Best purchase ever?

[Cozzer]

Having a beery chat with some mates last evening, we somehow ended up discussing what we thought had been the best invention ever ....uhm...invented.
"Glass" was the best. (It also happened to be my suggestion, but was still the best!)
(Other opinions were available, but weak in comparison)
Anyway, the "beer conversation" carried on, but this time veered into the land of the best/most useful item we'd actually ever bought...
Took some considering, but I ended up with........
A set of drain rods!

I've lost count the number of times I've used them over the 30+ years since buying them! Not only useful for the obvious, but the hinged metal half-moon scraper attachment has been superb for gutters as well!

So what's been your best purchase over the years?!

 

[Inspector]

Pick up truck. Can't do anything if you can't get the materials or machines to start with and it's there to haul away the waste or in some cases the mistakes.

Pete

 

[Jameshow]

Lathe mL8...

Table saw - Naerok...

Car...VW transporter or Volvo 740....

Bike....cannondale six or focus izalco.

Worst anything titan....

 

[thetyreman]

backer rod

 

[Jameshow]

backer rod

????

 

[clogs]

bought from a deceased machine dealers private stash.....
as brand new Myford VMF mill and a Super 7 lathe...both with transport wax on em....
dont ask how much....but a lot.....

 

[dickm]

After last weekend's intimacy with our septic tank, have to agree with OP about drain rods. But mine are at least 65 years old.

 

[Stigmorgan]

1. My first motorbike, Kawasaki ZX6R. Absolutely loved that bike.
2. My lathe and everything that goes with it.

 

[gog64]

Are we talking tools? If so, that’s not a fair question, it’s like asking: “which is your favourite child?”

But if you were to press me it would probably be my loader. As I don’t have a “proper” farm of 1,000+ acres, I’d made do with rusty old contraptions on the front and back of the tractor for 30 years or so. Last year I caved in and bought a loader. It’s wonderful. I can move literally anything, big and small with zero sweat and swearing. Of course, if you have a hammer, then ever so many things begin to look like nails. At the weekend I was merrily moving a load only to be accosted by my wife. What on earth was I doing moving the granddaughter’s Wendy house with large agricultural plant? Wasn’t it obvious? It was far easier for me to jet wash it raised up in the air, as she had specifically asked for barely 9 months ago!

 

[KingAether]

If we're talking in the realms of diy and the workshop then definitely the pillar drills.
Specifically the Kerry super8

 

[Jameshow]

If we're talking in the realms of diy and the workshop then definitely the pillar drills.
Specifically the Kerry super8

Forgot about my pillar drill naerok of course... She'll will probably fling a chuck key at me next time I use her for missing her out...!

 

[Cozzer]

After last weekend's intimacy with our septic tank, have to agree with OP about drain rods. But mine are at least 65 years old.

65!
They must've seen a lot of..........er...........use!

 

[DBC]

All my best purchases were at the start of my apprenticeship when I first started getting a paypacket…

Estwing 24oz
Rabone folding rule
Makita 9’’ saw
Holden Kingswood HZ ute.
350 chev (5.7 litre) V8 for the above
Motörhead Bomber
AC/DC Back in Black.

 

[Rozza]

Festool vac but that started me down that little green badge route that has cost my wallet the price of a small fiefdom

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

............ Of course, if you have a hammer, then ever so many things begin to look like nails. At the weekend I was merrily moving a load only to be accosted by my wife. What on earth was I doing moving the granddaughter’s Wendy house with large agricultural plant? Wasn’t it obvious? It was far easier for me to jet wash it raised up in the air, as she had specifically asked for barely 9 months ago!

Are you saying your wife looked like a nail after she accosted you? Is she still with us? Is your real name Maxwell and your hammer is a silver one?

 

[Cozzer]

All my best purchases were at the start of my apprenticeship when I first started getting a paypacket…

Estwing 24oz
Rabone folding rule
Makita 9’’ saw
Holden Kingswood HZ ute.
350 chev (5.7 litre) V8 for the above
Motörhead Bomber
AC/DC Back in Black.

Oh yes.....
Hells Bells....
What a riff.

 

[Cozzer]

As a total opposite to my original post, I've now decided on the worst purchase made....(in the last few years anyway)
A Shark "lift-away" vacuum cleaner.
Honestly - it was as if the roller had been fitted the wrong way round! It "picked up" better when pulled rather than pushed, and even then you had to be so s..l..o..w.
A total waste of money!
Actually gave it away after a few months....

 

[Sandyn]

The house we live in for over 40 years. Has served us in so many ways. In the early days, friends and family visiting, then when the kids arrived it was a complete family home. A nice garden for the kids to play, watching them grown up. It was always the house where the kids friends gathered, because they had their own area where they could make noise, have a drink, be safe, just left to get on and have fun. Now it's grandchildren playing in the garden. It has also been a great investment and kept me busy for 40+ years.

 

[DBC]

As a total opposite to my original post, I've now decided on the worst purchase made....(in the last few years anyway)
A Shark "lift-away" vacuum cleaner.
Honestly - it was as if the roller had been fitted the wrong way round! It "picked up" better when pulled rather than pushed, and even then you had to be so s..l..o..w.
A total waste of money!
Actually gave it away after a few months....

Worst ever purchase.

At sometime in the 1970s when I was probably about 9 I was at the Australian Open Tennis Tournament as my Mum had won tickets by ringing a local radio station. It was 42C outside and they estimated it was getting near to 50C inside the concrete tennis bowl in Kooyong. Play had been stopped to protect the players and the St John’s Ambulance were carrying older people away left, right and centre. I took my 50 cent piece - which was probably my life’s savings at the time - to the ice cream vendor. He told me he was sold out of ice creams but instead took my money in exchange for a handful of crushed ice. On the relatively short walk back to my Mum and sister I anticipated being their hero as they put some ice against their foreheads only to find that my life savings had been exchanged for slightly wet fingers.

 

[Tim Kyte]

A tape measure with only metric or only imperial on it. So you can use it both sides.