There are certain tools that I recently purchased that had me slapping my forehead with my palm and thinking “You dummy. You’ve been doing things the hard way for so long!” I’m sure this feeling is one shared by you, dear wrenching Autopian members. So let’s try to save younger wrenchers the agony: Here are the tools I wish I’d ponied up for years ago.
Some of these tools are expensive, and my budget meant I couldn’t really afford them. But most of them are on the borderline — they’re tools that I could technically afford, but they’d be painful to pay for. But now, years later, I realize these tools’ true value, and I know for a fact that whatever pain I would have to have endured at the check-out counter would have been worth it.
First off, there’s the flex-head ratcheting wrench:
Seriously, if you have $100 burning a hole into your pocket, buy a set of metric and English flex-head ratcheting wrenches. Having to turn a standard wrench by hand 10 degrees at a time is painful; you have to set it, turn it, reset it, turn it again, reset it. And sometimes the space you have to swing the wrench means re-setting it is a pain in the ass. Just buy a ratcheting wrench; that saves you the pain of continually resetting your wrench on a nut or bolt. You could get a solid ratcheting wrench set, but I find that its utility is severely limited; having that flex head makes a huge difference.
Next up are power tools. Seriously, it makes me cringe thinking about how much time I’ve wasted trying to remove a wheel with a damn half-inch ratchet. Just throw the socket onto an electric impact wrench like the one above, hit the button, and the lug nut will be off in under two seconds. Just buy one of these. Stop using breaker bars and cheater pipes and all of your might to loosen stubborn nuts when you can just tap a button.
Speaking of power tools, just last week was the first time I put my 3/8″ electric ratchet to the test. It’s a bit big, with that chunky battery at its end, but it’s still incredibly useful, especially for smaller bolts that don’t require that beefy 1/2-inch-drive impact wrench.
I have a huge list of other tools I wish I’d purchased sooner, but the flex-head wrenches and power tools are at the top of my list. They make life so much easier!
What are some tools you wish you’d bought earlier in your life? How much time/effort have these tools saved you since you’ve owned them?
Most of my hands on stuff is motorcycle related and so generally smaller 1/4″ or 3/8″ drive ratchet size. I have a lot of automotive sized tools and used to have more, but they gather dust since I farm out my auto work these days.
Back to the late discovery tool, the Knipex Pliers Wrench (86 03 180) in my grab and go emergency kit it simplifies and adds lightness to the bag. I was slip joint pliers skeptical with a touch of adjusfeeble wrench thrown in. it was an eye opener, you can be mean to it and it just shrugs it off and hangs on. The other day, feeling tool lazy. I put it on a 27mm axle nut and stomped it with the boot heel and it came loose and the piers no worse for wear, Try one, there should be one in every car, you’ll see.
I was weirded out when I learned it’s pronounced “KEN-e-pex”
Speaking of, I have spent some dough at KC Tool.
I refuse to pronounce it that way.
Oh, I forgot one.
For those of us who need reading glasses, you can now get safety glasses with the same diopters. Now I don’t need to choose between safety and being able to read!
(I knew prescription safety glasses existed but was unaware of the reader version until a few years ago.)
I’m wearing a pair right now as I type this at work!
A headband flashlight. Light pointing right where you’re looking at all times!
I have some Craftsman safety glasses (from the Sears years) that have LED lights built into the hinge areas, but the headlamps are definitely better IMO.
Lowes (and probably elsewhere) has fingerless gloves that have LED lights built into the backs of the hands, so they point at the workpiece (most of the time).
I have a Black and Decker snakelight that I originally liked for being able to contort it in the engine bay or whatever, but now I also found I can drape it nicely around my neck so it’s like having a Ironman style chest light.
