Top 10 Underrated Tools

[flairwoodworks [OP]]

My top ten list would look very different from Rob’s. Here goes, in no particular order:

1. Drill gauge
2. Good quality abrasives
3. Pencil sharpener
4. Handscrew clamps
5. Strop
6. Saddle square
7. Glue spreader
8. Scrub plane
9. Skew bench chisels
10. Screwdriver bit extender

What do you think? What would make your list?

[Egon]

Off the list above the clamps, abrasives and screw extender would make my list.

[Scott Walsh]

1. 6" combo square - not a 12"
2. Plastic Rafter Square - doesn't marr surface.
3. Box Joint Blade instead of dado stack
4. Pencil Sharpener - screw hacking at it with a knife, I want to get back to work.
5. The Pantorouter
6. Edge Sander - gets used way more than I thought it would before I bought it.
7. A '$h!t' Chisel - as I like to call it, for those random times when a chisel makes sense but you don't want to damage your good ones
8. Miniature files - they just randomly come in handy more times than you'd think
9. Impact driver socket adapters - have really sped up mechanical tasks
10. A small measuring tape <= 12' - one doesn't need a 35' tape for making furniture

[Rob Brown]

Some great underrated tools here. Keep it up!

[dwoody]

I would add a centering drill bit for hinge screws. Also a edge plane for squaring thin stock edges.

[Jerome]

A laser level I always thought they were over the top until I got one now I use it all the time.

[callee]

Oh, good topic! I hadn't seen the article yet, but I can sure think on this.

Is it just handtools? or all tools?

I know there's a few tools that if I showed up on site and found I'd forgotten them, I just wouldn't even try to start.

Certainly my 12" combination square, and my fein multimaster. Never at any job without either of them.

I'm going to keep thinking.

[Rob Brown]

Any tools, Callee.

And to be clear....this isn't about the best tools, or people's favourite tools. It's about "Underrated" tools. Tools that others seem to have little use for, but you can't live without. Tools that many others shrug their shoulders at, but you find really helpful in a lot of situations. Or tools that others like, but you almost couldn't live without.

For example, one of the tools I put on the list was a 12" thickness planer. Most of us have one, but I bet we don't really appreciate jut how lucky we have it. Not too long ago an expensive / massive thickness planer was the only option. Now, for a few hundred bucks we can all have one. And think of the time and energy it saves, all while doing a nearly perfect job of flattening stock - a critical aspect of most woodworking projects. That's what I can underrated!

[Randy in Calgary]

In no particular order.............

1. Shop furnace
2. Shop made woodworking workbench
3. Electric pencil sharpener
4. Ugly old chisel with no handle that I made a handle for, crudely sharpened, that I use for glue scraping and the like



5. Old Mastercraft 8" disk, 4" belt sander. The newer ones have a tiny disk. I have an 8" one and I use it all the time.
6. Dust Deputy on the shop vac
7. Super Dust Deputy on the Dust Collector (both Deputies should be promoted to Sheriff IMO)
8. Bifocal safety glasses. I have less squint wrinkles now
9. Logitech Bluetooth audio receiver connected to my 90's era Yamaha 100 watt amp. Bitchin!
10. Ryobi multi tool. It isn't a Dremel, but it has paid for itself in resharpened bandsaw blades alone.

[Egon]

Is that a piece of copper plumbing on the chisel?

[Randy in Calgary]

Is that a piece of copper plumbing on the chisel?

Yep. Ferrule is copper pipe.

[callee]

When I was working on crew, we did a fair amount of siding work. We always had colour match caulking to hit the corners, window trim, etc. However, often you'd notice some deficiency in the siding itself - a small crack, knot hole, or even an over-driven nail, etc. Not only did that look unsightly, put it would be a point of water penetration and eventual rotting. So we'd hit those spots with the caulking too, to seal them up. When you're caulking a corner, you want a nice rounded bead of course. But when you're filling a crack or hole in the middle of the board, you need to spread that caulking out nice and flat and smooth, like mudding a drywall screw. Most guys would just use their finger. But I didn't like that, because it was slower, not as smooth, and left you with messy fingers! One day I grabbed my tin snips and cut a small piece of aluminum flashing, about the size of a business card. I hit the cut edges with my file for a second or two to smooth them out, then I had a perfect caulking spreader. I still have that piece of flashing in my work pouch. It's not much of a tool, but it's done a lot more work than a lot of the real tools I own. It's small, light, doesn't take up space or weight in my pouch, but it's proven useful in spreading everything from caulking to drywall mud to wood fill to adhesives, giving the final result of my work just that extra level of neat and clean.

[flairwoodworks [OP]]

callee Have you ever tried to use an old plastic gift/membership/credit card for any of those applications?

[flairwoodworks [OP]]

In no particular order.............

4. Ugly old chisel with no handle that I made a handle for, crudely sharpened, that I use for glue scraping and the like

I think it’s beautiful!

[Egon]

Yep. Ferrule is copper pipe.

Thanks.

I’ve got a few items that have reworked brass or copper plumbing items in use.