Tools

[9GClub]

Starting my A&P in late August..... where did you guys accumulate most of your tools? I've got some already, but I'll need quite a few more, and I don't really want to buy them new if I don't have to. Any ideas? Yardsales? Shops that are upgrading to newer stuff?

 

[cynic]

Starting my A&P in late August..... where did you guys accumulate most of your tools? I've got some already, but I'll need quite a few more, and I don't really want to buy them new if I don't have to. Any ideas? Yardsales? Shops that are upgrading to newer stuff?

I accumulated tools over several years. I was friends with one or two in high school and later on in college; I needed some new ones that would make me look like a good dancer at the clubs. In general a good tool can really help you stand out and build your confidence.

You don't have to buy them, although you can with comic books or the latest play station. Obviously if you are willing to go with a used tool just head out to the local bar and find one in his late 30s. Buy him a beer or two and he's yours but beware; used tools do not perform well under stress or loaded.

My best idea is to go to your local airport and look for the guy in a flight suit or sporting epaulettes as he climbs into Cessna 172. Rent a copy of top gun and invite him over to watch it in your mom's basement. If you can sneak some of your dads beer or liquor that will help you keep your new tool around longer.

You can find tools at yard sales; but I've found them to be generally old and gay and collecting antiques. Not the kind of tool I like to use.

As for the shops... well you can find motor head tools there and often they do upgrade but as a general rule; tools that have hung out at a shop are just to grimy to be of much use.

 

[Kevski]

9GClub, what do you intend to work on? If you are gonna stick with GA, Craftsman, etc will work fine and is cheap enough, even brand new. Any turbine stuff and you'll need some nice swivel sockets and other tools for when they built the whole plane around the part you need to replace -- in which case you are looking at snap-on or mac. I've worked with guys who have spend as much as a multi rating on their snap-on box and shiny tools. That said, you get what you pay for, but buying new is rather foolish, unless you need a specific item right on the spot. Yard sales and swap meets are the best source, pawn shops are hit and miss, as is ebay. If you're after used snap-on stuff get a price list from the dealer as some people try to sell used tools for nearly the new price. Best advice is to look on ebay for some US made, less common brands, like proto, cornwell, matco, wright, bonney, mac, etc. I've gotten many deals on these brands just because so many mechanics demand snap-on and nothing else.

 

[XJWRENCH]

Also If you like Snap on I believe they still give students 50% off, so save up for that too. Craftsmen works just fine, lifetime warranty. Only had a few issues with exchanging stuff, I just go back later or a different store and no problem. I don't have any big iron work, been stuck in regionals, but from what I've seen on the airframes I've worked on, Don't worry about metric too much at all. On the Saab 340 there is only a couple of metric applications. Regoinal work, 1/4" sockets are going to be your most used item. 3/8 " I use very little and 1/2' ... forget about it. Good wrenches from 1/4 to 1 1/2, A good cordless drill for taken the never ending screws out of panels. Handtools... snap-on is great, craftsmen is just fine, but I aslo have got Harbor Freight specials too. For stuff you don't use often, why pay 3 to 4 time as much. GET A GOOD TOOLBOX. Don't go too big, but get something that you'll have enough space to grow into. You don't want to get your tools put away for the first time and already be out of room. Learn good organization of your drawers. Shadow them with foam or wrench dividers so all you have to do is open a drawer and within 5 secoands you know if you are missing something. FOD is bad, but when the FOD is one of your tools....... get your resume up to date. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TrafficInSight]

While you're a student you can take advantage of the Snap On 50% get you hooked special but once you're out Craftsman is fine really. The only thing I can really reccomend you MUST buy Snap On is torque wrenches. Sears doesn't warranty anything with a mechanism and I went through about 3 torque wrenches from them before I bought a Snap On one and I've had it ever since. Also I have noticed a difference between the Snap On screwdrivers and the craftsman ones at getting out messed up screws.

 

[9GClub]

Thanks guys,

Wasn't aware of the Snap-On student thing, that sounds like a nice gig..... so now my $6,000 torque wrench will only cost me $3,000. SWEET!

