With my Dad’s death, I’m getting a whole mess of his tools, but I want to make sure my Mom’s got enough tools to cover the basics. Here’s what I’m kinda thinking:
Set of screwdrivers, flathead and phillips
A small socket set
A couple of adjustable wrenches
A small pipe wrench
Pliers in a couple of styles
Glue, tape, and cable ties
A small strap wrench
A couple of handsaws, probably pull-cut style
A basic cordless drill – my Dad has an old 12V. Makita
I expect I’m forgetting things – any ideas?
Thanks –
did
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Replies
hammers
thick a cordless will be charged when she wants to use it?
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG
- tape measure
- flexible pickup tool
- small can of WD-40
- utility knike
A book on basic home repairs in language a novice can understand.
And for crise sakes, don't patronize her with pink or flowery tool sets. I'd like to club the moron who manufactures/thinks that woman want to have flowery, pink and/or functionally useless tools.
I think the purpose of that is so they won't get stolen by a guy needing a screwdriver in a pinch.Reminds me of a story about a female mechanic whose shop rags kept getting stolen by the other guys in the shop. She sewed pink lace on all of them, and never lost another one!
That's funny. My business partner actually has initials that spell out F.A.G. so he had a set of gloves that had FAG on them we when first started out in business. I asked and he said that on his last job with the union he kept losing his work gloves, so he labeled them accordingly. Often people would come up to him while on a job and ask, "Can I borrow ----?" and he'd hand them whatever tool or item marked accordingly as mentioned above. Needless to say, they suddenly didn't need his stuff so badly.
How about a small ring of hex keys in case there is a towel rack or a lav faucet handle that needs to be tightened?
In the interest of ergonomics and light weight, perhaps the Bosch Pocket Driver would fulfill the drill / power screwdriver needs?
It sounds as if you are partialing out tools your father owned, but If you can/or wish to add a new one to the list I would suggest this.
For the screw driver I would pick a "Dottie" , holds seven double ended tips in it's handle. (Phillips, straight, square, star). Around here you can pick them up at electrical wholesale places. One lives in my nail bags.
I gave them to both my children when they headed out of the nest , plus even gave one to the ex-wife... for one tool it offers a lot.
Plus a small flashlight (led light would be great)
Are they going to be mainly for her use, or will you be going over there from time to time to make repairs and such yourself? If that's the case you may want leave more stuff at her house, just so you don't have to carry it back and forth.
Something else you may want to think about...after my dad passed, even though my mother didn't use tools very often (other than a hammer or screwdriver once in a while) I think she was still pretty sentimental about keeping all of dad's stuff around. Other than cleaning up his workshop in the basement a little, us kids pretty much left all his tools there until after she was gone as well. It was kind of like how she kept his coat hanging in the closet after he was gone, just so she could see and touch it once in a while.