Ever buy a tool for no reason at all?

[redware]

I've got my eye on a Snap-On 3/4" ratchet for which I have no earthly use whatsoever. I can't even make the usual pretend argument that I may need it someday. Or that it's a collectable. Or that I'm getting a deal so fantastic that I'd be foolish to walk way. Up until now I've been very good about not buying tools I don't need, but I'm feeling my resolve weaken... it's totally irrational!

Has anyone else been so tempted by a particularly beguiling tool?

 

[luvit]

hi, you've not been lurking here very long.. no?
.

 

[redware]

Ah ha. This is perhaps a gentle way of telling me that I've asked a silly question? The thought crossed my mind while I was writing the post, but I think most people can concoct some half-baked reason to purchase a tool and rationalize it to their satisfaction when they don't need it. In this case, I just WANT the damned thing for no earthly reason.

 

[osborn.ozzy]

Nah, that's foolish.

 

[Sh1thead]

I own a 54" pry bar that I've used realisticlly twice in three years. Truth is I bought it as part of a promo telling myself that I needed it, but being a light duty tech I rarely find it useful.

 

[JKady]

Nope, I spend a lot of money on tools, but tools that will not make me money aren't purchases I make. I've considered more than once picking up a 1" drive impact for the occasions that I need to remove 2+ ton truck lug nuts, but those times are few and far between, and once I leave where I work now will hopefully be never again unless I'm working on my old man's truck, which will be at his shop, and I'll just use his tools.

That's not to say that if I found a smoking deal on one I wouldn't grab it, just not something I go looking for.

 

[luvit]

naw, that's not a silly question..
i have all kinds of tools i've never used yet.. maybe because of garage sales, auctions, deeply discounted clearance items.
i'm preparing to kill time if i get to retire before i die..

i even buy old one-off wrenches at yard sales.. that go in a drawer.. with other one-off wrenches. someday, i'll show them to someone else that has the same interest... but right now, i'm a secret hoarder waiting for an offline friend that understands.. lol
.

 

[bobcatdan]

Yes.

 

[goodspeed]

I wouldn't buy it.

...I'd buy a 1" drive one, instead. Lol

 

[JASTECH]

Welcome to GJ, I seem to always find the correct excuse at the time to buy a tool as I just go down the list in my head.

 

[d_rock]

I just bought a tool to adjust the teeth on a crosscut saw. I don't own a crosscut saw.

 

[timbitca]

Yes.

Matter of fact, I'm making a list right now of tools to get for the new job I may be getting shortly. It's Sports Equipment Manager for the sports department of my University. It involves repairs of some equipment, which would necessitate a basic tool set, but of course I'm making a list that would likely cover any single issue I may encounter if I were to stay at that job for 25+ years. And most tools I have on my list are to be found somewhere in the building already but... I'm not borrowing your tools, don't ask to borrow mine. Also planning on getting a 24" or 26" tool chest and setting up a good workbench in the office if I do get the job. Pics will hopefully be forthcoming!

 

[goodspeed]

I just bought a tool to adjust the teeth on a crosscut saw. I don't own a crosscut saw.

That made me laugh. Lol

 

[mayday0017]

I can always justify buying a new tool, I thought that was normal.... On side note even the tools I've bought over the years just because have been used at least once even though i might not of known a need for it at the time.

 

[WVBrady]

Same reason women buy hats (or maybe shoes).

 

[7th Kahuna]

Never, when I want a tool I find the job to justify it, or at least prepare for the job to justify it. Actually I just purchased a saw vise that I have no idea when I will use, simply because I had never seen one like it. It's cast iron and two feet long. I even drove an hour to get it??????

 

[hickmlg09]

Yes all the time! I see something and Im like OooooOo I need this, specially at the flea market. Than I come home and im like damn i already have this.

 

[adamsredlines]

Just because ya dont need it today doesnt mean you never will! Better to have and not need than to need and not have!!!

 

[hickmlg09]

Just because ya dont need it today doesnt mean you never will! Better to have and not need than to need and not have!!!

 

[wissman38]

I find myself doing it all the time, although the big 58" pry bar "The Negotiator" I bought has been used time and time again for getting the tires off of the Gradall trucks and it really paid off when it came time to moving huge 3' diameter rocks in the yard. Granted if I was working with small cars no i probably would never use it but with the large trucks all the time.

 

[Exceller8]

Only if I get a really good deal!

