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Tool Tools you acquired that are useless

Tool

YotaBota

Mike
Premium Member
You argue with the DeWalt sales guy packing this nail driver. lol
iu
 

StevSmar

(Steven)
Premium Member
I don’t think I’m going to jump on the battery powered bandwagon until the batteries are universal...

Or I can use a third party battery on all the tools.

I read that Bosch has opened up it’s battery “technology” to “partners” so that’s a start.
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I don’t think I’m going to jump on the battery powered bandwagon until the batteries are universal...

You will be dead by the time that happens. And you will leave never having seen the good side of rechargeable tools. The old stuff left a lot to be desired. But the latest stuff is good enough to love even if they are all mutually exclusive.

There are also adapters for some of them.

Except for my bench tools, I hardly ever use corded tools anymore. I'd rather be captive than lose out on the enjoyment I experience with the Dewalt 20V tools I have.

Edit - Consider buying just one tool, battery, and charger. Get whatever brand and particular tool you think you might like best. But don't get less than 20V. Give it a year and then think about whether you want to stick a pin in a Susquatch Stuffy or go buy a bunch more tools.
 
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StevSmar

(Steven)
Premium Member
You will be dead by the time that happens. And you will leave never having seen the good side of rechargeable tools.
I guess I should elaborate… my primary concern with battery powered tools is environmental. I’ve got a few perfectly good cordless drills where purchasing two (out of date voltage) batteries is more expensive than purchasing a new tool. But it does seem that battery voltage has somewhat stabilized so it’s getting more likely todays battery technology will be the same format 5 years from now.

I love my cordless drill, but don’t find “non mobile tools” (such as chop saws) being corded as a big hassle.
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I love my cordless drill, but don’t find “non mobile tools” (such as chop saws) being corded as a big hassle.

I put chop saws in the same group as bench tools (grinders, small drill press, table saws, belt sanders, etc etc). However my son has a battery chop sqw and loves it..

I do have a battery skill saw and I do love it. I dunno if I'd want a battery chop saw either.
 

trevj

Ultra Member
You argue with the DeWalt sales guy packing this nail driver. lol
iu
<cough> Yeah, sure.... Provided the battery both fits, AND still has a charge in it!

Rather take my chances with the "Hello Kitty" set, backing me up! They, at least, seem to understand the difference between a Mag and a Battery! LOL!
 

trevj

Ultra Member
I don’t think I’m going to jump on the battery powered bandwagon until the batteries are universal...

Or I can use a third party battery on all the tools.

I read that Bosch has opened up it’s battery “technology” to “partners” so that’s a start.
Meh. Like I said before, in this thread. You need to learn a few new things. As if you never needed that, over the course of History!

Most of the outfits are stuffing their proprietary Batteries, full of bog standard Lithium cells. And bog standard monitoring and charging gear.
 
I love my battery tools and they have come a long way. Mikita 9.6v cordless drills where the start. Dewalt became the next standard.

Now if you want power in with grunt Milwaukee seems to be it with compact size.

Pretty well most brands have 2 versions consumer base (cheaper internals that just don't stand up if you plan on using them) and Industrial/Pro base usually heavier (metal parts not plastic).

Pick on brand and stick with it batteries are interchangable, upgrade your charger, base charger is usually minimal, once you start buy bare tools and separate batteries as as you can buy the sizes you need on sale.

As @Susquatch said there are adapters that allow interchange between batteries and tool brands, which is good, chargers still go with the battery brand.
 

mbond

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
If you know anyone who lives in the EU, ask them to complain - riotous mobs in Europe even got Apple to agree to a standard. Nevermind that they agreed to their own standard as a 'concession'.

the present generation of battery technology is _vastly_ superior to the previous ones. But it is still terrible. I should use capital letters on that one
 

trevj

Ultra Member
Among the varied and sometimes random items I have run across on YouTube, a fella who goes by "Rich Rebuilds", has some pretty good videos showing the difference between buying the parts from the car manufacturer, vs. ripping the box apart and rebuilding the battery pack inside the box.
In the case I saw, he was helping another fella with a McLaren Hybrid Supercar, that used Lithium cells for both the starting battery for the motor, as well as for the (extremely limited) 'hybrid' part of things. He ripped in to the starting battery (~$8000 USD, from the dealer) and rebuilt it using readily purchased lithium battery cells for a couple hundred bucks.

A little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but a little willingness to accept that the worst end result might be that you are stuck paying for what you could not fix for cheap, could pay real dividends!
 

Upnorth

Well-Known Member
I'm a bit surprised how popular Milwaukee is. I bought one a few years ago to use as a screw gun and I considered it to be unacceptable. I work a lot of the time under things so there are two things I like in a screw gun. Light weight and a good clutch. The Milwaukee is a bit heavy but that is ok I could live with that. I had a 18 volt version. The clutch was awful. At it's lowest setting it would grossly over torque the screws. I switched back to Dewalt. I also went down to a 12 volt drill. It's very light and with the clutch set on 3 all it takes is a 1/4 turn from a regular screwdriver to finish torquing the screw. Perfect. I got it at Canadian tire and the price was suspiciously low so I will see if it stands the test of time.

To answer the title question of the thread a useless tool I own is the Robogrips from Craftsman. I got them over 20 years ago and the only thing they were good for is adjusting the elevator trim on a Grumman Goose G21A airplane. Not something that comes up often.
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
To answer the title question of the thread a useless tool I own is the Robogrips from Craftsman. I got them over 20 years ago and the only thing they were good for is adjusting the elevator trim on a Grumman Goose G21A airplane. Not something that comes up often.

The new guy at work has a pair of those, and TBH I've used them a few times and find them a bit handy for light gripping and grabbing stuff of all sizes. They hold a bit better and are handier than slip joints, or needle nose, but not as good as vise grips. Kinda of a weird niche, but I always thought they were a bit gimmicky. I thought about making some a bit more robust with more inline jaws for blacksmithing tongs and general purpose gripping of hot stuff in the smithy.

I keep checking the thrift stores and restore when I go there hoping to find a cheap set to play around with.
 

Upnorth

Well-Known Member
The new guy at work has a pair of those, and TBH I've used them a few times and find them a bit handy for light gripping and grabbing stuff of all sizes. They hold a bit better and are handier than slip joints, or needle nose, but not as good as vise grips. Kinda of a weird niche, but I always thought they were a bit gimmicky. I thought about making some a bit more robust with more inline jaws for blacksmithing tongs and general purpose gripping of hot stuff in the smithy.

I keep checking the thrift stores and restore when I go there hoping to find a cheap set to play around with.
Best pliers I have found for gripping round things are knipex cobras. They grip very well. Also handy for finishing the bends on cotter pins in weird places. You are welcome to my set of robogrips if I can find them. I'm going to be getting rid of tools I no longer use. I gave away a set of reverse counterbores and mandrels yesterday. Sat in my tool box for about 20 years and only used 2 or 3 times.
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
My Dad used to call it a bastardizing assholoscopy and swore they went up there with a two by four and a trouble light

I am supposed to get one every two years. I'm always late. I hate them too. My first was not under an anesthesia. I'll NEVER do that again!

The only thing worse is kidney stones and an endoscope up your liquid waste disposal system.
 

CWret

Ultra Member
Premium Member
endoscope up your liquid waste disposal system.
Keeping religion out - but IMHO whoever designed that portion of us males must have been an engineer. Who else would have tried to make a system more efficient by designing it to be dual purpose - both pleasure and waste water management. Then to prove they were an engineer, they unnecessarily complicated the design by putting the damn prostate in the middle.
(I’m pretty sure the drawings were double stamped.)
 
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