Source for new and better tools? 1

[tomwalz]

I’m always looking for new and better tools, anything to do a job better.

If anyone would care to recommend a source for this sort of thing I would appreciate it. I get a lot of catalogs and follow several web sites but I am sure I don’t follow them all.

I am especially looking for what we call page 7 tools. These are tools from very small companies that show up somewhere after the seventh page of a Google search.

I would appreciate any comments anyone cared to make.

Thanks,
Tom


Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[ScottyUK]

Tom - what kind of tools? Machine, hand, inspection?


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[MikeHalloran]

Thirty years ago, Brookstone was a great source for tools you'd never heard of. ... but they've jumped the shark.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[tomwalz]

Pretty much any kind.

Woodworking, Machinist, Inspection, Construction. Mostly hand tools and small power tools.

Mike, used to love the catalog for the variety and the quality.

Tom



Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[MintJulep]

http://www.leevalley.com/

for new and innovative woodworking tools and modern versions of traditional tools.

http://www.rockler.com/

for nifty things associated with routers.

http://www.garrettwade.com/

for a selection of pretty things.

 

[ornerynorsk]

Brownell's, if you're into gunsmithing.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

You might get a little light headed by paging through a Grainger or McMaster Carr catalog. A couple of thousand pages of tools and parts.

 

[SnTMan]

Here are some very nice tap extensions that will reach thru the hole. Can be a life saver.

http://www.tapextension.com/

 

[drawoh]

tomwalz,

Your website is not an engineering firm. It is a vendor site, full of tools and stuff.

Are you looking for a store to buy tools from, or a manufacturer to supply your store?

JHG

 

[ScottyUK]

You probably know Lie-Neilsen planes, since they're from your side of the pond. Very nice - too good for the class of work I have the skills to undertake. I still want one though.

http://www.lie-nielsen.co.uk

I have a soft spot for many tools from the German company Willi Hahn. Nice quality and often showing a bit of original thinking in the design they are sold under the brand name 'Wiha'.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[btrueblood]

I jealously guard my Wiha drivers. I think I may need to start telling people that I got them as cheap surplus from the Hanford engineering site..."it's ok, they're only mildly radioactive"

 

[ScottyUK]

Better link for Lie-Neilsen:

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[tomwalz]

Both, really.

Our version of engineering was cutting tools especially saw blades. Started in 1981 with Weyerhaeuser. Built better saw blades. Developed technology to improve carbide wetting so that tips didn’t come off. Developed replacement braze alloys to replace Cadmium alloys. Then designed and built brazing equipment. Then cermet and ceramic saw tips and technology to make them easily wettable. We still build custom tools but the lumber and housing market is about one-quarter of what it used to be.

We put up the web site and are looking for tools for it. Also I am 64 with a family history of arthritis and would like to find tools that help me continue to work in the shop.

Mostly, I just like tools of all kinds. I’m so old that I was taught that “Man is a tool using animal and the only one.” Since then other animals have joined the club.

There is just something magic about tools of any kind whether it is the right screwdriver, a titanium hammer, a software program or a book. The right tool can make something impossible become an easy, routine task.

There is still a lot of information related to our engineering side under brazing, carbide and coolant on the top bar. I am slowly putting up the books "Building Superior Brazed Tools" and "Braze Failure Analysis" but it will be a while for those.

Tom

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[Wrenchbender]

When i worked at the Ford assemble plant we used handtools and specialty tools from Belknap, Williams, Apex, George T Schmidt, and of course Snap-On. The big one on power tools was Chicago Pneumatic. They are all USA and on the web.

 

[Wrenchbender]

and although you may have absolutely no use for them, who doesn't like rairoad tools?

http://www.rrtoolsnsolutions.com/

 

[vpl]

My husband really likes Dremel tools for working with minature figures:

http://www.dremel.com.

Patricia Lougheed

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[TBP]

Knipex (German) make the nicest pliers I've ever seen, let alone used. Their 'Cobra' water pump pliers put anything else on the market to shame. The push-button adjustment feature is VERY nice - they don't change position until YOU push the button, and move them. Their other cutters & pliers are equally nice. One of my sons is a journeyman mechanic/auto and heavy-duty equipment technician. He took his Snap-On side cutters and pliers home for his box there, and uses the Knipex tools at work.

Knipex plier-wrenches are the nicest replacement for adjustable wrenches I've ever used. The same push-button adjustment as the Cobra's, and the jaws always stay parallel.

As mentioned above, Wiha make very nice screwdrivers - and so does Wera. I like their 'chiseldrivers'. They're not quite chisels in screwdriver form, but they'll take a TON of abuse.

I've bought a number of tools like this online from chadstoolbox.com

 

[ScottyUK]

Another vote for Wera tools, good quality and long-lasting. I've had a pair of Knipex diagonal cutters for years, the only problem I ever had with them was when I accidentally chopped a live 2.5mm[²] twin & earth instead of the 1.5mm[²] 3-core & earth I was aiming for. Tiredness, bad light, carelessness? Those cables are the exact same width! Didn't do my cutters much good, but I replaced them with the same type without hesitation.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[faqs]

Micro-Mark for small tools.

 

[ScottyUK]

Lindstrom for small ultra-precision pliers, cutters, and the like.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!