Posted: 8/17/2011 6:31:46 AM EDT
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Looking to stock up on some hand tools, and circular saw blades, sanding belts.
Anyone have a good place, better than Home Depot or Wally? thanks |
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Looking to stock up on some hand tools, and circular saw blades, sanding belts. Anyone have a good place, better than Home Depot or Wally? thanks Any of the big box stores like WalMart or HD will have pretty decent and reasonably priced lines of tools and supplies. Despite the hype of some people, for what most peple want to do with them, and the amount of use they get, there is not all that much difference between the expensive hand tools and the cheap hand tools. Most come with a lifetime warranty these days if that matters to you. These days, a lot of hand tools are made in the same factories on the same machines with the same tooling and the same steel. In many cases there is no difference at all between the different brands that is not cosmetic. If you like pretty LASER etched tools over perfectly servicable tools that are not as pretty that is fine, but the pretty costs extra. That does not mean there is no difference at all among tool brands. There sometimes is, but IMO most of the time the lower end brands are often much better values, especially for the home owner who will not be using the tools all that much. I don't know quite what you mean by "stocking up" either. Are you looking for trade goods for after TSHTF? Or are you looking to have a set of hand tools because you may need them at some point. IMO, there is often more of a difference between drill bits made by different manufacturers than there is between drills. Circular saw blades can be purchased for $1 each sometimes. They are servicable for using a few times and throwing away. And are perfectly reasonable for using in that way. If you want a really good circular saw blade, you are looking at $30-50.There is not as much between those extremes as you might want to see. |
| I used to purchase for a good size shop, found these guys http://www.landmessertools.com/ to be very good prices on power and hand tools. |
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Not exactly answering your questions, but someone might find it useful. I only use Makita power tools, still have and use every tool Ive ever bought from them, even a drill that took a 40 foot plunge to concrete.
CPOMAKITA.com is the only place I buy from, cheapest around. . . as far as Makita goes. |
| I agree you have to find your balance between the high end tools and the crap. I have mostly Craftsman bought back in the 70's which have held up well and I will be passing them on to the next generation. I'm a big believer in quality tools. A great source for quality tools at this point is flea markets or garage sales. I went to a local garage sale advertised by the widow as being a garage of tools and that was exactly what it was. I got some great finds at very reasonable prices. The local flea market always has people set up on the sides selling "garage sale style" and you can find some great tools there as well. Good luck. |
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Quoted: Not exactly answering your questions, but someone might find it useful. I only use Makita power tools, still have and use every tool Ive ever bought from them, even a drill that took a 40 foot plunge to concrete. CPOMAKITA.com is the only place I buy from, cheapest around. . . as far as Makita goes. I love makita too but I had a cordless from them that fell 6 feet off a ladder to it's death last year. |
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Not exactly answering your questions, but someone might find it useful. I only use Makita power tools, still have and use every tool Ive ever bought from them, even a drill that took a 40 foot plunge to concrete. CPOMAKITA.com is the only place I buy from, cheapest around. . . as far as Makita goes. I love makita too but I had a cordless from them that fell 6 feet off a ladder to it's death last year. 
Always a bummer to see a good tool go. |
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I agree you have to find your balance between the high end tools and the crap. I have mostly Craftsman bought back in the 70's which have held up well and I will be passing them on to the next generation. I'm a big believer in quality tools. A great source for quality tools at this point is flea markets or garage sales. I went to a local garage sale advertised by the widow as being a garage of tools and that was exactly what it was. I got some great finds at very reasonable prices. The local flea market always has people set up on the sides selling "garage sale style" and you can find some great tools there as well. Good luck. Companies surplus tools from time to time as well. I got a surplussed Bosch 18v hammer drill with case, three batteries, and a charger for $20. I will have to rebuild one of the batteries and replace the brushes eventually, but it works fine. ETA: Grammar. |
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An electrician I was talking to the other day said he is extremely happy with his Harbor Freight hammer drill. He said he beats on it and has never had a problem with it. He is pretty selective about his tools and has a few other HF power tools, but does not like their hand tools.
