What's the most useful item in your workshop?

[IanN]

From various mag articles you could be forgiven for thinking that bench saws, lathes, sanders, super duper turbo charged dremels et al are all the next "must have" item.

But when it comes to the crunch, what do you use that you really couldn't be without?

I've got two essential bits of kit. First is a convector heater plugged into a frost stat. Keeps the edge off the temperatuture nicely. Second is a cheapo dehumidifier. Quite amazing how much moisture this takes out of the air, year round. Makes you wonder how much of that would otherwise find its way into your airframes and radio...

[Mike Bell]

My most useful item is LOADS'A WOOD. After that it would be Permagrit sanding tools.

[Tim Mackey]

my bin bags

[Dead-stick]

My MK 1 eyeball, followed closely by my 10a equipped scalpel.

[Allan Jordan]

My digital radio tuned to "Classic FM"

[Nigel Evans]

I am like Allan, only my digital radio is tuned to Oneword, I just love the stories.

[Mark Lubbock]

Has to be the David razor plane-I've had mine for years & don't know what i'd do do without it (I know, hack away with a stanley knife, ruining my work!).
Close seconds would be my SLEC balsa stripper & a cheapo pillar drill from Screwfix.

[David Ashby - Moderator]

I always use one of those little orange Swann Norton knifes - always have done, ever since my airfix days. Things that get used all the time -

-Steel rule
-cutting mat
-glues
-cyano kicker
-thread lock
-plyers/wire cutters

- coffee and tea in regular supply.

David.

[Bob Cotsford]

I used to use those Swann-Morton orange handles, but I kept snapping them. I've dug out my old X-Acto handles (they used to come in a set of three handles with a selection of blades). Poundland were selling some nasty chinese clones at £1 for 3 different handles and a dozen assorted blades - I ended up throwing the handles away, but the blades were worth the pound!
Davids miniplane , razor saw and a coping saw are what I regard as essential extras, but the Dremel comes pretty close.

[Aslan]

Silence.......

[Thomas Nash]

I would be lost without my 6" artist palette painting knife, It's just great for mixing apoxy and spreading or removing glue on to those hard to get at spots and very easy to keep clean.

[Tom Ruut]

Plastic syringes are great for injecting epoxy into hard to get spaces such as hinge slots.You only need 0.1ml per hinge.
A mitre box and a gadget called a Mitremaster are great for building old timer style planes.
A Powerfile is made by Black and Decker in OZ and has a sanding belt 1 cm wide,makes sanding a zip but be super careful on balsa.It turns balsa to dust in a nanosecond.

[Dave Bran]

What's the most useful item in your workshop?

ME .........



Oh, TOOL..............!!!


Mini Drill and all the accessories.......

[Peter Miller]

Probably my building board.

[Dave Bran]

Quote "Poundland were selling some nasty chinese (scalpel/knife set) clones at £1 for 3 different handles and a dozen assorted blades - I ended up throwing the handles away, but the blades were worth the pound!"

Yes, the blades are sometimes quite good, but be VERY VERY careful, the tempering is sometimes suspect and as you allude to, the handles supplied fracture very very easily, with resultant sharp bits and blades flying everywhere..........best not used at all, but if you do, ONLY with good eye protection and try and keep sensitive bits out of the firing line..........trust me, I'm no safety fetishist, but these tools made me shudder!!!

AND BTW I have seen the same things on sale at £5 plus.......same dodgy standard.

[Dave Drew]

The kettle

[Bob Howard]

For more years than I care to remember, I have used an all purpose jig for holding down parts whilst they are drilled/hammered/painted etc.

It is mobile, so it is also useful on the flightline for securing the model whilst I fire up the engine.

As if that is not enough, it is also a first rate vending machine.

I bless the day I married Ann.

[christopher small]

Bench sander,I use it all the time,second is my little electric fret saw

[Stephen Grigg]

At the moment space because im claering it out and ive no space to put anything.Iv thrown loads out ,but i seem to have thrown the space out as well because there seems to be less!

[DAVID CLIFFORD]

My compressor and airbrush.

Best 50 quid i ever spent.

 

then the hobby drill and i have a maginfy stand with croc clips on. thats good for the soldering bits where i need both hands free.

 

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Gemma Jane]

There is absolutely nothing useful in my workshop. That is how I like it. Useful is for the outside world.

[Klippy]

My Lazy Mary

[Andy Green]

Fridge - complete with beer.

 

A

[Myron Beaumont]

Yeast  ( & sugar)!  It ferments my supermarket apple juice with the the addition of crushed & pressed real apples. About  20 pence a pint  .Only mentioned this 'cos Andy brought up the subject. Incidently -Any more home brewers out there ?.I bet there are .

I think I must have bought one of Polyfilla's cars a few years back (P 38 -Remember it ?-A tenner for enough to do a complete make over on several Leyland type motors .5 litres 'ish in new money)

Sorry Wrong thread even threadS

Being as I'm off thread I'll go back to the black art of 'lekky stuff -Have discovered that one of my wall chargers for nicd's is down on no-load voltage -Probably explains why I don't get decent duration ,the Amerang one is 0.35 V less output on the Tx  than my Futaba one .with a similar differential on the Rx output .Now grafted on another plug from the Futaba lead being they are negative/positive incompatible .( don't ask me how I found out a long time ago -I just hate that smell of burning varnish on a transformer )

G-UMPY

Good News ! (When Ken Anderson sorts out the weather in the NE) I have 5 of my models ready to go 4 ic and 1 'lectric