Faorite little known or unappreciated tool?

Ryan Mooney

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The Gorge Area, Oregon
We were cleaning out the pantry today, and it has some shelves with dual under-mount glides (which is a great idea for a deep closet type pantry btw, makes the back of the shelves actually usable). So I pulled one shelf out and was greeted with a collection of ball bearings. Turned out the PO who had installed the glides (on this shelf - I stole his idea and upgraded the rest of the shelves in the pantry a couple years back) had put one in that was only 12" ([partnered with a 22" glide :doh:) and it was running off the back and shedding ball bearings everytime we pushed it close.

While putting in a new glide it was to narrow of a hole to really get a drill driver in (an angled one would work, but I don't have one of those) so I used one of my gimletts to start the hole and then screwed it in by hand. I was thinking while doing that that this is probably not a tool a lot of folks are familiar with but they are pretty easy to use and work fast for making screw starting holes. I also like that they naturally leave the bottom of the hole with a similar angle as the screw so you can "drill" just a bit short and get a great bite with the screw still.

My set is from garret wade (which has imho gotten a lot more miss than hit nowadays, but still has some winners) http://www.garrettwade.com/set-of-seven-steel-twist-gimlets/p/37J03.04/ Lee Valley has what appears to be the same set: http://www.leevalley.com/US/hardware/page.aspx?p=32206 (as does highland, etc..) - I'd like to eventually replace them with an older style set with wooden T handles (looks more like a corkscrew) as those are a bit easier on the wrist (dang carpal tunnel!) - I suspect those may wait until I move to where I can have a forge and make my own (they show up on the bay for $more-than-I'm-willing-to-pay somewhat frequently). There are a number of different designs for the cutting portion depending on the style, I haven't tried enough of the types to have a strong opinion between them.

A similar (but different :D) tool that is handy in some case is a birdcage awl (basically a square awl that you can bore holes with pretty easily, was originally used - as the name suggests - for making birdcages).

What's your oddball tool that makes life easier that may not be all that common or is generally under-appreciated?
 
They a great tool Ryan. I got handed down a t handle type i was taught to use by my dad when i was around 15. He also taught me about a brad awl. Both really handy tools i have found.

sent from s4
 
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