Right tool for the job

[Austin1]

If I knew how to do it I would take a poll!
But how many of you buy the right tool for the job? I mean clutch removal tool's and chainsaw specific tools for the brand you own. I must admit I am a tool junkie but will compromise occasionally, but like to have the right tool on hand for the job. Now only if my house was as organized as my garage/workshop.

 

[ShoerFast]

If I knew how to do it I would take a poll!
But how many of you buy the right tool for the job? I mean clutch removal tool's and chainsaw specific tools for the brand you own. I must admit I am a tool junkie but will compromise occasionally, but like to have the right tool on hand for the job. Now only if my house was as organized as my garage/workshop.

I will admit that I am about the worst there is on making things work, like grinding slots in cheep sockets for husky style clutch removers or scribes and picks for seal removal, sockets for seating seals, different sized deep sockets for arbor drifts, grinding and heating bending screwdrivers for any number of things.

Never would say this is the right practice for anything, but sure got by for a lot of years not buying something i would have only used a couple times.

 

[chainsawjunky]

I would rather improvise with an arbor press than buy the specialty crankshaft tools for the stihls. I used a nail set to drive the steel pin out to get the case open and I use sockets to remove the bearings. I like tools as much as the next guy but I don't like spending money for specialty tools. Evan

 

[Austin1]

I will admit that I am about the worst there is on making things work, like grinding slots in cheep sockets for husky style clutch removers or scribes and picks for seal removal, sockets for seating seals, different sized deep sockets for arbor drifts, grinding and heating bending screwdrivers for any number of things.

Never would say this is the right practice for anything, but sure got by for a lot of years not buying something i would have only used a couple times.

True I used to do that but now I find it easier to just buy the tool even if it is made in China for occasional use than take the time to build one.But I still use a rope as a piston stop!

 

[bump_r]

I think that creating a specialty tool (from raw materials or by modifying existing tools) is a testament to ingenuity and competence. If a guy can get proper results by using his noodle and creativity, he gets my respect. Anyone can buy tools and a shop manual and step-by-step themselves through a job. These are "Parts Changers". A true mechanic or technician evaluates the job at hand and goes about it relying on experience and wits. THAT'S who I want working on my stuff.

Kind of like the zit-faced kid at AutoZone that can pick his way through his 'puter and find (some) parts for your car versus the old-school parts guy that could look at your greasy part and grab you a new one off the shelf from memory.

 

[Austin1]

I think that creating a specialty tool (from raw materials or by modifying existing tools) is a testament to ingenuity and competence. If a guy can get proper results by using his noodle and creativity, he gets my respect. Anyone can buy tools and a shop manual and step-by-step themselves through a job. These are "Parts Changers". A true mechanic or technician evaluates the job at hand and goes about it relying on experience and wits. THAT'S who I want working on my stuff.

Kind of like the zit-faced kid at AutoZone that can pick his way through his 'puter and find (some) parts for your car versus the old-school parts guy that could look at your greasy part and grab you a new one off the shelf from memory.

That is true but I value my time and if I can get the tool for the job and save a half hour to hour making one, I will buy the tool. When I was young and cash strapped I made everything but now I will think ahead and buy whatever I think I will need in the future. I guess I have gotten spoiled. At work my boss will say why make one we will just order it and I say we just need it it once and the reply is who cares your not paying for it!But I know were your coming from as to people who can't improvise and use their brain I just think I have become lazy!

 

[bump_r]

There's a time and place for improvisation and others for specialty tools. I'm NOT saying that good techs with "proper" tools DON'T get my respect. Just that in some instances, one can make do, and make do quite well, with "alternative resources".

The rope-in-the-spark-plug-hole trick is a great case in point. I've read horror stories about destroying pistons by using the "proper" piston stop, but not by using a hunk-o-rope... Go figger.

an' stuff.

 

[chainsawjunky]

For the piston stop I took cylinder off and put a big socket on top of the piston and put the cylinder back on. It worked but then again I needed a new crankshaft, piston, and cylinder so it didn't matter(I didn't ruin them with the socket they were already bad). Evan

 

[dtnodya]

For the piston stop I took cylinder off and put a big socket on top of the piston and put the cylinder back on. It worked but then again I needed a new crankshaft, piston, and cylinder so it didn't matter(I didn't ruin them with the socket they were already bad). Evan

All you needed was a 4in. piece of rope .....


