Learning New Skills _Pt 2 Buying Tools

Buying tools can be a minefield as often more hobbies mean more tools and more tools means more storage and also more insurance premiums and more tools which are visible to the public means more thieves see you and puts you at higher risks of theft, so where to begin? Many manufacturers now follow the principle of making you spend the most amount of money, the most amount of times as they know a quality tool which lasts a lifetime is only one sale and only one sale is only one lot of profit and they want more profits which equals more sales.

I would suggest starting with basic DIY hand tools and not specific tools, but tools which can be classed as multi purpose tools and screwdrivers would be one example as they can be used for driving wood screws for woodworking or fixing screws into Rawlplugs or similar, or for many machine screws used in mechanical engineering applications. Therefore one set of tools covers many disciplines and you can screw wood together, attach metal roof sheets to timber battens/purlins, or remove components from your car. If you think about your purchases and buy prudently, in lots of cases you can also futureproof to an extent as well as buying a set of tools which can be used in other applications such as the correct screwdriver set which had one screwdriver which holds various bits as the amount of bits is increasing regularly and the bits are improving in quality. Think about this for a minute, if you buy a screwdriver set prudently and it has a screwdriver bit holder in it you can save your screwdrivers and just damage the bits which are cheap and easily replaceable and instead if being limited to the standard flat, Philips, and Pozidrive bits you can also use Allen bits, Torx bits, SQ bits, and more obscure bits such as Robertson or Tri wing bits which you may occasionally use. If you then buy a cordless drill and get a bit holder to fit your drill you can now use your bits in your cordless drill as well.

What are the common bits? They remain the same for screwdrivers and cordless tools and are:

Flat bits which are designated by their width which is now in millimetres and a flat 3mm bit would be 3mm wide and a flat 8mm bit would be 8mm wide and their thickness increases with their width.

Cross or slotted bits come in two types and the oldest and original are Philips bits designated as PH and their size is designated by a number and the most common are 1, 2, and 3 which designates their size, so now a code of PH2 means a Philips bit or screwdriver of size 2 which is the most common size. Size 1 or PH1 is smaller or size 3 or PH3 is larger.

Most common today is the Pozidrive bit which look, and are similar to Philips bits but while looking similar have different angles or a slightly different profile to Philips bits or screwdrivers and this is for good reason, Pozidrive bits were designed for automated processes and their slight differences massively increase the driving torque which can be applied to a fastener. Pozidrive bits are designated by the designation PZ or Pozidrive and again as with Philips bits a number designates their size and a PZ2 would be a Pozidrive size 2 and while Philips and Pozidrive bits are often interchangeable for low torque work the differences become more noticeable the more you increase their driving torque.

Cam out is a common problem with Philips or Pozi systems and this is where the driving torque exceeds the force applied to the driving tool to hold it into the fixing and the tool pushes the bit out of the fixing, to an extent the user can overcome this by pushing against the driving tool harder and while this lessens the risk of cam out, it doesn’t eliminate it. Other problems exist through other issues and the main one is the use of power driving systems as these actually exert more driving torque, more consistently; and this means fixings have to be harder and more resistant to breaking while being driven and to overcome this the manufacturers of fixings adopt differing systems, often multiple different systems.
One type of system is to change the material the fixing is made from and using a different system to manufacture them and this means the system uses different steel compositions which instantly makes them harder and less prone to snapping, instead of cutting their threads as they did traditionally they now roll the threads as this requires the blank to be heated. This uses more energy as the steel has to be heated and wins by using less material to make the screw blank and less material and energy  to roll the thread and it utilises this heat to apply a protective coating before quenching them to case harden, or fully harden the screw. Overall this lessens the cost from materials and combined multiple processes and the final protective coating they receive and makes a tougher product, cheaper, and this saving means a better product for the end user and the cost savings are split between the manufacturer and purchaser as cheapening the process means the cost savings are split to the manufacturer makes more profit while still lessening the price to the end user.

Allen bits are hexagon bits and you can get Allen bits or screwdrivers and they were popular until fairly recently as they could take higher torque loadings than flat, Philips, or Pozidrive bits making them a better choice for higher torque loadings of automation with less breakages as their longer penetration length and straight sides reduced cam out. As manufacturing required, and got machines with higher torque loadings for attaching fastenings the Allen bits were redesigned and the Torx bit was born and incorporated several new features, they had no sharp edges like Allen bits and instead of flat faces they were concave rounded and this gave them exceptional driving torque without damaging the bit or fastener.

