Welcome back after a brief pause in our regular programming, lol. So, this weeks question is a two part-er and I’m curious to read your answers!
- What tool in your shop is gathering dust?
- What is stopping you from selling it?
Welcome back after a brief pause in our regular programming, lol. So, this weeks question is a two part-er and I’m curious to read your answers!
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Usually I do not get rid of something after I acquire it, so IT can sit there until I need it.
Unless I can see where I will never use it, but USUALLY what I acquire I have a use for.
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I have a very hard time getting rid of things sometimes lol. Seems something can sit there for 5+ years and never be needed, but within 2 weeks of tossing or selling it I or a friend will need that exact thing lol. It has happened multiple times.
As far as actual tools, I have such a wide range of different tools that they all tend to get dust on them depending on what’s happening. But one I have been thinking about some lately is my Metal Band Saw. A foot broke off on it a while back and made it a pain to use, plus just too much crap around it. But I think its time to clean up around it, take off a good foot and use it to draw up a new one and 3d print, then I can use it to cut EMT instead of the tubing cutter. Would be a lot faster and less labor intense lol.
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Everything in my shop is collecting dust until I use it. I put everything away and only use each thing a couple of times a year, but when I do it is usually for a few days straight. So I guess I only have the essentials.
Oddly enough I can get rid of “big” tools easy enough. I had a crappy $100 bandsaw that wouldn’t cut anything well but pine. Handed it over to the neighbors and bought a HF portaband. That turned something I got irritated looking at to something I use all the freaking time. Screwdrivers, sockets, and drill bits…I have a hard time getting rid of those. I did organize them all a year or so back and only kept three of each size (expect 10mm…I will never willingly give one up), handed the rest off to my neighbors.
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Wait… you had more than 3??? How is that even possible??? 
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All of them… I haven’t even seen my LR4 in 2 months…
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I horde anything 10mm
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My huge mitre saw. Since I have the huge tablesaw it hasn’t been used once and before like, the times in three years…
I actually put it up for sale now though, but if it doesn’t sell for the high price I am asking, I’m gonna keep it.
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The big diode laser frame… Currently i dont have the space to use it while the cnc tables are working. But the new shop should solve that
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Everything in great quantity now that I have a LR that I haven’t gotten to putting dust collection on yet 
Anyway… the thing that was already dusty in BC (before CNC) was my resin printer. Just can’t be bothered with the stink and mes anymore, and I mostly print big functional stuff that is just fine on my FDM machines anyway.
My cunning plan is to get my local Makerspace’s setup/risk assessment etc for resin printing up to scratch, and get rid of mine. Not something anyone should have in their house, IMHO. It’ll be lot of work for something I’ll probably still only use a few times a year. But it’d be nearly the same amount of work if I wanted to keep it but this way others will benefit. I have a very hard time giving up a capability even if I’m not using it…
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I have bought a small resin printer so my daughter can start doing some stuff she is interested. (I get the making stuff part of the deal, but it is how it works). Maybe you can get your small ones to do the same thing.
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I built a panel saw. Used it once 3 years ago, mostly to be sure it works and was square… it’s been idle on the wall since.
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I got a Wen spindle sander earlier this year and ironically, it is collecting dust, and not from sanding. I have only used it once.
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Lately, my cat is getting more use and joy out of my LR4+misc project bench than me.
Have many tools that are infrequently used that (delusionally) seemed to be worth buying rather than rent for the time period(s) needed. Like tile saws, jack hammer, and concrete saws… On the plus side, those tools occasionally generate passive beer income when loaned out to friends/neighbors.
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I gave all my big tools to my dad when we moved to FL. Still need to replace those.
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Also, does overspray count? Got paint dust on my bike this morning painting a new screen door for my wife’s office and the door wall to my shop. 
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One of the craziest experiences I ever had was working as a contractor for a DC fast charger company. They had individual toolkits at each workstation and there was constant bitching and moaning about #2 pozi screwdrivers and 8/10mm sockets going missing. There were passive aggressive signs up about people returning borrowed tools, some people took the toolkits from ‘their’ workstations and kept them in their drawers. In the first week there I spent probably an hour hunting for common tools.
I ended up pointing that out to the guy who was the lab manager and he said that they couldn’t justify replacing the toolkits all the time. I pointed out that they should probably just spend the 100 bucks on a dozen screwdrivers and a huge bulk bag of 10mm sockets. Half a billion dollar company at the time and I would guess there was several hundred hours of their engineer’s time wasted every year for the sake of a few hundred $ in tools.
I like to think they got a lot of value out of me being there, but it’s still somewhat insane that I think the best value for money I provided was pointing out you can just buy loose sockets…
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Oh man. My new pet peeve…single drill bits. Single replacements, $7.50. Not seeing any 5 packs or anything, but I can get a whole new set including the one I need for $12. So now I have 3 sets, two are missing 3/8". These days I feel so fancy always using a sharp drill bit, in any size I need.
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I agree completely! I have done packs like these before but even that can get expensive depending on the size
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My CO2 laser. Bought a cheap “K40” machine thinking it would be a fun project. Swapped the electronics for a smoothie board and made a few simple mechanical modifications to give a usefully large working area. Then…found it was just too much hassle to use.
It still didn’t have enough working area to do what I really needed done. Cooling it was a huge pain here in the desert and I wasn’t going to pay more for a chiller than I did for the laser. (I experimented with some fishtank chillers and other homemade options but never found anything I was happy with…but still stalking my local liquidation stores for a small cheap ice maker to gut.) And ventilation was a much bigger pain than I anticipated. Final straw was a upgraded the optics and just didn’t have room around to access them and got frustrated trying to get them dialed back in.
So wrapped it up in a tarp and stuck it in my outside workshop. (it’s at least covered out there so it stayed dry.)
Just unwrapped it a few weeks ago and it’s in surprisingly good shape despite spending 3 years outside. Looks about the same as it did when I put it out there. But I’m unlikely to do anything further with it until I get a dedicated shop space built at my new house. A cheap Diode laser on my MPCNC handled most of what I want from a laser anyway and a router on it does almost all the rest.
Still…I do want to “finish” it someday. Though that may mean pitching everything but the laser tube and power supply…
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