5 ms·

What are some examples of the obsolete tools? I can imagine a manual hand drill...

whatusername 4y ago
I think perhaps the middle space? 90's power tools? Any old battery tools? I consider my petrol mower to be obsolete - but I can't justify replacing it with an electric/battery one when it functions fine.
dukeofdoom 4y ago
I've seen the guy from "my self reliance" (Youtube) use manual hand drill in the building of his remote cabin. No power for electric drill. A battery operated drill would probably fail rather quickly boring through a log with a large drill head. If I remember correctly, proper wood working chisel sets are still very highly priced. And the antique ones can be of higher quality.
- fy20 4y ago
  "Highly priced" should be taken in context, for a retired person who has no other income it's worth to go to the effort of selling them on eBay or the like. For the type of crowd on HN who probably have relatively well paying jobs, probably not.
  - dukeofdoom 4y ago
    When I made the comment, I was vaguely remembering information I learned from this video. https://youtu.be/3LB8wtA9LwU?t=265 https://youtu.be/3LB8wtA9LwU?t=265 He prefers 80+ year old American chisels due to quality of steal. "The older the better". But anyway, just to confirm, I did an ebay search and top of the line Japanese chisel set is listed for $8.5k. I was thinking "highly prized" but wrote "highly priced", but I think it can stand.
gfaregan 4y ago
I keep an old hand brace in my toolbox and it's amazing. It doesn't need a cord or a battery and you can get a lot of torque out of it.
nlnn 4y ago
Some woodworkers still use manual drills (I own two, along with a brace and bit). They're useful for very exact/delicate work, quiet drilling, and for getting into awkward places where an electric drill doesn't fit.
- verve_rat 4y ago
  Yeah, I'm just starting out in woodworking as a hobby and a brace and bit is something I'm considering putting on the wishlist. The useless tools might have been a treasure trove to the right person.
  - donw 4y ago
    Exactly what I was thinking. I'd love to go through all those "useless" tools. Oh no, Dad's old all-steel table saw that was designed and built to be repaired, and which has the same tolerances as a "precision tool" today, doesn't have bluetooth to pair with your iPhone? Guess you'll just have to toss it, then.
    - wccrawford 4y ago
      Unfortunately it probably also doesn't have all the safety features like a riving blade, either. That doesn't mean it's useless, but it does mean it needs more care to use it and novice woodworkers shouldn't rush in blindly.
      - donw 4y ago
        Fair point! Although a riving knife — which I wish that I had known about when I was younger - shouldn’t be that hard to add.
        mauvehaus 4y ago
        They are. A proper one goes up and down with the blade. A saw without an in-built provision for that is a surprisingly tough retrofit [0]. A riving knife that doesn't go up and down with the blade is just a pain in the ass that gets removed the first time you aren't making a through cut and rarely gets reinstalled. [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CuchotcM_4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CuchotcM_4 If you've never seen the inside of a Unisaw, there's a lot of parts in that video that weren't there when the saw left the Delta factory. Even if you mass-produced a kit, it would require reworking some of the original parts, possibly at machinist level tolerances.
HideousKojima 4y ago
A brace and bit can be really useful if you're working with very soft or delicate woods. Also a bit and brace is fairly cheap, but good bits for them are lot pricier.
tjmc 4y ago
VB6?
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  Nice one
drewzero1 4y ago
A NiCd-powered cordless drill would be my first thought, clearly obsolete since the widespread adoption of lithium battery tools and the rapid degradation in NiCd cells over time. A radial arm saw also comes to mind, replaced for most tasks by the more portable and generally safer compound miter saw. Tools made before modern safety devices, such as table saws without anti-kickback fingers or riving knife. Some tools rely on wear parts like specialty blades or belts that are no longer available. Analog multimeters and fixed-resistance soldering irons. I've inherited my share of obsolete tools, including but certainly not limited to the above examples.
- Avamander 4y ago
  Analog multimeters can surprisingly be useful with more complex or short signals. Sometimes providing significantly better results than digital equivalents.
  - tlb 4y ago
    The good quality large-scale ones like AVO are wonderful to use.
