Tier 1, 1.5, or even Tier 2 tools thread

[vcdgrips]

My anticipated Tool of the Month for November:

a: A Rigid Brand Aluminum 18 inch Pipe Wrench ( I own no such tool) or

b: A set of Crescent Wrenches ( I own no such tools, but just bought sockets and have numerous sets of Knipex pliers to include their adjustable ones) or

c: An Estwing hammer in the 12-16 oz range (I have a 22 oz with a Milled Face I bought for a fence tear down job years ago but it seems a bit unwieldy.)

d: Open to suggestions

I pivoted to an Estwing Camper's Axe. May be doing some fire pit sit a rounds soon so I thought it might come in handy for some lightweight fire wood splitting duties

https://www.estwing.com/collections/...ts/campers-axe

TOM for Dec will likely be the smaller hammer described above given the feedback in the thread to date etc.

[MickAK]

My anticipated Tool of the Month for November:

a: A Rigid Brand Aluminum 18 inch Pipe Wrench ( I own no such tool) or

b: A set of Crescent Wrenches ( I own no such tools, but just bought sockets and have numerous sets of Knipex pliers to include their adjustable ones) or

c: An Estwing hammer in the 12-16 oz range (I have a 22 oz with a Milled Face I bought for a fence tear down job years ago but it seems a bit unwieldy.)

d: Open to suggestions

I pivoted to an Estwing Camper's Axe. May be doing some fire pit sit a rounds soon so I thought it might come in handy for some lightweight fire wood splitting duties

https://www.estwing.com/collections/...ts/campers-axe

TOM for Dec will likely be the smaller hammer described above given the feedback in the thread to date etc.

The Estwings look cool, but in my experience the Fiskars line is a better choice for non-construction duties. Light enough to take backpacking if that comes up. I find splitting with an Estwing somewhat tedious because of the grip, and the Fiskars is more durable unless you massively overswing and hit with the handle. YMMV.
https://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-X11-S...35V3EWTBX48P60

[LittleLebowski]

The Estwings look cool, but in my experience the Fiskars line is a better choice for non-construction duties. Light enough to take backpacking if that comes up. I find splitting with an Estwing somewhat tedious because of the grip, and the Fiskars is more durable unless you massively overswing and hit with the handle. YMMV.
https://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-X11-S...35V3EWTBX48P60

Fiskars are the Glock of the axe world, they are cheap, well made, and just work.

[fixer]

Just shopped for replacement ratchets in 3/8 1/4 and 1/2 inch drive. Also needed new extensions.

Straight, flex, and long handle for each. I have old us made craftsman and wanted to upgrade. These are 30 yr old heavily used tools. I’ve cleaned and maintained them. They show surprisingly low wear on gears.

I had to resort to buying Chinese craftsman as a back up.

Snap on, Mac, Sk, Matco.

[johnson]

I have this Wiha 12 piece screwdriver set and they seem okay but don't use it that often since i live in an apartment. I'm more familiar with their precision screwdriver line (use them every day) and they seem to work well and fairly inexpensive to replace when we break tips from abuse. Usually because we work with #00 screws that are held in with red loctite or epoxy and don't heat them up properly before trying to remove.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000T9SI60/

We also have a set of PB Swiss screwdrivers with classic handles that I REALLY like. Not as slippery as the rounded handles of the Wiha Soft Finish and the sizes are marked on the ends.

https://www.shop.pbtools.us/Classic-...screws-244.htm

These Williams (Snap-On Industrial) screwdrivers are supposed to be GTG and are on sale.

Williams 100P-8MD 8-Piece Premium Mixed Screwdriver Set
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NH5F30/

The other tools I like and have been mentioned are the Knipex pliers wrench (7") and cobra (10").

[Balisong]

Ok folks, I could use guidance on a few items. First, I have an outdoor par type floodlight bulb in my portico. It's about 15 feet up and even if my ladder got me up that high, I'm too much of a wuss with heights to do it that way. So I'm looking for a light changing pole along the likes of this:
https://www.amazon.com/BAYCO-LBC-600...t+bulb+&sr=8-6
But I'm open to suggestion of those with experience with such devices.

Second, my tape measure has been pissing me off for years. It's just a free cheapie that I got as a gift from the home builder of my last house.

Third, a little help with cordless drills? I know I should have jumped into the thread earlier when people were joking about these for the drill and the tape measure, I don't necessarily need super grade commercial level stuff. I'm not very handy, so these are pretty much for drilling screws/bolts into studs for large paintings or mounting tvs or curtain rods, but I don't mind spending money on good quality. My current cordless drill is a crappy black and decker 12v I think. It doesn't have the guts for most of what we've tried to do with it (maybe the quality of bits has to do with that too?)