*Quality* tools! With my first car, a 12-year-old Volvo 144 that had spent much time in the Northeast, back in the mid-80s, being the naïve novice that I was I broke so many components when using cheap-ass tools from K-Mart, Target, and fly-by-night tool suppliers (I think one was called Chuck Homier? They’d come to town a couple times a year, set up a ginormous tent in some vacant parking lot, and sell absolutely crappy tools dirt-cheap) and I also frequently broke the tools themselves. After I started working on my baywindow VW bus, which also had spent some time in the Northeast, in the early 90s, a fellow VW enthusiast advised me to invest in quality tools even if they were humble Craftsman tools from Sears (this was a good decade or so before the damn hedge fund managers bought up Sears and eviscerated it into oblivion so the tools were still high quality for the price) and, sure enough, once I started using quality tools (& Kano Kroil, also before Kano was bought out by a private equity company, ugh, a pox on those damn predatory capitalists), wrenching went so much better by sheer orders of magnitude with far fewer, if indeed any, components broken and nary a broken tool (I did break a breaker bar, ha, when removing the cottered rear axle nuts on my bus but Sears replaced it & I still have the replacement to this day, albeit somewhat bent from the ultimately successful efforts to remove aforementioned axle nuts.)
Yeah, *quality* tools are something I wish I’d gotten sooner and spared my poor Volvo 144 and myself so much grief.
You should have paid a little more for their top-of-the-range Charles Homiest line.
This exactly! My dad always had the worst cheap tools, and I had no idea how much that mattered until I was well into college. I honestly thought I was just a born terrible mechanic only to discover that I just had the most crappy tools ever made.
In addition to the 1/2″ 18V impact driver David mentioned, there are two.
The first is a hydraulic lift table like this: https://www.harborfreight.com/500-lb-capacity-hydraulic-table-cart-61405.html
(There is a 1000lb capacity version, too.)
It lifts via foot pedal and has a hand lever for lowering. I use them (I have two) to lift motorcycles and motorcycle accessories to work on them and/or to move them around, then set the parking brake to keep them stationary. As much as I (sometimes) would like to have the full-size lift, the lifting tables are much smaller, do most of the same work, and take up a lot less space.
The second is a very small – and frankly very low-tech – ratchet that holds hex, Torx, and other bits and fits in tight spaces. Instead of using the short leg of an allen wrench to turn the fastener a little at a time over and over and over and over and over and over, pop the bit in the ratchet and be done in a small fraction of the time.
The ones I have look like this but were much cheaper:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71X04mBTbWL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
The mini-ratchets are game-changers. I still have my HF one around somewhere, but Klein makes one with a ring at the other end so you just go back & forth with a finger on the other hand.
Oh, I need to look for that. Thanks!
Klein #65200R
at Lowes for $16
not quite as slim as the HF one—but much nicer finish, and you can hang it on a peg. Also, not black so I don’t lose it in my tool bag
Found it on Amazon last night – discounted to $16 🙂
They have a lot of 65200-based kits but that is for the base model (which is the one I would choose). Thanks!
Just purchased on Amazon, same price. Thanks!!!
Happy wrenching!
<thumbs up>
I have the Klein and love it!
Thanks for the link Taco!
Decent compressor. Air tools are useful and Canadian Tire has deals frequently for 4 piece sets for reasonable prices. The air ratchet and impact have paid for themselves.
A QUIET compressor. What a game changer.
To be fair tho the compressor I bought is much smaller than the one it replaced. But like our fearless leader DT I’ve invested in battery powered impacts and such. Also game changers.
Fire. Fire changes everything.
when you pull that lever, you’re not asking nicely anymore: you’re making a statement: this is going to happen.
A good, heavy-duty impact of the air-variety. Got by with a really cheap one for years, and getting the finest Harbor-Freight Earthquake 1/2″ impact money could buy was quite the upgrade (tells you what that first one was like).
I think the real game-changer is going to be if I ever finally get enough money together to get an actual lift installed in the third bay of my garage. I have a feeling once that’s in, I’ll constantly be remembering all the dumb other stuff I spent money on over the years. You know, like a furnace, central air, a new roof… that 529 fund for my daughter. Really should re-think those priorities at some point (obligatory /s on that last sentence).
Wasn’t the Earthquake made at the same factory & had the same internal design as a Snap-On of the era? AvE did a video of a HF impact—pretty sure that was the one
I’m not sure – I didn’t look into it much past “this thing is great!” type of online blurbs. I can say it actually does seem to work really well – I haven’t had to break loose lug nuts while the car is on the ground for awhile. Just put it on the jack-stands and go to town.
A stand-up tool box, on wheels, with drawers and everything. Game-changer.
The ones from harbor freight are surprisingly nice.