- mschuster91 4y ago
  > A NiCd-powered cordless drill would be my first thought, clearly obsolete since the widespread adoption of lithium battery tools and the rapid degradation in NiCd cells over time. On the other side, as long as it's something brand-name like Bosch, these things are built to last - and there are still shops around selling new battery packs for them (or you can replace the cells yourself - no fancy BMS required like with modern lithium batteries and no risk of things exploding or going up in blazes if you mess something up!). I'm still using power tools from my grandfather, meanwhile a friend recently complained to me that one of his "new" drills broke less than two weeks in his house renovation. The thing is, what you can buy in construction stores these days is optimized to last for the two years warranty period aka six or seven times of being used. Keep that "old" stuff, it will likely outlast you. And if you go and buy lithium-based tools, please buy brand name (=Makita) and don't buy knock-off batteries. These are fire hazards. ETA: The worst thing you can do with NiCd packs is using them while they are nearly empty or squeezing out that last bit of power. That will drive one of the cells into reverse charge and by then it's effectively forever toast [1]. [1] https://www.icmm.csic.es/jaalonso/velec/baterias/aboutn~1.htm https://www.icmm.csic.es/jaalonso/velec/baterias/aboutn~1.ht...
kevinpet 4y ago
Specialty tools that fit vehicles you don't have. Specialty tools for operations that no one would perform by hand anymore. E.g. a cylinder honing tool. Whitworth wrenches, sockets, taps, and dies. My dad had a British motorcycle shop around 1980 and I'm pretty sure there is still some of this in his tool boxes in the garage. Homemade jigs whose purpose you can't even figure out. I think the dominant category would just be extra or broken or cheap tools that aren't worth hanging on to. For some reason I have like four stubby Phillips #1 screwdrivers. Cheap hatchets with broken handles. Mushroomed lead mallets. A whole drawer of dull drill bits.
- drewzero1 4y ago
  Ooh, those are good. I have a few homemade (or home-modified) specialty tools for my old cars, and some I'll certainly never have use for again. Those are one reason I've never yet had a British or German car, though I do have one with a British-derived engine and a German fuel injection system. (I'll have to remember to pass on all the custom tools when I get rid of the car. The chances are slim to none that I'll ever own another one.)
Freak_NL 4y ago
Look at what gets put out at jumble/rummage sales and charity shops. In addition to what others posted, I see a lot of rusty screwdrivers (Phillips and slot) which everyone already has (and most of the time you're using Pozidriv or Torx anyway) and rusty spade drills. Every once in a while you spot a good one before someone else does (pincers, a good vintage cast-iron hacksaw frame for €5, a pristine sheet metal clamp for €1), but most of it is crap. Which does make me wonder where all the good tools go.
- Teever 4y ago
  > Which does make me wonder where all the good tools go. Now I'm imagining tool companies sending people around to garage sales and estate sales to buy up good used tools to landfill them so that they can sell not so good new tools.
- matth3 4y ago
  Snapped up by collectors if they are desirable enough, check out the going rate for pre 1960s hand planes or vintage Snap On socket sets in obsolete sizes!
Sander_Marechal 4y ago
I have a manual hand drill and it's awesome for large holes using self-feed bits and for delicate jobs.
mauvehaus 4y ago
A eggbeater drill is as obsolete as it'll ever get. Good ones are worth hanging on to for those occasions when you need to drill a couple of holes some ways from the nearest outlet. Plus, kids love them and will happily spend a ridiculous amount of time drilling holes in scrap. They also work in tighter spots than an electric drill. There's usually less bulk off the axis in at least one direction, generally opposite the crank. If you're in a corner, you're usually boned though. The drills that are guaranteed to be trash in 20 years are the battery ones. I have a set and love them for when I need to drill more than a couple holes, but I have no illusions that I'll be passing them down to anybody because the batteries will be unavailable.
mensetmanusman 4y ago
My favorite: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planimeter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planimeter Found one of these cleaning an old science lab, was very confused by what it was initially. Wonder what tools will look like in 1k years…

