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.

 

[JoshT]

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.

Still runing FLA in the F-250, If I'd still had it next time batteries are needed, it would be getting AGM. It was a serious consideration when I bought this set, but finances at the time favored traditional batteries. Either way, this charger is dual chemistry with mode select. Good for either standard FLA or AGM. The one it replaced was new enough to have that feature too, but I think it got left exposed to the elements a few times too many. The smaller charger/maintainers I have are good for standard, AGM, or lithium, but I don't like relying on them for normal charging needs.

 

[pjtoledo]

transfer punch set.
the die/tap combo I ordered from China arrived a few days ago. no tariff issues.

 

[scotts90ranger]

so many temptations lately... at the Lowes gift area I talked myself into their "mini pliers set" that has a pliers wrench and two other Knipex style pliers... all small but that's fine, got one for my brother too...

Then just before turkey day I got a "friends and family 25% off whole trip" coupon from a coworkers woman that works at Harbor Freight so I went a bit silly but not too bad... there was some stuff for others and some gifts involved... Got my mom a Bauer drill (I've already gotten her a few things before so that's the battery system she's on), a workshop blower to help with burn piles and a pruning chainsaw with 5" bar (got one for me too, looks handy as heck), stubby 6 way screwdrivers for me and my brother, one of the pressurized sprayers to put WD40 in (already have one for acetone, super handy), a gallon of PB Blaster (might put that in the sprayer instead) and some other random stuff like a 2" twist lock kit for my recently acquired angle die grinder and some nifty looking flap discs that are twist lock and some clearance 4.5" flap discs... A couple friends wanted things too so one wanted the Icon screwdriver set and another an engine hoist... saved them combined almost $90...

 

[JoshT]

Offroad or rough surface creeper.

Seeing as I don't have a shop or hard surface to work on stuff at my house I'm always laying on the ground and crawling under what ever I'm working on. Gets old, but not usually doing it long enough at a time to justify spending for a solution. Well with the soon to start repairs on my floors due to water damage, and the pending subsequent whole house plumbing overhaul, I stand (or sit/lay?) to be crawling around on the ground under the house a fair bit. From the little bit I did it the other day getting insulation out of the way for inspection I knew that something was going to have to change. Preferibly something that will let me roll along under the house instead of crawling, and that will bive me a bit of a platform to sit on while working.

I needed a creeper. Not a normal creeper, got a couple of those in dad's shop and they great on the concrete. If you've ever used a regular shop creeper, you can probably imagine how they would work off that concrete. It's worse on rough asphalt, and forget about using it off a paved surface. Too low to the ground, too many points of contact, and wheels too small. Thought about how I could build one for cheap, but everything I could come up with would take time to build and end up too bulky to be practical. So I searched around and found this version of a mechanic's creeper from Harbor Freight that addressed most of the issues, actually advertised elsewhere as an all-terrain creeper.

4 big castor wheels instead of the 6 tiny ones, they've even got a chunky tread LOL. Those 6" wheels let it it sit up a little higher for clearance and allow it to roll over small obstacles better. Having only four points of contact will allow it so be more stable on uneven ground. Good solution right?

Almost...

If you've ever tried to roll narrow castor wheels (or fixed wheels for that matter) through dirt, you know they don't like to cooperate. Those big wheels might be an improvement for rough surfaces, but they are still meant for hard packed rough surfaces. As you can probably imagine, in addition to being uneven, the dirt in my crawl space is softer since it hasn't been exposed to weather or traffic to compact it. Nope those wheels just won't do for rolling on the soft dirt once I add my weight to the rig. Lets try these:

6"x3" stud mount castor wheels with brakes. Didn't care about the brake portion, but couldn't find them without. Might even be handy feature depending on the circumstance. At double the width of the normal 6" castor this will hopefully work to roll over that soft dirt under then house and grasses in the yard when done with the house projects.

The creeper itself wasn't cheap, but I did save about $40 by getting a lower cost open box Amazon version with 5" smooth wheels instead of the 6" knobby. Didn't figure they mattered much since I was going to replace them out of the box anyway. The wheel upgrade really added to the cost, they were more than the creeper itself. This thing probably ended up double or tripple what a normal creeper would cost, at least of you shop for stuff like that at HF like I do.

I kind of got a 2 for one on this deal. I'm going to take those narrow castors and some scrap wood from dad's camper rebuild project and make a rolling cart for tools/part/materials while working under there. Those original castors are too narrow for my 200lbs, but they'll probably work fine for a tool tray.

It hurt the wallet, but probably the only tool I'm going to have to purchase for the floor stage of the house repair project. (Might need a few things for the plumbing part.) Hopefully it'll pay for itself moving around and working under the house, and again when working on stuff in the yard after. It'll certainly be better than sitting and laying on the ground even if it doesn't end up as mobile as I'd like.

Will have to wait a few days for pictures and trial run of the finished product. Was too late to get it together tonight. I'm getting my eye injections tomorrow, so it might be the weekend before I can really play in the dirt again.

 

[pjtoledo]

cardboard, and sheets of plastic that slide easy.
BTDT, sold that place 40 years ago.

 

[JoshT]

cardboard, and sheets of plastic that slide easy.

Cardboard, sheets of plastic, tarps, moving blankets, etc.

BTDT, and it wasn't enough. Yes, they helped and I made do for the brief times working under a vehicle, but still not enough. I spent too much time crawling in and out of tight spaces (airplane fuel tanks) for my career, and I didn't even have to go far in those, I'd prefer not being on my hands and knees for the 60' from one end of the house to the other. That's a good way to hurt something, and I probably don't recover as easily as I used to. At least when it was on the job I would have been elligable for workers comp and gotten paid during the recovery.

Hopefully selling this place in the next few years. I know the property I intend to move to, it doesn't have a shop either and the yard is no better than the current house. Don't know if I'm going to build or get a manufactured home on the property, but it will be servicable by me and I doubt that the crawl space will be much better unless it's a basement (won't have a slab). Hopefully I won't NEED to spend as much time under that house, but there's still the possibility of needing to do it over at mom's.

Still going to be worth having an all-terrain creeper (assuming that it works).

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Cardboard, sheets of plastic, tarps, moving blankets, etc.

BTDT, and it wasn't enough. Yes, they helped and I made do for the brief times working under a vehicle, but still not enough. I spent too much time crawling in and out of tight spaces (airplane fuel tanks) for my career, and I didn't even have to go far in those, I'd prefer not being on my hands and knees for the 60' from one end of the house to the other. That's a good way to hurt something, and I probably don't recover as easily as I used to. At least when it was on the job I would have been elligable for workers comp and gotten paid during the recovery.

Hopefully selling this place in the next few years. I know the property I intend to move to, it doesn't have a shop either and the yard is no better than the current house. Don't know if I'm going to build or get a manufactured home on the property, but it will be servicable by me and I doubt that the crawl space will be much better unless it's a basement (won't have a slab). Hopefully I won't NEED to spend as much time under that house, but there's still the possibility of needing to do it over at mom's.

Still going to be worth having an all-terrain creeper (assuming that it works).

I was always under the idea that if I ever had to have a house with a crawl space that I’d want to pour a thin concrete slab and have enough height to sit up under the joists. Would make working on anything a million times easier. My high school vo-tech built manufactured homes back when I went there. They would built two double wides at a time. One sat on gravel and one sat on a concrete pad for construction and the concrete one was the nicest to work on.