 

[rusty65]

I buy ratchets when ever i find them cheap and usa made im 40 or so in now .

 

[dragoocoda]

Every time the wind blows, I buy something.. That's a reason right?

 

[RCStocker]

OK, I admit 99 percent of the tools I buy on impulse. They are all so cheap I can not pass them up. I have hundreds of tools that I have never used and never will. I really hate truning a wrench. Never did like it. I was just to cheap to pay someone else to rebuild and repair what I can do myself.

Hear is my #1 tool that I will never use. I only paid $10 for it.
It is a 52 inch long Tap handle. It is the largest one ever made. They rund $450 and up for a new one. I purschased it form a couple at the swap meet that deal with thousands of books and the odd lot of what they can find.

One of my friend owns a huge machines shop that made the round track the hubble telescope truns on. They have one and that is the only other one I have ever seen. It is not at my location at the moment or I would post a photo of it.
I buy tools all the time that I have no clue what they are or what they do. I got my first
toolbox in 1955 and I have been collecting tools and machinery ever sense. I have a full line of Snap-on sockets and they are so nice I seldom use them. I have them just to say I have them. I have had nut drivers for 45 years and I never use them.
The awnser is yes. I am adicted to tools that I never use. I have over 200 wood planes and I have not use 195 of them. I love to collect. When people ask me what I do I tell them I am a junkie. I love to go junking for anything I might find. I picked up an 7'-9" grand piano today for $200. It will need refinishing, a little vineer replace and the top of the white keys replace and will take a month of work. I have restored other piano's but I have never gotten one this cheap before. I like to play and started playing the same year I started collecting tools.

Your question really has me laughing. My wife says that Sunday is the only day I can talk about tools. LOL That is when I come home form 3 swap meets and a bunch of thrift stores and I alway come home with a back pack full of tools and goodies. LOL

 

[Kurn]

I'm mulling aroung the idea of getting a SH80A,just to round out my collection.I never use a regular lengh 1/2 ratchet for anything.

 

[ZRX61]

I'm a guy, that's all the reason I need to buy a tool.

 

[Outlawmws]

Have you seen the Garage sale thread?

 

[toolaholic]

Just recently a Skil new old stock model 543 3/4 inch drill made 1976. I do collect drills however. Plus a makita 6952 corded imact driver. I 99% of the time use my cordless.

 

[nine4gmc]

Edited, Outlaw beat me to it.

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144338

Welcome to GJ!

 

[theoldwizard1]

I will probably never use a socket over 1" !

 

[jeffmoss26]

All the damn time!

 

[zacker01]

isnt just wanting it reason enough to buy it? at least it is for me... if I have the $$$ and I want it, i dont need no other reason to get it. lol

 

[Mickey O]

Ever buy a tool for no reason at all?

Never, sometimes the reason is as simple as I happen to have the money burning a hole in my pocket.

 

[canuckian]

I can ALWAYS come up with a reason to buy a tool. Whether it's a good reason or not makes absolutely no difference to me

 

[richfinn]

I find myself buying tools that I dont really understand and dont have a particular use for just so I can figure out what they actually do and then when I have figured it out, I understand the value of the tool and start using it. Its mostly specialist automotive tools and diagnostic equipment but every now and then I see some new hand tool that might shave a few minutes off a job.

Get the big ratchet if you like it, its your money and you can spend it on what pleases you. You earned it

 

[W650Mike]

I used to fight it.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Last week I bought at auction a "grab bag" full of stuff that included 2 BNIB Weldcraft water cooled TIG torches. Brand new. I saw them. No one else knew what they were so I stole them (22 bucks for whole package). Now I NEED a TIG welder to go with the torches and I don't know how to weld TIG (MIG a little). I am mostly a woodworker.
I think we all have a disease that is easily treated and won't cause early death.

 

[woody 73]

Never and I repeat never...Darn I have enough hammers that I would never use them.

 

[Roots]

Absolutely! Although what I don't like to think about, is when I buy tools just to have "extras", even though I likely already have 3 or 4 extras scattered about, argh. But what if!!!

 

[Anotherrcguy]

I just purchased a shlf80a off the snap on guy because it was on special an I have wanted one for quite sometime.

Now that I have it, I have had to reconfigure my ratchet drawer as it is to big to fit length or width ways and now I have no clue what I am ever going to do with it as I am not a professional mechanic.

All of that said.... I love it