I wanna do bush flying for MAF or AIM, which essentially means C206/207/208/210 stuff.

I'll probably hit Snap-On for a half-price student coffee mug, buy the meanest freaking Craftsman sledgehammer I can find, and do some yardsellin' stuff for the rest.

 

[TrafficInSight]

Yeah, that's the problem with Snap On is that the 50% off means you pay an outrageous price for tools

I bought the regular click type torque wrench, not the digital vibrating electronic expensive one

 

[Gryphon]

I've got about $25,000 in tools right now, because of my 20+ years as an auto & truck mechanic, and almost everything i have, i can use on GA planes... and i do, lol... That said, i have a mix of almost eveything, but the only time i buy a Snap-on or Mac tool is when i need it and they are there, or it's something only they have, like some of thier diagnostic stuff. KD, Lisle, many other off-brands are lower in price, and only a little lower in quaility, and they back up thier stuff like the big boys do. I have an SK guy on a tool truck that comes around every other week, and i buy tons of stuff from him.. I do avoid stuff that i know will break if i try to say, turn a light bulb with a pair of pliers... (don't ask why, you don't want to know) and the pliers break before the bulb does... there's a reason that 1000 piece socket/plier/fondue set is $19.95...

 

[Gatorman]

I have had quite a few Newbies on my crew and tell them that there are a couple tools you need to have after you get your standard socket and wrench sets. You need a 3 C-cell or 2 D-cell Maglite and not some off brand look alike, you need a 9.6 volt cordless drill, preferred Makita, because that is what everybody else has and if your battery is dead you can borrow someone elses off the charger while yours is charging.Any battery bigger than that gets very heavy after an hour or two pulling panels. You will also need a 'Ford' wrench.
Just incase you don't know what that is, it is an adjustable wrench that looks like a plummer's pipe wrench but without the teeth. Be sure to get the medium size wrench, should open to almost 4"

If you can get the Snappy deal....great!!

I ain't scared to show off my 1/4" - 2 1/2" $21.00 Harbor Freight wrench set....and laugh because some other smuch paid that much for one snappy 11/16"

See what happens when you have to heat up and bend or cut on a snap-on....tears start rolling.
Harbor Freight....pfft, get another set for $21 bucks and chop all you want.


The only place that you can get screwed over (as far as my experience has taken me) is working on Hawkers with that stupid %^#$ British Standard crap!


Good luck!

 

[vtwo]

Ebay my friend, but I have to say, get a set of those little snap on safety wire pliers. more than a few times those suckers were worth thier weight in gold. Other that that, start with a basic Craftsman hand tool set. Get a 12 point socket set along with a 6pnt set for the larger sizes. Get the biggest set of channel locks you can find, and the smallest set on needle nose Vise grips too. As for buying anything before you start school, wait until they give you a minimum tool list, then buy what you need. After school is when the fun starts with your tool colection. good luck and don't be a scab. happy wrenching dude.

 

[avbug]

For the box, Craftsman is as good as any. I've got a number of rollaway combos; your first box should be top and bottom, and a simple24" or 36" wide will work great. Most of my boxes have been scratch and dents I picked up for next to nothing...you can go into most Sears stores and find them...good starting point. My oldest rollaway combo is over 40 now, and still trucking. The top box has been all over the country and flown many, many, many thousands of miles through the worst flying conditions known to man...and works great. Try getting MAC or Snap-on to warranty their boxes if they know you'll be doing that.

Make a note that most all tool boxes are made by the same folks. The folks that build Craftsman also build the boxes at your local home depot, and a number of others, too.

I've had a number of mechanics tell me that craftsman is second rate...even had one employer tell me he wouldn't let my tools in his shop because he didn't allow inferior equipment on his floor. Garbage. Go to any large shop, and you'll quickly see that there will be more craftsman boxes than any other kind. If you want a good craftsman, then their pro series with the ball bearing drawers and the latch retainers that prevent the drawers from inadvertantly sliding open are a real bargain compared to the "name brands" out there.

