Throwing Away Tools

[Nobody-named-Olli]

Not sure how this can help you, but to me, the main questions when looking at stuff are always the same:

Will I realistically use this? / Do I still enjoy this?
How long until I will probably use this? (This is a BIG one, especially with, but not limited to, leftover building materials.)
What will be the cost to replace/ re buy this X years down the road & does that justify to keep it/ sacrifice the space it takes up. (And when renting storage space costs actual $$$ taking that obviously into the equation.)

Everything I/we part with that is in good & fully usable (or wearable for that matter) condition gets donated to our local variant of “goodwill”. Hand tool sets they will accept, but no single items - they are not a “hardware store”.

I have zero problems with trashing broken, worn out or otherwise no longer usable stuff. Same goes for building materials and the likes that simply will go bad at some point anyway. No need to store that for 6 to 12 months and then trash it as opposed to trashing it after the project is finished and necessary touch ups have been completed.

Metal I like to give to our local scrap driver. I have given him buckets full of old hardware, single tools, … . An I’d rather support him, than the city’s over-managed recycling yard.

In one case, because my life changed drastically, I traded in some Snap-On tools with my Snappy (whom I had bought them from, for a specific project/purpose, before). He even offered to sell them on my behalf, but I thought it was only fair if the money stayed “on the truck” so I bought other Snap-On tools that I still could & would use.

My other focus is organization & accessibility. Everything I keep has to be sorted, labeled and stored in a more or less easily accessible manner. Nothing worse then if you want to do something really quick, and then you have to start pushing around boxes, emptying whole shelves just to get to an item.

Many years ago I did an experiment and bought a (hand) toolbox of eBay because I basically wanted a single item from it. But it was filled with quality, flying under the radar, brand name tools. Bad out of focus pictures, ****** description, only a few hours left. Got it as expected for “pocket change”.

Arrived, took out the one item (that later became two or three items). Cleaned everything. Then made sets, took good pictures, put them on eBay. Recouped my money and some more easily. Sounds great? Wrong. Putting, most importantly time, solvents, rags, … into the equation I didn’t even break even. Never did that again. I could as well have simply bought that one item new from a dealer - and not deal with everything else.

I don’t feel any guilt giving away or simply “trashing“/recycling stuff.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[AEAdam]

Not sure if this will help, but I tell myself this and believe it.

When I put a cardboard box or rusty toolbox out for the trash, I am pretty much convinced that box or tools will not make it to the dump. If by chance it gets to the dump, someone will find it and take it home.

So it’s not really wasteful or wrong to throw away something you don’t want that still has use. Throwing it out doesn’t mean it’s going to an over crowded landfill. It probably means someone who doesn’t make much money will find something free that they can use or sell.

What I find myself doing is packaging things in way that they will be easy to find. I wouldn’t throw a set of wrenches in a black plastic trash bag, for example. And maybe if I’m throwing them away I should spend 0 time on that, but I don’t,

 

[Rinspeed]

I've given away a lot of tools over the years as I upgraded. Don't see much wisdom in throwing away tools unless they're broken.

 

[bonneyman]

I try and not throw a tool away unless it's in pieces. Repurposing is my gig.
Bent pliers can be used for holding parts while welding. Old screwdrivers can be ground down and used as awls. Old and worn out extensions can be used as punches. Old sockets can be used for bushing bushings in and out, spacers, or doling work level so you can work on it. Broken ratchets can be recycled by cutting off the handle and using it on a homemade tool. Almost any worn or broken tool can be repurposed.
If the tool is useable I donate it to the Restore or Goodwill. Gotten many an old tool from both that makes me wonder why someone donated it. Specialized tools that I can't use anymore can be given to tech schools for students, although I know that those places are drying up. Or some neighborhood kid who likes to work with there hands (rare I know). If they have nothing even a used tool is great.

 

[Dakotadadv8]

Leave them out at curb if no longer needed or broken. Gone less than a day.

