furnising a tool box

[graylizard]

Hello to the fourm this is my first post. Me and my new ball and chain have just got our first home. It's a fixer upper any sugestion on setting up a functional do it yourself tool box.

[Longdog]

List will be long

To start with Hammer,screw driver set-philips head and flat head,drill,cordless gun 16volt or higher,pry bar,recipricateing saw,dremmel kit all depends on the job.These are a few tools I1ve gotten with my first home a year and a half ago.I have more but like I said depends on the job.Good luck!

Oh fixer upper like mine was.Get a two sizes of a pry bar too.

[LazyPup]

No doubt you have already discovered that walking into a Sears, Lowes, Home Depot or large hardware store tool dept can be a bit overwhelming. Left unchecked we could easily max out a half dozen credit cards before we get out of there, so the key is, where do we begin?

If I can impart no other advice I would tell you from personal experience, it is far better to have a few quality tools than to have box upon box full of el cheapo knuckle busters. The question then becomes, What is quality? Obivously a homeowner who is making an occassional home repair does not need the same quality as a working tradesmen who is using his or her tools daily. To that end, tools are primarily made in three categories, Contractor Grade, which will hold up to the day in and day out grind of heavy construction. While these tools certainly are nice to have, in many cases they are far too expensive for the homeowner budget and in truth a homeowner would probably never use them often enough to get the full measure of quality. The next level is Home Owner grade. These tools are fairly ruggedly built and should provide years of service in the home enviroment and finally we have the El Cheapo one size fits all, universal do everything junk that serves little more purpose than to make enterprising manufactures rich.

If you are just starting out you should concentrate on having a few basic univeral tools then as you begin projects you can consider adding the trade specialty tools required to complete your project.

Before you even begin a home repair keep in mind that this is not your chosen field of endeavor so working safely is doubly important. Get the basic safety gear and use it.


SAFETY FIRST:
1.Safety glasses
2. work gloves where required
3. Ball cap with a bill (helps keeps falling debris out of your eyes)
4.Single probe Voltage tester- Before touching an HVAC cabinet, furnace, appliance, water heater, any electrically operated device or even your copper water pipes check for the presence of voltage first. ( Years ago the underground water pipes were copper or galvanized iron pipe which provided a good ground, but with the advent of plastic pipe often the copper runs in the house are not grounded. I cannot count how many times I have discovered the hard way that copper water lines were energized by a defective pump, water heater or illegaly connected electrical ground)

The TOOL BOX
By necessity a tool box must perform two functions, 1. Keep the tools together in one place so you can locate them when you need them and 2.be portable enough to allow you to move it from the storage location to the jobsite. Keep in mind that tools can get heavy very quickly. Rather than have one huge box to contain all your tools it may be much more practical to have multiple tool boxes. One for your general purpose tools, then others for trade specialty tools such as Plumbing, Electrical, Carpentry, Sheetrocking, painting, etc.

GENERAL PURPOSE TOOLS
1.Flash light (Mini mag is excellant)
2.Tape measure 12' to 25'
3. Screw Drivers 1/4" & 3/8" flat tip and #1 & #2 Phillips
4. Hammer 160z claw hammer
5. 10" or 12" slip groove pliers (Channel lock Pliers)
6. Needle ose pliers
7. Hex Key set (metric & Standard) The folding jackknife style are very convenient.
8. Assorted SAE & Metric open end wrenches
9. small 3/8" drive socket set with SAE & Metric sockets
10. Combination Square
11. Torpedo level & 3' level
12. Utility knife with spare blades
13. Nut Driver set
14.8" or 10" adjustable wrench
15. Hacksaw frame with 18 teeth per inch blade (also suggest a mini hacksaw)
16.Flat utility pry bar (Stanley wonder bar or equivalent)
17. Drill motor 3/8" variable speed reversible (Cordless is much more convenient but a corded drill will work fine.)
18. Assorted fractional size drill bits up to 3/8" + 1/2" 3/4" & 1" spade bits for wood.
19. Caulking gun
20. 1-1/2" putty stiff putty knife.
21. Cloth nail apron (excellant for carrying parts and fitting for no matter what project your working on)

At this point you would have the basic fundamentals that you would need on almost any home repair project. You can then expand upon this for specialty projects like electrical, plumbing, Carpentry etc. If you can give us some idea of what types of projects you anticipate we may be able to offer some tips in those areas as well.

[graylizard]

List was long

I just wanted to thank all of you how replied. Then responses were very helpful.
does anyone know if you can post before and after pics it could geve me some ideas on my own fixer upper.

[LazyPup]

Not only can you post before and after pics but hopefully we will be going through this project with you and quite often a pic makes understanding the questions much easier. We hope to see many pics along the way.