Most expensive tool for one use

[bbs lm-r]

Just curious, what are some of the most expensive tools you guys have bought that are made for one purpose/job?

 

[BirdMobile]

AMP terminal crimper. Close to $400, and all it does is crimp AMP pins for a specific type of connector, to the ends of wires.

 

[Ruger_556]

$1,300 torque wrench, LMS hub wheel bearings and axle u-bolts. I didn't pay that much but that's what they want for it new... The shop buys some OEM tools that are upwards of $3k

 

[Herod]

Hilti te 56 rotary demo hammer. Bought it to tear out kitchen and bathroom sink tiles in a rental house we owned. I have never used it since. Just sits in my bottom tool box drawer.Paid almost $900.00 for it plus $80.00 for the chisel bit.

I have the picture, because I tried to sell it on ebay and craiglist with no luck.

 

[skylinegtr20]

I have all the old Merc valve adjustment wrenches, which I used alot back in the day but 2770-4 for the W109s I used once... believe it was around $80-100. which isnt too bad considering!

 

[Boiler]

AMP terminal crimper. Close to $400, and all it does is crimp AMP pins for a specific type of connector, to the ends of wires.

But you can get different dies for them for other connectors! ....for nearly $300

Luckily when I buy these the company foots the bill.

 

[awdblazer]

But you can get different dies for them for other connectors! ....for nearly $300

Luckily when I buy these the company foots the bill.

yah we have other dies for ours
that is the only ratchet crimper that will guarantee the crimp as in a electrical station here in the city can have well over a million crimps in it

 

[pendragon1998]

The one tool that can cost you thousands and thousands for one use is hanging between your legs.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Hilti te 56 rotary demo hammer. Bought it to tear out kitchen and bathroom sink tiles in a rental house we owned. I have never used it since. Just sits in my bottom tool box drawer.Paid almost $900.00 for it plus $80.00 for the chisel bit.



I have the picture, because I tried to sell it on ebay and craiglist with no luck.

I'm not pickin on you specifically, but this is the case when I rent a tool. I'm not sure my most expensive tool compares to your purchases.

 

[wild cowboy]

Hilti te 56 rotary demo hammer. Bought it to tear out kitchen and bathroom sink tiles in a rental house we owned. I have never used it since. Just sits in my bottom tool box drawer.Paid almost $900.00 for it plus $80.00 for the chisel bit.

I have the picture, because I tried to sell it on ebay and craiglist with no luck.

then you were asking more than the fair market value, something as common as a Hilti TE 56 will sell for precisely its fair market value with a 10 day run on ebay on a no reserve auction starting at $1 - a high number of the people on earth who know what it is will see it and not let it get into someone else's hands cheap! - you just may or may not be happy with its fair market value.

Source: ebayer since 1997

 

[bcradio]

Hilti te 56 rotary demo hammer. Bought it to tear out kitchen and bathroom sink tiles in a rental house we owned. I have never used it since. Just sits in my bottom tool box drawer.Paid almost $900.00 for it plus $80.00 for the chisel bit.

I have the picture, because I tried to sell it on ebay and craiglist with no luck.

Those have TONS of uses and are nowhere close to a one type use tool. This is one of my most used tools. Use it on everything from digging hard soil to breaking small areas of concrete to taking up flooring and much much more.

I guess you could consider any tool a one time/type use deal if you never actually do anything.

 

[rlitman]

then you were asking more than the fair market value, something as common as a Hilti TE 56 will sell for precisely its fair market value with a 10 day run on ebay on a no reserve auction starting at $1 - a high number of the people on earth who know what it is will see it and not let it get into someone else's hands cheap! - you just may or may not be happy with its fair market value.

Source: ebayer since 1997

Agreed. All the more reason to either buy it used, or rent it.

 

[jkwilson]

Bought a $400 tile saw for one job. Paid for itself. Kept it and have done several other jobs with it, so it has been a money saver. Plus the wife is happy when she gets new tile. Win-win!

$600 for a laser level for 153ft of retaining wall. Made the job about 10 times faster, saved me getting up probably 1000 times (older folks understand how important that is) and made the finished product so good I'd put it up against anything done by a pro other than it taking me much longer because I was learning as I went.

When my estimate of the benefit I get for the money spent is positive, I don't have a problem investing in a tool that will pay for itself.

 

[stephen4785]

Caterpillar 3116/3126 "tune up" kit. I think I paid $2500 for the setup and used it once. Although the job it was used for paid for the tool and then some so I didnt look at it as a loss.

 

[Tronyadorable]

Hilti te 56 rotary demo hammer. Bought it to tear out kitchen and bathroom sink tiles in a rental house we owned. I have never used it since. Just sits in my bottom tool box drawer.Paid almost $900.00 for it plus $80.00 for the chisel bit.

I have the picture, because I tried to sell it on ebay and craiglist with no luck.

Why not zip over to Hilti and see if they'll sell it on commission for you ?
Or trade it in for ???

 

[Banjorear]

Tools to pull a Alfa Romeo 2.0L engine head. Cost about $80 and I used it for 30 seconds.

 

[Kevin54]

Hilti te 56 rotary demo hammer. Bought it to tear out kitchen and bathroom sink tiles in a rental house we owned. I have never used it since. Just sits in my bottom tool box drawer.Paid almost $900.00 for it plus $80.00 for the chisel bit.

