What is your favorite inexpensive tool (s) in your shop?

[rocky brown]

does hand-built count? if so it would have to be my deadblow hammer. i made it out of scrap maple and mahogany and i look for reasons to use it.

rb

[Doug Shepard]

I've never seen anyone but Hartville selling the 3" Incra T-rule
http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/10841
I use that one a lot.

[Chuck E Cobb]

My dead blow hammer, bought it too late to save me from having surgery on my hands (carpel tunnel) the doc said using my hand as a hammer help it along.



I use it everyday now.

Chuck

[Al Willits]

Wasn't quite sure what cheap was, so I'll go with anything that if it got lost, wouldn't send me into a frenzy.
Gotta go with the magnifying glass with the light on it for one, along with the tweezers have helped these old eyes find more than a few slivers.

Maybe add a measuring tape and utility knife also, probably a few more but these come to mind at first glance.

Al

[Ed Labadie]

I have become really fond of this little gem of a scraper.
Carbide blade and you can index it 3 times. It works really good for scraping glue joints clean. Skew it slightly when you are pulling it and it will roll up a nice shaving. I works really well for smoothing up small rough areas too.
There are different profile blades available.
$15.00 at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Bahco-Premium-...578096&sr=1-11

Ed

[Nathan Conner]

Gotta say, I picked up a carpetbaggers bag full of weird old carving tools from Craigslist - 1/2 the stuff I can't even identify - for maybe $50.

Among them was a triad of 5-6" x 1/2" Japanese marking knives.

One day, after 6 months of letting that stuff sit in a drawer, I tried them out. I now have my favorite, and it sits in the top pocket of my apron constantly.

I used to use a carpenter's pencil, or for really fine, detailed work like marking dovetails, I'd use a sharp carpenter's pencil.

I can't emphasize this enough. STOP USING A PENCIL!

These little knives, when used in place of a pencil, leave no doubt whatsoever where you're cutting. Before, I usually burned the line, or tried to split the line, but when you're trying for accurate cuts, all the fancy Italian powertools in the world won't help you figure out WHERE to cut.

I thought...THOUGHT, that is...that I was being accurate. But the few projects I've done since I started using this little marking knife have...just worked. No more mallet to force pieces together, no more reefing on a clamp to get things square and flat. Stuff just turns out better. No pencil lines to sand off, nothing like that. And I didn't have to spend a fortune on new tools. (That's how I convince myself I don't need the new Minimax TS, you see)

Granted, a pencil has its place in the shop. You need something to clean your ears out with, I expect. But show me the sharpest, most accurate pencil line you can give me, and I'll show you a line that wanders with the grain, is hard to see, and then I'll split the line into 16 parts with my marking knife. You choose which one to cut on.

Can you tell I'm a little excited about this "discovery" I've made? Yeah, I'm a dork.

[Al Lupone]

This is my goto tool. Japanese combo square from Woodcraft.
Al

[Paul B. Cresti]

............Me

[Vernon Taylor]

5 foot ruler,about 12 bucks,use it for 90% of my measuring. I hate retractable tapes.Very useful on the tablesaw ans sliding table for setting stops.