Vice Grips: Way better than a socket set, faster, easy to adjust, holds like hell
Multi Screwdriver: It is silly to buy those stupid 10 set of screwdrivers, granted I've used them, but mostly as prybars. This one has been superb, heavy construction.
Point punch: Great for working leather, rubber, or affecting change on tiny parts.
heavy snippers: Good for wire stripping, wire cuttine, zip tie cutting, and plastic case demolition
Folding Knife: Sharpen every time it dulls and you have an excellent and essential cutting tool for crafting with.
Power tool Food Chain (best to worst)
1. Hilti
2. Millwalkee
3. Porter Cable
4. Mataubo
5. Makida
...
20. Dewalt
...
25. Craftsman
Tool Talk (my experience of tools and their makers)
Porter Cable -Slow company to make a product with decent features. But good quality and their rotating head sawzall is pretty awsome.
Millwalkee - Surprisingly excellent quality despite the fact that it is an American tool company. Even their non-powered tools are nice and rugged
Hilti - GERMANS KNOW HOW TO BUILD TOOLS!!!!! oooh yea!
Gerber - They have something called a "Super Tool" that kickes all other multi-tools out of the shop!
Leatherman -light duty, versitle tool. The top model of the wave is the only thing decent.
Dewalt - Ever wonder why you have seen so many broken dewalt drills, and why they are always on sale at Home Depot? ITS BECAUSE THEY SUCK! Home Depot is the worst store to buy tools and anything else for that matter. They have special exclusive distribution deals with the products they sell and often their parent company owns the product, as is true with the case of Dewalt. Same deal with TrueValue and Stanely
Stanely -Annoying good selection of products but only about 2% are any decent. They once built a yankee screwdriver that was the best tool I have ever seen, don't know why they produce so many garbage tools now. Sell outs.
Craftsman - I don't even need to mention how bad they make their tools. Its as if the slave labor that goes into making them in the third world is reflected the the extremely bad craftsmanship. The only tools Craftsman has ever made decent are their socket sets and box wrenches. But even those are obsolite and fall under my category of "waste of time tools" -i.e. you spend 60% of your time looking for the right size, 20% of your time putting it back in the right place and 10% worring about where they all are.
My multitool is below and it is still under modification. It has a complete set of bike tools (allen wrench set, chaine breaker), saw, screwdriver (replaceable bit type), awe, and nice large dual position pliars. I figure if you are going to be caught out somewhere, being without tools to fix or steal a bike isn't being prepared. Living in New York is a test of survival sometimes, and a test of tool access all the time.
The bottom line is:
Support your local old timer hardware stores! Don't let despicable places like Home Despot take over.
