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NC Wayne
12-03-2004 22:58:37
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Re: tool rant in reply to hay, 12-03-2004 07:29:41
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I work on equipment for am living, so, like the old saying goes, "My tools make my living". Personally I buy whatever tools I believe are gonna do the job I need them to do, and I don't care who makes them or how much or how little they cost. The main thing is that they are comfortable to use. If you look at some of the "advantages" of the name brand stuff like smooth chrome finishes, etc they look good in theory, but they aren't all their cracked up to be in everyday use. When I'm up to my elbows in hydraulic oil, give me a wrench with a textured finish any day of the week because it's alot easier to hold onto. True I may need to wipe it off with some brake-clean when I'm done, but that's no big deal.I do have some of the special, high dollar wrenches, like MAC's Microturns, that are only available from them, but for the standard stuff why pay that extravagant price when a tool 1/4 the price will work just as good. Between the common hand tools, all my impact stuff, enerpac rams, etc I've got at least $30,000 or more in tools on my truck right now. True it has taken me nearly 15 years to accumulate all this stuff from various sources, but if I had had to buy every piece through MAC or Snap-on I'd still be running around with nothing but a hammer and a few adjustable wrenchs because there's no way I could have afforded to pay their prices for every tool I've got. Personally I don't see anything wrong with the store brands like NAPA's Evercraft, with the Northern brand wrehches, etc. They are nice looking, quality tools, with a lifetime warranty, for a fair price. If you look at the warranty isue though, when will you actually need to take advantage of that? If you put enough force on a wrench to literally break it, on the proper size bolt, then more than likely you've already twisted the bolt off or it's obvious you need to try something else to get the bolt out because the wrench just isn't gonna work. I can understand alot of reasons for buying the "cheap stuff" to throw in the tractor toolbox, etc where it might tend to get wet and rusty, etc. Maybe when your tools make your living it's different, but what I can't understand is the excuse of losing tools as a reason for buying cheap stuff. With me(nearly 15 years) and Dad(over 25 years), both running field service trucks, I don't think we've "lost" more than maybe 10 tools between us in all those years. Several of them were lost in belly pans, etc. Places where they got knocked off and you knew where they went, but they weren't accessable to retrieve. It just doesn't pay to take half a day to find a 25 cent 1/4 drive socket. True, some have fallen prey to the occasional brain flop, heck I was in a hurry and left my big scraper--$10-- on the front bucket of a borrowed backhoe and it disappeared somewhere in the 1/2 mile between my house and the neighbors. The main thing is to keep everything organized and eliminate part of the memory process in making sure nothings left behind. Use socket rails, if one's missing when your done, find it and fill the slot. Put tools back when your done with them, if you just used two 3/4 wrenches on the front of the tractor, and need a 9/16 on the back, put the 3/4's back before you get the 9/16. Like I said, brain flops happen, but they can be all but eliminated with a little orginanization, so that's no excuse in my book.....so, cheap, pricey, none of it matters as long as it's a quality, functional tool, that's comfortable to use. All the money and beauty in the world won't make a tool comfortable. Just my .02..... ....
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