 

[Dr.JohnnyFever]

How long until I will probably use this? (This is a BIG one, especially with, but not limited to, leftover building materials.)
What will be the cost to replace/ re buy this X years down the road & does that justify to keep it/ sacrifice the space it takes up.

My wife has a pretty sane take on this - I think. Especially when it comes to random hardware. She said "Look, Home Depot, Lowes, and Amazon will store those things for you. You won't have to pay the storage fee until you pick it up."

What she meant was, throw away those Closet-Maid shelf brackets, random driveway markers, mismatched cabinet door knobs, and 3' sections of 2x4. Go buy them again in the unlikely event that they are needed.

To be clear, I do keep and organize common hardware in a Durham unit and a bunch of DeWalt organizers. Stuff like bolt and nuts #6 through 3/8", self tappers, etc.

 

[d.mcfarland]

I'll cover shipping for the brass torch accessories. Might have a use for them.

 

[Dr.JohnnyFever]

(And when renting storage space costs actual $$$ taking that obviously into the equation.)

In the last 12 years of my Mother's life she spent nearly $20,000 on storage. Yep, $20K!

It took us few months to sort through it all (while still paying the storage fees ourselves). In the end, at least 50% went straight to the trash. 49% wasn't really worth anything but could at least be donated. The remaining 1% brought around $300.

 

[oldwino]

Found a box of broken 60’s-70’s era Craftsman tools I had always intended to return to Sear’s for warranty but never got around to it. When Craftsman went to **** I didn’t want the cheapo replacements So tossed them all. There was some one-time use old Harbor Fraight stuff that went with the load

 

[CHI_Tool&Die]

I was whacking a 9/16” Heyco combo wrench and the chrome was just flaking off as I whacked it. The soft blow hammer was leaving dents in the steel too. I was so pissed I pulled all my Heyco SAE wrenches out of my work box and chucked them into the chip bin.

NWS/Knipex/Bollmann locking pliers are so soft that I legit dumped them into the chip bin too.

I’ve chucked numerous Wright tools into the chip bin. The 1/4” spinner handle was so crooked that it was unusable and that is how I received it. Wright wouldn’t warranty it, so in the bin. I’ve had several wrenches’ chrome flake off with zero help on warranty so straight into the bin. Same thing with a bunch of SK stuff.

It’s basically any time a tool cannot handle my work environment that I just dump it. At home it is if the tool proves to be a PITA.

I’ve binned a lot of tools.

 

[nadogail]

If it were me, I'd probably end up sticking it up on some shelf in the shop. For some odd reason, I've got a plastic zebra from when I was a kid on a high shelf in mine.

I have a non working Dunlap Blowtorch that I rescued from a neighbor’s trash when he cleaned out his Father’s Workshop.

 

[micromind]

I've never thrown away a tool that still works, even if it works poorly.

I've never forgotten what it's like to be poor enough that I wasn't sure where my next meal was coming from.

 

[Dr.JohnnyFever]

I’m not sure why, but when I read this, my first thought was, of course you do.lol

Here he is a few years back when he was feeling festive. He was also badly in need of a dusting - the consequences of living on a high shelf.

 

[Dr.JohnnyFever]

I've never thrown away a tool that still works, even if it works poorly.

I've never forgotten what it's like to be poor enough that I wasn't sure where my next meal was coming from.

A counterpoint: I also grew up very poor. Now, hunger wasn't an issue - we usually had chickens and my dad was a dab hand at chicken butchering. But new toys were out of the question and we didn't even put up a Christmas tree after I was 8. My clothes were generally homemade, etc. You get the picture.

However, due to lack of funds, my dad bought the absolute cheapest piece of junk tools (and materials). Every project was a struggle of broken tools, inaccurate cuts, etc. About the only tools he had that were halfway decent was a Skil branded drill (double insulated!) and a Challenger socket set (a gift to him from my mom).

It has left me with a loathing of cheap tools, lack of planning, and halfbaked design. At some point I resolved I would only buy quality tools and take care of them.

