What tool out of everything you have do you regard as your best investment.

[GMC_YA_L8R]

Probably my shop press. I bought it when I needed to rebuild the front end on my Duramax and it has come in handy so many times since then. I don't currently have a bench vice so I use the press to hold stuff if needed. I have plans to convert it to pneumatic and add a finger brake so that I can do some very basic metal fabrication. Welder would be a very close second as I've made all kinds of stuff for my various work trailers.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Hmm, this is a tough call as I really don't have any fancy tools. Yeah I have an air compressor, metric and SAE taps/dies, an OBDII scanner that I paid TOOO much money for, both 1/2" and 3/8" drive DeWalt torque wrenches (you all may say meh, but they are top quality and very easy to set and use). The usual stuff - a 120V mig welder, angle grinders, an HF engine hoist that I paid way too much money for, an acetylene torch, an assortment of cordless tools, and.. oh... most importantly - my DeWalt 4" bench vise that I BEAT THE HELL out of!

The one thing I am missing, however, is a decent cordless impact driver. I just can't justify the money for what you get vs how much I'll actually use it.

I lucked out on the Metabo cordless impact gun I got a few months ago. Lowe's was resetting the tool area and discontinuing several items. So since I was willing to get the display model and a battery and a charger, and the department manager was there and in a good mood, I got all three pieces for $60+ tax. For $250-300 at regular price tools, that's a win.

 

[454cid]

I lucked out on the Metabo cordless impact gun I got a few months ago. Lowe's was resetting the tool area and discontinuing several items.

I just bought a new Metabo drill at store surplus auction. I bet it was from Lowes. So far I've only used it to stir natural peanut butter!

 

[fancyTBI]

I like my Snap-On Solus Pro scanner, my rear main seal installer, and my Lang Tools thread chaser set the most. Don’t use them often but they are real nice. Honorable mentions are my Klein wire crimper and stripper tools.

 

[454cid]

I used to go to a lot of garage sales, and live auctions. I'd buy small tool lots. My tools were a mish-mash of what I'd find cheap and usually quite old. Somewhere along the line I got this short handled sledge hammer that was weirdly shaped, but heavier than most. Unfortunately the handle wasn't original, but I'd get it back in place and start whacking at whatever before it came off entirely.... most of the time. It would get used for suspension work, and anything else that didn't seem to want to move. I stopped using it when I got sick and tired of the ill fitting handle AND I found it's truly an antique. I can't recall off hand, who made it, but the folks over at Garage Journal recognized the faint makers mark. The company went out of business decades ago (100+ years?) and I think specialized in rail road tools.

One of these days I want to put a proper handle on it again.... I might actually put it back to work.

Here are a couple of pictures... I did take a chip out of it once.

 

[Hipster]

I used to go to a lot of garage sales, and live auctions. I'd buy small tool lots. My tools were a mish-mash of what I'd find cheap and usually quite old. Somewhere along the line I got this short handled sledge hammer that was weirdly shaped, but heavier than most. Unfortunately the handle wasn't original, but I'd get it back in place and start whacking at whatever before it came off entirely.... most of the time. It would get used for suspension work, and anything else that didn't seem to want to move. I stopped using it when I got sick and tired of the ill fitting handle AND I found it's truly an antique. I can't recall off hand, who made it, but the folks over at Garage Journal recognized the faint makers mark. The company went out of business decades ago (100+ years?) and I think specialized in rail road tools.

One of these days I want to put a proper handle on it again.... I might actually put it back to work.

Here are a couple of pictures... I did take a chip out of it once.

Oddly enough,I have a damn near identical one on a 3ft. handle. My Father worked for the railroad his entire life.PRR, Conrail Freight, Amtrak. Common to carry in the rail yard for drilling cars with frozen couplers and wacking frozen track switches to switch tracks. Probably a hundred other uses as well. Like driving spikes. They all used to call assembling the train drilling cars. It's a pretty effective BFH.

 

[454cid]

Oddly enough,I have a damn near identical one on a 3ft. handle. My Father worked for the railroad his entire life.PRR, Conrail Freight, Amtrak. Common to carry in the rail yard for drilling cars with frozen couplers and wacking frozen track switches to switch tracks. Probably a hundred other uses as well. Like driving spikes. They all used to call assembling the train drilling cars. It's a pretty effective BFH.

Yeah, I figured it probably had a long handle originally. The handle hole, which probably has a name, is too big for most short replacement handles I've seen. Also when I've looked at your typical short handled hammer, they don't come close to the weight of this hammer head.

I'll probably try to make my own handle.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I have a small hammer that the handle broke. When I bought a replacement handle, it was too big. I whittled it down close, and then tapped the handle in place and wedged it. It's rock solid once again. I'd get the next larger sized handle and whittle it down.

 

[Schurkey]

Like most guys my age, I started-out with Craftsman hand tools. Among them was a "fine-tooth, round-head, quick-release" 3/8 ratchet. Advertised as "Sears Best" at the time. I believe it originated as an Easco design, and later sold by Armstrong, with private-branding to Craftsman, NAPA, and others. LONG discontinued by Sears, but still available from Armstrong (different handle shape) until Armstrong was destroyed by the corporate owner five or ten years ago. I had no problems with it as a teenager who messed with cars outside of school and work.

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Image shamelessly stolen from The Internet.

Once I went professional, that was a six-month deal. New ratchet, six months later needed a repair kit. Six months later the internal teeth were worn-out, so I needed a complete ratchet. Six months, repair kit, six months new ratchet. At some point I got sick of having to fix the thing on a schedule.

Bought a 3/8, long-handle pear-head FL720 ratchet from The Snap-On Man. Made him put a quick-release repair kit from an F713 in the thing when I bought it. Used that ratchet for the remainder of my tool-swinging career, and a decade of hobby use before it needed a fresh repair kit. That was my favorite ratchet for ~30 years.

(I got a 1/2" long-handle SL715 ratchet, with an added quick-release repair kit at the same time. Still using it, still with the same mechanism.)

Numbers 9 and 10.

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I have, since then, become something of a ratchet zealot. Got all sorts of 'em, with various handle shapes and lengths, but that long-handle 3/8 Snappy is probably my best single investment.

 

[Eveready]

Hands down, any air compressor is a huge step over not having one. I have a 24 gallon HF in the garage (20* years old) and a pancake style in the shop. Both are noisy but both provide the sort of persuasion that 100 plus lbs of compressed air will provide. Lots of other tools but that first air compressor was the biggest game changer.