For drives and sockets, quarter inch everything at first. I have full sets of quarter, three-eighths, and half, and some three quarters, and I've used them all regularly. Get a number of socket extentions. A really handy set that craftsman makes now uses socket fronts with backs meant to be turned by a combo wrench; in use with racheting combo wrenches, these make very low clearance sockets with a zillion uses. Fewer tools with many more possibilities.

Get good safety wire pliers. Reversible, 6". If you can afford it, get long and short, but the short reversibles are great for tight spaces. Several sets of dikes in varying lengths; the long ones (snap on) are great for hard to reach spaces.

Wrenches; stubbies are worth their weight in gold, and I carry mac, snapon, and craftsman, as well as other ratcheting brands. A good set of fixed off-set wrenches (eg open end, 30 degree or more at one end, 15 degree at the other end) are invalueable for hydraulics in tight spaces. I've got a great set of MAC that cost me about 750.00, bought one wrench at a time over a year...that have seen a LOT of serviece in the field. This is one place you do NOT want to go cheap.

I learned my lesson after a hydraulic failure in the field a long time ago. I had a set of harbor-freight-type cheapie large combo wrenches I'd been carrying for many years, without hardly ever needing them. This time I need one to pull a fitting for the new pump. Late, I had access to a small tool shed with a table and vice. I couldn't get the fitting loose, and ended up bracing myself against a wall and pushing with both feet as I held the wrench with both hands for leverage. The wrench failed right in the middle, and I went sailing over the work table to hit the other wall of the shed head-on. It hurt. A lot. Never use cheap tools.

Duck bill pliers.

A small ball and pean, and a good soft face hammer; craftsman makes both, and their soft face has two levels of hardness, with replacable tips.

I've bought a lot of tools over the past few years off ebay; I've been burned a few times, but otherwise had some great deals on everything from rivet guns to large batches of clecos, to all types of tools.

Get a good set of picks. And a cotter pin puller...you have no idea how much that will get used. A really large flat blade screwdriver...I have several. If you're changing tire assys a lot, then one that's rounded and polished for use in breaking beads in the field without marring the wheel assy is worth it's weight. A dzus tool...especially handy if you're working on older equipment. I have three or four. A long, long phillips #2...When you can't get a screw to break loose, even if it's not deeply recessed somewhere, that long screwdriver gives a lot of leverage. A 10X magnifying glass; an illuminated one is great.

For torque wrenches; the only ones that we saw consistantly fail in the shop were snap-on. I have a number of torque wrenches; ADT, craftsman, snap-on-mac, and others. The least expensive was the ADT, and it's always tested the most accurate, without any troubles. I also use a calibrated torque screwdriver; I strongly prefer them for small functions such as screws on a spinner (yes, I do torque them).

A good set of various mirrors; small and large, telescoping. A small bag to carry tools from your main box to your work; military canvas bags have always been my preferred bags, and I carry two in my car chock full.

I work on aircraft using metric as well as standard (eastern block)...I carry full sets of both. I find the metric get used more on autos...but when you can afford them, get them.

Shadow your boxes as you go. You can get fleeced if you use the snap-on brand name shadow foam...what I did is use the foam flooring you find at any auto parts store (or harbor freight); the interlocking 1/2" thick high-density foam. Lay your tools on it, draw around them with a ball point pen, cut out with an exacto knife. The cut-outs will be a little ragged, but heat it slightly with a lighter; the foam pulls taught and shrinks slightly around the edges. Spray the whole thing with black krylon or some other paint. Then glue colored foam sheeting from wallmart (craft section) to the back, and you have very inexpensive, easy to make, cheap to replace, shadowing for your box, that's two color. I go so far as to make inventory sheets for each drawer in the box, and I use a label maker to identify the tool in each cutout.

Tool control becomes a snap.

Some will tell you to not label your tools, in case you leave one where you shouldn't. Listen to them if you will, but I've always found that advice to be stupid. Label your tools. I engrave them all. I've never had a problem leaving a tooll, but I've had problems with others trying to claim my tools are theirs...an engraved tool stops that right away and eliminates any hard feelings that might develop on the shop floor. If your shop has any kind of decent control system, then if you leave a tool behind, you'll be found out no matter weather your tools are labled or not...label them, engrave them.