I am unimpressed with most of the power tools I see at HF but things like wrenches and screwdrivers seem to be pretty well made and I have a pretty good assortment of their hand tools. I am not big anymore on gimmick tools though. They just don't work real well IME. I would rather have the right tool that works well for its intended tasks than something that does 50 things but none of them very well. |
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Looking to stock up on some hand tools, and circular saw blades, sanding belts. Anyone have a good place, better than Home Depot or Wally? thanks This may not help with the extra parts Blades and Belts. But you did not say if the tools had to be new tools. Have you looked on Crags List or U-Piller? Also try Estate sales or tag sales. Especially if your looking for hand tools. Just my $0.02. PITA45 
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An electrician I was talking to the other day said he is extremely happy with his Harbor Freight hammer drill. He said he beats on it and has never had a problem with it. He is pretty selective about his tools and has a few other HF power tools, but does not like their hand tools. I am unimpressed with most of the power tools I see at HF but things like wrenches and screwdrivers seem to be pretty well made and I have a pretty good assortment of their hand tools. I am not big anymore on gimmick tools though. They just don't work real well IME. I would rather have the right tool that works well for its intended tasks than something that does 50 things but none of them very well. You gotta be real weary of what you buy there. I wont say all, but a lot of it is just plain garbage. |
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If stocking up on supplies McFeely's or something like that has a catalog that my dad gets and I think my uncle still gets a catalog from them. I think they covered all sorts of stuff. I am running lowe's circular saw blades in my cordless dewalt circular saw and they do fine. I have a plug in circular saw as well, older dewalt, and it has the normal blade along with a diamond blade I use for cutting some big pieces into marble into still big but now movable chunks of marble. Got the blade at lowes and it was 50 or 70 bucks I think and that was a few years ago. I try to watch for sales and pick up saw blades or cut off wheels or other consumable stuff like that when it is on sale. I don't make a living using the stuff but I do want decent quality. And if you are trying to stock up on actual tools I also agree with watching the used stuff. I have passed a lot of older drills and stuff on to friends and family because I can't afford the space they take up. I try to make sure everything is in good order and what not and I think right now my younger sister has some good tools that she rarely uses but if needed they are good tools. Drill bits and bits for driving screws and nuts and bolts and stuff are one place I do tend to just buy the more expensive stuff. I have a drill doctory sharpener from a decade ago when I worked in a spring shop and we went through drill bits daily depending on what we were drilling. The sharpener is nice and I have more than gotten my money out of it. But I still tend to pick up quality drill bits if I see em, a drill bit can be a heck of a work saver. |
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I agree you have to find your balance between the high end tools and the crap. I have mostly Craftsman bought back in the 70's which have held up well and I will be passing them on to the next generation. I'm a big believer in quality tools. A great source for quality tools at this point is flea markets or garage sales. I went to a local garage sale advertised by the widow as being a garage of tools and that was exactly what it was. I got some great finds at very reasonable prices. The local flea market always has people set up on the sides selling "garage sale style" and you can find some great tools there as well. Good luck. This, I have a guy I go to at the local flea market that sells me ALL sockets for $2.00ea. Lots and lots in buckets that I have to sort to get the ones I want but It's fun. I hit an estate sale today with a TON of hand and power tools.Picked up 6 pairs of vise grips,wood clamps,impact driver,brand new staple gun,2 pipe wrenches,a dozen steel,bronze and nylon brushes for....................$10.00 in change from my truck. It was the end of the day and best sale I found;I'm going back in the AM with cash 