To improve the tools again they introduced another coating system and this was applied to the mating surfaces of the bit in the form of a slurry and this was diamond slurry made from the waste industrial diamonds and a binding agent applied to the mating face and baked on. When you used the bit it pushed the tiny diamond pieces into the working and mating face of the driving bit and also into the mating face of the fastener and this friction coating pushed into both mating faces gave tremendous grip and kept the bit in contact with the fastener.  


Hammers are another common tool which come in different shapes and sizes for different applications across many trades and disciplines and with many hobbies you may have several different types for several different things and many hammers designed for one trade can be used for another trade.
Ball Pein hammers are used by engineers and mechanics generally as they have a round hitting end with a flat face and the other end has a rounded face and both ends are for hitting things in engineering as engineering has evolved it has worked around the design of the ball Pein hammer to a large extent.

Claw hammers are hammers with a round end with a flat face, usually smaller then a Ball Pein hammer and the opposite end is tapered out until it is flat and split down the middle to form a claw and the flat end is for hitting things and the claw is for hooking onto things and pulling them as generally they are for woodworkers who have to remove embedded nails. Claw hammers have another variant and this is the demolition hammer designed solely for demolishing things which are larger and heavier than traditional claw hammers and their claw end is usually thicker and stronger and the shaft is longer to allow more leverage.

Sledge hammers have two square faces and are generally associated with being heavier than traditional hammers and are generally associated with heavy engineering and are generally available with single shafts up to 28LBS in weight and with twin shafts up to 56 LBS weight and come in much smaller sizes for specific applications in differing trades such as blacksmithing or machinery erection and construction, so basically it is all relevant.

Hammers are generally designated by type and weight and generally most hammers have standard weights and an engineers Ball Pein hammer would be 2Lb as the standard size and can come in 1.5 Lb and even in 1Lb and are just smaller and lighter hammers.
Claw hammers are generally lighter than Ball Pein hammers and are generally designated in ounces instead of pounds and larger claw hammers may be designated in pounds as the demolition hammer is as they go up to 4Lbs in weight.

All hammers have one thing in common which is that they are designed to hit something as their main function, followed by a secondary function which will vary; and any of these hammers can drive a nail in or knock a bolt out but some may be more difficult to use in a specific application than other hammers.

The moral of the story is simple, never get caught up in the hype of tools and only begin by buying the tools you need and begin with hand tools which serve multiple functions so you are not spending money on things you may never use as any tool you do buy can be used for multiple things and flexibility of tools is key to buying what you actually need and not what hype and marketing may lead you into.


Power tools also fall under the same reasoning for buying as hand tools and once again it is very easy to fall for the marketing and hype and spend money on power tools, and this is the reason for marketing, to part you from your money for items you don’t really need or want and again prudency is key when buying power tools. With so many power tools on the market you have to decide from the outset what you want as many battery tools are now falling under “a system” in which a range of power tools are developed for a specific battery or voltage as they develop newer tools they may not all fit your “system” and you will end up spending more money to get them to work correctly.

To begin you need to decide on what type of tool system you need and is this mains powered tools or battery powered tools and be aware of the differences and particularly the running costs as many power tools require a lot of consumables to run them correctly and they are designed in this way to maximise a manufacturers profits. If you only use your power tools at home or in one or more locations with mains power then a mains powered tool is often cheaper to buy and run as they never get flat batteries and you have to buy fewer consumables to run them correctly. One example of this would be a fairly typical circular saw with a mains saw costing around £60 and a battery saw costing around twice this, and the second scam, this is for the body only meaning you would have to buy the battery and charger to get it to work and in reality you would require a fast charger and second battery due to the short running time of the battery. In many cases you may be required to buy the saw blade and instead of having a choice of blades to choose from you may only be confined to one blade and this would be a thin kerf blade and not a normal thickness blade which would reduce your limited run time even further.

In essence the best advice is, where you have easily accessible mains power I would stick to mains powered power tools and not battery powered tools as often the mains variant is cheaper to buy and does not generally require you to spend additional money on other items to make it work and it will run much longer than battery powered tools will and you don’t need to wait for your battery to recharge.

