What are some tools you've found disproportionately useful out of their normal purpose or how common they are?

I use a manual center punch all the time; it's wild how often a tiny hole in a thing is exactly what you need, and having a hard flat pokey-shovey stick on the other end also helps with a lot. Costs a few bucks and fits in a pocket as long as you shield the tip.

>>2930991 (OP)
I keep magnets in a cloth bag so I can find studs without marring walls.

>>2930991 (OP)
I also keep a mini blue pry. The amount of times you need to pull something apart but your hands are too squishy or fat is unreal.
It's about the size of a finger.


USB voltage meter has been more useful as we get more techy.

I don't like the standard center punches you can buy in the stores.
They're made from pretty low grade steel and have pretty soft tips.
Back in the days in the shop where I learned metalworking, we used broken HSS taps as center punches.
You might think they're too brittle and will shatter if you whack them with a hammer, but they don't.
The advantage is they're super fucking hard, basically as hard as you can make a center punch without having it shatter, so they keep a sharp, defined point on them for much, much longer.
With a sharp point, you can accurately register on score marks you make and centerpunch with amazing precision. You can feel the tip of the punch clicking into the scoremark.
If you create a cross with 2 scorelines, you can register exactly in that cross and centerpunch dead-on with zero effort.
Can't do that with a dull punch, and the soft punches become dull after a few uses already.

>>2931039
Both of these are true. USB meter is great for dead stuff to see if it’s pulling milliamps to try and recover a 1V battery or if you need to open the thing up.

2 more cheap ones: these mini pliers + flush cutters, and a hook and pick set, even the $2 orange HF ones, you need hooks and picks.

>>2930991 (OP)
>hard flat pokey-shovey stick
I don't have a single tool I use more than others because my ability to fix things does not revolve around "poking them with a stick".

>>2931042
what do you use to register the score exactly on the scoreline

>>2931054
Picks.

Picks always seems useless until they are literally the only tool that will work for what your doing.

I've used that mini pry before to reach into wall cavities and hook a wire and pull it through. Like a longer finger.

Lineman pliers. My Kleins have become my go-to for pretty much anything that doesn't need needlenose, way beyond the electrical work they're really intended for. I find them particularly good for anything involving bailing/fencing wire, the blunt jaws and strong grip make them perfect for bending and twisting stiff wire. (Pic from when they were brand new btw.)

>>2931054
Those mini pliers seem really useful, I'll have to grab myself a set. I've been using fishing forceps for the same kinds of jobs but sprung pliers would be way more convenient.

>>2930991 (OP)
when i had long hair, i would hold it in place with a bicycle spoke and used it as a pokey in many different applications multiple times a day. also being able to store pens, allen wrenches and other random shit in my hair was super useful, lol

I worked at a restaurant where a guy had an old estwing with one claw cut off and the other flattened and sharpened that he used to open oysters. He was stupid fast

You can do an awful lot with a towel!
This is a reference to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"!

>>2930991 (OP)
I have two vicegrips and by far they are the most useful tools I own.

I never see anyone else with one of these keychain tape measures, but ever since my mom got me one as a cheap birthday present after getting into construction I've been using them all the time for small projects or working out the dimensions of furniture I want to buy. I guess everyone treats them like a novelty and forgets they're actually a functional tape measure.

>>2931315
I keep one in my truck's center console. The small size is nice because I'm a /diy/ guy and a bit of a prepper (for realistic stuff - wildfires, downed trees in the road, people getting stuck, etc.) so pretty much every bit of storage space in my truck is always packed, and being a piddly little 6' tape makes me less likely to get lazy and decide to use it in the house for a project and then forget it there.

what about an automatic punch

>>2930991 (OP)
This, but since most of my work isn't with metal it's a scratch awl, works as:
>marking tool/scribe for lines and points
>drill hole depth probe
>wood rot detection probe
>mini drift pin/pry bar
>hole punch for soft plastic sheet/leather
>hole punch for drywall
>stud finder when others fail
>pilot hole maker for tiny wood screws
>pick/scraper for fine lines and corners
>stabby pick up tool
>giant thumb tack for chalk/plumb lines
>screw eye speed installer
>low voltage jumper wire
>self defense weapon

Of course a small Phillips screwdriver will do most of these too, but it wrecks them for their primary use and then even if you just use an old one you're always picking that screwdriver up to screw Phillips screws and so you get pissed and toss it and just use a scratch awl, preferably one with a handle made to hit with a hammer (technically a striking awl) which also works as a center punch in softer metals.

>>2930991 (OP)


Aircraft skin spoons - learned about them from an ex aircraft mechanic turned machinist turned engineer

this thing has been useful.

>>2931155
https://youtu.be/8smjTRvHyqI?si=ZBlZGSTU8ANHGyVD

>>2930991 (OP)
>tools you've found disproportionately useful out of their normal purpose
for me its the dorklift. i cant remember the last time i actually moved a pallet

>>2931924
Aviation seems like a total goldmine of obscure useful tools. I saw these in an airliner mechanic's toolbox tour video recently, never heard of them before that but I can think of tons of situations where they'd be amazing in automotive.

>>2931103
Are you using GPT to read what he said to understand it?
He's saying that if you were to use something to score a line, thus creating a small ridge in the metal/plastic/wood/whatever, a sharp tip on the punch can be slid into that little ridge much easier. If there were 2 lines crossing, the place they cross at would catch the tip of the punch much easier if it was sharp. That's what he means, you'd feel the "bite" of the tip of the punch on the edges of the score lines.

>>2934213
a punching is already a guiding mark for something else and you need a score for it may as well go further and figure out whats the guiding mark for this guiding mark upto infinity

>>2934216
Normally you layout your scribe lines to locate where you want your features and then center punch where the scribe lines intersect because that will be the location for a hole...