I think I have 4 of the smaller rolling cabinets. The quality is excellent but I wish the top drawers were maybe a 1/2″ deeper.
Digital calipers! They changed my dang life, far too late.
Never too late! 🙂
I won’t say they’ve changed my life, but Harbor Freight has very inexpensive – like $2 – 6″ analog calipers. They are not precise, of course, but they’re really handy for e.g. confirming the diameter of a fastener or a piece of stock and they’re cheap enough to have them all over the shop.
I’m a big fan of analog calipers in general. Especially if you’re going budget though – analog will last better than digital in my exp.
I just got a pair today. I measured so many things!
must… not… make… inappropriate… joke… 😛
The number is so much bigger in millimeters!
1/4″ drive socket set. I used to think that bigger was always better and all my sockets were 1/2″. I use that little ratchet SO much.
A 1/4″ battery operated electric impact is also amazing for so much around house.
Oooh that’s an interesting proposition, I’ll add it to the list of “next time I see one”.
For decades I used 3/8″ for nearly everything. I did have a 1/2″ drive breaker bar and a couple specific sockets but 3/8″ was the go-to.
Having metric and SAE sockets, extensions, u-joints, and torque wrenches in 1/4″ and 1/2″ as well has made some tasks a lot easier.
Same here. I used to think I could get by with just a 3/8 set, but I’ve since built up pretty much 3 separate sets. And I’m amazed at how much my 1/2s get used.
With the flood of cheap tools on the market, I align myself with Adam Savage’s tool buying strategy, ie spend just enough money to get started then iterate quickly. Also there is nothing wrong buying old tools and refurbing etc.. eg old bridgeports etc. I find myself going for Gearwrench level hand tools these days.
Also I find scheduling is important.. make sure you have other things to do, if the tool you need is not available (/ need to wait for).. eg I did other things, while waiting for a H1/16 bit (didn’t realise they decided to go imperial for that particular fastener) to fix my nephew’s drone. I could had drilled them out, but decided to do other things in the mean time.
For me induction heater (AliExpress) and ultrasonic cleaner (Bezo’s emporium). I am a late convert to Li Ion tools, but those are useful too! But them are for wood work / things around the house, not really for automotive.
Adam’s forever-ongoing series of shop and making tips continues to pay me the dividends of his decades of experience. I don’t work in exactly the same way but I really appreciate the *thought* he’s put into everything.
Electric impact is the biggest one, removing (most) lugnuts and big suspension bolts is so much easier. I still need a breaker bar AND cheater pipe for some things, but not as many as I used to.
I have the non-flex-head ratcheting wrenches, and those have been very nice to have.
The other thing I would add as a Michigan resident is a torch. Being able to heat up super-rusted-on bolts and be able to actually remove them is great. Probably would have been the biggest time saver out of the 3.
Honestly, any specialty tool for a specific vehicle or job. For years when I was younger I labored for hours trying to make the tools I had work for a job that would have been 1000x easier if I had just bought the right tool. Now I try to plan for that in advance, and buy any specialty tool beforehand.
An example from years ago, on air-cooled Beetles there’s a castle nut on the rear brake drums that holds everything together back there. It gets torqued to 220 ft-lbs, so it’s not easy to get off, especially if it hasn’t been removed in decades. First time, I borrowed a large wrench and managed to get one nut off by jumping up and down on it for a while (I weighed all of 120lbs then). Other one wouldn’t budge, even with a breaker bar. There’s a torque multiplier tool designed for that exact job, that bolts to your brake drum and allows you to remove that 220 ft-lb nut using a half inch socket and almost no effort. It was only like $80 at the time and has paid for itself so many times over. It also doubles as a flywheel gland nut remover, which saved me a lot of effort during my engine rebuild.
Shout out to Mercedes! At the gelatinous outdoor meal site, she did a “cool tools” article on endoscopes. Easily one of the best time-saving devices around. Makes looking problems, leaks, dropped sockets/bolts/parts, brake pad wear, what kind/size bolt is hidden, etc. I got a relatively cheap Nidage scope from Amazon for ~$40. Well worth it!
Not necessarily a tool, but velcro ties are superior to a normal cable tie for cable related things.
100%
I wish I had got a better soldering iron way sooner than I actually did. It’s night and day going from a $20 one to a basic Hakko soldering station.
