Tools I regret getting rid of...

[dbhost]

It's not often but I have upgraded tools, and either sold, or gifted the old tools off to friends of family over the years.

I have had no regrets giving certain items up, but a recent conversation here has me rethinking since I have had to re-buy items and the modern equivalents are not up to the standards of the older stuff...

Back before I first got my Hitachi KM12VC router, I had all 1/4 shank bits. I was spinning them with a Ryobi 1/4" shank router, model forgotten, definately NOT a plunge design, but it was a fair router for what it was...

I had acquired a collection of bits from various MFGs, Skil before they offshored their production and were still USA made, Vermont American, and Freud...

I "Upgraded" my router at first to a B&D Firestorm plunge router, and quickly hated that router.

When I got the Hitachi router, and the MLCS 66pc 1/2 shank bit set, I sold the Ryobi router, and my 1/4" bits to a college friend of mine that never used them, and gifted the B&D FIrestorm to one of my brothers in law...

I don't miss either of those routers, but I sure do wish I had kept those 1/4" bits!

I have spent years, pieceing together various assortments of 1/4" shank bits to replace what I had,a nd still am not there... And the new bits just aren't up to the same quality of the old ones...

What tools or accessories have you offloaded over the years you end up wishing you hadn't?

[Jim Frye]

The only tool that I got rid of (other than the lend outs that never returned) was a B&D 1/4 router that I inherited from my FIL. It had a trigger switch in one handle and no soft start. It took a finger nail off on a false start and it went to a neighbor who had no router. I started with the 15 amp Ryobi R700 plunge unit and soon discovered it was rather heavy and top heavy to use as a hand held unit. The Bosch 1618DVS D handle router followed and the R700 became permanently mounted in an accessory extension on the BT3000 table saw. I followed the Bosch router with a Ryobi TR30 trim router. Then Ryobi supplied a R1802 triple base set for evaluation. Finally, I got a router base for my Ryobi motor tool. This does inlay work nicely. All of these have edge guides too. If you can never have too many clamps, can you never have too many routers?

[LCHIEN]

I currently have 5 routers. Sigh.

[leehljp]

I bought a Delta Mortiser here in the States while I lived most of the time in Japan. I never did get a chance to use it in 4 or 5 years to use it even once over there and sold it. Now, at the cost they are, I regret it.

I regret giving my 1/4" Makita router to my son in law. He uses it and I am glad he does, but that was one sweet router!

[dbhost]

Funny you should mention it. Most of the power tools that have left my shop have been B&D to the point I have nothing but a B&D rotary tool / Dremel clone left, and even that has a duplicate / improved version in a Wen I picked up when the B&D was on loan and I didn't know if I was going to get it back...

Let me see if I can recall what is gone now.

The Ryobi R161 and Milescraft router table / 1/4" shank bit sets sold to a college friend of mine. I still do occasional routing work for him...Go figure.
The same guy bought my Ryobi BTS-21 table saw. And never used it...

B&D FIrestorm router, B&D Firestorm 10" miter saw and miter saw stand. Taken to my Brother in laws auto body shop, so we could more easily work on some projects for my FIL, my BIL and FIL passed away close in proximity and I never got those tools back. The router was intentionally gifted to the BIL, the miter saw and stand though... I never got along with his widow.

Another friend was gifted my Chicago Electric 12" sliding miter saw after I got the Metabo. He has it set up as a chop saw for doing metal work, gonna tear that thing up but makes sense to use a cheapie for that...

And a different college friend bought my Northern Industrial drill press when I got my 12" benchtop model.

I have sold various shop vacs, a Shop Vac branded wall mount unit that was a complete bust actually went back returned to Lowes, good riddance to bad rubbish, and a small 5 gallon at most Sears wet / dry vac my ex gave me went out the door as well. Don't miss either of them. Well the vacs, or the ex...

[Jim Frye]

Today, I used a tool I haven’t touched in probably twenty years, but never got rid of. It’s been sitting in the original packaging. It was used a few times, but I’ve had no use for it until now. It’s an old Ryobi DS1000 detail sander. It’s corded, vibrates like crazy, and is so noisy, it requires ear protection. But it works in restricted spaces. Glad I never got rid of it.

[twistsol]

We sold this when we sold our house in the country in 2019. It isn't a woodworking tool and would be overkill 99% of the time here in the suburbs, but I miss having a loader and forks when I need to move stuff and I'm getting too old to drive a shovel. The Cub Cadet garden tractor that replaced it feels like a toy by comparison. The Cub Cadet new cost < 10% of what I paid for the Kubota a decade earlier.

[Jim Frye]

My BIL has had a Kubota with a front loader, mower deck, and backhoe for a couple of decades. He was just replacing some hoses and rebuilding the transmission or PTO last winter. It’s his favorite toy for his three acre property.

[capncarl]

A couple of my farmer friends use their small tractors for makeshift forklifts too! They all have tales of the stupidly dangerous ways they stack pallets 6 feet high on the forks to gain the extra height to reach the eaves of a barn so they can stand on and work on an antenna, light or paint. The organ donor will just hold on while they move the tractor to the next work spot, One has a nice 8’ metal rack with a cage he uses on his tractor to trim Pecan trees. He was in the cage pretty high and instructed the driver to lift him up more and the driver tilted the forks and dumped the whole rig to the ground. He survived the fall with just a few bruises and missing teeth. Yet they just laugh me off when I preach to them how dangerous this is. My previous job, if you even stand on a forklift fork while the machine moves or raises, much less gets on a stack of pallets on a forklift to gain height you are immediately escorted off the property.

[capncarl]

Jim, the detail sander you are using can be replaced by about any oscillation tool with the triangle sandpaper attachment, and you still have a decent plunge saw! Recently I was doing some drywall work and had an impossible corner with lots of mud that needed sanding off. I fitted my oscillator with the sanding attachment and was blown away with how well it handled it. With the ability to slow the motor down and handle the small tool I was able to finish the job without re mudding it the usual 3-4 times. Dust control is no better or worse with either tool.

[Jim Frye]

No doubt, but since I don’t own an oscillating tool and haven’t had a need for one for many years, I don’t see the justification to buy one now. The old Ryobi worked just fine.

[JamesDean19]

How I missed my Lag1412 that I surrendered because of the amount of fixing it requires and the money that I don't have to do it. Really good to know though that it has been running really at a friend's shop.