It followed me home

[JHCC]

I agree with Steve. Also, never buy a power tool that you can't confirm actually works or that you're not sure you can fix. You do not want to end up with an expensive paperweight or doorstop.

[Frosty]

My luck buying used has been very good, I got my table saw free because the motor didn't work when we plugged it in to test. I have quite a few good motors I got for "save me a dump run" prices on badly worn or broken tools. Turned out tightening a wire on the switch fixed the table saw. 

Used tools are a dice roll and sometimes you roll snake eyes.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

17 minutes ago, Steve Sells said:

I prefer to buy used, costs a lot less

Usually better quality too.

[JHCC]

Depends where you buy. I've gotten some real junk at the local flea market, but had better luck with listings on FB Marketplace and Craigslist.

[Shainarue]

As long as there's a way to supply power so you can make sure it runs, used is perfectly fine and much cheaper! 

[natkova]

Well i think parts as rotors stators or brushes which are not mechanical and yo cant always check it and sure if you don't know to maintain tool like me its' kind of risky to buy used tool.

But my uncle suggested me to try at some flea market, i know that this tool is being used and need some maybe new brushes and bearings, so maybe not now maybe for year or maybe for ten. 

[Alan Evans]

When I needed a power tool for a project I always bought new. A straightforward commercial decision. Needed the tool and didn't want the delay of nursing an unknown quantity.

Buying second hand I would only consider high quality good brand tools, you can buy cheap new tools for pennies now.

I have bought a couple of good quality second hand tools. A 18 volt NmH Makita Combi drill for £50 from eBay which had no scuffs on the sides from any use, and I prefer the handle design to their later Li-ion tools...the 20 year old original is still going strong but cost me near £400 in 2000.

The other was an "It followed me home" classic. A few years ago at the big annual steam fair held in Dorset in the UK there was a an acre or two of tailgate sales. As we were meandering up and down the rows I spotted a Ø200mm (Ø8") diamond core drill bit. As I walked towards it asked the vendor how much?   He said £30. Having recently paid nearly £200 for a Ø150mm tube I was gobsmacked and didn't say anything else, doubly so because when I got up close I saw it wasn't just a core drill bit, it was mounted on a complete Milwaukee vacuum base drill rig. I had paid over £1500 for my later generation Milwaukee equivalent 10 years before.

To cap it all the vendor took my silence for dubious reaction to price and said £25?  

It definitely followed me home.

At home, I found (apart from a cracked area around the cable entry on the motor) it worked perfectly.

 

[JHCC]

That is an amazing deal. Congratulations!

In general, this discussion reminds me of the advice from Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame) about buying tools that you’re pretty sure if you will need, but not entirely certain: Buy the cheapest version that will allow you to know whether or not you will really benefit from having it, and once you know that it will, buy the best quality version you can afford and sell or give the cheaper one away. 

[Jobtiel1]

Wait till it breaks to buy a better one! If it doesn't break, the cheap one would also be good to use for what you need it to do!

~Jobtiel

[Frosty]

That is an epic score Alan! I've wanted a Milwaukee Mag drill since the first time I used one but could never justify the cost. I've not only never seen one for a decent price at a yard, garage, sale, flea market, auction, etc. I've never seen one period. They just don't stay up for grabs for long.

We had the same drill on a tall rack and pinion feed for core drilling at work. Awesome drill.

Frosty The Lucky.

[natkova]

I Bought some two copies of makita one bing bigg one for concrete work with hammer and its with cord in it and other is cordless drill like 30 dollars well both costed 100 euro  200 convertible marks , lets say 120 dollars.
IT was cheap i bought Straus mark couple years a go it lasted for one year and chuck get messed up. Couldn't replaced it so i throwed it in garbage.

For one year working with that tools was not that bad but i was a bit disappointed, to be honest i bought same tool new one 5 times cheaper then original (makita cordless) but it can do some work.

I don't put too much faith in it.

 

[Steve Sells]

On 11/21/2022 at 2:33 PM, JHCC said:

Good for the magnets, if nothing else!

I should mention that I paid $400 for these speakers,  While the new MSRP is $3,200

[Frosty]

WOW, those must have really GOOD magnets! 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Hefty]

I've finally found something worth posting in this thread! I'm helping my folks pack up to move to an over 50's retirement village and they are trying to give me heaps of their old stuff. Some of it is great, some of it is not, but the best thing I've accepted from them so far is this:

A full 16 volume, 1968 Popular Mechanic do-it-yourself Encyclopedia set! My late grandparents were American missionaries to New Guinea and my uncle (along with my mum and the other siblings) was born and raised in the highlands but with his upbringing supplemented by their connections back in the States so he got the full set shipped over!

