50

Bung: A friend had inherited a case of drill bits with the yellow titanium? coating

Don't think of it as a drill coated with titanium, think of it as a drill made of Chinesium. Used in a lot of tools and accessories, e.g. here's a Chinesium-tipped masonry drill after drilling into at most 1cm of concrete:

This is what a masonry drill is supposed to look like, and what this one looked like just before I used it. The entire cutting edge just vanished leaving an ordinary twist drill with a few brazing spots behind.

In particular the coating on your drills will be TiN (titanium nitride) which is a ceramic and is cheap to apply via vapour deposition. Because that adds a harder ceramic layer on the outside the vendor can then use cheap steel for the drill itself, and then the TiN coating wears off after a few cuts and you're drilling with a drill made from mush-metal which is probably worse than a generic HSS drill.

That's not to say that a high-quality drill with TiN or AlTiN coating won't perform very well, but anything you get in a $9.95 set is going to be junk made to look flashy via a breath of goldy stuff. Imagine that the box is labelled "Trump Drills".

neb

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#3230998 15-May-2024 20:52

eracode: Kitchen: OXO Good Grips potato and vege ricer.

Actually most Oxo kitchen stuff, they've actually thought about how these things are used and then designed them to match, rather than thinking about how it can be made as cheaply and easily as possible and who cares if you can't hold it for more than 30 seconds without your fingers cramping.

Bung

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#3231011 15-May-2024 21:57

neb:

In particular the coating on your drills will be TiN (titanium nitride) which is a ceramic and is cheap to apply via vapour deposition. Because that adds a harder ceramic layer on the outside the vendor can then use cheap steel for the drill itself, and then the TiN coating wears off after a few cuts and you're drilling with a drill made from mush-metal which is probably worse than a generic HSS drill.

Mush metal would have been safer. I was drilling 5mm holes in 6mm steel out to 10mm. Even doing it in stages whenever these cheap drills broke through they shattered.

Your imitation carbide tipped drill is like the supplied drills in a cheap Worx brand rotary hammer drill I bought to chisel some tiles up. With Sutton or Ramset replacement bits it pretends it's a Hilti.

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