I find myself improvising often with tools. But for me it's mostly whenever the tool I need is one that I would have to order. Then I make it myself, or use something else that works..

 

[XJWoody]

I'm about 50/50

depends how cheap I'm feeling, what sort of rush I'm in, or most importantly, what's at stake if my cobbled-together apparatus fails badly.

8 years ago I ran a Snap On tool truck route, and nearly every time I work on my Jeeps, I catch myself thinking, "Dammit, should have snagged one of those _____ thingys"

OTOH when I replaced the 56k modem on my first computer, after much :censored: language & befuddlement trying to get the plastic off, I quit being nice & gained access using a pretty orange 18" prybar and a dead-blow hammer

I've been working on misc junk for many moons, and have a pretty good feel for the limitations of my own shade-tree ingenuity. Sometimes ya win, sometimes ya lose. Key is knowing what the loss might involve before the point of no return.

 

[thomas72]

It is true a good mechanic needs to have good common since, but I myself like having a book on everything I work on. If it is a big job that I have never done before I will read the book the day before I work on the machine. Then I will tackle the problem once I have a reasonable assumption to what the problem maybe. I have seen a many basket cases, because someone did not use a book or were not prepared for the job.

 

[BobL]

I get as much or sometimes more satisfaction out of making tools as I do performing the original task at hand. Sometimes I find I'm making a tool to make another tool to do what I originally started out doing.

A couple of weeks ago I started to make a wooden hand plane. When it came time to grind the bevel on the blade, the thought of doing it on a standard bench grinder and burning the blade didn't appeal so I started to make a surface grinder from a old but powerful (2/3 HP) food processor and a spare grinding wheel. The two ally plates hold a small reduction pair of gears that produce a 325 RPM rotation for cool grinding.

It's still not finished - I have to make the blade holding mechanism, but I'm in no big hurry for this one.

On the other hand, when I am in a genuine hurry I will beg, borrow or buy as required.

 

[Dan Forsh]

....Key is knowing what the loss might involve before the point of no return.

That there is some Sagelike wisdom

 

[Al Smith]

I suppose it just depends on a persons praticular needs and what is at hand.I have my own small machine shop and access to tons of industrial salvage so tools are not a problem to me.

Some of perhaps the more interesting things I've made include an 8 foot sheetmetal brake, a 6 by 48 belt sander with a 12 inch disc sanding attatchment and a power roller for installing standing seam roofing.

I've made numerous pullers ,bearing seating tools,seal punches blah blah,the list is nearly endless.Neccessity is indeed the mother of invention and in my case,I can make things a darned sight cheaper than buying them from Stihl,Ford ,Caterpillar.

 

[Stihl_Learning]

I lean heavily towards buying the right tool
in my mind the right tool is always a time saver as well as a (insert body part here) saver.
I wont buy cheap tools either. I want a tool that will last my lifetime and beyond.
My parents started buying me tools when I was a teenager and I continue to put money aside each payday for my tool fund.
John

 

[clearance]

I guess there is a reason for the trade "tool and die maker" If you can make it yourself, great. If you have the money and not the time, buy it, but no satisfaction for being clever.

 

[Lakeside53]

I do both.... improvise and buy the "right tools". For a one off project where time is unlimited, sure, make do.. but if you're making a living (trying)out of it, just get the right tools...

If everything goes right can change the bearings and seals in a pro stihl crank case in 30 minutes - that's cylinder off to back on again... but I now have the right tools... and some of that time is waiting for the oven to warm up. Do I just charge 30 minutes? - hell no! Someone is going to pay for those tools.

 

[B_Turner]

Do I just charge 30 minutes? - hell no! Someone is going to pay for those tools.

Ouch, rub it in...


In terms of right tool for the job, that is why I have so many different saws with different bars.

 

[B_Turner]

On a pretty serious note, in terms of what I do mostly (turning) I only make tools when I can't find what I want already. I find as soon as I make a non trivial tool, I start spending time trying to refine the tool when I should be getting work done.

In the turning world, there are two kind of people. Ones that make tools, and another kind that turns. Hard to find time to really do both.

 

[Lakeside53]

Ouch, rub it in...


In terms of right tool for the job, that is why I have so many different saws with different bars.

The tools? - I buy my own.. have many I don't have at work!

The bars? - yep, that's my justification for more saws