 

[micromind]

A counterpoint: I also grew up very poor. Now, hunger wasn't an issue - we usually had chickens and my dad was a dab hand at chicken butchering. But new toys were out of the question and we didn't even put up a Christmas tree after I was 8. My clothes were generally homemade, etc. You get the picture.

However, due to lack of funds, my dad bought the absolute cheapest piece of junk tools (and materials). Every project was a struggle of broken tools, inaccurate cuts, etc. About the only tools he had that were halfway decent was a Skil branded drill (double insulated!) and a Challenger socket set (a gift to him from my mom).

It has left me with a loathing of cheap tools, lack of planning, and halfbaked design. At some point I resolved I would only buy quality tools and take care of them.

Pretty much same here, back when I didn't have a plug nickel, I bought a lot of cheap junk tools, most of which I've either lost or broken.

When I could afford good tools, that's what I bought. A lot of SK and Craftsman, then I moved on to Armstrong then after they closed, I went to Wright and Proto.

Tekton is looking pretty good these days too.

I still have most of the SK and Craftsman that I bought in the 70s - 80s.

 

[redwrench60]

I can smell the *** funk aroma of those Craftsman screwdrivers all the way over here.

 

[Junkman]

I built our home starting in 1983, and by around 1985, it was finished enough for us to move into. When I moved out of the old house, I had a dumpster put in the driveway and tossed everything that I had in the garage that I thought I would never use again. Today I regret tossing some of the items that went into the dumpster, such as a pair of NOS heads for a Corvette 283 that I found at a dealership that a friend worked for, a growler for testing armatures, and a lot of stuff that I could have sold, but didn't want to deal with it at the time. I did give away a toolbox filled with Snap-On Wentworth sockets and wrenches that I had dragged from place to place, starting in the early 1960s. Now, I know that I won't live forever, but I still have a difficult time getting rid of some tools that I know that I will never use again, such as an oak box of Snap On reamers for doing king pins, or the tool for setting the angle of torsion bars. It is also in an oak box from Snap On, back in the 1950s.
My funeral plans are "funeral at 10 am, and giant yard sale starts at noon".

 

[seber]

I went to a garage sale last week. They were moving to England and practically giving things away. Maybe ten to twenty percent of what most sales would be. Two hours later, the garage was clean. It was advertised as estate sale with just local signs.

 

[CoogarXR]

I just recycle everything that breaks. No guilt, it's not going to a landfill, it's gonna get melted down into something else.

 

[dchawk81]

When do you know that something isn't worth keeping?

When I got it at HF or on Amazon.

 

[LOW1]

Old Armstrong ratchet, keep. Taxidermy squirrel with a straw hat playing a banjo, throw. Gotta have a method.

I would trade you 47 used screwdrivers for that squirrel.

 

[dchawk81]

Old Armstrong ratchet, keep. Taxidermy squirrel with a straw hat playing a banjo, throw. Gotta have a method.

What if it was a koozie?

 

[ecotec]

How many scratch awls does any one person need? Screwdrivers are some of the easiest tools to throw in the garage.

 

[dchawk81]

How many scratch awls does any one person need?

All of them.

 

[30-30remchester]

Mentioned earlier in this thread that I put all foreign tools in giveaway buckets. I come from a community of small rural towns, and I had several construction yards. Am often requested by locals for assistance in welding or lifting heavy objects, etc. Since my living depends on locals, I have many objects for loan or to give away. I have scrap piles of used pipe, chains, tools, cable etc. I even acquired in a machinery auction, an old GMC 1 ton truck with a steel bed, 8,000 lb winch and gin poles. It was old and ugly but ran well and this was the local loaner. It even had an old welder, that we couldn't give away and an old set of torches and bottles onboard. We left the keys in it and had it for years. It would come up missing now and then and when it did find its way home it was usually full of gas.

 

[bwringer]

Habitat ReStore is fantastic for getting rid of stuff like this.

That said, if it's something really awful, or is just plain broken, recycle or trash it.

 

[Beerhippie]

Nope. Just nope.

 

[Houdini5150]

If its broken, toss it out. If it is still good, donate or sell it with at least selling it if possible.

