What's a tool that you will never replace it with its modern counterpart?

[TheWorkshopBlog]

Hello, I'm doing a blog about differences in modern tooling and their vintage counterparts and why people would rather use them than the modern equivalents. The reverse also applies, if you have a modern tool that you would never replace with an older model what would that tool be and what type of use do you preform with the tool?

Background: I'm a college student and for a class I decided to do a project about hand tools. One of my requirements for this project is to do a digital campaign, which I have chosen to do my campaign on tooling. I have a passion for learning about tools and what the differences that go through each iteration of their new life cycle as they are "improved".

 

[davethorik]

I'd say a good example of a modern tool being better than an older one would be digital calipers. I'd rather have the latest Mitutoyo Digimatic than a pair from 1988. Of course that raises the point that the older still dial calipers will still be working when there arent any factories producing batteries for the digital any longer.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I think a big one on here would be vises! Look at some of the amazing restorations members on here have done. Im sure none of them would trade those for anything that is made now.

 

[Alaniho]

Petersen/irwin visegrips, a lot of people have very stong views on this one for a number of reasons that can be easily googled. Its a right can of worms and you could write a chapter alone on this one.

 

[L.Cheapo]

Old USA made machine tools...lathes, mills, shapers, etc. You can't compare the modern lightweight imports to the Monarchs, LeBlonds, etc of decades ago.

 

[Dave455]

'Improved' is a word that most experienced tool users dread. Most hand tools were perfected years ago and there are very few real options for improvement. 'Improved' is usually manufacturer speak for 'made cheaper'.

The classic example would be Stanley planes. The pre war examples were probably the best ever made anywhere. Post war were not so good, and they have got progressively cheaper ever since. They are now at the point where they are scarcely fit for the purpose they are sold for.

You can still buy a decent plane, but it will be manufactured by Lie Nielsen (U.S.A), Veritas (Canada), Clico (U.K.) or some other relative newcomer!

If you are interested in the differences, the pre war planes were made from decent castings that had been allowed to settle so didn't twist after machining. The soles were ground perfectly flat, the sides perfectly square, the mouths perfectly square, the frogs a perfect fit, the blades of superb steel that held an edge and decently ground, the handles made from hardwood and all the screws and knobs from brass. The modern ones, are not!

 

[monomach]

'Improved' is a word that most experienced tool users dread. Most hand tools were perfected years ago and there are very few real options for improvement. 'Improved' is usually manufacturer speak for 'made cheaper'!

Or "we put an LED on it!"

 

[rlitman]

Or "we put an LED on it!"

Yeah, laser die grinder. LMAO.

 

[2oolhound]

4' Jackall jack.

Every time I see a new version it's bent or broken.

 

[619DioFan]

Anvils seem to be something that everyone wants " old " I don't know if anyone makes high quality new / modern anvils but people sure are willing to pay a lot for old ones and I doubt anyone with a quality old anvil would replace it with a modern one.

 

[bczygan]

I've only got one.

 

[marineman]

My grandpas old stanley miter box and backsaw. I have augmented with another miter box and 2 powered miter saws that one is 100% on the money every time and leaves a perfect finish on the cut line.

I may get beat up on this forum for saying it but ratchets are something where I would rather have new than old. Old ones are cool to collect but for daily use new ones are just better.

 

[bonneyman]

Malco orange-handle screwdrivers. Virtually indestructible polycarbonate. They couldn't compete with the influx of Chinese drivers, so, they discontinued the orange jobbies and got the Chinese to make drivers for them! Some of their other tools are still good, but no more new drivers of theirs for me!

I snag the old ones whenever I find them in the wild. Grabbed another scratch all today for 25 cents.

 

[jkesselr]

I’ll go th other direction. I will take a new M18 Fuel (fill in the blank) over an old original Makita cordless drill any day of the week!

 

[sberry]

Or a corded drill. I like most new stuff a lot better. If it isn't better it is often cheaper which can be "better" all it's own. Cheap hand tools are getting better all the time.

 

[AustinChamp]

Just about all of my original Britool spanners/wrenches are nicer to use than than any of my more modern ones , including the Snap-on that i have , because of there thickness and balance .
also the Britool ratchets with the black / red Britool branding 'soft grip' handles feel better in the hand than my SO soft grips are , even though the tooth count is not as high and perhaps they might not be made in the UK , they don't half take some oily abuse ,but will clean up well .
and the 1950's Britool E77 ratchet is just in another league of it own with its smoothness and comfort .

 

[DadsTools]

Modern cordless drill. You'd be crazy to want to swap that out for an old brace and bit or hand cranked 'egg-beater' drill.

Hope no timber framers are reading this.

 

[anndel]

I have a 1/2" split beam torque wrench by Precision Instruments but I also have the Snap on techangle digital which I like since it's fun to use.

 

[vavet]

Perhaps an interesting tangent your could explore in your paper would be the emotional r sentimental attachment many guys have for tools they inherited from their dads. Maybe they us d them when they were little working alongside with Dad, and eventually they will pass them along to their sons or grandsons.

