5 Tools Best Bought Secondhand
Days when you buy a new tool are bright spots in the seemingly endless slog of working on a project car. Placing a shiny new tool onto a bench covered with rusty, crusty parts and pieces can reinvigorate your desire to work. Often that new tool makes or breaks our ability to get the task done. Tools are important, but that doesn’t mean you need to go into debt when buying them.
Finding used tools has never been easier for people with a little grease under their fingernails. At times it’s almost easier to find used tools in good condition than it is to find new ones of high quality. Remember, if you can’t test the function of a tool, assume you’ll need to rebuild or repair it. You can consume a great deal of time and money getting a cheap used tool up to the condition you thought it was in when you bought it.
However, not all used tools are money pits. Here are a few that make sense to purchase used.
Box-End Wrenches
Box-end wrenches really don’t wear out if used properly. Since they are easy to inspect, you can easily know whether the ones you are buying are damaged or abused. For DIY newcomers, there is no better option; even if you do buy a “better” set of wrenches later, this one will be perfect for filling out road-trip tool kits. You might even modify a few for special jobs.
Ratchets
When it comes to ratchets, you can save a lot of money if you are willing to put in a little extra work. Get familiar with the one you want, and what it takes to refurbish it. Rebuild kits can turn a beat-up, high-quality ratchet into a near-new one in an afternoon and the process is easier than you might think.
That said, success isn’t guaranteed. I love my Snap-on ratchets and didn’t hesitate for a second to buy them right off the truck because I was having a hard time finding the tools I wanted, in rebuildable condition, for a price that made any sense.
Hack Saws
These simple saws come in clutch from time to time. Hack saws pop up at garage sales regularly and are often only a couple bucks. Since the blade is a consumable, something you will be replacing anyway, you only need to inspect the frame to make sure it’s not twisted or broken. That’s easy to check by eye. The consequences for error are relatively low: Should a hacksaw frame fail, there is not much risk of significant injury, so long as you are using it properly. Plus, the design has changed little over time.
Clamps
Since evolution has yet to give mechanics the third hand we so desperately need, it’s basically impossible to have enough clamps in your shop—anything that can help hold pieces of your project, from locking jaw pliers or long pipe clamps. Finding good used examples can save some money, and the only difference between new and used may boil down to appearance.
Punches
To be honest, I can’t tell old hardened steel from new hardened steel if you put both in my hands. Even the best punches eventually get used, as they are tools that are either sitting in storage or being struck with other tools. They lead a rough life, but punches can last a very long time, especially specialty ones or oddly sized versions. Those make for great swap-meet finds.
What else in your toolbox would you rather pick up used than purchase new? Tell us in the comments below.
***
Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.
While I do occasionally buy a used tool for use, a guy my age has accumulated pretty much all I seem to need. I do, however, love to buy some unique things to hang up for display. I have a whole wall in the barn of things – many of which are hard to even identify. Il hold up an old saw set tool from the ’30s and challenge visitors to figure out what it did (heck, some people don’t even know what the “set” in a hand saw is!)
There is a YouTuber (tubalcain Mr. Pete) who does a “what is it?” series that I love to watch. Many of my “finds” will never see use as tools again, but they sure have new lives as fun, interesting teaching tools at coffee time or beer-thirty with friends!
Yeah, I have picked up about 5 saw sets at antique stores over the years for a few bucks each. There are so many variations of, sometimes I don’t know what it’s purpose is until I figure it out.
Flea markets are a great place to acquire tools. The trick is you want private sellers, not quasi-businesses that set up every week with the same stuff. Good used hand tools are often really cheap, and at worst need a bath in CLR. Stay away from anything electrical or hydraulic unless you like gambling and can fix them when surprise, surprise, they don’t work. Often the really strange stuff goes for giveaway prices because nobody needs them or knows what they are. I needed a eight point 9/16″ socket, total unobtanium, found one and it cost me a quarter. Found a piston ring groove cleaner for half a buck – I may never need it, but if I do, I have it. Set of Xelite nut drivers (1/8″ to 1/2″), a dollar. These are used extensively in electronics repair. Chrome plating transformer – $5. Arc welders – $25. (Don’t buy gas welding gauges and hoses, the hoses are probably shot and the gauges will either need to be rebuilt or are just junk.) Punches with mushroomed heads, tops half a buck each, five minutes with a bench grinder cleans them up and then they are safe to use. (If you hammer on a punch with a mushroomed head, you can break off a chip and possibly lose an eye. You ARE wearing safety glasses, right?)
I set an arbitrary tool budget limit of $50 for the day. Every once in a while I will exceed it. Bought a gorgeous all wood machinist’s tool box, brand new, for $60. Best score was a watchmaker’s tool to remove and set jewels in wristwatches and pocket watches (I may have too many hobbies . . . ) in a wooden box, all the punches and drivers, $75. List price new is about ten times that.
Grabbed a 24″ diameter 24 hour face wall clock (British Rail style) for $3. Added a battery, it runs. (I guess that makes me feel better about the jewel setting tool.) It is on the wall in my shop/hangar/man cave.
Fire extinguishers – Kidde and a number of private label extinguishers made by Kidde have had a MAJOR recall, something like 27 million extinguishers(!!!). If you have an extinguisher with a plastic lever/trigger that matches the picture on their website, Kidde will replace it for free with a brand new, fully charged metal handle extinguisher. Check the picture, if it matches, call the 800 number, read them the serial number, and shazam, you have a new one for free.
These extinguishers are everywhere, homes, garages, boats, RVs, businesses, if it has a plastic lever which matches the picture on their website, that extinguisher has been recalled and you get a replacement.
