Getting rid of excess/poor tools?

[BigE]

I have the combined tool collections of both of my grandfathers. Both were WWII vets so there are some army issue tools as well as older, well built tools. However, there is a subset of what I'll call get-by tools that are low quality, poorly manufactured pieces. They might have been in the kitchen drawer or received alongside some better examples of tools. I can tell by the way they were tossed in the back of a toolbox or thrown haphazardly in the mix with other get-by tools, fasteners or general junk that they weren't part of the prized collection. I really need to go through all of the tools, clean them up and sort them. I really feel that the get-by tools should be disposed of in some manner but I find myself hesitant to do so. I'll obviously keep the snapon, mac, plomb, etc. but I'm not sure if I should get rid of the poor quality get-by tools in the process. If it were you, what would you do?

 

[metalmagpie]

Absolutely pass along the lower quality stuff. Put it all on a table and take a picture, then donate it all to Goodwill or equivalent and take the tax writeoff. All secondhand stores are starved for tools and they will love getting them and so will the lucky recipients.

If it were me, I wouldn't keep a dang thing unless I needed it. There's only so much space in my shop and I haven't forgotten the major dollarectomy of building my shop. As much as space costs these days I'm not going to waste it on someone else's stuff just because of sentimental reaons.

metalmagpie

 

[Jarhead0408]

Give them to a kid that exhibits interest in doing things himself.

Not the kid that's a crack/sh** head.
Not the kid who won't appreciate them.
Not the kid that's going to throw them away.

Find the right kid and he'll be grateful.


*Edit: Somehow I missed that they were tools of poor quality. In that case, see if the above kid wants them...or give them away. A box on the curb with a "free" sign should take care of it.

 

[Chief919]

Put together a loaner box or two for those times people come asking to borrow tools.

 

[Drew_flux]

If you are giving stuff away, see if you have a makerspace/hakerspace in your local area. Most are non profits, you may even be able to get a tax deduction on the donation

 

[Sticks McGee]

I did this at work about a year ago. I had brought a couple boxes into work from home ( much prior to this). My work box is an older roller Snappy before they went super huge. (KR-1000) I had another 3 pc set I had used at home that was in storage between my first divorce and second marriage. It's also a Snap-on that is a bottom cab, top cab and a side cab (all roller bearing) I never had a lot of mechanical tools at home anyway. So I brought the side box first and eventually the top. I was able to spread my stuff out nicely at work. Eventually I moved in with my second wife and began to get more tools for home. I needed to bring those boxes back home. This forced me to go thru my stuff and get rid of stuff I really did not need. I got the stuff worth keeping, all together and gave to my then brother in law and the stuff that was basically useless junk I threw out. Once I did it I was glad I did.

I need to majorly do this process again at home with the box and also a number of things (tools and non tool related) Sometimes it feels weird but I always feel better and know it was the right thing to do after the fact. It's very easy to keep something that you "might" use at some point down the road. A few years later you have moved it 10 times and still never used it. As I get older it gets easy to not feel bad about just tossing the ****.

 

[Cyberbear]

Everything presented by others makes good sense. When my father passed on he left behind an assembly of hand tools that were old when I used them as a young kid 60 years ago. All my tools are better quality and was not interested in worn, rusty and mismatched tools of various types. They were all donated to the local second hand store.

 

[McFarmer]

I had a similar situation.

First I out together a tool box for when the kids want to "help" grandad in the shop. These are their tools and I don't have to worry about them getting into mine. If they get left outside, no worries. They do question why mine are all shiny and their's aren't.

Others went to a little thrift shop, I just give them to them, they resell them for cheap. Two people benifit from that deal. I have gotten away from Goodwill for various reasons.

 

[Steevo]

I have bought quite a few tool lots at auctions, just to get the one or two items I wanted from the pile. Most of the time I donate the rest to a charity thrift store. I have also sold some at a garage sale, by bundling stuff in a box for one price.

