N Gauge Forum

General Category => N Gauge Discussion => Topic started by: kirky on December 01, 2019, 11:28:42 AM

Title: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: kirky on December 01, 2019, 11:28:42 AM
Would people care to post pictures of their tool boxes and more importantly, tool box contents?
I would imagine there are some lovely little gems of tools that people have that you would never imagine have a place in an Ngauge tool box.

Cheers
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: Tank on December 01, 2019, 08:21:16 PM
Great idea.  I haven't done any work on my layout for ages, so my tools are scattered amongst the general tools in my workshop.
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: exmouthcraig on December 01, 2019, 08:30:38 PM
Nice idea @kirky (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=492) can we extend it to the workbench?? And see what mess some of us work in???

I'm off to get some photos!!!
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: crewearpley40 on December 01, 2019, 08:36:46 PM
Due to my space constraints i brought plastic stackable containers  with tight lids and during the refurb the plonker of a workman, left a toolbag. I rang up to say he left it, theynever came back. Months later, i had drill  drill bits  screwdrivers  stanley knife, pliers, scraper ,tape measure  masking tape. ended up with other bits. Plus i had soldering kit, craft knife  8 piece drill bit, swann morton scalpel, tweezers, dowel,  brasso, trackcleaner
Paintbrushes. Free pva, free tape, still calling company to be rid of lino cutter andbits i dont need
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: kirky on December 01, 2019, 09:27:01 PM
Quote from: Tank on December 01, 2019, 08:21:16 PM
Great idea.  I haven't done any work on my layout for ages, so my tools are scattered amongst the general tools in my workshop.
Me too kind of. My other hobby is woodworking so I have a lot of tools. Basically a garage full. I also have a train room, well its a converted loft and it is a mess - a big mess.

Quote from: exmouthcraig on December 01, 2019, 08:30:38 PM
Nice idea @kirky (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=492) can we extend it to the workbench?? And see what mess some of us work in???

I'm off to get some photos!!!
So by all means include work benches, just not mine- its way too messy.
I also have a tool box that I take with me to the club. This I will be showing when I get round to taking photos.

Confession time - its not my idea - saw it in the Merg magazine I think, where they have area groups who meet. One topic they discuss is 'whats in your tool box?' so not my idea, but thought it was a good topic for the forum.

No pictures yet and this is the only tool related emoji I can find  :computerangry:
cheers
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: SMason on December 01, 2019, 10:15:54 PM
I'm keen to see what people have gathered together for putting together a railway. My tool box isn't a box as such. It's a pegboard above the workbench. More stuff needs adding I'm sure, but for now I have what I need where I need it. This is it as of last week;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17kdV8P0AweK7-3BNJfCTDmByNSpDRR68/view?usp=drivesdk

Currently, it has bits of card and half assembled kits strewn over one half and the other half of under a layer of fabric and a sewing machine (my fiancee is an avid quilter and our 'craft room' is very much a shared space).

Sam.
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: exmouthcraig on December 01, 2019, 10:16:49 PM
New picture that is in focus

Glad I had a bit of a tidy up today!!!!

Bench isn't big enough to get everything on so theres part of the layout on trestles behind me that buildings and parts of the project get shifted onto.

Spraybooth and airbrushed are on another bench so all 3 can be got to in 2 scoots of the swivel chair

@SMason (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=6755) wow!!!! That's far too tidy and organised!!!!!!
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/84/5099-011219225323.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=84621)
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: emjaybee on December 01, 2019, 11:00:56 PM
There is something seriously wrong with you two. Talk about tidy freaks!

As it used to say on the wall of our Facilities Management that I was part off...

"A tidy desk is the sign of a sick mind".

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/84/5604-011219225942.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=84622)

This is my 'comfort zone', a place for everything, and everything in it's place...

...my way.

:D
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: exmouthcraig on December 01, 2019, 11:08:42 PM
 :laughabovepost:

That's what mine looked like this morning but I was that fed up with working in an ever shrinking space i had to do something about it.

It was so bad I couldn't even use my 6" rule there was that little space!!!  :veryangry:
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: emjaybee on December 01, 2019, 11:11:20 PM
Quote from: exmouthcraig on December 01, 2019, 11:08:42 PM
:laughabovepost:

That's what mine looked like this morning but I was that fed up with working in an ever shrinking space i had to do something about it.

It was so bad I couldn't even use my 6" rule there was that little space!!!  :veryangry:

Whatya tryin' to say?

???
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: exmouthcraig on December 01, 2019, 11:17:02 PM
When I'm working on my bench that's what it looks like, when I get the opportunity to show people how I work, I tidy up!!
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: njee20 on December 01, 2019, 11:17:28 PM
My workbench is utterly shambolic! To actually use it I first have to clear a space of the appropriate size (and not an inch bigger!), only for the amorphous blob of crap to subsume it once again when my back is turned.

This means any other flat surface just becomes an extension of my workbench. The railway is thusly covered in tinlets of paint, tools etc.  :-[
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: chrism on December 02, 2019, 06:21:14 AM
Quote from: emjaybee on December 01, 2019, 11:00:56 PM
There is something seriously wrong with you two. Talk about tidy freaks!