Hagerty *might* want to send an alert about this to everyone with a Hagerty insurance policy. If the replacement extinguisher keeps ONE garage from burning down with a Hagerty insured car inside, it would be well worth the minimal trouble of notifying policy holders about this.
The words that will get many of us a full toolbox “I may never need it, but if I do, I have it.” 😁
The best to buy are high dollar indestructible tools. My Lincoln welder and Torch set were free and cheap and work like new.
I bought a bunch of hand tools when Sears was going out. They had many sets of different and even odd tools dirt cheap new and still of the older quality. I look now for that odd it oe socket and find gee i have that.
My dad had a friend who way back used to go to a weekly Sears auction sale. I guess the stuff was surplus or old style. The guy would buy like whole cartons of hammers, wrenched, whatever cheap and give ‘em out to everyone he worked with. Got quite a few nice Craftsman tools that way incluging some odd balls like C ring pliers and so forth
The best to buy are high dollar indestructible tools. My Lincoln welder and Torch set were free and cheap and work like new.
I bought a bunch of hand tools when Sears was going out. They had many sets of different and even odd tools dirt cheap new and still of the older quality. I look now for that odd it oe socket and find gee i have that.
I do look for old broken Snap on and exchange for new.
I agree on some of these, but hacksaws aren’t exactly expensive and generally come with new blades. I rarely see used hacksaws that have all of the right parts installed
Hammers, sockets (especially one-offs)
I traditionally would have said no on things like welders, but I am on my second used welder (a MIG and a TIG) and both purchases have turned out well. I bought the TIG broken, but the seller told me what was broken (a board) and I was able to get the board and get the welder going for well less than a new one. That one was a bit of a gamble
The welders I find are low use and better older models. You do avoid anything beat up unless it is free.
I think any tool that’s functional is a better value on the used market. The qualifier “functional” eliminates most things with cutting edges. Lathe and drill bits I can sharpen but used taps and dies are a bad gamble.
Especially if I used them!
I lucked-out with exactly that. I was going through a neighborhood yard sale and at one house there was a guy with just a few tools. He had a full, very large set of older Craftsman taps and dies. The price was $125, which was probably fair, but he quickly went down to $100 and said that’s what he was prepared to take when he put them out. I had just withdrawn $100 from my ATM, then got a haircut. I pulled everything out of my wallet and he took the $80. The set was almost completely unused. Well, it was until I got it. I’ve used the 8 X 1.25mm taps and dies repeatedly, plus a couple of other ones, especially the 10 X 1.5 mm. It was the best yard sale score in my life. 🙂
Estate Auctions/sales. I have snagged everything from a welder to a full tool chest of lightly used Craftsman tools that were 20 years old…for $50 “just get it out of here” they said!
I agree. Last fall folks up the street were moving. The old guy was selling a top and bottom chest by SnapOn full, really full, of mostly like new Snap On tools. I need no tools but I went back later for some stuff, like a 4” Craftsman vice for $5, $1 extension cord and other stuff cheap. I asked what the tools went for and they told me $400 which is a price I have seen for just one of the empty chests. So, yup, check the yard sales, estate sales
I’d question buying anything second hand that is struck or used to strike. Punches? I don’t think so. Hammers? Maybe 2 lb sledge and above. Hack saw? No way. With Harbor Freight’s ICON brand, we have low cost entry level tools available with lifetime warranty. Unless collecting tools is a hobby that you really enjoy, stick to new IMHO.
I’m very suspicious of tools at flea markets, because I don’t want to buy stolen things. There are plenty of good reasons why used tools are sold, but there are some bad ones, too. Better to buy used tools from garage sales or private sellers who are obviously legitimate.
When purchasing used punches and chisels, avoid ones that are excessively “mushroomed” on the hammering end. Even though the mushrooming can be dressed out with a bench grinder, the metal’s tempering may have been compromised and could lead to fragments exiting the tool when struck repeatedly. Not worth the risk of eye/bodily injury or damage to surrounding objects.
Back in the 80’s I took a 1”x1”x.250” steel shard out of a stonemason’s thigh. He struck a steel hammer on a steel chisel. The shard went through his thick denim pants and an inch deep in his thigh. Cleaned and stitched the wound. I don’t know how it turned out because he removed his own stitches (another bad idea). Use steel on steel at your own peril! (Yeah, I still doo, too. Some people never learn. At least I wear my safety glasses.)
ANY tools in good condition are a good buy used. Look for the oddballs and specialty tools that YOUR model might need. I picked up a cam belt tension check tool for ’66-69 OHC Pontiac 6 for $3. Nobody knew what it was for. Unfortunately the zeroing gage was missing.
I always buy the big tools like the $60 new crescent wrench for $5. Usually in almost new condition and always able to resell for &5 in the future
As we get older (yes, it happens) we find great tools that we no longer use. I would rather not Have them go to yard sale after I am gone, so I’m always on the lookout for young people just getting started. Often, depending on the tool, There is a bit of helpful mentoring that can go along with how to make the tool useful. Just sayin’.
I have lots of hand me down tools. I have not had to buy too many or that often.
Years ago at Hershey was a guy called Sam Beacon. He was the tool man. You could buy KD. Which today is Gearwrench. Lisle, Easton and other professional brand tools all new for 75% off list. I would travel 400 miles every year to see what he had. I would by tools for myself and the mechanics that worked for me. I once bought a brand new KD climate control analyzer that was over $1100 at the time for $100. The first time I used it I made my money back. Those days are over.
I’ve been lucky enough to get to Hershey swap meet a few times. Sadly I’ve never been able to go when I had the cash needed to take advantage of the awesome tool deals there!