Foo - I got a torque wrench today! It's so shiny and I'm so excited!

I love new tools! It's always worth it to spend a little extra, because then you know you won't have to worry about replacing it if it breaks while you really need it. I bought a torque wrench today, and I love it. It was kind of pricey ($80), but it has a ton of bells and whistles, swappable heads, carrying case, and adjustments. I love it! It's more fun than my power drill, which is also very cool. My dad gave me a beginner's toolkit when I left home, and I still have it, although the adjustable wrench was made with cheap nickel and is all gouged up. I have every kind of screwdriver I could need though. Except the one to open Gamecubes. I had a dremel, but I sold it because I needed money. Now I want a dremel again.

Does anyone else just like tools?

Kinda. :)

I have too many tools from when I was working on cars often. It's funny how little tools you really need for a bicycle... much smaller/cheaper/lighter ones at that. Anyways, a torque wrench is a good investment. Have fun.

The last time I ordered bike stuff, I threw a real pedal wrench and a chainwhip/lockring tool (The only Dura-Ace item I own!) into my cart. I haven't needed either as of yet, but it's always nice to have the correct tool on hand when needed.

what one'd ya get and why? i need a wrench.

I had a friend who was a tool poser. He had $5,000 worth of Snap-On hand tools and never used them. He used to polish them often and just stared and admired them. He had a set of Craftsman tools which he actually used for the very little or limited mechanical work he performed on his vehicle. This was a few years back in the 70's.
The only Snap-On tool I own is a 1/4" ratchet I found on the side of the road many years ago. I use it regularly.
My torque wrench is an old Craftman I bought back in the 70's.

Ummm...yeah, I like tools.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/Bike%20Shop/P4200059.jpg

About half of those are my own personal stuff. :D
(It's usually cleaner than that)

My father worked in home construction then hand tool manufacturing industries for most of his career. Whadday ya think. Do I like tools?

I had a friend who was a tool poser. He had $5,000 worth of Snap-On hand tools and never used them. He used to polish them often and just stared and admired them. He had a set of Craftsman tools which he actually used for the very little or limited mechanical work he performed on his vehicle. This was a few years back in the 70's.
The only Snap-On tool I own is a 1/4" ratchet I found on the side of the road many years ago. I use it regularly.
My torque wrench is an old Craftman I bought back in the 70's.

i've got around $3k in Snap-On wrenches and use them regularly (like all day two days a week). but back in the 70's, Craftsman tools were still good - my Craftsman tools of that vintage are still going strong.

the current Craftsman product line? crap. and expensive, too.

i like tools a lot, really. but i choose what i buy based on how much (and for what) i use it.

most of my home (automotive) tool box is Craftsman, with a couple Matco and Snap-On tools tossed in. my work box is almost exclusively Snap-On and Matco (with some Craftsman pliers and sockets). i can't (and won't) risk damaging a customer's vehicle with shoddy tools. the "nice" stuff at home is what i use all the time - i don't want to have to take trips back and forth to the store when i could be getting stuff done.

my bike tool box is a little different - but not much. if it's something i'm going to use regularly (cone and spoke wrenches, for example) i buy the good Park stuff. infrequent use (like a crown race driver or bb wrench), i buy "store brand."

i will admit to cleaning and polishing every tool before it goes back in my cart at work.

Well Wordbiker beat me. I mostly have car repair tools...also have a 28gallon air compressor for those air tools.
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e58/russian03rustler/S6301181.jpg


Edit: Looking at that pic I noticed my 20" breaker bar is missing from its location...:mad: The 25" one is dangling from the red table.

never had a garage that neat. usually more like this:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/jhota42/carstack.jpg?t=1206200514

and that's relatively clean.

I like hand tools, but I much prefer machine tools :).

You all have clean looking shops. This is what my garage currently looks like:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c362/jojisan/MyMessyGarage.jpg

To be fair, that pic I showed is a professional shop...but I designed and built the benches.

My home shop is less attractive, though I have made vast improvements and hope to have the remodeling done sometime this summer.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l156/Wordbiker/PC030103.jpg

Tools, they is mine
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r162/jsharr/tools005.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r162/jsharr/tools006.jpg

I built that workbench.