why do you buy certain tools?

[engineerone]

in view of some of the comments in the see the light thread, i wonder

as someone who originally trained as an engineer, i was taught from the get go to buy the best available tools, so in those days, it was Moore and Wright measuring stuff, Britool tools etc (sadly a lot got nicked years ago )

so when i re-started woodworking rather than diy, i looked for the better tools(or what appeared to be )

my early training lead me to use and buy special tools for specific jobs, since in general so called multi tools rarely do any one job properly.

so for instance i have a number of planes for different jobs, same for chisels and also, perhaps more importantly measuring kit.

others on the forum seem very good at adjusting one tool to make it do several things, i just don't see the point.

anyway the question is then do you bujy tools for a specific job and then leave them in the drawer??
or are you a modifier?? and if so why?

paul

[dunbarhamlin]

Can't deny having used the third approach before now - the speculative small child in a sweet shop.
Otherwise, I'll buy the best I can for a specific task. Though I don't have any qualms about modifying a tool to improve its performance at that task, regardless of provenance or value.

So, for instance, I have a deep back saw specifically for cutting scarfs (not tampered with - it's perfect in form and function - thanks Mike) and another on order specifically for instrument fret slots.
On the other hand, I was considering modifying my Kenyon DT until I realised the tight horns were actually improving my technique - Disstons and Tyzacks aren't given the same consideration.
My heavy plough now sports a wooden fence - not something Mr Miller intended.
Mortice gauges loose the damn finger stabber on the backs (though my fave didn't have one in the first place).
Steve

[paulchapman]

While there are some tools that are very well designed and made, there are many that suffer from poor design and/or are shoddily manufactured and therefore frustrating to use. In other areas certain tools and jigs are simply not available commercially or can be better (and more cheaply) made yourself to suit specific needs. So I think sometimes you need to modify tools to make them work well and in other cases you need to make them from scratch.

Examples are marking and cutting gauges; router base plates; trammels; tool handles; shooting boards; various jigs for use with routers; router tables; winding sticks; planes for specific purposes; various work-holding devices, including work benches.

There are no doubt many others........

Cheers

Paul

[mooretoolsplease]

With my Dad being a pattern maker, I've always been brought up to buy a tool for a specific job, modify it, or simply make it. But to always buy the best I can.
I'm currently making a setting tool for my spindle moulder, they are available, but they are too big for what I need.
Another thing when buying tools, I always think of how many I am likely to need, especially with marking tools. sometimes 5 marking gauges just aren't enough!

[jfc]

Agree , 5 marking gauges are not enough . But if you are going to leave them set for one job then theres no need to buy the best . If i am going to use a tool alot then i buy the best i can afford and worth the money, if i am buying it for a one off job and cant see me using it again or very often then i buy low to mid range , not the cheapest as i still want it to work .

[modernist]

engineerone said:

in those days, it was Moore and Wright measuring stuff, Britool tools etc (sadly a lot got nicked years ago )

paul

I'm right with you on that one Paul but, fortunately, I still have my Britool spanners. I started as an apprentice with Rolls Royce Aero Engines in Derby in 1968 and moived on to racing cars for a while when the b**ggers went bust and put me on the dole. In both cases the right tools were a religion and for good reason.

I am a self confessed tool enthusiast but as a user not a collector. I think the latter have ruined the second hand market for most things. It is also the reason I object to LN's strap line of heirloom quality tools - it just encourages them.

I tend to buy tools for the job, or even possible job, and it gives me great pleasure to have them to hand when the moment arrives. vis my Makita biscuit jointer. 3 years waiting in the box and then two weeks rarely cooling down.

I get really frustrated when tools don't work and this is almost exclusively DIY grade and the odd turkey. Conversely I get a lot of pleasure from a half thou shaving from a well tuned plane.

He who has the most tols when he dies wins ;D ;D

Brian

[colincott]

I like a lot on here have always tried to buy the best I could afford at the time ( I was lucky as I used to go passed a guy that did secound hand tools and I got a few bits ::)from him ;D )

With the trade I got in to ( Antique restoration, Furniture ), it coved a lot of trades if you wanted to do it and I did ;D

So I have tools that some wood workers would or might not have and still buying

As I need work for myself, I need to get more of it done myself and have to get the tools for the job ( what a shame ).

