Which tool do you wish you hadn't bought for your workshop?
- Thread starter bobmac004
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Sporky McGuffin
Light entertainer
The compressor - I've still not wired it up after five years or so!
banjerbill
Established Member
Mortiser, I have only used it as a drill press. Woodturning lathe and multitude of chucks and gouges, hardly ever used.
Live in hope more time will be available so I can make more effort to use them.
Live in hope more time will be available so I can make more effort to use them.
It really depends what you make. If you only buy tools you really need for the job in hand, you will rarely go wrong. People go wrong by buying before they have a need or because they think it might be useful or simply falling for the marketing. As an obvious example if you make freeform flowing objects a set of rasps are essential but if you only make square boxes you would never need rasps. Some tools can multi task for instance a rabating block plane is quite rare but it can be used as a normal block plane, a shoulder plane a rebating plane and for raised panels whereas a normal block plane can only do one of those jobs.
Zeddedhed
Established Member
I've got a bench top mortiser that I bought from a Forum member that has sat under a bench since the day it got here.
There's nothing wrong with it - I just use the domino all the time.
There's nothing wrong with it - I just use the domino all the time.
woodchip
Established Member
Cheap mortiser
Cheap routers (2)
Cheap table saw
Cheap dust extractor
Cheap bar clamps
Cheap routers (2)
Cheap table saw
Cheap dust extractor
Cheap bar clamps
Paul200
Established Member
A Triton WorkCentre (table saw). I do use it but it's not as user friendly as it's made out to be and, having taken note of many posts on here, I've come to the conclusion that a rail saw would be far more useful.
Dovetail jig - one of the cheap big-aluminium-comb-and-cam-locks jobs. I've used it a couple of times and it was invaluable in building a floating bookshelf-box, but it's such a pain to set up (and differently for each end of the board!) that I'd almost rather practice hand-cutting half-blind dovetails than look at it again!
DiscoStu
Established Member
A radial arm saw. Also just to add that I have a £100 disc / belt sander and I use it loads.
Circular saw
Router (of the electric variety)
Mitre saw (ditto)
All three got very little use before I realised that hand-powered tools are a much more pleasant proposition.
I'll add to the list a modern Record No.4. Never could get the thing to take a decent shaving.
Router (of the electric variety)
Mitre saw (ditto)
All three got very little use before I realised that hand-powered tools are a much more pleasant proposition.
I'll add to the list a modern Record No.4. Never could get the thing to take a decent shaving.
It's all well and good us all telling you what we don't use but you can probably can see we all do things in different ways and undoubtedly do varying work. I say I don't use a belt sander and others do. Someone says they don't use a Lie Nielsen scraper plane but for me it is essential. There is no one way to do some jobs so you will need to find ways that suit you and your type of work. If you're concerned about having expensive tools sitting idle maybe buying second hand quality tools then you can at least sell them on latter for close to what you paid.
DiscoStu
Established Member
I would say that buying tools as you need them for jobs is a sensible approach.
I bought into the Ryobi One+ system and that's been great for me. If I need a tool for a job then I can get one at minimal cost as I can just buy the bare tool. I recently build a spa house and needed a right angle driver as I knew some of the spaces were right, it cost me £49 which is pretty cheap so even if it doesn't get that much use it wasn't expensive.
There is also the flip side to the tools that we have bought and that is which tools do you wish you'd spent more on.
I bought an Axminster bandsaw on a bit of a whim when it was on sale. I wish I'd bought a bigger and more powerful one as I love it and use it so much more than I thought I would. The opposite is true of my table saw. Although that's probably because it's not right and needs to go back. I also wish I'd spent more on my pillar drill I bought a mid priced Clarke one, again thinking it wouldn't get much use, but I wish I'd bought one with a table that went up and down the column via a rack and pinion rather than just freely sliding (and twisting about all over).
I bought into the Ryobi One+ system and that's been great for me. If I need a tool for a job then I can get one at minimal cost as I can just buy the bare tool. I recently build a spa house and needed a right angle driver as I knew some of the spaces were right, it cost me £49 which is pretty cheap so even if it doesn't get that much use it wasn't expensive.
There is also the flip side to the tools that we have bought and that is which tools do you wish you'd spent more on.
I bought an Axminster bandsaw on a bit of a whim when it was on sale. I wish I'd bought a bigger and more powerful one as I love it and use it so much more than I thought I would. The opposite is true of my table saw. Although that's probably because it's not right and needs to go back. I also wish I'd spent more on my pillar drill I bought a mid priced Clarke one, again thinking it wouldn't get much use, but I wish I'd bought one with a table that went up and down the column via a rack and pinion rather than just freely sliding (and twisting about all over).
Sporky McGuffin
Light entertainer
bobmac004":eu3xu6fv said:
The lack of use is more about me than the compressor! I wanted to do some sprayed finishes but didn't think it through - no clean area. I should set it up for air tools instead.
JakeS":eu3xu6fv said:
I bought a Dewalt one without considering how much of a pain it'd be to use with a Bosch router. Two universal bases and three cutters later and I've still not done anything with the darned thing!
RogerS
Established Member
Too many to mention 
