Toolfreaks Anonymous

[Madd Hatter]

   A lot of my tools I inherited from my grandfather.  He was a retired supervisor from the GM&O Railroad and as I grew up in the later 1960s was my mentor for all things mechanical.  The man could make of fix anything and was my main shooting buddy.  He had been a gunner's mate on the USS Oklahoma in WW1 so he shot bigger guns than I ever will.  He made me this anvil from a railroad rail, and it is my favorite tool.  He along with his brother who had a full blacksmith shop in back of his country store was where they fixed farm equipment and guns and I loved to spend time there with them after school. It's the perfect size for gun work. 

I need to talk to an acquaintance that works repairing the tracks for the rail road. He replaces bent and wore out rails here locally. I'd love to make something like that.👍

[bantam5s]

That stock photo from Tekton doesn't show the parallel grind on the 1/4, heres a good shot of it.
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[Bimota]

I had a neighbor from Austria. One day he showed me his new Table Saw. It was really nice and I could tell it was probably expensive. I told him I just bought a new saw too. He asked what kind. So I told him - a Sawzall. He had no idea what that was. We went over to my house. I grabbed a 2x4 and started pounding nails in to it. I picked the saw up and sliced right through it twice. John said  'Stop don't do that. You will ruin your saw" . The look on his face was priceless. I said "John don't worry it's a Sawzall   Sawz-Anything". I pounded some more nails in to the 2x4 , handed him the saw and said " here try it". He made a few cuts and started laughing. Two days later he showed me his new Sawzall.
I still have my Sawzall and the box it came in.

[anti-squirrel]

Ah yes.  Milwaukee Sawzalls.

I've had... maybe 6 or 7 Milwaukee-branded, a couple Porter-Cables, one laughably bad DeWalt (never understood why so many people adore DeWalt?) that had a melt-down, and even a Suzuki- which is by far the most ergonmoic model I've owned, but it EATS the carbon brushes.  Works really good for tree-limbing, though.

My favorite is my "daily driver", a Super-Sawzall that has cut more lumber, metal, cars, decks, and tree limbs than everything else combined.  Oscillating action, quick-lock for the blade, tool-free walking shoe removal, quick-connect power cord, and far too many blades. WAY too many blades.  I've spent a lot of money on blades for Sawzalls and other reciprocating saws.  At some point, I'm getting a Milwaukee Hackzall or whatever the little one-hander is called.  I've used them but never owned, so maybe I'll treat myself sometime soon.

[Sfttailrdr46]

I have had my Super Sawzall since 1991 and it is still going strong I just can't kill it

[bantam5s]

Is it weird that I do not own a recip saw and have never even used one.

I've owned and or used just about every other kind of saw you can think of aside from crosscut bucking and felling saws but a reciprocating saw I have never used or truly needed.


I will likely pick one up at some point,  but I'm in no hurry.

[Ronno6]

I had a neighbor from Austria. One day he showed me his new Table Saw. It was really nice and I could tell it was probably expensive. I told him I just bought a new saw too. He asked what kind. So I told him - a Sawzall. He had no idea what that was. We went over to my house. I grabbed a 2x4 and started pounding nails in to it. I picked the saw up and sliced right through it twice. John said  'Stop don't do that. You will ruin your saw" . The look on his face was priceless. I said "John don't worry it's a Sawzall   Sawz-Anything". I pounded some more nails in to the 2x4 , handed him the saw and said " here try it". He made a few cuts and started laughing. Two days later he showed me his new Sawzall.
I still have my Sawzall and the box it came in.

That was an expensive demonstration when considering the price of wood these days...........

[Insanity]

Is it weird that I do not own a recip saw and have never even used one.

I've owned and or used just about every other kind of saw you can think of aside from crosscut bucking and felling saws but a reciprocating saw I have never used or truly needed.


I will likely pick one up at some point,  but I'm in no hurry.

Yes it's weird.

[lizzie]

Is it weird that I do not own a recip saw and have never even used one.

I've owned and or used just about every other kind of saw you can think of aside from crosscut bucking and felling saws but a reciprocating saw I have never used or truly needed.


I will likely pick one up at some point,  but I'm in no hurry.

I own one, but have never used it. The hubs bought it back when we were building the house, and it's probably never been used more than 5 or 6 times in all these years.

[lizzie]

Ah yes.  Milwaukee Sawzalls.

I've had... maybe 6 or 7 Milwaukee-branded, a couple Porter-Cables, one laughably bad DeWalt (never understood why so many people adore DeWalt?) that had a melt-down,

I have bought mostly DeWalt since I started buying my own tools about 20 years ago, and *so far* have had GREAT luck with them! I still have the first DW electric drill I bought, plus another one, two DeWalt battery drills, a mini battery op "circular" saw, a DeWalt "Saws-all", Chop saw (and there are probably a couple that I am forgetting at the moment). The only problem I have ever had was that I needed a new battery for one of the battery drills.