As it used to say on the wall of our Facilities Management that I was part off...

"A tidy desk is the sign of a sick mind".

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/84/5604-011219225942.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=84622)

This is my 'comfort zone', a place for everything, and everything in it's place...

...my way.

And if you ever tidy it up, you then spend ages looking for things - that's my experience, anyway  :D
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: emjaybee on December 02, 2019, 08:24:07 AM
Exactly.
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: The Q on December 02, 2019, 08:36:24 AM
 I have enough tools to sink Build a battleship, well, an 18ft sailing boat, which I did, and a 63ft Model railway shed. So there is no way you're going to get pictures of all the stuff spread across 3 sheds.

However for railway modelling, I, this weekend, have started building a new toolbox of plywood.  About 2 foot long 1 ft wide and about 14 inches tall, Apart from the top tray it will have pull out drawers, as I'm fed up of ferreting around in the bottom, looking for things.

The deepest drawer is 2 inches, as it will have the largest tools in, the pin pusher for instance has a fat handle..
The pliers etc will fit in a 1.5 in deep drawer,
The Knives, files, will fit in a 1 inch deep drawer..

There will be a second tool box with the same outside dimensions, containing a solder station (including hot air blower), DMM, PAT tester, fuses, larger screw drivers (HV rated), wire strippers, pliers and anything else I require.

Eventually when I finish my work benches in the railway shed, there will be positions created at the back of each for each toolbox.
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: Newportnobby on December 02, 2019, 10:07:04 AM
My bungalow is my toolbox and I have railway bits in every room except the bathroom. Even then, I might have squirrelled something away in there :uneasy:
I do try to keep track of essential tools or I find I'll believe I haven't got that 'necessary bit' and end up buying another one only to find the original later that day :doh:
There's no doubt I have way too much 'stuff' and there is also no doubt I have 'all the gear and no idea' :-[
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: monkey_brains on December 02, 2019, 10:42:55 PM
Quote from: Newportnobby on December 02, 2019, 10:07:04 AM
There's no doubt I have way too much 'stuff' [

It sounds like you are quoting my wife there

Strange how she goes quiet when the random tool or screw suddenly fixes something broken in the home!
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: railsquid on December 03, 2019, 01:22:34 PM
Quote from: kirky on December 01, 2019, 11:28:42 AM
Would people care to post pictures of their tool boxes and more importantly, tool box contents?
I would imagine there are some lovely little gems of tools that people have that you would never imagine have a place in an Ngauge tool box.

In the spirit of the original post, here's the contents of the Railsquid Motive Power Repair and Light Detailing Department's collection of tools'n'bits, scrounged together from their various hiding places:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49163517282_c345d591b8_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hUpSRG)
tools (https://flic.kr/p/2hUpSRG) by Rail Squid (https://www.flickr.com/photos/railsquid/), on Flickr


Missing from the picture is the gear puller. (Yes, I do own some Graham Farish locomotives, why do you ask?)

This thread from the start of the decade may also be of interest:
What's the best tool in your modelling toolbox and why (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=1687.0)
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: railsquid on December 03, 2019, 01:45:20 PM
Quote from: railsquid on December 03, 2019, 01:22:34 PM
Missing from the picture is the gear puller. (Yes, I do own some Graham Farish locomotives, why do you ask?)



While looking for the gear puller it occurred to me there's a bunch of other stuff which sees a lot of use:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49163393661_68bc6b1063_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hUpf7i)
more tools (https://flic.kr/p/2hUpf7i) by Rail Squid (https://www.flickr.com/photos/railsquid/), on Flickr

(said gear puller at the top, hard to see because of the light from the desk lamp, which fell off the back of a lorry, figuratively speaking, at Mrs. Railsquid's workplace once).
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: Newportnobby on December 03, 2019, 02:11:46 PM
Wot - no hammer? :o

Actually, thinking about it the biggest tool in my toolbox is me :-[
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: kirky on December 04, 2019, 09:07:55 PM
Thanks for that @railsquid (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=3832). Very interesting that.
Whats in the bottle top right - picture one?
Whats that blue handle thing in picture one?

Thanks for posting.
Kirky
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: dannyboy on December 04, 2019, 09:48:32 PM
I am with @Newportnobby (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=264)  except Louisa has been known to ask why is there a little paintbrush in the bathroom and "what's this thing!" (Pipette). So of course I tell her that they are there drying as they needed washing.
Title: Re: Whats in Your Tool Box?
Post by: railsquid on December 04, 2019, 11:06:07 PM
Quote from: kirky on December 04, 2019, 09:07:55 PM

Whats in the bottle top right - picture one?

Kato Unicleaner (24-020) (https://www.katomodels.com/product/p/uni_cleaner) which I use for wheel and track cleaning purposes; is probably IPA or a close relative thereof.

Quote from: kirky on December 04, 2019, 09:07:55 PM

Whats that blue handle thing in picture one?


That has a thin metal wedge which is useful for sliding between plastic parts, for example when removing  a locomotive body.