Thanks in advance, this forum has never steered me wrong. Oh and here's a pic of the portico light in question

[Welder]

I've never used a light changing pole, sorry I can't help with that.

On the tape measure, idk what features you're looking for, but I just use those chrome-plated classic big Stanley 25' or 35' tapes for all of my work. They work good until you forget to pull them out of a shear before you trip the pedal. Then you have two tape measures! I bought a bunch of them for $7.99/ea where they were packaged with a cheap utility knife several years ago, still using them up. I'm sure there's expensive fancy tape measures out there, but one of the most important things about a tape for most people is standoff -- does it allow you to stand in one place and extend it out 6 or more feet to touch a wall so you can measure things one-handed? Or does it flex and fall down after a couple feet? You'll want a 1" wide tape for this feature, and you can test for standoff in the store. The other thing about a tape is repeatability. Tapes wear out with much use, and they're not all equal believe it or not. You want to use the same tape measure for everything related to what you're working on -- using two tapes often introduces error.

The actual use of a tape measure, knowing how to measure and lay out things without introducing compounding errors, is probably more important than the measure itself.

The drill....you could drop by a pawn shop and pick up most any brand of corded or cordless and be fine, I expect. Most people want cordless but if you're not gonna be drilling very often and / or very far from a power outlet, a good older Milwaukee etc corded drill will last you for the rest of your life and probably your childrens' lives as well.

Still talking about the drill, it'd be nice to have a variable speed trigger control vs a single-speed. If you're wanting to drill with a 1/2" bit through metal, you want a drill that'll go around 500-600 RPM. The smaller the bit, the faster the speed you want. If you're mainly wanting it to run screws in rather than actually drill, you probably want the adjustable ratcheting clutch feature found on most modern cordless drills so you don't wring screws off. If you ever plan to drill a little bit of concrete (small holes, like 1/4" or less), you might want your drill to also have a hammer function. Again, more common on cordless drills when talking about drills that aren't dedicated hammer drills.

The quality of your bits makes a big difference in your drill experience. Both driving bits and actual drill bits.

You might consider your needs and see if a small impact driver would do more of what you want....I see that they actually make drill bits for these tools now although I have no idea how long they'd last with the impact function and all. I use my impact driver when I'm dealing with a lot of sheet metal screws; it's faster and better than using my drill set to the clutched screw function.

My purchasing order process would go like this in my mind for a drill or impact driver:

1. Quality, used tool at a pawn shop / secondhand store. Top quality stuff would be Metabo, middle tier Milwaukee / Dewalt / Bosch, etc. No Harbor Freight / Northern Tool / etc Chinese brands used.

2. New Harbor Freight / Northern Tool / etc. Try it out before the warranty period expires.

3. New Good Quality Tool. This is in third place because why have $150 or more tied up in something you use once in a blue moon? Just doesn't make financial sense. I buy quality when I need quality, which isn't every time.

14. Used HF / Northern Tool tool. I wouldn't do this unless I was really strapped for cash.

[EricM]

I really like auto-lock tape measures, where the blade remains extended until you hold down a button to release it. My favorite is the Milwaukee 16', I also have it in 25'. If you want something more compact, I like the Komelon 12'. My experience with the longer Komelon's is not good though, not enough spring tension on the button to hold the blade in place.

Is your current drill lacking when drilling holes or when driving screws? I'd take an impact driver over a drill any day for driving something into a stud. There are some similar threads here, here, and here. If there is a consensus, it's probably that any name brand will be fine. Pick what your buddy uses so you can borrow his tools and they work with your batteries and charger. You can get a Milwaukee M12 kit for $100. There are quite a few tools in the M12 system, they tend to be compact and a good value. You'll have more options with a 18V/20V system, where an entry level kit is around $150 like this Dewalt kit.

[vcdgrips]

Re the Tape Measure.
I went with this Stanley made in the USA Fat Max w a box cutter set.
The box cutter is tasked as my range knife re cutting backers, cardboard and butcher paper.

Not the best deal but I wanted what I wanted next day.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083ZD3SXP...ing=UTF8&psc=1

[OlongJohnson]

I also use an old Stanley PowerLock 25' I got >20 years ago.

Only abused the lifetime warranty twice that summer. Once from letting it wind all the way back in and coming to a hard stop - after many weeks of using it all day and doing that, it tore the tab off the end of the tape. So I learned to stop it gently, then let it retract the end slowly. The other time, I let it get into the saw. The second replacement is the one I still use.

I'm not a fan of the "FatMax" style of tool. Stanley seems to have adopted the philosophy that the more space a tool takes up in your tool box, the better it must be.