What are the cool tools that you own but rarely use?

Swage block, 2 man cross cut saw, wooden buck saw, bed wrench, broad axe, come to mind. Oh yes, throw in the chain hoist.

What are the cool tools you own? Extra points for photos.

I just showed this one to JHCC a few days ago.  I'm trying to figure out how to set it up in a stand or jig so I can use it.  It chews through some pretty thick stock.

Got this 10 ton porta power from my now past father in law 18 years ago. Fixed up the hydraulic quick couplers (it was hard plumbed) and have used it once this year. 

11 hours ago, Lou L said:

I just showed this one to JHCC a few days ago.  I'm trying to figure out how to set it up in a stand or jig so I can use it.  It chews through some pretty thick stock.

Got one of these but use it as it is (once in a month or less) and a two ton chain hoist that i use even less. Somewhere I have a two man saw for felling trees that I never have used. A chain saw is so much better and it needs servicing anyway. I also have some rather oldfasioned wood working tools that I occasionally ise but they have litte to do with blacksmithing.

I have a Cole Drill that is really neat but seldom used---However when it is used it is the *only* tool to do the job generally! I used it to drill 1/2" holes through 1/2" plate 10' up in the air when building my shop.  Wouldn't want to be using an electric drill to do that on the top of a ladder unless I had a harness!  (Didn't have to Push on it while standing on a ladder....)

I have a pair of tongs I picked up a while back, thinking they'd be more useful than they are. I have yet to make anything that requires a 2" jaw. 

You need to buy more anvils with 1.5" hardy holes!  Of course the 24' of 2.25" square stock I found along the fence line would need larger ones...

Want me to send these to you?

No, I have some I can probably adjust down to fit it... Thanks for the offer.  Of course last time I forged 2.5" sq stock we welded a handle to it and didn't use tongs.

Found this chain wrench at the junk yard and grabbed it, thinking it would come in handy. Just need to straighten the handle a bit and then find a 10 inch diameter object to wrap it around. 

I have the same thing Glenn. Picked it up at an auction a few years back. Still haven't needed it but that dosnt mean I won't.  

Yeah, but the chances are good that your "use" will involve turning into something sculptural....

On May 20, 2017 at 6:03 PM, Lou L said:

I just showed (the 44 inch bolt cutters) to JHCC a few days ago.  I'm trying to figure out how to set it up in a stand or jig so I can use it.  It chews through some pretty thick stock.

My pair of those I usually use with the jaw and one handle resting on the ground, especially if I am feeding a long bar though it for multiple cuts.

Alan

Lou, this gives me an idea: take a ~12" piece of black pipe (say, 2½"-3" diameter) and forge into a rough oval. You want something that will fit over the handle and slight tightly just below the pivot. Weld this to a piece of square pipe that will fit into your hardy hole, like a capital letter "T" with the oval as the crossbar and its long axis vertical. When you want to cut something, put the square pipe in the hardy hole and slide the cutter's handle into the oval pipe. The oval will hold the cutters upright, and the mass of the anvil and stand will give you a stable base.

Those are great for nipping chain and cutting up to 1" rebar we keep them locked up securely as here the are known as a 3rd world master key. they modify well as crimpers and squeesers.

4 hours ago, JHCC said:

Lou, this gives me an idea: take a ~12" piece of black pipe (say, 2½"-3" diameter) and forge into a rough oval. You want something that will fit over the handle and slight tightly just below the pivot. 

That looks an interesting idea.  

The two reasons I use it at floor level however are; that resting it on the ground means most of your body weight is above it, which means less effort required; that the floor acts as a continuous trestle and supports however long the standing bar or cut off piece may be.

These two points are especially handy when working solo. Both ends of the bar always jump when you go through, and invariably the longest end falls off the bench. It also means you did not have to lift it onto the bench or trestle in the first place!

I have made it into a proto guillotine by clamping one handle in the vice in the past. It works well if you have an assistant holding the bar. 

I have only referred in jest to myself or my assistants when supporting one end of a bar as "an intelligent trestle"...I am very PC really.

Alan

I was just chatting with Glenn, and he suggested two vertical pieces (like a tuning fork), one on either side of the pipe to act as guides to keep the cutter upright. I suppose you could also do something like that with a horizontal piece on the floor and a bit of pipe to secure the bottom handle, like this:

If you do mount it in the anvil, you could put a loop at the bottom of the hardy post, to receive a transverse wedge to lock the holder in place.

One of the advantages of that tuning fork idea is that you could build in a clamp for an end stop...I usually put a mark on the floor to align the bolt cutter and have an Immoveable object the appropriate distance away to feed the bar to.....or just chalk mark the lengths onto the bar.

However I have to say that I have used the bolt croppers fairly infrequently over the last 40 odd years so maybe I will just carry on using them on an ad hoc basis!

Alan

I had been thinking a "tuning fork" channel shape kind of like that welded to a flat plate to hold it in place on the ground since I have used mine on the ground as Alan had mentioned. It would work for mine with the flat cross section on the handles but not sure about the round looking handles on the ones Lou showed. 

Well first I had thought about welding the flat plate to the cutters but dismissed it since they won't always be used that way. 

2 hours ago, Alan Evans said:

 the last 40 odd years

And some of them were very odd indeed. 

JHCC,

Great idea,

A quick set up could use  one half of the fork fitted into the hardy and the other could use an adjustable three way edge clamp. That is the clamp used to stabilize veneer edges to a board.

Slag.

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

And some of them were very odd indeed. 

You misunderstand me...I was referring to the years indivisible by two.

Alan

My calculus teacher in college like to say that the odd numbers weren't that odd, just a little different.

Have only used these once in the 10 or so years I've owned them. They are 34 inches OAL with 8 inch jaws and will cut some stout sheet metal.

The other one is the electrified wet wheel in the background.

 

I've got two sets of these used one once but make nice conversation pieces when someone with little knowledge of metal work shows up. 

We carried bolt cutters the size Lou L shows on our fire truck before the days of Halogen Tools and we referred to them as our "Breaking and Interior Tool" instead of "Forcible Entry Tools".