Quintessential Tools of Construction

[Bines]

What are your must have tools?

-Dremel. It does so much. Cutting, grinding, buffing, drilling.
-Screwdrivers, to include a small tipped set for the tiny bits.
-Wrenches, ratchets and sockets. They don't just go on your costume.
-Razor knives. Cut clean.
-Utility scissors. Don't use your hair cutting scissors.
-Rivet setter. A good way to join leather.
-Sewing kit, to include a set of stout needles and awl.
-Hot glue gun. Mmmm. Spider silk like strings of hot glue.
-Paint brushes. They don't have to be the pricey ones made of unicorn hair.
-Measure tapes and rulers. A tailor's tape has many measuring uses.
-Hacksaw. Because Rub n Buff turns PVC pipe into metal pipe.
-Gloves. Easier and less painful than scrubbing your skin off afterwards.
-Pliers. You can pick, pull, and crush anything with the right pliers.
-Vise. Because sometimes you need a steady and strong third hand.


What else? I know there is everyone from the crafters to the heavy constructors here.

[Keith_Beef]

A knife.

Possibly a saw and an axe.

A Leatherman multi-tool.

After that, ever other tool is just a short cut to what can be made with the tools I listed.

[Bines]

I do like my Leatherman multi-tools. I've a Wave and a Juice. There are a few other brands floating around here, too. The little Cabelas branded mini-tool is a value above its price.

[Inflatable Friend]

Computer and Wacom tablet.
3D printer (or printing service).
Sand/Emery paper - Keying and sharp bits.
Epoxy filler - For smooth joins and fake welds.
grey primer - for applying and sanding.
Sculpting tools - a multipack of cheap ones plus more expensive metal and plastic probes, blades and the inevitable selection of found tools consisting of bits of plastic, metal, old jewelry etc.

[Prof. Cecily]

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Tweezers
A fingernail file
Bitumen
Q-tips
toothpicks


I remain yours,
Prof. Cecily

[Maets]

ACE torch
Plasma torch
MIG welder with steel wire
MIG welder with silicone bronze wire
7 angle grinders with various heads
drills
hammers
etc.

It is all about what material you are working.

[Bines]

ACE torch
Plasma torch
MIG welder with steel wire
MIG welder with silicone bronze wire
7 angle grinders with various heads
drills
hammers
etc.

It is all about what material you are working.

I used to braze repair steel lawn equipment, and learned how to stick weld well enough for my needs. It's been a long time, and grandpa's gear was inherited by other family members.

I've a mini oxy and mapp gas set. It's supposed to be for brazing and light cutting. It'll braze, with some effort and finese, but it doesn't cut anything. Braze could be useful for Steampunk arts and crafts. Any ideas on a good, compact, inexpensive gas set up?

[Maets]

I use a small Victor torch set with O2 and acetylene.  Heating, cutting and brazing all very doable.

[Crescat Scientia]

Grommets, grommet setter and rubber mallet

Pin vice, a.k.a. micro-tiny hand-operated drill

Safety goggles, because always

Diamond files

Heavy duty metal shears

Mortar and pestle

Wire gauge

Soldering iron

Clamps, various sizes and types

Soft leather to keep clamps from marking surfaces

Bookbinder's linen thread

Jewelry findings

[Cora Courcelle]

Pencil for marking things
(Pencil Sharpener for when the d#*n pencil breaks)
PVA glue
Metal ruler
Those sponges on sticks that are supposed to be for children to paint with but are actually brilliant for covering surfaces quickly
Glass nail file
Sharpie pen
Kitchen paper and wet wipes for tidying up

[Miranda.T]

A sewing machine, sharp scissors and an unpicker for when I mess up 

Yours,
Miranda.

P.S. A pillar drill and router are quite useful too...

[Bines]

Ah, yes. A rubber mallet. Because a framing hammer isn't for everything. Rawhide mallets are good, too. They even look kind of Steampunk.

Your reply has also given me an idea to dress the hole for the hanger on my gun belt with a brass grommet. That'll give it a clean look.

[Bines]

Victor seems to be the go to brand in torches. So much that other brands describe their offerings as "Victor style".

[Prof Marvel]

First the basics:

hammer


anvil


tongs


fire



then, this - the quintessential HO Studley's Toolchest:


and a couple buck knives, a couple puma white hunters, and several leatherman's ...

