how many 'one time' tools do you have?

I have just bought and used, for the first and last time, a special 35mm cutter designed to cut the holes in a kitchen cabinet door for their hinges. This tool joins a select collection of tools used only once in my life, and theirs, to fulfil a vital role that I can't consider throwing out or selling.

The very long nosed circlip pliers used once in a gearbox rebuild, the right-angled ratchet screwdriver used once when stripping an engine etc.

I don't count jigs or tools I have made - I can get rid of them without a second thought but as for the bought ones, even after 40 years - I just might need one of them again

How many do you have?

Tony

"Several"

Loads. If there is a choice between buying a special tool and getting someone else to do the job it's usually cheaper to buy the special tool for a one off job.

Russell.

Hi

That is interesting as I do the same. Only yesterday I modified a special tool I made some years ago, for a 'one off''

job. I modified it for a similar job, where it was just not quite right.

Yes they are worth hanging on to!

Regards

Keith

Leeds UK

I have hundreds of tools I have never used and never will

I am usually too mean to buy special one off use tools,and get round it somehow,but I do have in my tool box two 1/2 inch socket drive spline keys for the internally splined cap screws on the cylinder head of a 1973 2 litre Cortina,when I had the dreaded camshaft wear problem and also did a decoke, tools used for one job 40 years ago.

Still got some Austin 7 tools somewhere

Russell

Yup,

Got the same hammer and punch.

Loads of them, same as most toolaholics on here, Most are special bike and car tools used once for a job and not seen the light of day since such as the Mk3 Escort 7mm caliper allen key and valve lifter tool to let you change the valve seals from over 25 years ago and a 42mm socket from even further back to remove a pulley on a Citroen GS. Now there's a car that I haven't seen on the road for donkeys years and probably never will as they built the car round the motor making it nigh on impossible to do any work on them, wasn't worth trying to do any major work so they just broke down or rotted..

I have a clutch center puller for a Matchless G9. I used it once, 50 years ago!

Dave

The tools that were bought for, and used on specific jobs aren't the problem for me as they've paid for themselves. It's the tools that looked useful and turned out to be a waste of money that annoy me; the 3/8" Dewalt 10volt cordless impact driver looked really handy, but has actually ended up being a battery donor for the similar sized drill that I use all the time.

A specially shaped spanner for getting to the head bolts on a MK3 Cortina engine, well I think that was the one!

A very long bladed Phillips No 2 Screwdriver, bought specially to remove some awkward exterior door handles via the internal door cut outs, I cannot even remember the car that was for.

Plus a few odd tools made or modified for specific jobs.

Edited By V8Eng on 30/11/2015 14:29:51

Edited By V8Eng on 30/11/2015 14:54:31

Well Tony, like Neil I have several tools that gets used very seldom, but they are 'nice to have'.

Thor

Edited By Thor on 30/11/2015 14:49:01

"It is better to have tools you don't need - than not to have the tools you need"

Sverre

I believe there is a law of nature that says 'Within a fortnight of disposing of something that you know you will never use again, you will have to buy another'

Cheers, Tim

I've always made special tools for car and motorbike repairs rather than make do, mostly extractors, and I can usually modify (bodge) one for another awkward job so they are usefully recycled. The arc welder is the main tool for that! I've even had to bodge the bodge to get back to where it started sometimes when a friend asks "have you got anything to do this?" Colin

My mistake has been buying "sets" of tools when it's only one or two that ever get used and the remainder sit in their cases unused for ever.

I've still got the fitted toolkit which came with a Jag XK140 I once owned. It contains some spanners, a special gauge to set the camshafts correctly, and a 'pump' greasegun, still in its original wrapping paper. I don't believe I'll ever use them. The toolbox is shaped to fit inside the spare wheel. I believe similar kits were also supplied with MK2 jags, but they seemed to be the first things to disappear from second-hand cars.