what is the most surprising essential item in your tool box?

[WRKO]

Hello all -- Sunday morning conversation starter here -- what is the more surprising essential item in your tool box?  I'll start -- my son was recently surprised to see that I have a very powerful magnet that is approximately the size of a pencil.  I also have my reading glasses which are, perhaps, less surprising but increasingly essential!

 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by WRKO
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[PapaG]

Not sure if it is the most surprising, but has to be a 10mm open end/box wrench.

[irdave]

I've got a really nice headlamp, runs on an 18650 battery, has a magnetic butt cap so you can stick it to the car.  I use it a LOT.

[flagoworld]

My phone… best tool ever… Can look up anything on the spot and fix things much quicker because of it.

['76mintgrün'02]

1 hour ago, WRKO said:

what is the more surprising essential item in your tool box? 

 

Probably this little 7/64" ball-end Allen wrench that's used to adjust the points and the Weber 32-36 loose-link.

 

 

 

Tom

 

[esty]

hubby....Steve

 

[NYNick]

Dental pick thingy

Pointed plastic rubber seal pusher thingy

youtube

[ricsix]

The “magnet on a stick” to pick up the things I’ve dropped into heaven knows where

[Mike Self]

2 hours ago, PapaG said:

a 10mm open end/box wrench.

6x1mm bolts (10mm head)--the 1/4"x 20 of the metric world.  

 

Not sure if they qualify as tools, but I have a 4"x 5" piece of 1/4" thick steel, and an equally thick piece of angle iron, about 3" tall with 4" sides.  Together they make an impromptu anvil, and I can bend sheet metal, wire etc over the sharp edge of the angle iron.  Good for pounding on too, especially when you're making field repairs and your workshop isn't nearby.  Oh, and a brass drift made from a section of an old frostproof faucet stem.  When the end gets all boogered up, I just cut it off and have a new, sharp end.

 

mike  

[halboyles]

One of these.

 

Need to turn the engine over to TDC?   Use this with a very short extension and a small 3/8" ratchet on the crank shaft nut.  Fits in between the radiator and the crank pulley and you can stop the crank exactly where you need it.  No more "bumping" the starter or trying to rotate the crank using a finger pinching fan belt.  

It's actually designed for use on fuel/oil filters on popular Korean marques:  Hyundai, Kia,  ….

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07198KRZP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Solarphil]

Double cheaters -- 3M safety glasses with reading glass diopters on both top and bottom

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JZ1XT6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[John76]

Unexpected??? 

By far, the magnet on a stick!

Never thought I would feel so "attracted" to an  inanimate object.                                                                                                         i

[Solarphil]

25 minutes ago, John76 said:

Unexpected??? 

By far, the magnet on a stick!

 

I dunno, I tend to expect to drop things into heaven knows where. ? I've got a magnet on a long coiled spring that I got from my grandfather, and I'm not surprised at all that it's one of my most used and indispensable tools

[jgerock]

Air cooled VW specific tools (S-P brand) like their flywheel lock. It works on the M10 flywheels.

[Oldtimerfahrer]

Magnet on a flexible stalk...and a facom 10/11 ring key...or the thin Gedore 13mm combi box and open end spanner....