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Favorite Tools


Jan McL

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Jan, you asked for it :)  

Dremel 300 with at least 150 accessories, B&D cordless screwdriver 9039, B&D drill, various bits - wood, masonry, metal, GreenLee circular cutting set. IDEAL cable stripper, coax stripper, Abiko cable cutter and stripper, two soldering irons (25 and 50W), Stanley Allen key sets (Imperial and Metric), Stanley ratcheted tube set (Imperial and metric bits), 100-piece miniature Screwdriver set, two multimeters (mini and big), Hydrokinetic adjustable Torque wrench, Stanley job saw set, two sizes of adjustable pipe wrenches, etc, and more...

What do I carry to the sets - what is relevant to the job plus a little more in a toolkit, and the rest stays in the hotel/home in another tool kit. I never find myself asking around for a tool, in fact others ask me at times... :)

-vin

PS: 

What I need: 

A plasma cutter

A lathe and milling machine

Autocad for MAC ;)   [This is the ONE stumbling block for me as of now... I know there are workarounds...]

Two years of training under Chinhda Khommarath (I cook, he teaches)

Two years of training under Larry Fisher (again I cook, he teaches) 

Two years of training under .... there are more...... :)

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Oh-my-god, Vin.

I DID ask for it and got it, in spades.

Also love my dremel & all the little bits; the vice; and vice grips.

Also covet CAD. Workarounds? What???

On my wishlist, a table saw and some training...oops gotta go, but...

More later,

Jan

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I'm fairly new to production audio, and haven't worked a huge amount in this past year's economy, but my favored tools are probably boring: A soldering iron, lots of those velcro® cable ties, a rigging knife, and a crappy plastic grocery bag*.

Vin,

I've played with Nemetschek's Vectorworks for OS X (briefly, as a student), and it is a fairly nice package. There is also Seimens NX, but either you are a student of have 10 grand to drop...And using X11 just isn't as pretty.

The really big problem is CAM on Mac...No package that I'm aware of...

* I'm much more of a philistine than Andre: Drink the bottle, then: http://blog.viddler.com/cdevroe/wine-cork/

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Designed & built by me from 3/8" plywood. If you're going to do it yourself just remember: measure twice, cut once.

Eric

I always cut first, then measure, then discard it and start all over again...  often results in me using at least twice the necessary material before completing a project.

I am impressed with your workspace --- I think there may be tools there that I don't even know how to use.

-  Jeff Wexler

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I always cut first, then measure, then discard it and start all over again...  often results in me using at least twice the necessary material before completing a project.

I am impressed with your workspace --- I think there may be tools there that I don't even know how to use.

-  Jeff Wexler

I doubt that. The drawers contain various & sundry other hand tools like drills, jig saws, heat guns, screws, nails & misc stuff even I don't remember. I grew up around that stuff as my dad owned an industrial hardware company years ago.

My weakness is browsing the tool department at Home Depot & Harbor Freight. One never has enough tools ;-))

Eric

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I grew up around that stuff as my dad owned an industrial hardware company years ago.

My weakness is browsing the tool department at Home Depot & Harbor Freight. One never has enough tools ;-))

Eric

Cool. My grandfather started Allied Radio in Chicago (one of the first mail order catalog electronics companies) and my father used to take me to the showroom floor of Allied and I could walk up and down the isles and pick out some little item. Often this would be a really neat jeweler's screwdriver kit or on special occasions, maybe a Knight kit to build a crystal radio. That was the beginnings of my fascination with all this stuff.

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Cool. My grandfather started Allied Radio in Chicago (one of the first mail order catalog electronics companies) and my father used to take me to the showroom floor of Allied and I could walk up and down the isles and pick out some little item. Often this would be a really neat jeweler's screwdriver kit or on special occasions, maybe a Knight kit to build a crystal radio. That was the beginning of my fascination with all this stuff.

Long time ago in a different life I had a basement in my house filled with drill presses, lathes, milling machines, table saws, band saws and just about every hand tool available at the time. One day when we meet again I'll tell you a true story about walking the aisles in my dad's place with shopping carts.

Eric

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Guest Ken Mantlo

I doubt that. The drawers contain various & sundry other hand tools like drills, jig saws, heat guns, screws, nails & misc stuff even I don't remember. I grew up around that stuff as my dad owned an industrial hardware company years ago.

My weakness is browsing the tool department at Home Depot & Harbor Freight. One never has enough tools ;-))

Eric

I agree. You can't have enough tools whether they're ever used or not.  They are more than just shapes of metal and plastic.  Tools represent all that the future holds and all that we can become!  They embody our dreams, fortune and liberty, for without them what are we?  Neanderthals grubbing in the dirt with our fingers.  With tools, all is possible!

Sometimes it's enough, when the battles of the day wind down and the calming hush of the evening lavender light blankets the world, sometimes all that is needed is to go in the garage... and pat them.

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Grip colleague Louis Petraglia gave me this little offset ratchet years ago when I told him I'd been having a heck of a time finding one. I keep it with me  all the time even though I've only used it twice in 10 years. Once on a Denecke slate if I recall.

It's one  of my favorite tools.

No more procrastinating.

-- Jan

4709755546_621c9d0c63.jpg

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My favorite soldering iron is a Weller: A couple of soldering tips (bad pun). Use a very narrow chisel tip and .032 diameter solder. Do use lead free solder unless it will be used in a clean connection. It does not mix well with leaded solder and can cause cold solder joints if mixed.

http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/CF_Files/model_detail.cfm?upc=037103169228

It's amazing how well you can improve on your solder joints with a good iron. It's wasn't really that expensive either, $20 or so.

Here's old faithful. The Weller WLC 100 about $55. This one is 15 years old and still works like a champ.

post-21-130815087074_thumb.jpg

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One that I found recently, and indispensable:

http://www.specialized.net/Specialized/Trompeter-BNCTNC-Connector-Removal-Tool-12-477.aspx

My soldering iron is a Hakko:

http://www.hakkousa.com/detail.asp?CID=49,112&PID=1249&Page=1

Smoooooth, precise, nice.

Ooooh, Tom, http://specialized.net is a time sink I'm going to enjoy perusing this weekend.

-- Jan

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