GarageWarrior
Well-known member
Admitting mistakes is hard but let's start a thread with a collection of tools and garage equipment you found to be most useless in a typical non-professional repair garage (preferably something BIG and/or EXPENSIVE that you can't just chuck in the garbage and not think twice about it).
Could be tools/equipment that took too much space, or cost too much or never paid for itself, or was too frustrating/slow/difficult to use. Whatever it is - what were your most USELESS tools/equipment in your shop.
I'll start my own top 3:
1) Manual Tire changer: I used to work in a car shop and was used to doing my own tires. However manual tire changer was a giant pain to use. Instead of sweating for half a day, I found that dropping tires off at the tire shop for $40 is a much more productive use of my time. With that said, if you changing tires 4-5 times a week - a professional tires changer is definitely worth having.
2) Metalworking mill - they might not cost much, especially used, but are hard to move and take a ton of floor space. Tooling and stock are expensive. Long setup time for what are mostly one-off jobs. Every couple years I'd have a use for it like resurfacing heads during an engine rebuilt, but it took so long to get things setup and running, that it just made more sense to bring parts to machine shop down the street. Last time the guy only charged me $70 or so. I found that what machinist charge is very reasonable, so no need to try to do their job for them.
3) Lathe - same as mill, except now nobody even bothers with turning brake rotors - new ones are way too cheap. And I thought a lathe would be useful for making custom adapters and special threads and what not, but can't actually recall a time when I actually needed something and could not find a part in stock or special-order for a reasonable cost.
Could be tools/equipment that took too much space, or cost too much or never paid for itself, or was too frustrating/slow/difficult to use. Whatever it is - what were your most USELESS tools/equipment in your shop.
I'll start my own top 3:
1) Manual Tire changer: I used to work in a car shop and was used to doing my own tires. However manual tire changer was a giant pain to use. Instead of sweating for half a day, I found that dropping tires off at the tire shop for $40 is a much more productive use of my time. With that said, if you changing tires 4-5 times a week - a professional tires changer is definitely worth having.
2) Metalworking mill - they might not cost much, especially used, but are hard to move and take a ton of floor space. Tooling and stock are expensive. Long setup time for what are mostly one-off jobs. Every couple years I'd have a use for it like resurfacing heads during an engine rebuilt, but it took so long to get things setup and running, that it just made more sense to bring parts to machine shop down the street. Last time the guy only charged me $70 or so. I found that what machinist charge is very reasonable, so no need to try to do their job for them.
3) Lathe - same as mill, except now nobody even bothers with turning brake rotors - new ones are way too cheap. And I thought a lathe would be useful for making custom adapters and special threads and what not, but can't actually recall a time when I actually needed something and could not find a part in stock or special-order for a reasonable cost.
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tryd it once maybe twice, brought it home. Still never used it..probably hasn't seen light of day in 10yrs.
Stocked up on c-mans and then ordered the two snappy's I wanted.