Enough for now...but don't let anyone tell you that you need the most expensive...it's not true. Don't buy cheap, either. A good policy I always used is buying off the truck where I could...but never overextending myself. Buy one good tool, pay it off, then get another. Never build up debt. Go for the special off the truck each month; build your tools slowly, bit by bit...and don't ever stop. Over less time than you think, you'll have a great collection.

Wipe your tools; keep them polished and clean. Get a good multi meter with an assortment of leads. You'll need them. A good set of racheting crimpers; don't use any electrical crimpers that aren't racheting. Get a small butane powered soldering iron; invalueable in the field. Same for a small torch with different tips. You can never have enough screwdrivers. Racheting types, especially sprague types, are wonderful; get quality ones with changable bits, and you'll be happy with the purchase; you will also take up less space.

Home depot sells a nifty little offset screwdriver with interchangable bits that also doubles in a pinch as a really small quarter inch rachet handle, using racheting box ends...runs about nine bucks and everyone ought to have oen. Get stubby screwdrivers. Carry a leatherman. Good luck.

 

[wooferdog]

Thanks for this advice, Avbug

As a current A&P student, this was of more value than any article i've seen on this subject.
__________

For the box, Craftsman is as good as any. I've got a number of rollaway combos; your first box should be top and bottom, and a simple24" or 36" wide will work great. Most of my boxes have been scratch and dents I picked up for next to nothing...you can go into most Sears stores and find them...good starting point. My oldest rollaway combo is over 40 now, and still trucking. The top box has been all over the country and flown many, many, many thousands of miles through the worst flying conditions known to man...and works great. Try getting MAC or Snap-on to warranty their boxes if they know you'll be doing that.

Make a note that most all tool boxes are made by the same folks. The folks that build Craftsman also build the boxes at your local home depot, and a number of others, too.

I've had a number of mechanics tell me that craftsman is second rate...even had one employer tell me he wouldn't let my tools in his shop because he didn't allow inferior equipment on his floor. Garbage. Go to any large shop, and you'll quickly see that there will be more craftsman boxes than any other kind. If you want a good craftsman, then their pro series with the ball bearing drawers and the latch retainers that prevent the drawers from inadvertantly sliding open are a real bargain compared to the "name brands" out there.

For drives and sockets, quarter inch everything at first. I have full sets of quarter, three-eighths, and half, and some three quarters, and I've used them all regularly. Get a number of socket extentions. A really handy set that craftsman makes now uses socket fronts with backs meant to be turned by a combo wrench; in use with racheting combo wrenches, these make very low clearance sockets with a zillion uses. Fewer tools with many more possibilities.

Get good safety wire pliers. Reversible, 6". If you can afford it, get long and short, but the short reversibles are great for tight spaces. Several sets of dikes in varying lengths; the long ones (snap on) are great for hard to reach spaces.

Wrenches; stubbies are worth their weight in gold, and I carry mac, snapon, and craftsman, as well as other ratcheting brands. A good set of fixed off-set wrenches (eg open end, 30 degree or more at one end, 15 degree at the other end) are invalueable for hydraulics in tight spaces. I've got a great set of MAC that cost me about 750.00, bought one wrench at a time over a year...that have seen a LOT of serviece in the field. This is one place you do NOT want to go cheap.

I learned my lesson after a hydraulic failure in the field a long time ago. I had a set of harbor-freight-type cheapie large combo wrenches I'd been carrying for many years, without hardly ever needing them. This time I need one to pull a fitting for the new pump. Late, I had access to a small tool shed with a table and vice. I couldn't get the fitting loose, and ended up bracing myself against a wall and pushing with both feet as I held the wrench with both hands for leverage. The wrench failed right in the middle, and I went sailing over the work table to hit the other wall of the shed head-on. It hurt. A lot. Never use cheap tools.

Duck bill pliers.