There are some times where battery is best and generally this would be for something such as a cordless drill as these can be bought as systems and most manufacturers do these systems or supply just the drill as a kit complete with battery or batteries and charger and as they may also be used as a screwdriver to power various screwdriver bits they are functional. If the cordless drill is also a hammer drill then it can be used in hammer mode to make it a percussion driver as it will hammer and rotate a screw into something at the same time and hammering it in while rotating it reduces the torque required to drive a screw in and it can be used for the light drilling of masonry and they play the convenience card, but what does this card cost.

In much the same way as not buying countless tools you may rarely use and wasting more money on marketing hype is branding and vanity and more people buy for vanity reasons and not for practical reasons and this hype is often seen from manufacturers who want their tools to be seen as “the best” and once again this is to sucker you in to their tools and systems. Currently the top two contenders in brand wars are Milwaukee and De Walt and they always try to outdo each other to the point where it becomes so stupid they both need their heads banging together as they invent fraudulent and misleading methods and systems to market their tool as the best.
DeWalt are owned by Black and Decker who also owned Elu and the Elu brand has been discontinued and this was due to rationalisation as Black and Decker were the domestic or DIY tool for the home user while DeWalt were the middle brand ideal for lighter commercial or industrial work and for the more heavy duty based home work and Elu were solely the heavy industrial brand which were built up to a quality and cost a lot of money and countered this with a long life which made them economical in the long term for tradesmen. Now the Elu brand is discontinued and this is solely for reasons of profit as they were such good tools they lasted tradesmen for years and despite their price they meant only two or three sales in a lifetime and they upped the standard of the DeWalt brand and marketed this as the heavy commercial brand and reduced their range to two brands instead of three and found they sold more of the lower quality DeWalt branded tools. One other issue hit the brand hard and this was a good image meant thieves stole these tools and as they cost less than Elu many tradesmen bought more tools and tended to leave them in their vehicles or locked up on site and the thieves hit the vans or site and broke in solely to steal these tools safe in the knowledge they could sell them on for a good price.
Enter Milwaukee as competition and they made quality battery powered tools to cover a range of industries and trades and they competed against other quality tools from manufacturers such as Bosch and others who also made a DIY range and a heavy duty trade range of tools for professional users as well as Hitachi, Makita and Metabo who also produce quality tools for trade professionals and my Metabo grinder only lasted 34 years.

Now for the scam to make their tools sound better and more powerful, and this is correct at the time of writing, this concerns impact drivers as both Milwaukee and DeWalt make some good impact drivers for removing and tightening nuts and Milwaukee really pushed the boundaries with this and claimed their impact driver produced more power and torque than DeWalt. When anyone uses an impact driver to drive a socket they operate it usually for several seconds such as undoing a wheel nut where the initial torque will hammer the nut into submission and as it releases the tool speeds up and requires less torque and you would expect them to accurately quote the average torque across the entire run time, but no. Milwaukee now quote the maximum torque as the torque produced when the tool starts and measures the impact when it receives its first hit and no more, so why? Here is the scam and to understand it we need to know how electric motors and impact drivers work and this is simply that any electric motor produces its maximum torque at start up, as the motor increases its speed the torque drops. In any impact driver, whether air, hydraulic, or electric/battery, the impact mechanism is very simple, a round rotating shaft with two slots cut into it, and it is hollow and two matching hardened steel pieces fit into the shaft and into the slots and are held apart by springs and as the rotating shaft rotates the sprung hammers hit pieces on the hollow piece they run in and you get a hammer action. For most impact drivers you get two hits per rotation as both hammers hit the opposite pieces and compress their springs and Milwaukee know this and only measure the first hit when the motor produces the most torque and the first hammer hits as this is the hardest blow.  

One additional thing arises and this is that it highlights both DeWalt and Milwaukee and omits and ignores other brands and testers and journalists go for what they know and as they only hear DeWalt and Milwaukee they only really test these two brands and ignore other brands such as Bosch industrial or Metabo who both make much better grinders for example.  