I quickly flicked through one volume and saw fully illustrated plans for a belt sander. Can't wait to see what else it holds!

 

[George N. M.]

Hefty, looks like a good find.  Old home repair and DIY references can have some really good information, particularly if you are repairing or renovating an old house and need to understand how things were done back then.

Back issues of Popular Mechanics are available on line.  It was published from 1902 until today.  I can remember some pretty cool projects from the '20s and '30s when I was perusing them in my teens.  A friend and I built an electic arc furnace using a couple flower pots, welding rods, and a jug with a baking soda solution in it as a resistor.  It got me to the district science fair in 8th grade.  It would probably give a school system the colly wobbles today.  It was 1960 and that was a different world.

A similar publication was Mechanix Illustrated which published from 1928 until 2001 in one form or another.  I don't know if back issues are available on line.

I think any of these archives could be a rabbit hole about as powerful as a black hole where you'd go it and either never come out or come out in another space in a different time.  Practically, the problem would be relevant information retrival.  Trying to find articles specifically applicable to blacksmithing might be difficult unless, somewhere, maybe annually, there is an index of some sort.

[JHCC]

One of my favorite books when I was little was a 1911 companion of Popular Mechanics articles entitled “The Boy Mechanic”, which probably helped inspire my DIY make-it-from-what-you’ve-got attitude (what the youngsters nowadays call “MacGuyvering”). It had such delightful anachronisms as recommending that certain parts can be easily obtained from one’s local blacksmith. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I have the full set of the Practical Handyman's Encyclopedia. Bought it in the '60s if I recall. Can't tell ya how many times I have referenced it over the decades.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Picked up a little 1917 66 pound Trenton today, gonna build a tripod an use it for the travel kit,

[Scott NC]

  Good score there.  I would like to find a little anvil like that, Billy.  It would suit my purposes.  My anvil magnet don't work in NC.  Must be all these pine trees getting in the way.....

  Nice little choo choo too Btw.... 

[Shainarue]

Nice! 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Thank you both!

Ive actually been trying to thin out some of the stuff around here but every time I get rid of a truck load of stuff I either accidentally get trapped at a farm auction or someone else brings an anvil by they wanna sell,

I had just sold a 225 pound PW anvil an some other stuff on Monday and by Saturday night end up with another one

its like the curse of king rusty patinas tomb or something around here! 

10 hours ago, Scott NC said:

Nice little choo choo too Btw

That’s a long story,

earlier this month my mother roped me an my brother into dragging out the three semi loads of Christmas stuff outta her garage and bring it to the house so she could set all her stuff up,

while we were digging that stuff out I came across what was left my old Playskool Express train set I had when I was max’s age,

it was missing about half the stuff and the half that was there was in really bad shape 

mine thing led to another an somehow I ended up on Flea Bay looking at the remains of other peoples PS express train sets from when they where little,

I ended up finding a complete train set that had a bad Locomotive but it had all the other stuff I needed to rebuild my set so I ordered it,

then i found some of the accessory train cars that I never had as a kid an got that too,

when it all came in I set up 20+ foot of railroad in the living room while Max was taking a nap

you should’ve seen the look on his face when he woke up an walked in there!!!! 

anyways the locomotive setting under the shop tree is the one that came with the set I ordered,

I think There’s something wrong with either the switches or the board or something cause it only intermittently comes on then dies immediately 

We are using my old locomotive in the house so I brought this one out here to tear down sometime an see if I can’t get it back up an running so we have a spare,

don’t look bad for a toy that’s almost 40 years old,

 

 

[George N. M.]

with those extra cars you may need a second locomotive to double head the train.

This reminds me of when Tom was about Max's age and he was a serious train geek.  Once, when he was about 3 or 4 he was playing with his Thomas the Tank Engine set and looked up thoughtfully and said, "Trains my life."  He has graduated from trains to planes and will soon be a commercial pilot.

I hope Max keeps his interest in all things railroad as he grows up.

GNM

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I can’t tell bout the future but I can say that we eat, sleep, a breathe Trains and Dinosaurs round here currently George!

[Scott NC]

  That is a nice story.  I bet Max's face lit up like a, well, Christmas tree when he saw that.  I have a sense of nostalgia for railroady stuff among other things (dinosaurs...).  Some things stick with you forever.  I suppose that's why it caught my eye.  I'm sure you will have it back in service in due time.

[JHCC]

Four months after I place the order, the 6mm collet for my die grinder finally arrives. 

Now I can finally use all the 6mm-shanked bits that don’t fit the 1/4” collet. 

(And no, that’s not a chuck. I collet like I see it.)