I have found a couple of tools that I use frequently enough that I just wouldn't want to be without them now...

How about you?

This set is used to make gaskets, punch holes in canvas and in anti-squeak welting....I got them at Harbor Freight......so you know the price was right!

This thread is for tools...

There is a different thread for lubrication

1955CJ-5 wrote on 07/31/14 at 15:13:12:


I though that it was fuel...

For tools, I'll say vise grip.

Yeah...wish I had a shop press....no room for it.....

I picked up a small stud finder a while back at Tractor supply. It's the kind that uses a couple of those real strong rare earth magnets and you slide it over the wall until it sticks to a nail or screw. It is really a screw finder and if the guy who screwed the sheetrock up was off, you might be off too with your nail or screw..

It does a fantastic job aligning and holding sheet metal parts flush with each other before tacking them in . Works great to hold the tarp on the truck I'm working on when I cover it up for the night.

I picked it up from the bargain bin for $2.99 and I need to go back and buy about 4 more.


The 4-5 inch angle grinder suggestion is very true...I'd have ten of them if I could afford it, one with a grinding disc, a couple with flap discs for finish work, a thin cutoff wheel mounted in one, and one with a knotted heavy duty cup wire wheel. For occasional use the Harbor Fright ones sometimes hold up pretty good for the money but a Dewalt or Milwaukee or similar quality tool will have more umph and run a long, long time. Don't mess around with the smaller arbored ones, get one with the larger coarse thread that most of the discs and wheels fit..

Any time I see vice grips of any kind made by Irwin or a quality manufacturer at a yard sale I grab them. Very useful for sheet metal work, specially if you luck onto a set of the c clamp ones.

A large chunk of railroad track or I beam to use as an anvil, a similar sized piece of heavy angle, and a bunch of cheap cast C clamps from Harbor Fright make a decent poor man's bending brake and sheet metal forming tool. A Magnabend would be nice to have but at $2000 I stick with my angle iron.

Gotta have a small try square or the rafter layout one that is a triangle for measuring and laying out patches.. A Sharpie is indispensable for rough layout, and a scratch awl for final scribing of the edges of the patch. Measuring tapes are also mandatory, I keep one in my pickup and one in the shop and one on the dresser and one in the kitchen and one on my sign machine, etc....

Can you tell I have been in sheet metal up to my elbows lately? Too bad it is a 66 Ford F 100 instead of my poor neglected jeeps.

My buddies welder and plasma cutter are nice too... As is his floor jack , high stands and engine crane.. What I do miss is a nice heavy workbench with a good sized vice.

a blacksmith forge [coal or gas] a lot of hammer ,and some of the BFH kind. welder, plasma, mig welder , and a lot of vises ,and a lot of angle grinders . big anvils also.
hell let just say I have a lot of tools.
dennis

This is my disposable transmission oil drain funnel....works pretty good and you don't need to take the skid plate off or bathe it in oil..

bretto wrote on 08/06/14 at 10:36:26:


The last time I was looking for some, I stopped by the maintence shed of the railyard and just asked someone.  They were more than happy to give me a 16" piece that was laying around.  I slipped him a $20 bill and we both left happy....(I'm pretty sure he worked there...)  Of course, this was 8-10 years ago and scrap price had increased quite a bit since then also.