Grinders are also another multi function tool which are often overlooked unless you are a metalworker and need one for grinding but they have a host of accessories such as cutting discs for metal and stone and diamond blades for stone and special discs for raking mortar from brick and blockwork which are usually diamond discs slightly thicker than those for steel. They have sanding attachments and chainsaw discs for sanding, shaping, and cutting wood and they can also be fitted with backing pads to hold sanding discs with a locking nut or Velcro, or be used with a mortar chase for deep cutting into mortar joints in brickwork and are not to be with mortar rakes as they are different.
Grinders have multiple uses in many different applications across many trades and at the time of writing you can get a cheap angle grinder from around £20-25 for the standard 4 ½” or 115mm unit or the larger 9” 230mm unit and have a choice of brands to choose from. In many situations the 9” unit may suffice for a builder or roofer for cutting bricks, blocks, or roofing tiles and slates and at around £100 for a decent brand and around £12 for a diamond disc means they are much cheaper than a petrol Stihl saw and much less likely to be stolen.

In the same vein the reciprocating saw is a multi use tool and come as corded or cordless units with a huge range of cutting blades and many are so flexible they can cut things flush to walls in the construction, plumbing and joinery trades, but are also useful for demolition work within many industries. Many have a standard blade fitment meaning a range of manufacturer produced and aftermarket brands are available at reasonable prices to suit many applications and the traditional blades are for wood and come up to 10” 250mm long for cutting clean timber, they also have metal cutting blades for cutting everything from thin sheet steels to thick sections, which also require oil or dry lubricants to lubricate cutting blades and prolong their life, they have pruning blades for gardeners for heavy bush and light tree pruning with a lot of dirt contamination and even carbide blades for cutting bricks and blocks for builders.
If you have a cordless tool fitted with the correct blade you can enter woodland (with the owner’s permission) and cut some fallen branches into lengths to fit your vehicle and fill your boot and this has several advantages, you don’t attract attention to yourself and this is a huge benefit. With a petrol chainsaw everyone hears you and if someone sees you doing it they think they can do the same and many do; the more people you have cutting fallen timber, the less there is for you and you potentially lose fuel for your log burner, and you cut them into their final length for logs when you get home and split them to dry. Here is the question, do you buy a more expensive chainsaw which requires chain oil in all types, petrol for petrol chainsaws, and additional chains and service parts periodically which draws attention to you every time you use it and you get those thinking they can do the same, or do you go and cut felled timber branches and not attract attention to yourself.

Spanners and other hand tools are slightly subjective and with quality spanners I would say go for mid range or better and this applies to Torx or Allen keys as their working edges soon wear on cheaper tools and when you apply force they quickly round off and just damage the fastener and tool and leave you in a pickle. More specialised tools such as Stilsons means only quality brands as their jaws bite into steel to get their immense grip and cheaper tools means the jaws wear quickly and the tool simply doesn’t grip or just lets go when you apply some real power and force.

When it comes to more specialised tools it may be prudent to look at other options and while borrowing a friends may be an option you also need to be prepared to replace it if you break or damage it or they won’t lend you anything again, in such cases it may be prudent to look at renting a tool as renting is much cheaper than buying a tool which is expensive and you only use once or every few years, you also have to remember you have to store these tools and need the space to do this. Your garage may seem fine but when you have a classic car in pieces and you have a cement mixer in front of your car which you need and you have to partially reassemble it before you can move it to get your mixer out you have to ask if it is worth it as you use your mixer every few years and it sits in your garage taking space up most of the time. One idea is for people to club together with other people with different trades and skills as they will have different equipment for their profession and they can let others within their group borrow it and return it within certain parameters as a builder may have a tower scaffold and you borrow it, but if they want it back for Sunday night then ensure it is returned on Sunday night as he may need it on Monday morning for work.

Tools are one thing but along with tools; skills can be traded and a circle with multiple skills means you have more skills to access and these skills are a valuable asset as an electrician may wire your garage for you and a roofer may repair a leaking roof and you ask what skills you have to offer in return. No skills are tradeable and often those with no specific skills may have a strong back and stamina and if you are laying a concrete slab for your house extension and are having the concrete delivered and the truck cannot access the site to chute it into your shuttering then many people with strong backs, stamina, and wheelbarrows suddenly become your best friend.

In essence any tools need storing meaning safe and secure storage and the more tools you have, the more storage you will need and the more storage space you need means more security you need to keep them safe and this also means more risk of break in’s and this means more insurance premiums.  

Keep it simple, don’t get caught up in marketing hype, stick to universal or multi function tools and learn how to use them correctly, store them safely and securely and this may mean one type of tool such as hammers kept together, or tools to a specific trade such as building kept together and you increase your tools to suit yourself and not others, or god forbid, vanity.  

