Who is always thinking of buying a tool they don't really need?

[Ryan Mooney]

Buying tools is cheaper than buying horses.

Amen to that!! Where I come from we had a term for it called "horse poor". Also seems that the more expensive the horse was the more likely it is to have a sudden terminal illness.

You can't have to many axes... they're like hand planes and saws. I missed a $5 single bevel broad axe head at a yard sale by about 2 minutes last year. One of the tool painters grabbed it up before I could get to it. Still a little sore about that. I did find a nice little bevel edge carving axe head for $2.50. Was in pretty rough shape and haven't completely finished cleaning it up yet... one of those round-tuits... but the edge looks like its going to be ok so its a keeper. My favorite axe is a long handled camp axe I got from my Grandpas estate, just big enough you could fell small trees with it and small enough its good for limbing.

[allen levine]

I'd like to buy a Gransfors axe. No clue why other than it could come in handy for the zombie apocalypse.

I figure if that day ever comes, Id want an assault 12 gauge shotgun with a drum magazine, maybe 20-24 rounds.

[keith Boutselis]

My dilemma is over. The lathe sold. Even though it was probably good for me that it did as I was getting amped up about the great deal I was gonna get on a lathe I didn't need, I really miss it.

Yes. I miss a tool I never even touched, let alone own. I am one sick pup.

[Vaughn McMillan]

...For instance there are no chisels that come with it. I'm not even sure what else i would need...

Money. That's all you'd need.

...Then my thought quickly went to "what are you going to turn on it" meaning where is the wood coming from? I had this romantic image of me carving out a beautiful 16" dia bowl. My image didn't have a price tag on the block of wood I would need. I not only have no idea how much the wood cost, I never even thought of where I would get it. I haven't seen any turning stock at either of the two places I buy hard woods from...

Almost all of my big pieces of wood were free, salvaged from neighborhood tree removal or firewood lots. All I need is about $1200 to $1500 worth of tools to cut it into blanks. So even free wood can be kind of expensive.

[ken werner]

My tool pig experience took a quantum leap when I realized I could buy AND sell tools via eBay or woodworking forums. I try not to own tools I don't use, but I can't walk past a cheap nice old plane at a garage sale without having it follow me home. I enjoy refurbing them, and then finding them new homes with appreciative woodworkers. Some other old tools too. Fortunately, I seem to live in a part of the country where old tools show up pretty regularly at garage and estate sales.

[Paul Douglass]

I have a wood lathe, I love using it. As for tools, don't let everyone scare you, although what they say about accessories is true. But the tools I seem to pick up most often to work with on it are homemade. I have a HF set of chisels I bought with my first lathe for $40 and they still work fine. It is just that you have to fight the "I want'a have" the latest and greatest all the time and that taint easy.

As for my dream tool, a nice older metal lathe is mine. No way I can justify it, no place to put it and don't even have the slightest idea how to use one, but I keep looking and have been for several years.

[Billy Burt]

I already have 3 lathes, and I know, I can only use one at a time unless I'm teaching one of my grandkids to turn, but I'da had a heck of a time not snatching up that Laguna at that price. Yes, what Vaughn said about the accessories is true. But spread out over time, it only happens as you grow and progress in the field of turning.

As for buying tools I don't need? I have a brand new chainsaw that I bought 5 years ago and I have yet to take it out of the case and install the bar and chain! So you tell me... DOH!

[Paul Downes]

I bought a grizzly lathe as an afterthought when I set up my shop. It was the "fun" tool I added to the order when I bought 4 other machines. I have spent more time and money on lathe equipment than I spent on the other machines. I have also made more money off of the lathe than the others combined.

I am somewhat of a welding addict. I was watching an industrial auction a few years ago and threw a junk bid on a micro welder. Didn't even know what it was. I now own a $2000 machine for just $52. Of course I haven't used it yet. This is a Sherwood micro welder used sometimes in the jewelry making world. I used to make jewelry so that is my justification for buying it. maybe some day................

[allen levine]

Ive learned to avoid impulse buys with tools, mainly because I simply do not have the room to put anything.
I might pick up a 2 dollar hand plane, or extra hammer for a dollar at an estate sale, but I figure Ill give hand tools out as gifts eventually, but large, stationary tools, just cant make space.
(I cant fit my drum sander in my shop anymore, its in the storage shed until I need it)