 

[TheWorkshopBlog]

I'm not doing a paper on the matter, just doing a blog about what differences in the vintage tools over modern tools (vice versa) would lead one to pick one over the other.

 

[tube_guy]

Generally, it's all about cost. Years ago, the market for finely made tools was much larger. People were willing to pay more for tools and were also much more discerning of quality. The manufacturers were most interested in producing the highest quality tools that they were capable of producing thinking that was the best way to sell their products. Today, many people are much less discerning of quality and manufacturers have found out that the recipe for success is to produce things as cheaply as possible so they can be sold less expensively. The management at these companies puts a lot of pressure on designers to reduce cost and design products quickly. Quite a few of these designers, and people in general, don't really understand that it's possible to produce products inexpensively without completely cheapening them out and they take the wrong approach to reducing costs in their products. They change to cheaper materials. Eliminate important features from the product. That results in a cheapened product that people like us on Garage Journal aren't really interested in any longer. So we might gravitate towards the older items that were designed when this approach wasn't so common.

 

[yaidunno]

Interesting thread.

I'm quite fond of my old Pexto mechanical shear. It doesn't cut any better, or work any faster than a modern hydraulic powered one, but it has loads of character. Instead of listening to a hydraulic pump whine, your ears are filled with the sounds of a flat belt turning a 300 lb flywheel. Heavy cast gears quietly meshing together with a light cogging sound. A push of the pedal makes it come to life as the eccentric lobes engage the blade. And perhaps best of all, the smell of the old oils being warmed up by the repulsion induction motor. Nothing better than that old machine smell!

I'll put my Delta 17 drill press and LeBlond lathe in the same category.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I think that with the exception of perhaps hammers, modern hand tools are mostly superior. This is referring to ratchets, sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers etc. There will always be exceptions to a broad statement like this, but for the most part, I think high quality tool brands have genuinely improved over the years.

 

[Mohawk Dave]

I think a handful of old wood chisels are another where the old stuff is (mostly) better steel than new.

 

[Air21]

Probably my dishwasher, vacuum, and washer dryer. She'd kill me if I tried.

 

[turnthewrench 2.0]

History books...

 

[larry_g]

Flashlights and other service lights. The modern stuff is much better than the old incandescent stuff. Cell phones are another tool that have changed the way that people work.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[C.L S2000]

Astro Nano impact guns. lighter / smaller than my Titanium IR.

 

[M_George]

'Improved' is a word that most experienced tool users dread. Most hand tools were perfected years ago and there are very few real options for improvement. 'Improved' is usually manufacturer speak for 'made cheaper'.

The classic example would be Stanley planes. The pre war examples were probably the best ever made anywhere. Post war were not so good, and they have got progressively cheaper ever since. They are now at the point where they are scarcely fit for the purpose they are sold for.

You can still buy a decent plane, but it will be manufactured by Lie Nielsen (U.S.A), Veritas (Canada), Clico (U.K.) or some other relative newcomer!

If you are interested in the differences, the pre war planes were made from decent castings that had been allowed to settle so didn't twist after machining. The soles were ground perfectly flat, the sides perfectly square, the mouths perfectly square, the frogs a perfect fit, the blades of superb steel that held an edge and decently ground, the handles made from hardwood and all the screws and knobs from brass. The modern ones, are not!

I learned to use a hand plane in High school back in the Sixties, and still use them today for joining and flattening wood. Nothing beats a nice sharp Stanley/Baily hand plane.

 

[manioso]

I'm a big believer in older (50's - 60's - 70's) American made floor jacks. I currently have a Hein-Werner OS 1 1/4 ton, a H-W WS 1 1/2 ton, and a Walker 93657 4 ton. All three work perfectly, soft parts are available, and re re-buildable. I use the two smaller H-W on my BMW and the wife's Honda. The big Walker is used for my F350 with diesel.

The import jacks you see everywhere are certainly cheaper, but for quality and longevity don't do anything for me. The only contemporary American made jack I would consider is the Milwaukee model 20 2 ton, and the Mlw model 40 4 ton. However the 2 ton is more than $800 and the 4 ton is north of $1200

 

[mmason7764]

With cordless power tools I like brushless better than the regular brushed motors. Less heat and batteries last longer. I think its important to select a good brand as the more complicated electronics are not readily repairable.

Craftsman hand tools. Were made in USA until a few years ago. I won't touch the current production from China.

12 volt lead acid battery chargers (for auto batteries). Over the last few decades the electronics have gotten more and more elaborate and less reliable. The older chargers with metal cases and large transformers will live forever (almost).