A small ball and pean, and a good soft face hammer; craftsman makes both, and their soft face has two levels of hardness, with replacable tips.

I've bought a lot of tools over the past few years off ebay; I've been burned a few times, but otherwise had some great deals on everything from rivet guns to large batches of clecos, to all types of tools.

Get a good set of picks. And a cotter pin puller...you have no idea how much that will get used. A really large flat blade screwdriver...I have several. If you're changing tire assys a lot, then one that's rounded and polished for use in breaking beads in the field without marring the wheel assy is worth it's weight. A dzus tool...especially handy if you're working on older equipment. I have three or four. A long, long phillips #2...When you can't get a screw to break loose, even if it's not deeply recessed somewhere, that long screwdriver gives a lot of leverage. A 10X magnifying glass; an illuminated one is great.

For torque wrenches; the only ones that we saw consistantly fail in the shop were snap-on. I have a number of torque wrenches; ADT, craftsman, snap-on-mac, and others. The least expensive was the ADT, and it's always tested the most accurate, without any troubles. I also use a calibrated torque screwdriver; I strongly prefer them for small functions such as screws on a spinner (yes, I do torque them).

A good set of various mirrors; small and large, telescoping. A small bag to carry tools from your main box to your work; military canvas bags have always been my preferred bags, and I carry two in my car chock full.

I work on aircraft using metric as well as standard (eastern block)...I carry full sets of both. I find the metric get used more on autos...but when you can afford them, get them.

Shadow your boxes as you go. You can get fleeced if you use the snap-on brand name shadow foam...what I did is use the foam flooring you find at any auto parts store (or harbor freight); the interlocking 1/2" thick high-density foam. Lay your tools on it, draw around them with a ball point pen, cut out with an exacto knife. The cut-outs will be a little ragged, but heat it slightly with a lighter; the foam pulls taught and shrinks slightly around the edges. Spray the whole thing with black krylon or some other paint. Then glue colored foam sheeting from wallmart (craft section) to the back, and you have very inexpensive, easy to make, cheap to replace, shadowing for your box, that's two color. I go so far as to make inventory sheets for each drawer in the box, and I use a label maker to identify the tool in each cutout.

Tool control becomes a snap.

Some will tell you to not label your tools, in case you leave one where you shouldn't. Listen to them if you will, but I've always found that advice to be stupid. Label your tools. I engrave them all. I've never had a problem leaving a tooll, but I've had problems with others trying to claim my tools are theirs...an engraved tool stops that right away and eliminates any hard feelings that might develop on the shop floor. If your shop has any kind of decent control system, then if you leave a tool behind, you'll be found out no matter weather your tools are labled or not...label them, engrave them.

Enough for now...but don't let anyone tell you that you need the most expensive...it's not true. Don't buy cheap, either. A good policy I always used is buying off the truck where I could...but never overextending myself. Buy one good tool, pay it off, then get another. Never build up debt. Go for the special off the truck each month; build your tools slowly, bit by bit...and don't ever stop. Over less time than you think, you'll have a great collection.

Wipe your tools; keep them polished and clean. Get a good multi meter with an assortment of leads. You'll need them. A good set of racheting crimpers; don't use any electrical crimpers that aren't racheting. Get a small butane powered soldering iron; invalueable in the field. Same for a small torch with different tips. You can never have enough screwdrivers. Racheting types, especially sprague types, are wonderful; get quality ones with changable bits, and you'll be happy with the purchase; you will also take up less space.

Home depot sells a nifty little offset screwdriver with interchangable bits that also doubles in a pinch as a really small quarter inch rachet handle, using racheting box ends...runs about nine bucks and everyone ought to have oen. Get stubby screwdrivers. Carry a leatherman. Good luck.

 

[skydivinguy]

tools

I've accumulated quite a few snap on and mac tools over the years. Sears is good for a lot of stuff but you will need lots of 1/4" drive stuff from the high $$$ people. I'm going to help pay the bills for the men on the trucks again as I have a new job working on helicopters and need a lot of metric stuff now, oh well. Good luck in your new career!