[anti-squirrel]

Ah yes.  Milwaukee Sawzalls.

I've had... maybe 6 or 7 Milwaukee-branded, a couple Porter-Cables, one laughably bad DeWalt (never understood why so many people adore DeWalt?) that had a melt-down,

I have bought mostly DeWalt since I started buying my own tools about 20 years ago, and *so far* have had GREAT luck with them! I still have the first DW electric drill I bought, plus another one, two DeWalt battery drills, a mini battery op "circular" saw, a DeWalt "Saws-all", Chop saw (and there are probably a couple that I am forgetting at the moment). The only problem I have ever had was that I needed a new battery for one of the battery drills.

DeWalt is acceptable up to medium use and good for the average home-owner.  However, I've spent many a day on jobsites working with my years-old and even decades-old Milwaukee tools while the guys with the DeWalts were heading back to a tool vendor (Grainger, HD, LowDeWalts).  Not saying they won't work- my portable table saw is a DeWalt... but if I'm depending on a tool for high precision and durability make income, I'm sticking with Hilti or Milwaukee.  When I was installing garage doors and entry doors for a living, our employer supplied DeWalt cordless drills, circular saws, and impacts, and we had backups for our backups for our backups.  He had a contract with a local DeWalt rep and every week or so somebody was getting replacements.  Typical day was 6 hours of running a cordless impact, the rest was driving or cleaning up (could explain the nerve damage in my left arm!)

I'll add my brother-in-law is the tool buyer at Dominion Power.  IE: very very senior in the organization.  Employees are not allowed  to buy DeWalt on the company P-Cards on account of the high failure rate.  When somebody is a few hundred feet up a tower or working in remote locations accessible only by UTV or quad, tools have to meet very stringent quality standards that DeWalt simply cannot meet.  Not saying they are all bad- I own several- but for heavy-duty commercial/industrial work, not a chance.

About Sawzalls and reciprocating saws... If you work construction for a living, you own one, plain and simple.  Chances are you have 2    I've often pondered gettingt a twin-cut saw- these have counter-rotating blades stacked, and make some nifty cuts.  I do have a toe-kick saw but it i likely my least-used saw; even less-so than my bucksaws, of which I have 3.  2 1-man and 1 two-man.    One of those I use regularly and lemme tll ya, I respect it every bit as much as my chainsaws.  One slip or "oops" is gonna cause a lot of pain.

I liken DeWalt to be the Benjamin Marauder of tools.  I just prefer my EdGun-durable Milwaukee stuff

[Bimota]

I want to get one of these REXBETI Metal Nibbler Drill or Impact Attachment

[Bimota]

I bought this on Black Friday a few years ago. I did not use it for over a year.
Since then I have used it at least once a week.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Bosch, Makita, Dewalt, Milwaukee... all the major brands have different "levels" of the same product.
QC at the industrial level segregates the difference by run and who the final seller is by QUALITY.
You buy one from the "Big Box Store" at a cheaper price... you are getting the lower level.
 The old addage "You get what you pay for" has never been more true.
 

[Firewalker]

I have Japanese Makita cordless hand tools, the BL line is very light weight and serves me well. I am a Makita fan-boy, I'm afraid. 

[Rick67]

I have Japanese Makita cordless hand tools, the BL line is very light weight and serves me well. I am a Makita fan-boy, I'm afraid. 

Makita power tools are very hard to kill and parts are readily available.

It is what we used when we had a sister company (construction) in the Philippines.

[Sqrl Klr]

I needed my sawzall today but couldn't find it then realized I left it at my neighbor's place awhile back. Hopefully his pets haven't chewed the cord or peed/pooped on it. I used my skill saw instead and got the job done.

[bantam5s]

I have Japanese Makita cordless hand tools, the BL line is very light weight and serves me well. I am a Makita fan-boy, I'm afraid. 

Makita power tools are very hard to kill and parts are readily available.

It is what we used when we had a sister company (construction) in the Philippines.

My old blue dinosaur finally died on me a couple years ago, and it technically still worked too.
The switch went with the drill stuck in reverse, the red Mexican made battery had long since died but the original black Japanese NIMH battery was still working.

I called it the blue dinosaur because it was a big heavy beast from the late 90's.

[Novagun]

I have a reciprocating saw. I think it is the thing that I call a demolition saw. Mine is a "Works" brand. I don't know who actually made them.  Chinese you can bet. It was an in house brand for Mitre10 hardware stores. It was not very expensive but it has turned out to be very tough. It has demolished walls, cut steel bolts and nails and hefty tree roots and just keeps on going.
Definitely not a precision tool but gets the rough jobs done. With a demolition blade it even cuts around corners. Very handy indeed.
It looks like the Sawsall.

[Sqrl Klr]

Hopefully his pets haven't chewed the cord

Yep that happened so no more lending tools to him long term either. Good thing is he's paying me back for the new saw I'm having to buy.