I have the picture, because I tried to sell it on ebay and craiglist with no luck.

You should have bought a chisel bit for a Sawzall instead. Quite a bit cheaper

 

[blown94conv]

Mastercool Hydraulic brake flaring kit. Paid $475, but made the job as easy as it could have been.

 

[-Brent-]

Hmmm. I thought the $40 dollar diamond bit for drilling a couple holes in glass was pricey.

As far as removing tiles with the Hilti, I used a $9 harbor freight air hammer and chisel bit. Worked just as well... and I have access to the same Hilti.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

A seal driver for the outer axle shaft seal on my F350, which cost $85. I figured the seals are $25 each, so if I screwed one up I would've regretted buying the tool. In the end, I'm glad I bought it because it paid for itself on its first use when I had to best the **** out of the seals to seat them! The ****** part is my buddies 2005 needs to be redone, but my driver only works on 99-04 trucks.

I also bought a Eastwood flaring tool to make some new resr axle hard lines. Shop wanted $5 per flare and I couldn't get my bluepoint flaring kit to work for me, so I splurged. The tool is awesome and will definitely get more use, but it may not be for a few more years.

 

[Train]

(older folks understand how important that is)

Unfortunately, I understand this.

 

[Cypherian]

Hmm 1 Purpose / Job you guys have me beat best I got is a sink trap wrench lol
I think it was 10 bucks.

Cypher

 

[Herod]

Here's a funny one:

I had to replace the power steering rack on a Mercedes ml320. Suv. 4x4. So the front diff, drive axles, all that had to come out just to drop the rack. So I read up on the axle nuts. Turns out they're made up to almost 500 ft lbs torque.

That's alot of torque. So in a panic, I research the most powerful impact gun in 1/2". I went with mg725 to break loose the axle nuts. Bought for right around $400.00 or so off S/O website. Then I needed a torque wrench capable of 500 ft lbs to tighten back up, as the ones I have only went up to 250 ft lbs. I bought this 700 ft lb Proto... one inch drive animal off craiglist for $250.00

The kicker..... turns out the axle nuts weren't made up to 480 or so FT LBS......but instead....... 480 METRIC NEWTON TONS **** wammer jammer..... I totally misread it.

I sold impact to a transmission guy for $380, still own the torque wrench.

 

[woodrail]

My wife.....

 

[veks]

Schley rear trailing arm bushing removal tool.

 

[y20dth]

Here's a funny one:

I had to replace the power steering rack on a Mercedes ml320. Suv. 4x4. So the front diff, drive axles, all that had to come out just to drop the rack. So I read up on the axle nuts. Turns out they're made up to almost 500 ft lbs torque.

That's alot of torque. So in a panic, I research the most powerful impact gun in 1/2". I went with mg725 to break loose the axle nuts. Bought for right around $400.00 or so off S/O website. Then I needed a torque wrench capable of 500 ft lbs to tighten back up, as the ones I have only went up to 250 ft lbs. I bought this 700 ft lb Proto... one inch drive animal off craiglist for $250.00

The kicker..... turns out the axle nuts weren't made up to 480 or so FT LBS......but instead....... 480 METRIC NEWTON TONS **** wammer jammer..... I totally misread it.

I sold impact to a transmission guy for $380, still own the torque wrench.

Or 480 Nm instead of TON?

 

[thecj3man]

The proper tool for shimming Toyota straight axle knuckles. I bought mine about 10 years ago and built one front end from a pile of parts. Luckily it was only 150$ back then.


https://www.marlincrawler.com/hardware-tools/tools/knuckle-alignment-tool

 

[Herod]

Or 480 Nm instead of TON?

That's the one....Nm....I hate that guy..........

 

[saceone]

I don't know, I own a lot of tools (construction company) and we use em alot,all of them!

My wife.....

Quoting for eventual blackmailing (aka if I like stuff in your toolbox)

 

[T45]

A cheap tool when it breaks something expensive !

 

[BDT/NWMN]

Timing Fixture for Cummins engines... That ****** gets stored with my dial indicators and micrometers....


It has been used a few times,,,,

 

[T45]

Some tools are great though, even if you use them once/rarely.

Piston circlip installers come to mind.

 

[Packard V8]

Didn't I read somewhere the tool kit to repair the Hubble Space Telescope cost $2.5 mil and was used only on that mission?

jack vines

 

[Andybull]

A 3M Dynatel 2273 to find a ground fault. I figured I'll use it again someday.

 

[Steevo]

Any time that buying a tool costs me less than hiring someone (that has the tool ) to do a job, I consider that tool expense to be a savings.
I have "saved" a lot of money over the years and still have the tools to prove it.

 

[metaldad]

anything made by elliot tool tech.
http://www.elliott-tool.com/

 

[kyrbz]

$2100.00 STUDPRO-2500 Stud welder. I know I'll use it again someday.

 

[woodrail]

Didn't I read somewhere the tool kit to repair the Hubble Space Telescope cost $2.5 mil and was used only on that mission?

jack vines

That was cheap. You should have seen the shipping charges!

 

[chris142]

Boss paid $20k for a muffler tubing bender and a full stock of exhaust parts we never use.

 

[crewchief888]

Any time that buying a tool costs me less than hiring someone (that has the tool ) to do a job, I consider that tool expense to be a savings.
I have "saved" a lot of money over the years and still have the tools to prove it.

i'm with ya on that one....