Top 10 Underrated Tools

[Ed in Leaside]

Empty peanut butter containers. <snip> Currently have about 30 of them in the shop

I have more than 100, screwed the lids to the underside of the mezzanine.

[TwoBirds]

a good apron with pockets for all the tools one needs to get one's hand on while holding something(s) in place with the other.
a crappy knife
a good knife
a really good knife
an extra knife

[KeithF]

Empty peanut butter containers. I know my FIL used glass coffee bottles, but I don’t care for the glass as for the breakage factor. The containers hold nails/screws/ parts for specific projects. They can also be used to soak parts in. The lids can be inverted to hold small parts or as mixing trays. Currently have about 30 of them in the shop

[Don Burch]

Pencils. Any pencil. You never give them their due until you cannot find one when you need it, or it needs sharpening, or, if mechanical, has no lead.

[Jerome]

You make a mark on the bad side like this

[Randy in Calgary]

........................avoid such things like the plague.

Ken

At the risk of a hijack and a bad joke, I think we are all getting a crash course on how to avoid the plague. Strange times we live in.

[KenL]

How do you remember which side of the line?

LOL, I wondered the same thing! I use knives and awls for marking wood (cutting gauges and such are knives for these purposes) when it really matters and scribers (and such like) with or without Marking Blue for marking metal. Big, fat Eversharp type lead pencils are not my jam which is why I am so fond of my old Boston pencil sharpener and Lee Valley pencils for shop use. I am not at all keen on disposable anything and avoid such things like the plague.

Ken

[flairwoodworks]

I was taught as a jeweller that you work from the side of the line, not the line itself.

How do you remember which side of the line?

[Jerome]

Good to know about reloading them, I bought the pack a couple of years ago and haven't run out of lead yet I have them spread throughout the shop. I like them because I found with a regular pencil they were never sharp when I needed it to be so I would have to stop what I was doing and sharpen them. As to 0.7 or 0.5 mm I was taught as a jeweller that you work from the side of the line, not the line itself.

[Randy in Calgary]

I’ve never heard of a disposable mechanical pencil! Can you load lead through the tip?

No it is a twist to advance and the lead is held at the back much like a pen refill. The hack on YouTube shows how to get the pen apart and install a new lead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYldbtlcVDk

[flairwoodworks]

I’ve never heard of a disposable mechanical pencil! Can you load lead through the tip?

I use wooden pencils in my shop mostly - half of the time it’s round, the other half of the time it’s a blunt-ish carpenter’s pencil.

[KenL]

They are plastic and disposable which would be a show stopper for me. There is a hack on YouTube that shows how you can replace the lead and eraser.

I agree wholeheartedly Randy! The 0.7mm lead is rather coarse too. I find that mechanical pencils with the 0.5mm lead are not the best in the shop because the lines are too coarse, especially for small parts (I have "professional"" quality draughtsman's pencils of this type and only use them for hack jobs/sketches!). I confess that I didn't know there was a YouTube "hack" to figure out how to pull the eraser out of a mechanical pencil; who knew!

Ken

[Randy in Calgary]

Wasn’t aware of this pencil. They’re cheap! $6.99... for a dozen!

https://www.staples.ca/products/2780...il-07mm-12pack

They are plastic and disposable which would be a show stopper for me. There is a hack on YouTube that shows how you can replace the lead and eraser.

[flairwoodworks]

[*]Papermate Sharpwriter Mechanical Pencil has a shock-absorbing tip so leads don’t break and always sharp.

Wasn’t aware of this pencil. They’re cheap! $6.99... for a dozen!

https://www.staples.ca/products/2780...il-07mm-12pack

[flairwoodworks]

KenL Your applications do make sense. When I’m working with curved surfaces, I usually am not concerned with drawing straight lines or making precise layout. I suppose that’s why I’ve never seen a need for one.

For cutting veneer, I like my heavy steel straightedge.