Storing your tools in a logical order is totally necessary so you know where they are in the event of an incident and in a power outage you can take your torch into your workshop or garage and put your hand straight onto your screwdrivers and select a PZ2 bit and put a screw back into something which may have fallen out. Similarly, you may need a spanner of a specific size and you can go straight to your spanners and get the right size and do/undo whatever you are working on and complete your job; but it goes further.

If you have a battery bank with two batteries charged by a single or series of solar panels and you have a power outage and need light in your home you can go and get one of the batteries and leave the other connected to your solar charger, you take one battery into your home and connect some home made lights or potentially your wiring loom and run multiple lights. If you fit some of these lights and connect them to your charging rails you can switch them on and have light next to your battery bank and see to connect and disconnect batteries from your charger; remember they need at least one battery connected all the time. This is the exact reason for logical layouts and the reason everything has its place and everything is in its place as a scruffy workman soon loses tools if they are left everywhere or they soon get rusty and corroded. If you have a generator and power goes out and you still want lighting and possible television or a computer you need to be able to get to your generator in the dark and possibly the cold as power nearly always fails on a rainy night, and you need to easily access it and connect it to your home and start it up, you will need to see to refuel it and potentially put oil into it.  

Learning new skills is easy with the right attitude, learn as much as possible and put it into practise slowly or in stages and remember to ensure you have enough capabilities to make mistakes and they won’t affect the outcome, and that any mistake is as much about learning and learning not to do it again as it is about succeeding.  



Not everything is about buying tools as with a little ingenuity and basic skills you can make your own, and an example would be a clamp for clamping wood and if your clamps are not long enough then make some; if you have a piece of flat and sturdy timber and a couple of blocks you screw one onto one end of your sturdy timber, you measure your finished timber size and fit the other block slightly larger than this dimension. As an example you repair an old wooden frame and it is 48” long so you set your blocks to 48 ½” and you cut two thin tapered wedges, you put your work in to be clamped and insert both wedges, one from each side and as they push together they take up the slack and a few gentle hammer taps sees them clamp your work tightly.

In a similar vein if you want to clamp something of an awkward shape and don’t have a suitable clamp how about using a ratchet strap and pulling it all together and let the strap hold it all.

Move this principle to metal and a piece of 6 X 3” channel makes an excellent clamp, if you get some 6 x 6” angle iron and cut a piece 6” wide you can drill two holes into one side, then two matching holes in your channel, then weld a couple of gussets in and you have a fixed bolt on vice jaw. If you cut a second piece at 8” long and sit it on your channel and weld a couple of guides on so they extend down the sides of your channel and ensure it slides without binding you have the beginnings of your screw jaw and of you take a block of metal and drill it and tap a 16mm thread into it, then a 10.2mm hole in the bottom and tap a 12mm thread into it so you have a block of metal drilled and tapped side to side and them 12mm at the bottom hole so you can bolt into your channel. If you drill 13mm / ½” holes in your channel, say at 4” /100mm centres you have a line of holes where you can bolt your block down and have your 16mm thread parallel to your channel you can insert some 16mm threaded bar and push your sliding jaw and if you weld a piece of pipe onto your sliding jaw you have somewhere for your threaded pipe to locate into. If you measure it to you have 6” 150mm protruding from your bolted block and the thickness of your block plus the thickness of two M16 nuts you can cut your threaded bar off at this length and taper one end of the threaded bar and put a nut on, put another nut on and wind it until it is flush with the end of your threaded bar and weld the nut to the end of your bar, in the taper, now wind your second nut back to your first nut and lock it to the first nut with a spanner, tightly, ensuring your nut flats align and weld along every alternative flat so your nuts are locked and welded together. Grind or file these welds flat and you have a bar complete so wind this into your block and put your sliding jaw onto your home made vice and you can tighten things up and clamp them.

Now we have taken the same principle and applied it to wood using a length of wood and blocks which are screwed on and using wedges to get a clamping force and used the same principle with metal using some seriously strong steel channel, a fixed jaw; and a moving jaw powered by a 16mm threaded bar using a 24mm spanner.

Two different materials, wood and steel and two different clamping systems you can make at one and two variations on a theme, you can make them larger or smaller to suit your materials and your work.