 

[KDXSR5]

G A box on the curb with a "free" sign should take care of it.

This has been my go-to for the last several years. I even have a nicely spray painted sign on a pound in post at this point. The longest something has sat was 2 weeks, and, surprisingly, that was a truck bed toolbox I did not need anymore.

 

[Farrier]

Keep them. I have my top end tools that stay in the shop, and I have other tools for dirty work.

 

[DieselDent]

Depends on what it is but I usually have a loaner/off road box of extra lower end tools.

Also put some excess stuff out at my wife's yard sales for the husbands that get dragged along.

 

[2012Eli3]

Tractor,baler,boat, 2nd vehicle etc.. I have a few similar tools in each piece of equipment or vehicle for running repairs in route. and if sticky fingers find them or I forget them no big loss. Extras after that go as others have posted.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I have a bunch of Craftsman sockets I tried to get rid of on eBay. No sets. I priced them at next to nothing plus shipping. No takers.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Bull had been looking for a bunch of odd ball sockets, I packed up a large pay one price postal box and sent it to him, he picked out a bunch of the sockets he needed and then sent the rest back to me. I have now sorted the sockets and will be dumping the junk stuff at a second hands store.

 

[engineer2]

I inherited the "made in India" wrenches and other mismatched stuff from my dad.

Sold some at garage sales, but it's hit-or-miss. Last garage sale, no one even looked at them. In previous years, people new to the USA would snap them up.

Keep some basic tools on each floor of the house for minor repairs.

Keep a basic set in your cars. If they are stolen, no big deal.

 

[jd_1138]

I inherited the "made in India" wrenches and other mismatched stuff from my dad.

Sold some at garage sales, but it's hit-or-miss. Last garage sale, no one even looked at them. In previous years, people new to the USA would snap them up.

Keep some basic tools on each floor of the house for minor repairs.

Keep a basic set in your cars. If they are stolen, no big deal.

Same. I'd sort them out into sizes and make a complete set and throw them in a $9 Home Depot Homer box and put it in the basement or in a hall closet or in a trunk. Make as many complete kits as possible -- or pretty close to complete.

Selling them at a yard sale will net you very little money -- not enough to trump the convenience of having a full kits around the house.

Another option is to post an ad on CL for them and give them to a needy person. I gave a set of cheaper tools to a friend of a friend. He cleaned up his life (alcoholic) and needed tools (used to be a dealership mechanic) so he could repair cars for some much needed money to live on.

 

[bwringer]

All good ideas.

But I would only donate or sell usable tools.

Inspect everything and just toss the too-cheap-to-use-safely, worn-out, broken, or incomplete **** into your metal recycling bin.

In sockets and wrenches, you'll also find a lot of those useless sizes like 11mm that never got lost or broken because they never got used. Toss 'em. Same goes for all those gimmick tools that pop up every Christmas. Unless there's some real sentimental value, toss that dangerous junk. 27 obsolete drills with long-dead NiCad batteries? Toss the drills, dispose of the batteries properly.

I was in much the same situation after my Dad died -- turns out grandpa and my Dad bought a LOT of junk tools and never got rid of anything, even when it broke. Getting in the right frame of mind to scrap the junk really helped speed up the cleanup process and helped us find the hidden gems.

 

[merc66rkm]

maybe make something like this?

 

[rlitman]

maybe make something like this?

+1

Good tools that I have not too many of (some things I like to keep several of around), go into the toolbox at home. Extras, make their way in limited numbers to my toolbox at work (tools are only secondary to my job).

After that, I consider the value. Either as money to get sold (garage sale, CL, eBay, etc.) or as scrap.

Since I have a TIG welder, OA setup and plasma cutter, scrap metal has value to me, and even cheap tools can be recycled into custom fitted stuff when nothing on hand fits the bill.

 

[vettex2]

I modify cheap tools into specialty tools that work for me.

