Tools you use only once or twice

4getgto

Bill from Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Member
Pick up a used 3/4" air gun at auction the other day for $30. I have some blade spindle bolts on a mower deck that I haven't been able to budge with the 1/2" drives I have. Don't see a need for it other than this but for the price I grabbed it. Might sell it later on.
Its an Ingersoll Rand ,model 261 I think which seems to be a pretty popular model. Looks well used but seems to work good. This should either get them or break them..! (Didn't try yet)

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I have a 1/2" Earthquake I picked up at a Pawn Shop for $60. Looked like now, is adjustable and works great but usually the Battery impact will do the job. If not, out come the Earthquake.

I bought a Diesel compression tester and used it one time. 2 years ago and hasn't been out of the sleeve since.
 
Yea honestly if I had a "good" 1/2" I believe that's all I would need..mine are only rated at 300ftlbs. Some better ones are rated more than double that. The 3/4" I bought is rated at a 1100ftlbs. Again all depends on CFM that you have available.
But I'm not quite as quick to buy stuff anymore that I know won't get used much. 10- 20 years ago I wouldn't have thought twice.
 
Battery impacts have made the air impacts almost obsolete these days. Those Milwaukee 3/4 are tough! But boy are they expensive and hard to justify for home use. I borrow one from work if I need one.

$30 bucks was a superb deal for that. Be hard to pass up! I would have snagged it just to have on hand. But I doubt my little compressor would do it justice.
 
Battery impacts have made the air impacts almost obsolete these days. Those Milwaukee 3/4 are tough! But boy are they expensive and hard to justify for home use. I borrow one from work if I need one.

$30 bucks was a superb deal for that. Be hard to pass up! I would have snagged it just to have on hand. But I doubt my little compressor would do it justice.
Only thing that sucks when you buy at auction is you have no idea if it works. You buy as is / where is..no guarantees... So you can get burnt.
 
I have a bunch of tools that I bought to use once or twice. Now with that 3/4 impact,that I would use if I had it, we have one at work and it gets used often enough to be worth having.
And on getting burned by buying junk at auction/ I bought a 3/4 impact at an auction last year and yeah it's junk. I had the snap on guy send it off to be fixed and I got it back exactly how I sent it in, they used to fix any snap on air tool that you would send in but now I guess they only service them for roughly 10 years from new. So that 3/4 gun wound up in the scrap.
 
I will say this/ there have been times when I needed something that I knew I wouldn't use much if ever again after just that 1 time. So i'd go buy a cheap one. And the cheap one wasn't good enough to last the duration of that one time I would use it. So i'd have to go exchange it. And again. At this point I'd spend the money on the"good"one, and sail thru the job. Often times even having to buy a tool that you won't use again you get the job done cheaper than if you would have called someone out to do it for you.

When I replaced the main support beam under my house I needed a stubby 20 ton bottle jack. I went to the rental yard and got one. For what they charged me for 2 days usage, was 2/3 what I could have bought one for. We have 1 rental yard in the county and they know it, take advantage of that. There are times I'd call the rental yard by my mom's house in the next county north and make the trip up there 25 miles away to get something I needed, they were usually enough cheaper in their rates to make it worth it. being a mile from my mom's house, there's always something up there that I need
 
I'm kind of quick to buy tools for a specific task depending on what it's for and how expensive it is. Automotive tools I usually buy. Part of that is because I keep my trucks forever and I will probably need it again or I may use it to help a buddy at some point. Others I rent or buy used. I bought a flooring nailer used to put hardwood in my house. After I'm finished I can easily sell it for what I paid for it.

What bugs me is being out somewhere and having to buy a tool that I have at home in my chest, but I'm too far from home to easily go get it. That's why I have two serpentine belt tools and way too many torx bit drivers. I've started putting the duplicates in a box for my boys to take with them when they are on their own.
 
I have more torx bit drivers than I'll ever use. Sitting where I am at I see 6 different complete sets hanging on the wall and I know of at least 3 more tucked away in storage containers and the tool box (I get one or two every X-mass). I guess the most useless tool I have (There are several) but the BBQ Multi tool that looks like a giant pocket knife is probably it for me. Cleaning this would be almost impossible.
 

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I recently went and bought me a used electric hand planer via CL. I am redoing my house (slowly) and will be using it here and there while in the progress of that. I have bought 2-3 table saws over the years and keep them around for a while after the big project I needed one for is done, but they wind up back on CL and down the road. I havent had one in 3-4 years now, I have a neighbor who has a nice one (plus a few other stationary woodworking tools) and for the occasional board that needs table saw or radial arm saw treatment, or run thru a thickness planer, I carry the material 2 doors away, do what I need to do and bring my material back, all done with cutting, drilling, planing, etc.
In fact he called me a couple of months ago (his health isnt what it was) and asked me if I wanted all of it.... I don't have the room! but it's mine if I want it. (I thought he had gave it all to a son in law, a couple years back) A few things have disappeared from his garage, but not most.
I have yet to make room for it. He told me that "a few months would be OK but not a year" to get it all out.
Well Bud died last weekend, his wife never had issue with me coming over (she says "at least it gets used") IDK if she knows that he told me that I could have his saws and such......
 
Let us know how that impact works, @4getgto! You sure got a decent deal on it! I can't remember what the heck I needed a 3/4 drive for a couple years ago, but I went and bought the socket size needed and 3/4" to 1/2" adapter. It did the job, but so far only one use!

DAC
 
Let us know how that impact works, @4getgto! You sure got a decent deal on it! I can't remember what the heck I needed a 3/4 drive for a couple years ago, but I went and bought the socket size needed and 3/4" to 1/2" adapter. It did the job, but so far only one use!

DAC
That's brings me to another thing DAC that I don't use much .
A 3/4" socket set. Was out of the trucking business by then and thought I'd still need one . Bought that probably 35 years ago and don't think I've used that 6 times. Truck driver I knew didn't need it anymore. Old Bonney set. Don't hear much of them anymore.

Bill
 
If you do much engine overhaul work that torque wrench would be just what you need for assembly of them. Fit in the crank case real good for torquing the rod. Most small engines don't take a terrible lot of torque there.
 
1/4” beam torque wrench. Never used it, bought 10 years ago.
The Mastercraft 1/2” impact of interest to Canadian guys is a rebranded IR and excellent. BIL pointed it out to me in pawn shop for $20View attachment 33360
You don't see many 1/4" drive torque wrenches.
And that 1/2" air gun is the splitting image of 3/4"...
 
other than 1/4", drive size does not necessarily dictate units it measures in..... I've seen 3/8 and 1/2 that do both inch pounds and foot pounds.
and believe me you need torque wrenches that do each scale. very hard to get accurate when converting to foot pounds, might as well not use a torque wrench.
 
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