JUMPER CABLES !!! Try to find a set of jumper cables with solid copper wire, I have experienced this futility. The only ones available in stores here are aluminum wire with that very thin coating of copper on the outside. Aluminum will conduct only 60% of the electricity as copper of the same wire gauge (diameter). The bad part about the higher electrical resistance of aluminum is it heats up more and melts at a lower temperature. I have actually seen cheap jumper cables melted and the insulation burned. When my wife's neice got her first car 3 years ago I volunteered to provide the jumper cables. Was so disgusted with the choices I went to the welding shop, bought real wire, and made them myself. I wanted them to pass enough current to get her started even if her battery was completely dead (or internal breakage).

Mark

 

[seber]

I still use wooden hand planes. Mine are over 100 years old. Metal planes just don't work as smooth.

 

[Mikeske]

My old Snap-on ratchets in 1/2, 3/8 and 1/4 inch. I bought them used in the early 1990’s and still use today.and they were at lest ten years old when I bought them. N

 

[Lelandwelds]

There is some minor chatter on the net waxing nostalgic over hand lacing wire bundles vs. Zipties. (Hand lacing was an early post war bundling technique for telephone copper and airplane loom.

https://hackaday.com/2018/03/22/mechanisms-cable-ties/

 

[4xdog]

My old Stanley Yankee drill comes to mind.

 

[derosa]

'Improved' is a word that most experienced tool users dread. Most hand tools were perfected years ago and there are very few real options for improvement. 'Improved' is usually manufacturer speak for 'made cheaper'.

The classic example would be Stanley planes. The pre war examples were probably the best ever made anywhere. Post war were not so good, and they have got progressively cheaper ever since. They are now at the point where they are scarcely fit for the purpose they are sold for.

You can still buy a decent plane, but it will be manufactured by Lie Nielsen (U.S.A), Veritas (Canada), Clico (U.K.) or some other relative newcomer!

If you are interested in the differences, the pre war planes were made from decent castings that had been allowed to settle so didn't twist after machining. The soles were ground perfectly flat, the sides perfectly square, the mouths perfectly square, the frogs a perfect fit, the blades of superb steel that held an edge and decently ground, the handles made from hardwood and all the screws and knobs from brass. The modern ones, are not!

Stanley does have 3 or 4 that fall into the stanley works label like their now not so new revival of the 750 bench chisels, in my experience these are as good as the originals which weren't really as perfect as they're made out to be. I suspect there was just less internet in the 1880s-1930s for people to complain about the recesses in the soles that had to be lapped out . I've had a few that had slightly concave soles or less then perfectly flat or square surfaces; just nowhere near as bad as the No.4 I attempted to buy at HD, now that was awful. On the whole though I would agree that older is better then newer with stanley.

I may get beat up on this forum for saying it but ratchets are something where I would rather have new than old. Old ones are cool to collect but for daily use new ones are just better.

Completely agree and ratchet wrenches as well, the new metals, better springs and more teeth are just the best.

I've got a 1932 delta lathe that I'll probably never get around to replacing as after shopping around I just didn't see a major improvement with the newer stuff. Basically I'd get more speeds, though there is a kit from the 30s to change it from a 5speed to I think 12 speed, and more powerful motors. But mine has a 9" sanding disc with angle and height adjustable platform, three different steady rests, 36 built in stops for fluting or similar work, an 11" center, 42" length and 1" x 8tpi spindle that uses mt2. Its about as modern as it needs to be and turns out great work. Its not that there isn't better, it just isn't worth the cost to upgrade.

 

[ChevyEFI]

I'd say a good example of a modern tool being better than an older one would be digital calipers. I'd rather have the latest Mitutoyo Digimatic than a pair from 1988. Of course that raises the point that the older still dial calipers will still be working when there arent any factories producing batteries for the digital any longer.

Exact opposite here. I will take a dial.

There is some minor chatter on the net waxing nostalgic over hand lacing wire bundles vs. Zipties. (Hand lacing was an early post war bundling technique for telephone copper and airplane loom.
https://hackaday.com/2018/03/22/mechanisms-cable-ties/

I enjoyed the link I saw recently on doing this airplane style(s). Seems like a good way to make things serviceable and yet sturdy.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

There is some minor chatter on the net waxing nostalgic over hand lacing wire bundles vs. Zipties. (Hand lacing was an early post war bundling technique for telephone copper and airplane loom.

https://hackaday.com/2018/03/22/mechanisms-cable-ties/

I can tell you modern military helicopters still have wire bundles tied with lacing tape... though zip-ties are used in certain applications as well.

 

[bonneyman]

I’ll go th other direction. I will take a new M18 Fuel (fill in the blank) over an old original Makita cordless drill any day of the week!

I don't know. I was ridiculed for about 3 months over not having a cordless drill on the job, and finally found some batteries and a charger for an old 3/8" 9.6v Makita blue drill. Got it working - seems to do panel screw just fine.

The home-made belt clip, however, leaves alot to be desired! lol

 

[M_George]

I have a draw knife that comes in handy for shaping wood. I don't think there any modern equivalent of a draw knife.

 

[CoryDH]

A good old metal gas can. I have spilled and dribbled enough gas with the new "green/safety" cans to probably cut the yard once or twice. If I ever see one at a yard sale im paying whatever their asking.

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