 

[Jhoff310]

I keep a toolbag or toolbox of **** tools in my vehicles. If I have a breakdown or stuck on a job somewhere where I need tools I have them. if they get left behind, its no big deal.

 

[owdlvr]

I donate all of my 'no longer used' tools to the local high school. They still have an automotive program and a woodworking program.

 

[Bessy]

Years ago when I was probably 12 or 13, a friend of my dad's came by my grandmother's house with a plastic grocery bag full of misc tools (mostly assorted wrenches and a couple screwdrivers if I recall) when he upgraded a few sets. later on he came by with another bag of whatever, and between this and getting some cheapy pieces from parents for birthdays set me up well as a kid. I like to think that one of these days I'll do something similar for another kid, because I've never forgot what Gary did for me, be it the tools or the projects he assisted with.

 

[padroo]

Last Summer I donald a bunch of garage items to Habitat for Humanity.


http://www.habitat.org/restores

They were glad to get the stuff.

 

[hobie1dog]

I'm getting ready to do this same thing with my two inherited tool boxes. Then give the one 6 ft tall Craftsman box to my son-in-law. All part of the downsizing.

 

[driftpin]

I just sold a Delta WW II-vintage DP220 drill press in good working order, Jacobs 6A chuck, tight, not worn, and a B&D 10" power miter saw to a young guy who works at the local Hab. for Humanity. He gets together a bunch of tools and freights them to Haiti where he's setting up a business.

Then I stopped a couple places on the way home and put about 1/3 of it into the local economy in yard sale tools, best was a 1/2" Craftsman router for $2!

 

[Empty Pockets]

In my case, junk or broken tools go in a bucket marked "Steel shorts". Next time i go to the scrap yard, they are sold by the pound.

Safe, serviceable tools go the the local High School and are given to the auto shop teacher, they can be kept by the school, or given to a needy kid. At least I know the kid(s) have an interest in learning to properly use tools

 

[Dragfluid]

Wait,,,,,,,,,,,,,, "excess" tools"??

WTF??

 

[jo4gj]

go to your vo-tech or school in the hood that offers mechanics and give it to the school or students. at my high school the had a **** class that had no tools.... probably stolen but they are the ones that need it most.

 

[BigE]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I think the biggest aversion I have to the whole thing is changing things up from the way they had them. I keep putting my grandpa's tools back into the same drawers he had them in. He had a lot of great tools, but some aren't - probably because us grandkids gave them to him eons ago when we didn't know better. I guess the first step is just sorting what I have so I actually know what I have. That will allow me to organize the boxes and identify what is either extra or undesirable. At that point, I can decide to donate, scrap or make emergency kits with the tools.

 

[avayan]

There is no such thing as trash tools. It is just materials! Now, you may not have space for materials, and that is fine. In that case move them as previously suggested. But if you do have space, there will be one day when you need this gadget which does not exist but somehow can be obtained by pummeling some old piece of metal into shape. To take your nifty tool into such form of submission would be a painful endeavor. But an old tool nobody will miss? Greatness! Call it tool reincarnation ;-)

I think the biggest problem most of us have is remembering we have all of those pieces of old tools hanging around for that day we need them the most...

 

[Worsedog]

*Edit: Somehow I missed that they were tools of poor quality. In that case, see if the above kid wants them...or give them away. A box on the curb with a "free" sign should take care of it.

This has been my go-to for the last several years. I even have a nicely spray painted sign on a pound in post at this point. The longest something has sat was 2 weeks, and, surprisingly, that was a truck bed toolbox I did not need anymore.

Put $20 on the sign and the stuff wouldn't last an hour.

 

[BDT/NWMN]

I enjoy giving tools to My Sons and Daughter..

I enjoy helping with, watching, or hearing about their projects.

Sure ain't selling any tools; it's too much fun giving them give away.

But the junk goes in the junk box for the scrapper man.

 

[77thor]

Habitat ReStore.