I also have made soem of my own tools and saved myself a packet ;D

[mrgrimsdale]

I got into the habit early on of making do with whatever I could get my hands on. Was a 'cottage industrial' toymaker for many years - bodging up kit with Simbles spindles with 4inch circular saw blades , the dreaded wobble saw washers, even using orange B&Decker drills with attachments etc and the first real purchase was a Startrite 352 band saw bought new - thanks to sales on Carnaby Street, Heals. Habitat, Galt etc
Then I did a TOPS course which involved being given a small set of tools and the tool box and saw stools which you made as part of the course, and the firm realisation that you could make just about everything with that set; 3 saws, one jack plane, 3 chisels, marking gauge, sliding bevel, combi square, claw hammer, nail punch, folding boxwood ruler oil stone, few other bits and bobs.*
Sort of stuck with the same principle, for better or worse.

cheers
Jacob
*PS also inc. bradawl, Stanley ratchet screwdriver, Stanley brace and 2 bits, Spear & Jackson carpenters axe. I'll probably remember a few more things.
plumb bob, 9" spirit level
Still got them all, and use them a lot

[mrspanton]

What shocks me is the amount of money some lads spend on router's and saw's and so forth. My tool set is modest and primitive to say the least, axe's (the roselli cost £60 or so but is worth evry penny) I have 3 axe's altogether, a good disston rip and disston crosscut (5 point and 7 point respectively, finer 9 point S&J crosscut, tennon saw, several various billhook's, froe, adze, draw knife (staright and curved), scorp, few wood spoke shave's; oak jointer, marples technmical jacks X3 (set up to coarse, medium and fine cut's) scrub plane, ECE reform smoother, small block plane's, brace/bits, a few augers (scotsh eye) a few rebate planes, a few strap hammer, set of swedish mora hook/carving knive's, set of shark nail bar's and punch (the best IMHO), 2Xspeed square (fave), sliding bevvell, try square, framing square, plumb bob, chalik line, 2X divider's, set of stabila level's, a few framing chisle's, home made maul's, mallet's and splitting wedges, thats about it. I buy these because tradition and experience has shown these tools to work the best way for intended purposes (work with green wood) Most are from off of ebay or car boot's, refurbed with electrolysis etc. In fact I believe only the roselli axe and shark bar's were bought new, and even then I had to fettle the roselli axe as the factory grind was a little rough.

[jfc]

What shocks me is the amount of money some lads spend on router's and saw's and so forth

We like to make money ;D

[mrgrimsdale]

jfc said:

What shocks me is the amount of money some lads spend on router's and saw's and so forth

We like to make money ;D

And we spend too long looking at catalogues and being lead by the nose by the woodwork media - who also like to make money an want everybody to buy loadsa stuff whether we need it or not

cheers
Jacob

[engineerone]

cobbler stick to his last is an old phrase, but sadly these days does not really hold true.

by that i mean most of us in the course of a life time do not repeat the same job too often, or if we do, want to find a quicker way of doing things.

if all you do is replace pre-existing things then you get used to a specific set of tasks, and can "make do" unless you want to increase your profit margin. whereas if every job is different, then you will tend to look for tools which are job specific because you feel you do not have the time. in addition, you can spend as long looking for the solution as you spend in money for a specific tool.

when you start using hand tools, you actually quickly discover that you need to plane with the help of some jigs, for instance a shooting board, and then a mitre box or donkey's ear or etc.

although you can integrate some of these things, often it is easier and more accurate to make a new jig for the tasks.
but for instance if you do not have a certain number of tools, then how do you make an accurate mitre planing box??

paul

[Scrit]

I'm beginning to think that I should buy tools based on their colour. I've had red (Record malleable iron), blue (Record ordinary) and (off) white (Wadkin machinery), so after waving the flag I think maybe I need a change. I believe that Rob Lee does some planes in a fetching pink colour, these days. Or is that just the prototypes?

Scrit

[Alf]

It's not pink - it just doesn't photograph very well.

So he sez... ;D

Cheers, Alf