I have a tie between my cordless impact driver and my 15 gallon compressor. The impact driver has made assembling wood things so much faster. I didn’t know what I was missing out on by using a regular electric screwdriver for some of these jobs. It also came in handy when I couldn’t get the Allen key oil drain plug on my car unstuck. The 15 gallon compressor has simply made all of my air tools better compared to the pancake model I had before. If I need to blast something out with compressed air, I can keep the pressure on it much longer before I have to stop and refill.
Every now and then, there’s a special 944 tool that pops up for things like belt changes or clutch work and goshdarnit—just buy the special tools. They make life so much easier, and if you intend to have a neverending stream of maximum parsh in your life, you should just buy the damn tool. Buy the tool! It’s easier to follow the instructions that use the tool than it is to do the workarounds. Usually there’s a solid aftermarket version that costs a lot less, too, as with most 944 things.
So correct on this.
-A guy who just dropped another bundle at Pelican Parts
Flyin Miata has a whole pile of specialty tools, most of which aren’t strictly required but just make things easier.
They were on sale on Black Friday so o bought every single one.
Hell yeah. Perfect time to pick them up.
Breaker bar for sure. Moron, I know.
Too much sweat/effort/tears into trying to get by with just regular socket wrenches for too long. You’d think I’d have thought through the torque equation at least a little bit…
I broke a couple Craftsman breaker bars before I found a slim old 36” bar at a yard sale. I love it because I can judge how dangerous the torque I’m applying is by the bowing. If it gets sketchy, I stop & figure something else out
I love finding old-school Craftsman tools at swap meets.
A couple years I bought bags of 6-8 deepwell sockets of various sizes for $10-$11 per bag.
Decades back I bought 1/4”, 3”8, & 1/2” Craftsman ratchets from the original owner’s grandson. Rebuilt the 3/8” twice. Lovely round polished handles perfect for slipping a short pipe on.
Itty-bitty channel locks! Like palm of the hand big. I use those little suckers all the time, they’re great for small fasteners, tight spaces and weird sized stuff you don’t have a little wrench for.
Good one. I love my itty-bitty drivers for the same reason. I even have some that look like hilariously shrunken regular drivers, like about an inch or so long.
Knipex makes amazing ones!
Pricey, but you barely know they’re in your pocket and they grip firmly
Torque wrenches.
Lots of things don’t need as much torque as you think.
Gosh, nothing gets me ranting more than people who don’t obey the torque specs. We don’t have rust down here, but we have plenty of previous owners who over-ugga-dugga the absolute hell out of every fastener they can wrap their ham-fists around.
Buy the torque wrench. Use the torque wrench. Nothing is more satisfying than whipping out the little torque wrenches, either.
I never use a torque wrench, and I never have issues, and I think it’s funny when people make it sound like it’s a really big deal.
Because it is! I have had to undo too many ham-fisted over-torques in my day. Under-torquing isn’t that good, either, in that “glad THAT didn’t fall off” kind of way.
It’s like trying to guess power with a butt dyno. Flying blind.
Several clutches and transmissions, an engine rebuild, a differential rebuild, and a whole lot of other mechanical work with remarkably few subsequent issues tells me it’s not that important. Flying blind has worked well for me so far????♂️
And several experiences with torque wrenches NOT being accurate, including a bolt that’s still broken off in the engine of my Comanche, have taught me that sometimes what feels right, is right.
Yeah, that’s no good. They’re machines just like a car that need to be calibrated properly in order to work. The butt dyno/finger feel is a good secondary check, but I would rather use the actual measurement to spare myself the misery of getting that wrong later. It might’ve worked out fine ’til now, but I know we all get tired/have off-days/aren’t paying attention/etc., etc. That’s why there’s a spec.
And stored zeroed out
and not used as a freakin breaker bar! (guy I knew)
I treat mine the same way I treat my motorcycle helmet – like it’s a Faberge egg or something.
T H A T
Sad thing is, last time I had my old torque wrench calibrated, I realized I could just buy a new one at HF for about the same price.
but the feel of the old one insipires much more confidence
Yeah—I admit I’ve gone the buy-a-new-one route most of the time, which isn’t great! I don’t like contributing to the whole throwaway society. Then again, most of my reasons to get a new one are “it broke” or “I lost it.”