 

[alfadan]

You could do what my neighbor does; leave them in the yard and eventually mow over them.

 

[cody1325]

You could do what my neighbor does; leave them in the yard and eventually mow over them.

And that's how I ended up finding most of my lost Hot Wheels cars as a kid--smashed to bits thanks to getting ran over by a mower.

 

[cody1325]

All of them.

Same here.

The awl is a tool I can never find. I have two Felo, at least one or two Hyper Tough, and one "KR Professional Tools" out of a cheap screwdriver set--plus my favorite Ullman carbide scriber. Usually, none of them are handy when I need them, and end up using the leather punch blade on my knife to mark or start a screw.

 

[Beerhippie]

You could do what my neighbor does; leave them in the yard and eventually mow over them.

Where they eventually end up embedded in your shin--like silverware in the lawn at the pub when I'm mowing.

 

[American Locomotive]

I don't like throwing tools out for environmental reasons, but I also don't like keeping things I don't use.

I will try to put it on FB Marketplace. Either for free or a low price.

It's broken and metal, I'll throw it in the scrap bucket.

 

[Kscardsfan]

I have a Clint. Clint has a giant shop full of metal working tools and scrap iron and he loves broken, cheap, and rusty tools to use as sacrificial pieces in jigs and hold downs, or in his sculptures and rat rods. He loves the no name, CCP, Velveeta grade sockets and combos because they heat up, bend and grind easier than tools made of decent steel. Everyone needs a Clint in their life.

 

[NUTTSGT]

The socket set would be perfect for a travel kit, if you don't have tools in the ruck already or for one of the kids car. The Cman screwdriver would get tossed in the drawer along with the yellow/red Stanley. The Cman wrench goes in the wrench drawer and does the Cman spinner handle have a female end in the handle ? Yes, tool box in the garage, no, truck box.

The rest, scrap bucket.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Good examples.

Unless you've got like 50 near identical boxes, then that stuff isn't exactly too bad. I'd say keep the Craftsman stuff, and put the rest in the loaner drawer. I'd keep one set of the torch heads, and donate the rest. Now, if I personally came upon those two boxes, the Craftsman stuff is in my spare drawer, then the rest would get donated, since my loaner drawer is full, and I've got a spare torch head.

 

[dchawk81]

The socket set would be perfect for a travel kit, if you don't have tools in the ruck already or for one of the kids car. The Cman screwdriver would get tossed in the drawer along with the yellow/red Stanley. The Cman wrench goes in the wrench drawer and does the Cman spinner handle have a female end in the handle ? Yes, tool box in the garage, no, truck box.

The rest, scrap bucket roll off dumpster.

Fixed.

 

[seber]

The socket set would be perfect for a travel kit, if you don't have tools in the ruck already or for one of the kids car. The Cman screwdriver would get tossed in the drawer along with the yellow/red Stanley. The Cman wrench goes in the wrench drawer and does the Cman spinner handle have a female end in the handle ? Yes, tool box in the garage, no, truck box.

The rest, scrap bucket.

There are good reasons for using cheap tools for a travel kit. But I have the opposite view. The last thing I need is a tool that fails when I am fifty miles from the nearest store or service center. Where you drive will make a difference. Probably not an issue for those near the East or West coast. I often go past a sign that says "No services next 120 miles".

 

[NUTTSGT]

There are good reasons for using cheap tools for a travel kit. But I have the opposite view. The last thing I need is a tool that fails when I am fifty miles from the nearest store or service center. Where you drive will make a difference. Probably not an issue for those near the East or West coast. I often go past a sign that says "No services next 120 miles".

Agreed, however, some tools are better than no tools. Sometimes, you have to start somewhere.

 

[Skyman]

I've never thrown away a tool that still works, even if it works poorly.

I've never forgotten what it's like to be poor enough that I wasn't sure where my next meal was coming from.

Exactly. I've never forgotten what it's like to know there wasn't going to be a meal. I have only outright ****-canned a few tools in my entire life. Most of the junkers are either awaiting re-purposing, or have already lived to serve an alternate purpose.