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20 Comments

  1. I would add a good pair of Vice-Grips. not generic, the gripping and crimping power is unbelievable. Cheap at yard sales just make sure the teeth are not worn.

  2. Folding ladders…… I was doing some work for a customer once who apparently went to check on my work with one of those folding ladders after I had left for the day. The next day I returned to start working and I noticed a stain of blood on the garage floor. I knocked on the customer’s door and the wife opened the door and I asked her about the stain and sheepishly she told me that her husband had the ladder collapse while he was inspecting my work and broke his jaw and lost some teeth when his face met concrete and they had to rush him to the hospital. Bad thing was it was two more days to thanksgiving so I guess his portion of turkey was pureed.

    1. I worked as an EMT/Firefighter for 33 years. I had a call were a man fell off a 6 foot step ladder. Popped his grape ( Skull) on a concrete floor in the garage.. Dead on the spot. His wife was freaking out. Thirty years ago and i still see his wife.

  3. One tool which I recently bought to use with an impact driver or drill is a Malco brand tin roof or metal cutter. It cuts fantastically and is super easy to use. If you have never seen one of these in action, you tube it.

  4. Vise grip brand vice grips are also used with most puller sets when the adjuster is removed and the pellet rod is inserted. This allow you t grap things with the puller that may not be able to be grabbed by inside or outside hooks.

  5. Excellent article, P.G. (Those are my initials also – the “D” in my signature is middle initial.) I already own all those tools, including some Vice Grips. It’s nice to read what someone else thinks is of primary importance. Well done, sir. Great minds do, indeed, think alike.

    P.S. for Fred: I found your missing socket. Lemme fill my coffee cup and I’ll be right over.

  6. P.G.,

    I’m with you on the Multi-tool. I switch between Gerber and Leatherman every decade or so. It is by far the MOST used tool I have and saves me countless trips to the tool bag. It is good to know that Leatherman stands by their product like that. I had a similar episode with my first Gerber however I was not misusing it. Got a new one in the mail but I never really trust my Gerber like I do my Leatherman.

    Just got back from the flea market and picked up a very nice set of Wiss metal snips for $3. Didn’t even try to talk the guy down.

    As to your comment on the cordless drill, in my opinion it is a close second to the multi-tool. The Lithium battery technology has really allowed for increased power on the cordless tools. I liked my old 12 volt cordless tools but the batteries were nickel metal hydride and heavy. The 20 volt stuff I have now has lithium batteries is is VERY lite.

    Thanks for the article, always like reading what others think the must have tools are and why.

  7. Excellent article, odd related thoughts: I’ve seen many buy a new tool and relegate the “old, used one” to the vehicle toolbox. Wrong. The new one will get used in a lighted/heated/etc. garage, the old one will get used under the car, in the mud, in the rain, at midnight. Is that where you want a less-than-perfect tool?

    Tool storage: Once again, organization is the key. Buckets or bags are cheap and easy, but guarantees whatever tool you want will be on the bottom each time. Bags with pockets work well for portability and “find the tool.” Treat the exterior with waterproofing, especially the bottom (spray stuff works OK for the sides, but use something like Sno-Seal on the bottom). Put your headlamp in an outside pocket so you can reach it first in the dark, and have spare batteries (wrap “battery sets” – 2X, 3X, whatever the light uses – in blue painter’s tape and date the tape with a Sharpie so you know how old the batteries are, use oldest first, discard the really old sets).

    Farm jack: tremendously useful, I’ve got 3 – 48″, 54″, 60″. Make a base for it – glue (I prefer Gorilla Glue for this but any brand-name polyurethane glue will work fine) 2 pieces of 3/4 plywood together and cut to the largest rectangle that will fit under the passenger side seat (NOT the driver’s side), sand the edges, round the corners. This double-plywood plate will be EXTREMELY rigid (I used two 4X8 sheets of poly-glued-together 3/4″ plywood to protect one end of a shallow-buried septic tank from a 2,500 lb Bobcat with 800 lbs of dirt in the bucket during a recent regrading project). You’ll find this under-seat plate will be approx 12-15″W X 15-18″L. Center your farm jack base on it, mark the holes, drill through; mark the plywood corners 1 1/2″ in, drill through each corner with a 13/32 bit (7/16″ works if you don’t have 13/32, or, better, drill with 3/8″ and “loosen” the hole slightly – and carefully – by using the rotating drill bit as a rasp). Carry a pair of carriage bolts and wing nuts in the appropriate length to anchor the farm jack base to the plywood support plate, and four (4) 12″-16″ long 3/8″ diameter landscape spikes to drive through the plate corner holes to anchor the plate if necessary. CARRY SPARE CARRIAGE BOLTS AND WING NUTS.

