New tools you've bought recently?

[sgtsandman]

I guess they would count as a new tools.

Bought a new battery charger last night after discovering that my old one was bad, the leads had corroded to the point that the clamps broke off. I probably could have fixed that, but was suspicious of it already and wanted instant gratification of just replacing it. I've got the little NOCO 5 and 2 amp chargers, but mostly use them like maintainers and I prefer having a "proper" charger for something like this truck's big dual batteries. It can also charge charger at a higher amperage, and serve as a jump starter when needed. Turns out that weak batteries probably aren't the problem, looks like I'm pulling the starter to get it tested this week.

Today I did a little Black Friday shopping. Been wanting a bigger tool box to clean up my shed, organize my tools properly, and a bit of a work surface. (Will eventually build a bench too.) Was planning to get one of the 52" US Generals from Harbor Freight. They get good reviews on the interwebz, and that plus a badlands offroad jack would have made the purchase ellegable 24 month 0% interest with equal monthly payments. Unfortunately they would have had to order the box and I'd have had to pick it up at a store in another town. Allegedly they don't have space for them in the storage at my local store.

I used a 42ish inch Snap-on for years at work. While it was a good box (but too expensive for my taste/needs), I knew that I wanted more space than it offered. After riding around and looking at the other stores in the area most of trhem only offered something in that 40" size range. I ended up getting a 63" Craftsman box from Lowes. Little bigger than I planned, but should leave plenty of growing room and gives more work space on top.


If I'm being completely honest, the US General did feel like a sturdier box, and there were some features that I prefered. Namely drawer latches and a charging drawer. This one was $140 less and I don't see lack of those features being a major issue, and it was available today without going out of town for pickup. I won't be rolling it around enough for lack of drawer locks to be an issue, and the soft close slides might have helped with that anyway. Having a charging drawer isn;t much good if there isn't an outlet nearby to plug the box in. Even if I do run wires for an outlet, it might be better that a drawer isn't dedicated to charging. This will be a good one for now. If down the road I build an actual shop, I might get see about getting something bigger and sturdier for that. Then this one can be repurposed into a Freedom Seed Spreader maintenance station, with storage for spare parts, tools and acessories. Didn't buy for the mural, but it didn't hurt, and it's magnetic, so easy to remove.

Because of the AGM battery in the 2019, I have two chargers since the old one does not have an AGM selection and can't guarantee it won't damage and AGM battery.