How many tools do I actually need?

Thank you all! Great advice and @MNMLST you are totally correct! There's always the field fix and the proper way of doing things and some tools become such ad-hock solutions they make little sense. What I've decided is I'm going to take the two top halves of my rolling boxes and outfit those which will address 90% of my needs in life, I will store the other stuff that I need and is too expensive to replace later or was made at a time when they made a better tool. For years I got by with a hammer, some adjustables and a vice grips but I don't wanna be there again. There is a point where it doesn't matter what you have if you can't find it and I've spent nearly as much time looking for tools as I have using them it seems so I need to reduce to something that feels well organized and is portable to some degree.

Here's an example of something I'll never need again:

Volvo 240/740/940 crank hold tool for doing timing belts. No way I was willing to pay $60 for a specialty tool or go shoving rope down a cylinder so I made this to fit into the spaces on the crank pulley then attach to one of the mounting bolts on the motor and keep the the crank from spinning while I loosened the bolt. I doubt I'll need this ever again! It cost me nothing as it was just stuff I had laying in the scrap pile anyway.

 

Good solution. Tools are one of those things that you just don't get back out what you put into them. When you need another you are paying full price. If I had to go to minimum I would keep a full socket set (1/4, 3/8, & 1/2), a full box end set, screw drivers, plyers, a few hammers, and a breaker bar. You are on a different level than me though.

 

getting rid of any of my tools is dang near impossible, I just cant bring myself to do it.

 

You already have them, so keep them. My guess on selling them is that you'll probably get much less than the value of them, and for sure the value of having them around if you need them. Maybe if you have a lot of duplicates of one type of specialty tool, then perhaps thin that stuff down a little.

 

Tell ya another thing I cant get rid of is nuts and bolts, I must have at least 200 pounds of accumulated nuts and bolts dating back to the early 70s from the old Triumph motorcycles I had back then. I run across brake and wheel adjusters, both SAE and Metric and even some Wentworth sizes and stuff from a bygone era... I think I'm a pack rat!

 

I've downsized to this from a much larger Roll away and this box must weigh near 800lbs !!!

I used to be a Med duty / Hvy duty Diesel Mechanic so you can imagine the tools I used to have . I even still have probably 20 slack adjustor tools still

 

I find myself taking old tools or duplicate tools and giving them to someone in need. Those same people are very willing to help me with something when I need them. It's like a barter system I suppose.

 

A tool could have an inch of dust on it from sitting in your tool box, but tou'll need it the day after you get rid of it. Keep all of your tools.

 

I have a 40+ year collection of tools, even after retiring I still see things I would like to have in my boxes. LOL tool Junkie.

 

You wouldn't believe how many grown ass men don't own a screwdriver or an air gauge. It's shameful. The guy that dies with the most tools wins!!

 

The more the better!

 

I've got way to many of these in my tool box

 

Personally, I would keep one compressor and one impact and get rid of the rest of the air tools. At least in my experiences, if you have a good solid breaker bar you can do whatever an impac will do. That's also coming to you from a guy with a terrible back, and I just have a single, electric impact gun. Hand tools are your friend

 

The people on here that say you don't need many tools are the ones that knock on a neighbors door asking to borrow something...

 

keep them all. one day your going to do a job and its going to require that one certain tool and your going to kick your self in the nuts for getting rid of it. you can never have enough tools.

 

Fo

Some reason I can't throw those away either. I have a 5 gal bucket full of them in my shop

 

Who in their right mind throws those away?

 

I cleaned out and organized my tool box a couple months ago and was surprised on how many of those I still have LOL !!

 

They do make for interesting conversation especially if someone has not a clue what it is used for

 

I don't know if you all helped me or not in this thread! Now I wanna KEEP IT ALL! I was sorting sockets last night and after I saw a stack of nine 10mm I started thinking I should be good. There are some things I don't need, I have a set of Snap On RX series flare line wrenches and haven't worked on an hydraulic line in a decade so maybe it's time to sell those.

Otherwise I'm going to organize and toss stuff in bins and do away with redundancy and really odd ball shit I doubt I'll ever need.

Here's a prime example, if you were to number these from 1-5 with 1 on the bottom (Craftsman) and 5 on the top (Snap On) which would you keep? They're all different so I've kept them all but this adds up in pounds! I don't think I need 5 different 9/16th but I don't wanna let any go but trying to downsize to a motorhome means something has to give.