Spoiler: ShowHide

Then .....
some monkey wrenches, socket and open end wrenches, adjustable wrenches, dozens of screwdrivers and pliers and cutters, vices, saws, shears, clamps, angle grinders, always running out of sandpaper, emery paper, and polishing compounds and epoxies and wood glues....
a plethora of files of all types, calipers, micrometers, portable hand drills, bench grinders, bench sanders, wood lathe, drill press,
bench lathe, benchtop milling machine, (tooling to support them);
wire feed welder, small mapp torches, portable gas torches,  and a couple tons of various metal

really wanting a plasma cutter ...
...

[J. Wilhelm]

Mine are:

Safety goggles
Safety gloves
Blow torch, solder and propane tanks
Vice
Subdry pliers of all kinds (needlenose, etc.)
Electrical cable cutter/plier with screw cutter
Vice-Grip pliers
Numerous screwdrivers of all imaginable sizes
Adjustable wrenches/spanners (various sizes)
Drill and drill bits
Sand paper of various fineness grades
Metal file
Minature iron-cast Hibachi grill (excellent base for soldering and brazing)
Dremel and various attachments
Razor blades
Swiss Army knife
Switch blade knife (impresses the weak of mind)
Utility retractable razor knife
Metal punches of various gauges
Hammer
Fine-toothed Backsaw
Scroll saw
Razor-toothed Handsaw
Knife style razor-toothed handsaw (American (push) and Japanese (pull) styles)
5 minute Epoxy glue.
Epoxy putty
Latex professional construction glue and gun
Clear and Flat Black spray enamels
Oil based wood stains
India (aka China) Ink
India ink drafting needle / calligraphy pens (very few people know how to draft by hand with India ink nowadays)
Engineer drafting scale (I'm an engineer. SI/Metric - I find no use for Imperial once I process wood)
Measuring tape (SI/Metric+Imperial since wood supplies are sold in Imperial over here)
Drafting T-squares
Ultra-fine mechanical pencil
Bow compass
Drafting triangles
Various stencils
And many others I can't think of now...


Other:
My Victorian Boombox, iPod touch and a Wi-Fi connection
Plenty of wood, plywood, planks, studs, moulding, dowels
Copper bonded plates
Copper ground wire
Felt of various colours
Infinity of screws and plethora of small metal doo-hickeys such as washers, hinges, etc.
First Aid kit
Plenty of soap and water
Reams of kitchen paper towels
Sharp sight
Infinite patience
Insomnia
Tolerance for pain
Coming soon- bifocal glasses  

[Wormster]

I'd have to say that the first tool to use is your imagination, after all with no idea of what you're going to build, how can you build it? After that comes drafting: C.A.D. / Paper and pencil (with appropriate tools - rulers, setsquares, protractors, French curves and the like). Mock ups follow next Cardboard Aided Design is one of my faves! then comes building - gathering/sourcing materials, dry fits, swearing, endless cups of tea!

Then we come to the actual tooling:

Vices/clamps: 3" bench vice, pin vice, G clamps, (Ratchet straps can be a vital way of holding things square)

Engineers Hammers ranging from 1/2oz to 14lb
"wood butchers" hammer - for nails/tacks etc.
Rawhide/copper mallet - for those "Gentle" boshing jobs.

Files: no not the Manila type, but everything from harsh rasps to fine needle files.

Spanners, open ended, combination, ratchets, nut runners and the ever so present adjustable type.

Allen keys both in metric and imperial.

Pliers; all kinds, circilp, needle nosed, jewellers big ones, pipe grips.

Saws: wood butchery ones, hacksaws, fretsaws.

Screwdrivers a plethora of pozi, torx and flat in all manner of sizes.

3d printers/ routers etc are slowly making their way into the home having dropped rapidly in price and a flood of available machines to suit your budget

Finishing products: fillers, scrapers, sandpaper, paints and brushes, letraset, varnishes and dopes.

THEN we come to the BIG tools:

Lathes, mills, drills, welding plant, blacksmiths forge, and a foundry, compressors, sandblasting booth etc.