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Hard to believe, but I have found decent stuff at Harbor Freight Tools. It's all Chinese stuff (what isn't), but a lot has served me well. +1 Especially if you don't buy the cheapest thing they stock for hand tools (ie wrenches). 15 years ago, their whole line was fairly iffy quality, but the form, fit and finish of their new better line tools seems just fine/pretty good. I bought a couple of comb0 wrench sets from HF for a cross country move with a U-Haul (aftter I had moved my tools earlier). I have always thought those were cheap - some are in the shed now. I spent $100 for a large combo wrench set in standard and metric (probably 14 piece each) , sockets in standard and metric, adjustable wrenches and "pliers with a vise-like grip". The new manufacture tools there? Last fall I needed a long metric combo wrench for a belt pulley. I bought the $34 MSRP 11 pc metric high polish set (they still have a 16 pc for $29). These are good wrenches in my opinion, at least comparable to my old craftsmans, with chrome like an old snap-on. Don't know how strong they are, but I try not to do things that break wrenches. All that said, I still am more likely to use my craftsman or CarbineKids husky wrenches for normal jobs around the house. But if I need something, I am as likely to het HF and Kobalt/Huskey/Craftsman. Note this discussion is wrenches. I buy name brand power tools (Milwakee/DeWalt/Skil) at HD/lowes for drills or saws or such that I use. And I would definitely want a name brand torque wrench. ETA: My 1/2" craftsman socket set was bought 1 piece at a time at flea markets. I put a card in my wallet listing a complete set out of the craftsman catalog, and checked them off as I found them –– back when they were $1 each less than 1" |
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I just got home from the same estate sale I went to yesterday and ended up helping them sort through boxes of tools for about 3 hrs!
I got no less than $500-$600 worth of craftsman hand tools for 50.00 plus an old craftsman tool box full of freebies like feeler gauges ,punches,drill bits,tap & die set ect. all for my help 
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I usually try my luck at pawn shops. Most around here put anything high end like Snap On or Matco in cases and price according to new price lists, but anything Craftsman or Husky is usually thrown in bucks and tubs out on the floor. I just bought a bunch of Craftsman 1/2" deep 12pt sockets for a buck each.
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An electrician I was talking to the other day said he is extremely happy with his Harbor Freight hammer drill. He said he beats on it and has never had a problem with it. He is pretty selective about his tools and has a few other HF power tools, but does not like their hand tools. I am unimpressed with most of the power tools I see at HF but things like wrenches and screwdrivers seem to be pretty well made and I have a pretty good assortment of their hand tools. I am not big anymore on gimmick tools though. They just don't work real well IME. I would rather have the right tool that works well for its intended tasks than something that does 50 things but none of them very well. I like a lot of the H-F tools too. You have to be careful, but many of them have served us well. Their sockets, some wrenches and speciality tools, are nice. I also have Craftsman to Snapon so have a point of reference. I also find a lot of quality name brand tools on ebay at excellent prices. H-F is a wonderful resource if used with common sense. |
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I found out Sears is selling knipex pliers under both the knipex and craftsman names. They make the best pliers of different types money can buy. I tend to buy the better quality pliers. This brand is German. There's some nice Knipex stuff, but I prefer Klein. Knipex does make some really nice water pump type pliers. I've never see better vice grips than VIce Grips, even though they are imported now. For stuff like saw blades and sanding belts, you can almost never go wrong with McMaster-Carr, and their shipping is very reasonable. If you really know what you want and don't mind paying for it, you might do better say ordering from Forrest for table saw blades or whatever. For sockets I prefer Craftsman for ease of replacement, or SnapOn or Proto for top performance. S-K, NAPA, Klein, KD, Easco, and Proto Challenger are all the equal of Craftsmen, but not as easy to replace. Somebody made fun of laser etching but it really saves seconds ever time you pick up a socket. I keep mine on Craftsman plastic rails (Even the SO sockets, I throw away the rail and use Craftsman), so it's not a big advantage for me, but some sites at work have them, and it really speeds up work. Full polish makes stuff easy to clean, unless you a) don't do a lot of dirty work, or 2 ) don't care if you get yourself and your tool box filthy. They are slighly more prone to slipping out of your hand. |