    TIP: Polyurethane glue – Gorilla Glue, Titebond Poly Glue, etc. – is super strong because it expands as it dries forcing glue into the wood fibers and it’s waterproof when fully dried. Properly glued, the wood will fail before the glued joint will. BUT – because it expands forcefully it needs to be very securely clamped, especially in the center of panels, and you will get “squeeze-out” because the expansion will force glue out of the joint. A chisel or utility knife easily cleans the excess when it fully dry (2-4 hours). Wear disposable gloves when using poly glues, once you get it on your fingers it’s there until it wears off.
    (Those 4X8 sheets I mentioned above? I didn’t have clamps for the center of the sheets, and no cauls long enough to go edge-to-edge so I stacked the sheets dry, clamped them together and drilled ten 1/4″ holes in 2 rows lengthwise down the center of the sheets spaced on a 16″ grid, using 1/4″ bolts with washers and nuts as the “center of sheet clamps.” Worked fine, but I did have to work fast once the glue was applied, and the small holes had no effect on the strength of the assembly. 3/16″ fasteners would have work, but I had 1/4″ on hand.)

    The plywood plate will support your regular vehicle jack in soft ground, it will support your farm jack, with the landscape spikes and carriage bolts it will support the farm jack at angles.

    Speaking of car jacks, what came with your car/truck is the cheapest thing the manufacturer could find. Do you think it will lift your vehicle when it is loaded? Upgrade it. Test the upgrade – will it fit under the vehicle’s lifting point when a tire is fully deflated? Is that true for each of the 4 tires? With the “soft ground” plywood plate under it? Test all configurations. The Holy Grail is a 3-ton mechanical scissor jack, but it’s a $200 HMMWV part….).

    RE: Come-alongs. A pair of 8-10 ton snatch blocks The greasable, easy-to-disassemble ones are best), one or two 50 ft lengths of 13K lb steel cable, a couple 6-12 ft lengths of 3/8″ link Grade 70 chain with hooks (to use as snatch block anchors) will make a “poor man’s block and tackle.” Your come-along or winch may not have the power to “unstuck” you; add one snatch block you double the pulling power. Add two and it increases 1.5X; add two in the right configuration and it increases 3X. (See Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_and_tackle). NOTE: ADDING PULLEYS CAN EASILY INCREASE THE MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE OF YOUR WINCH OR COME-ALONG BEYOND BREAKING STRENGTH OF YOUR CABLE OR ROPE.

    FYI, tension-loaded rope and cable will “whip” when it breaks, chain will *usually* just fall to the ground. A whipping cable can, and has, removed arms, legs, and parts of vehicles. A tension-loaded cable is a potentially deadly device. Treat it accordingly.

    3/8″ link Grade 70 chain is “trucker’s chain” – commonly available in 20 ft lengths and used with load binders to secure loads on flatbed trailers. The good Grade 70 stuff is rated – and certified – at 6600 lbs. The cheap Chinesium stuff, who knows.

  8. This is a good subject. There is no one ideal tool kit. I carry enough tools when I travel by RV to repair anything that might go wrong. But those tools won’t build a house. I have a rental home and when I go there to check on it or to repair something I carry a fairly complete kit that probably would be sufficient to build a house but would not cover most car repairs. It is likely that if 100 people compared their ideal tool lists that they would all disagree on what should be included. But the real value of such an effort is the occasional great idea. It is for that reason that articles like this should be a regular on this blog.

  9. Need slip-joint pliers,smaller(12″-18″)pipe wrench,basic combo(open/closed end) wrenchs,socket set(ratchet can be replaced with adapter to use wrench) the cheapest addition is a nail apron to hold stuff. For space/weight reduction a seamstress tape. For grid down/primitive situations a hand drill never needs batteries and a brace and bits are still available. You will never regret buying quality tools.

  10. Ditto on the multi-tool. My husband bought me a mini when my Swiss Army knife died. The men who borrow it are always surprised that I carry one in my purse! Thanks for the great article!

  11. Good advice. I am changing jobs to go work in the construction field, and most of the stuff in this article is on the company’s “basic supplies” list. From past experience, I would add a couple of ideas.

    1. Get real American-made “Channel Lock” brand pliers. They have bright blue grips. Nothing else really compares, and the Chinese junk won’t hold up. Carry two, because sometimes to twist objects apart you need one for each hand.
    2. Get real American-made “Crescent” brand adjustable wrenches. Again, the off brands don’t hold up. My US-made wrenches have done years of hard service.
    3. Get quality screwdrivers. A couple of sizes of flat and Phillips will do fine. Again, get US made if possible. The foreign-made ones are basically disposable.

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