I haven't got all of the above, just some of them, my list is by no means complete and comprehensive of all my own tooling (IE I'd love to have all the BIG tools but they co$t a mo$ta, and need a dedicated workshop to house them)

I suppose it comes down to what you work with IE: my list will be utterly useless if I were to undertake a project that involved fabrics and sewing, but it'd be useful for most other applications, but without that first creative spark its all just "stuff" we have lying around!

[Banfili]

Some of these I have - will have to think about everything else I use.
Very small plane
Surform rasps and files
Clamps
Usual Dremel stuff
Micro-drill and bits, micro tools - some of my stuff is small scale
Drill press for standard drill, and
Drill workstation for Dremel
Jewellers hammer
Jewellers anvil
All kinds of pliers
PVA and woodworking glue
Varnishes
Trims
Luthiers tools
etc.

Bought myself the Dremel workstation for Christmas!!

[Athanor]

'most everyone has mentioned Dremel hand held power tools, but I'd like to make the case for a Foredom hang-up flexible shaft tool:

http://www.foredom.net/

These come with a wide variety of handpieces but the standard one has a tiny Jacobs chuck at the business end in place of the collets used with the Dremel. The Foredom can thus take every size of small drill bit down to a No.80, dental burrs, etc. Everything that will fit into a Dremel will also fit a Foredom. I have both; I find that if you can bring the work to the tool then the Foredom is superior, but if you have to take the tool to the work then a cordless Dremel is best. Also, if you have a lathe, the shanks of larger drill bits can be turned down to fit the Foredom chuck - though I don't recommend doing this with anything bigger than about a quarter inch or 6mm.

Cordless drill with a range of screwdriver bits; flat, Phillips, Robertson (standard in Canada), hexagon, Torx, and sockets. Get one with two battery packs so that one can be charging while you use the other.

You can never have too many clamps, from monster bar clamps, for example for clamping table tops together while glueing, down to mini plastic and metal clamps for finer work. Also, ordinary wooden or plastic domestic clothes pins make good clamps for jewellery and modelmaking, and can be shaped for special purposes.

Air tools; nailers, staplers, impact drivers, sanders, grinders, air hammers (like a mini jackhammer, for cutting through concrete, bricks, tarmac). An air compressor to go with them, of course. Also good for spray painting.

A soldering gun rather than a soldering iron; heats up in seconds when you want to use it, but stays cool and doesn't use any power when not in use.

Strange that no-one seems to have mentioned the most basic tool of all; a bench ......

And good lighting. I have fluorescents for general shop illumination, with gooseneck type desk lamps to get plenty of light right down where I need it.

And a First Aid kit .......

Athanor.

[Maets]

Don't forget things like.  Face shields, dust/fume masks, safety glasses, gloves, aprons, etc.  Very valuable if you want to make more than that one piece.

[Bines]

Oh, we are so glad to have a proper work table again. Most definitely. Some secondary lighting is still needed.

And yes on the PPE. Work safe!

[Crescat Scientia]

I think I missed the point of this thread.  I didn't list all my tool must-haves, just the ones I hadn't seen mentioned yet.

Safety equipment to be sure.  I wear an apron and thin nitrile gloves even when simply cutting, gluing, or painting.  And a NIOSH- or equivalent-approved respirator is a wise and inexpensive protection.

[Captain Trellis]

My imagination.

Without that, the rest are useless.....!

[Banfili]

My 'Dremel' isn't a branded 'Dremel' - it's a GMC, and I also have a mini version, for which I received some micro drill bits last week.

Safety is also a given. Was a fully-trained up HSR when at work, which carries over into all 'domestic' operations.

[Pheobsky]

I was thinking about this the other day, so I briefly return out of prolonged absence & lurkerdom to post...

so my more minimal tool set would be:
1no. Hammer (ball peen)
1no. Large pliers
2no. snips (one standard, one parrot snips)
2no. Ajustable spanner
1no. ruler
1no. pocket knife

My basic toolkit: ShowHide

(Also not pictured 1no. meter rule, 2no. bending tools 1no. small ajustable spanner 1no. hacksaw & 1no. allen key set)

However for work a pillar drill, an oxy-acetaline kit & angle grinder would have to be in essentials  

[Bines]

Nice tools!

I'm not a brand snob, but I do like me some Craftsman. Affordable quality.