One of my friends splurged on one of the digital ones that beeps when you’ve hit the torque, and oof—I don’t like that? I’m so used to the little satisfying click. I’ve got a few ancient bar-style ones around the house, too, but one’s visibly out of spec and needs to go on a nice shelf somewhere as decor. I want the click. Give me the satisfying little click.
Way back (poor), bought a beam-style 1/2”. It taught me a lot about caring for precision instruments.
I like the click as well: maybe ocd, but I always click, reset, click again. Sort of like giving the ratchet strap a pat & and saying, ‘that ain’t goin nowhere’, ya know?
The over torquing thing is a byproduct of people improperly using impact wrenches, especially on lug nuts.
Fitting back into the flip side of this topic, I have been working on cars with hand tools my whole life. I will get the torque wrench out for an engine rebuild or delicate stuff like pre-load on bearings, but other than that really not needed.
Just take a quick look at what you are doing. Materials, metal or aluminum or plastic, fastener size, mission critical vs. cosmetic and you should have a feel for snugged up vs. good and tight or somewhere in between.
Also there is a reason wrenches and ratchets have longer handles proportionate to fastener size. The tool is your friend in the process.
I have to admit my wrenching skills were honed on old British sports cars with stone aged technology, and factory manuals that didn’t list torque specs for anything except internal engine and pre-loaded bearings, but it really is overkill for most applications outside those already mentioned, and I work on my modern stuff the same way.
#usernamechecksout 🙂
If there isn’t a spec listed, you’re probably fine. Porsche goes overkill in this regard and lists a specific value for less important bolts that aren’t really structural sometimes and just need to be tightened. Those I’ll skip the wrench for the the 8-Nm suggestion or whatever it is.
Engine internals, though? You bet your sweet booty I’m following the exact letter of the manual.
Maybe weird, but I find headbolts to be a satisfying ritual. It is somewhat like old pagan religion in that they were way more concerned with proper action and not worried about the thought.
“I torque these in this order that the god of compression will be mollified and stay contained—also not let that slimy water-god mix with the holy oil. Praise be!”
Not weird at all, provided the stinkers are somewhat easy to access.
Somewhat with you, but there’s a lot to be said for torquing suspension bolts properly. Driveshaft to flex-disc bolts, etc.
And, when starting out, one has no idea what is right. You have years of experience to guide you. I also feel they are good because many bolts aren’t specced to be near as tight as novice wrenchers like to do them up to.
The first time I do something, I follow spec religiously. 2nd time, I keep them handy. 3rd time, I usually have a pretty good idea of how many elbow-creaks stuff gets
Can’t disagree with that. There is a book called “It Came With Oil?”. Author recounts his days as an apprentice mechanic in a shop. The shop owner/mentor would have the trainees tighten bolts in a vice until they broke to learn the difference between good and tight and too tight.
The flip side is practice on old junk engines to show how easily water pump bolts break
1) Inductive heater – Mercedes recommended one in a column and I bought a knockoff one on Amazon. It’s amazing for releasing rusted fasteners – when it dies, I’ll buy a name brand one.
2) Welder – I started with MIG but then added TIG. So useful to fabricate a tool or repair something broken.
I have to second the welder. I struggled without a welder for far too long before buying a $170 harbor freight flux core, and it is the best $170 ever spent. I have used the heck out of that thing, and it alone has extracted many otherwise impossible bolts.
HB ‘s Vulcan welder makes learning to weld so much easier, it covers a lot of sins with the automatic settings. Also their opening hours is tailored for weekend users vs normal welding shops.
Also second the welder. There’s the obvious gluing metal aspect, but they’re also good at applying heat quickly. Need to remove a broken bolt/stud? Forget drilling and easy-out, weld a nut to it. Yesterday I used the welder to remove a bearing race from a blind hole by welding a bead to it, which heated/shrunk it so much it fell out.
Uh, maybe it’s because I’m in Canada, but the emembership is not showing up as $4/month for me at all.
Hit them on the tip line: Matt will get you right
an ultrasonic cleaner. Bought it because it was a crazy cheap amazon prime day deal, and holy cow is that thing useful.