What's Your Personal Favorite Tool...?

[LEGEND]

Ever since we got some new safety rulers with the anti-sliding pad underneath and protection hand bar, it's made cutting stuff a lot quicker and easier. Might not seem like a big deal to some but it's managed to speed up the process for me personally with cutting material and thin substrates...

With that said, what's a personal favorite tool you use around the shop that you wouldn't want to live without...? Images/Links are welcome.

Cheers!

 

[TXFB.INS]

for mobile easy to handle, the Big Squeegee

Otherwise the extra tall work tables, roughly 47" AFF
So nice weeding with zero back strain

 

[J Hill Designs]

router table. long gone are the days of working away at the band/scroll saw.

 

[Mikesbales]

For a lot of the smaller stuff it would have to be the rotary cutter. Took me about six months of slicing stuff with an Xacto knife before I learned about them. It makes trimming application tape SO much easier.

 

[player]

These are pretty handy:

 

[vid]

A fabric ruler for cutting and marking.

 

[Speedsterbeast]

Bottle Opener

 

[Jwalk]

When I go to my local sign shop I usually grab whatever I can like a kid in a candy store. Mostly the gadgets gather dust.

This last time I grabbed a lift stick by gap.. Didn't think much of it but its way better than using a exacto knife.

http://www.gapusa.com/product/lift-stick-adhesive-remover/

 

[OldPaint]

the one i keep in my pants..................my pocket knife))))))

 

[player]

the one i keep in my pants..................my pocket knife))))))

Looks like a rusty blade...

 

[OldPaint]

well.....what do you expect for a knife thats older then you??? it belonged to my father in law..........and i know he had it for 20-30 years)))) he passed away in 92.......we bought the house in 98, and found it in some stuff his wifes saved of his.

 

[rjssigns]

Toss up between our safety rulers and Big Squeegees.

 

[bob]

Safety rulers? Way too much parallax and way too rigid. 4', 6', and 8' aluminum rules, available at any drywall supply, with a thin non-skid backing applied put the edge a lot closer to the work. And the conform to a less than dead flat surface. Safety? Learn how to cut something and not cut yourself. Otherwise their very existence merely confirms that Darwin was correct.

The handiest toolin my shop are my four architect's paper weights. Leather bags filled with shot. Like having a 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th hand.

 

[James Burke]

Not to be a spoiler, but over the years we have developed four or five specialty tools/machines that aren't available anywhere (former background in tool & die). And if you saw them, you'd not recognize what they do...but once you see them in action, you'd wonder why you didn't think of it in the first place.

Family members are always hounding me to mass market them, but I don't wish to get hung up with the patent process...and besides that, they're worth more to me as a competitive advantage.


JB

 

[Andy D]

but I don't wish to get hung up with the patent process...and besides that, they're worth more to me as a competitive advantage.JB

This is something I have read much about, most people say don't bother with a patent, just have a meeting with the best supplier
for your product and have them sign a non-compete non disclosure form. If your product is good, they won't want you taking it to their competitor.
You just sell them the licensing right and make a % of every one sold, no patent no manufacturing, just collect and cash the checks.

 

[James Burke]

This is something I have read much about, most people say don't bother with a patent, just have a meeting with the best supplier
for your product and have them sign a non-compete non disclosure form. If your product is good, they won't want you taking it to their competitor.
You just sell them the licensing right and make a % of every one sold, no patent no manufacturing, just collect and cash the checks.

In this age of technology/manufacturing democratization, things can happen quickly and once a supplier's competitor sees there is no patent, then it's a free for all. I'm sure there are dozens of people out there with 'secret weapons' that have never seen the light of day beyond the four walls of their shops.

Here's some interesting food for thought:

http://cerasis.com/2014/06/02/democratization-of-manufacturing/

http://cerasis.com/2014/04/02/distributed-manufacturing/


JB

 

[d fleming]

Hand truck with my nephew attached. I'm moving the shop for the last time before I retire for more warehouse space.

 

[Marlene]

my signburst inferno is my favorite tool. just love it. second favorite tool is my 18" steel ruler that a co-worker lost. they don't make them the same any more and doing my best to love it but miss my ruler everyday. hope she is out there somewhere beign treated well

 

[Gino]

Bucket truck. Only have it about 3 years, but I thoroughly enjoy going up in it. Something to be said about how you can ponder some of life's greatest issues while up there.... just staring out. I even charge people to go up and down in it, like a ride at the park. Used to do 25¢ mustache rides, but at 50¢ for the bucket, it's easier and many more takers. :Big Laugh

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

My favorite tool would have to be the pen. It signs contracts, checks, POs, customer invoices, helps control work flow by filling out paperwork, helps remind me of things when it's something I need to remember, it doodles when I get bored and I don't need a service contract to keep it running. It is a consumable so I just replace it when it stops working. Everything else we have everyone has or at least the majority so there is nothing special about them, just like a pen. I would be interested to see to see what James Burke has up his sleeve. If the competitive advantage is worth more then the hundreds of thousands of dollars you could make mass marketing it, it must be something good. Although I couldn't think of anything that would give you such a huge advantage over somebody that would make me want to not mass market it. Is this tool really saving you hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. I doubt it. While it might make production faster then some other shops. I doubt it is saving you what you could make selling it.