So, what's the greatest tool you've bought.

[wayned]

When I built my house 19 years ago, the original plan was to have the concrete delivered.  The premix company even came out to my property to evaluate the access and determined that is was Okay.  There were basically two ways to the property, the shortest being down a dirt and gravel road with one 500 meter span very slippery and it was rainy season.  The other way, much longer, was using a dirt and gravel road which was better.  The first truck chose the shorter route and slipped into the sugar cane field and turned over.  All of the concrete for the two houses and additions from that point on was mixed by hand by the women in the village!  The men poured and finished the concrete, but the women worked in the sun carrying the gravel and sand and mixing it in a hole in the ground!!

[Morakot]

12 hours ago, grollies said:

Yep, made in China, hence the modification.

 

Great! But how to empty it into a wheelbarrow, if it's so low?

[cornishcarlos]

4 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

Possibly, I've never actually worked out the cost of DIY concrete. DIY isn't always about cost.

 

Even the small trucks have a minimum order of a cube or so, not so handy when you only want a few barrow loads.

 

And, of course, nowhere near as convenient, no way to get even a small truck "out back" of our place without considerable damage to Wifey's garden.

 

DIY is DIY, to a point... I love to do most things myself, however mixing cement in the heat is not one of them :)

Yes, min order where I am is a cube but at 3000 baht, its worth waiting until I can use 1 cube :)

Would cost that much plus breaking my back, nah....

[Crossy]

46 minutes ago, Morakot said:

Great! But how to empty it into a wheelbarrow, if it's so low?

 

Ours has a stand, something like this :)

 

 

 

25 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

DIY is DIY, to a point... I love to do most things myself, however mixing cement in the heat is not one of them :)

 

You think I actually feed the mixer myself?

 

That's what the staff are for :)

[transam]

In LOS..........

 

 

In UK loads of tools but my Mig welder brings a smile..

Edited March 8, 2017 by transam

[Kwasaki]

Maybe not a tool of such but useful.

[transam]

Just now, Kwasaki said:

Maybe not a tool of such but useful.

It's a tool chum....

[Crossy]

Just now, transam said:

It's a tool chum....

 

And vital to those of us of a certain age

 

[grollies]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

 

Ours has a stand, something like this :)

 

 

 

 

You think I actually feed the mixer myself?

 

That's what the staff are for :)

Bloody hell. This site is getting to be like a series of Downton Abbey!!

 

You, kannot, naam to name a few.

 

STAFF! Who on earth has staff???

 

Are they live-in? Cooks, cleaners, drivers, butlers.

 

AND way out of order on the DIY forum!

 

     

[Kwasaki]

6 minutes ago, grollies said:

STAFF! Who on earth has staff???

 

Are they live-in? Cooks, cleaners, drivers, butlers.

Us HiSo falangies,  also have some Cambodians slaves working the orchard so l'm told. 

[grollies]

2 hours ago, Morakot said:

 

Great! But how to empty it into a wheelbarrow, if it's so low?

Wheelbarrow? Nah, use it next to where I'm working or tip it into the backhoe bucket and pour from there.

[grollies]

10 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Us HiSo falangies,  also have some Cambodians slaves working the orchard so l'm told. 

I reckon Naam is the German ambassador to Thailand 

[Crossy]

1 hour ago, grollies said:

STAFF! Who on earth has staff???

 

Are they live-in? Cooks, cleaners, drivers, butlers.

 

No those would be Staff, we have staff :)

 

In reality it's some guys and gals we call upon when manual labour is required, and yes, they do appreciate having a machine to do the donkey work (we don't own a donkey).

 

EDIT and yes, I know of two TV members who have a live-in maid and one mate has a husband and wife who look after his "Country Seat" up in Chai Badan full time. Nobody I know has a butler.

 

One chap started with a part-time maid, who graduated to being a live-in maid, then wife (one assumes via maid-with-benefits).

 

[cornishcarlos]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

 

No those would be Staff, we have staff :)

 

In reality it's some guys and gals we call upon when manual labour is required, and yes, they do appreciate having a machine to do the donkey work (we don't own a donkey).

 

EDIT and yes, I know of two TV members who have a live-in maid and one mate has a husband and wife who look after his "Country Seat" up in Chai Badan full time. Nobody I know has a butler.

 

One chap started with a part-time maid, who graduated to being a live-in maid, then wife (one assumes via maid-with-benefits).

 

 

Maid in Thailand ?

[r136dg]

Depends on the projects that are looking back at ya, but way back when, I was pretty happy with a hydro-static jackhammer purchase for the bobcat. Most of it was done with a 20lb mawl or occasionally a hand held jackhammer prior.

Surprised I didn't see flashlights in the thread. Still have my faithful Surefire that's been through 3 bulbs & a small boat load of batteries. Also the miner type you can strap on your forehead.

[Andrew Dwyer]

Probably not the greatest tool I've ever bought but this 53cm shoe horn has more than paid for itself here in LOS !!

[Damrongsak]

On 3/5/2017 at 4:45 AM, eyecatcher said:

... But i think the greatest tool ever invented is the hammer.

who invented it, I wonder, the cave men??....it certainly beats a screwdriver for banging screws in!

what cant a hammer do? anyone?........the best ever?

 

But my personal close to my heart tool is a tape measure. Yep, I have about 6, and if i lose one I go and buy another. I have a 30m fibron on my desk, a 5m steel in my daily bag, a 5m in my bike, a 7.5m in the car and a 5m steel on the bedside table. I have to have a tape with me at all times.

 

Once a surveyor always a surveyor!

I always debate whether the hammer or the knife is the greatest tool.  A caveman could bash the brains out of a woolly mammoth with a stone hammer, but a knife makes it easier to cut up steaks and haul them home.

 

I did a quick count of my hammers the other day - over 60 different ones ranging from less than one ounce to 16 pounds, collected over 45 years.  But there's an old guy in Kentucky, USA that has me beat.  As of a few years ago, he has amassed a collection of over 12,000 hammers.  No kidding.  He has an entire barn dedicated to his collection.

 

Of course I probably have a couple hundred knives. Smallest is a 3-bladed (4?) pocket knife that is about 3/4" long closed and my Thai short sword has a 20 1/2" blade. 

 

I took a surveying course at the University of Virginia engineering school years and years ago.  And I'm all about having tape measures handy.  I don't even bother looking for them around the house, as they are never in plain sight.  I just buy more. I might be able to find 8 if I looked hard enough.  None are over 25 feet except the busted 50 footer.  I have used those long metal tapes (Invar alloy?) for building layout when I worked a summer construction job.

[KMartinHandyman]

In the US Chicago Tools multi-tool is it now for me. It's all about the 1-1/4" and half moon cut-off blades (I've never mounted the scraper and sander lol)
I have many hand and power options to cut things but I find this to be very quick and capable of reasonable precision in difficult situations to bull work out in the open. Always mount the Bosch brand blades (a little pricey) as no others I've tried can compare.

[cornishcarlos]

6 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Probably not the greatest tool I've ever bought but this 53cm shoe horn has more than paid for itself here in LOS !!

 

How does that work with flip flops ?

[Andrew Dwyer]

 
How does that work with flip flops ?

Admittedly, not so well !

[Gary A]

With Thailand using mostly metric but sometimes US nuts and bolts, I find my  (genuine) small, medium and large Channellock pliers very handy. I do have a set of Craftsman 1/4 and 3/8 drive socket sets, both metric and inch, but grabbing the Channellock is handier. I did have a medium size Rigid pipe wrench but it walked off. My Channellocks and my socket sets stay in the house.