I think perhaps the middle space? 90's power tools? Any old battery tools? I consider my petrol mower to be obsolete - but I can't justify replacing it with an electric/battery one when it functions fine.

dukeofdoom 4y ago

I've seen the guy from "my self reliance" (Youtube) use manual hand drill in the building of his remote cabin. No power for electric drill. A battery operated drill would probably fail rather quickly boring through a log with a large drill head. If I remember correctly, proper wood working chisel sets are still very highly priced. And the antique ones can be of higher quality.

fy20 4y ago
"Highly priced" should be taken in context, for a retired person who has no other income it's worth to go to the effort of selling them on eBay or the like. For the type of crowd on HN who probably have relatively well paying jobs, probably not.
- dukeofdoom 4y ago
  When I made the comment, I was vaguely remembering information I learned from this video. https://youtu.be/3LB8wtA9LwU?t=265 https://youtu.be/3LB8wtA9LwU?t=265 He prefers 80+ year old American chisels due to quality of steal. "The older the better". But anyway, just to confirm, I did an ebay search and top of the line Japanese chisel set is listed for $8.5k. I was thinking "highly prized" but wrote "highly priced", but I think it can stand.

gfaregan 4y ago

I keep an old hand brace in my toolbox and it's amazing. It doesn't need a cord or a battery and you can get a lot of torque out of it.

nlnn 4y ago

Some woodworkers still use manual drills (I own two, along with a brace and bit). They're useful for very exact/delicate work, quiet drilling, and for getting into awkward places where an electric drill doesn't fit.

verve_rat 4y ago
Yeah, I'm just starting out in woodworking as a hobby and a brace and bit is something I'm considering putting on the wishlist. The useless tools might have been a treasure trove to the right person.
- donw 4y ago
  Exactly what I was thinking. I'd love to go through all those "useless" tools. Oh no, Dad's old all-steel table saw that was designed and built to be repaired, and which has the same tolerances as a "precision tool" today, doesn't have bluetooth to pair with your iPhone? Guess you'll just have to toss it, then.
  - wccrawford 4y ago
    Unfortunately it probably also doesn't have all the safety features like a riving blade, either. That doesn't mean it's useless, but it does mean it needs more care to use it and novice woodworkers shouldn't rush in blindly.
    - donw 4y ago
      Fair point! Although a riving knife — which I wish that I had known about when I was younger - shouldn’t be that hard to add.
      - mauvehaus 4y ago
        They are. A proper one goes up and down with the blade. A saw without an in-built provision for that is a surprisingly tough retrofit [0]. A riving knife that doesn't go up and down with the blade is just a pain in the ass that gets removed the first time you aren't making a through cut and rarely gets reinstalled. [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CuchotcM_4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CuchotcM_4 If you've never seen the inside of a Unisaw, there's a lot of parts in that video that weren't there when the saw left the Delta factory. Even if you mass-produced a kit, it would require reworking some of the original parts, possibly at machinist level tolerances.

HideousKojima 4y ago

A brace and bit can be really useful if you're working with very soft or delicate woods. Also a bit and brace is fairly cheap, but good bits for them are lot pricier.

tjmc 4y ago

VB6?

ClumsyPilot 4y ago
Nice one

drewzero1 4y ago

A NiCd-powered cordless drill would be my first thought, clearly obsolete since the widespread adoption of lithium battery tools and the rapid degradation in NiCd cells over time. A radial arm saw also comes to mind, replaced for most tasks by the more portable and generally safer compound miter saw. Tools made before modern safety devices, such as table saws without anti-kickback fingers or riving knife. Some tools rely on wear parts like specialty blades or belts that are no longer available. Analog multimeters and fixed-resistance soldering irons. I've inherited my share of obsolete tools, including but certainly not limited to the above examples.

Avamander 4y ago
Analog multimeters can surprisingly be useful with more complex or short signals. Sometimes providing significantly better results than digital equivalents.
- tlb 4y ago
  The good quality large-scale ones like AVO are wonderful to use.
mschuster91 4y ago
> A NiCd-powered cordless drill would be my first thought, clearly obsolete since the widespread adoption of lithium battery tools and the rapid degradation in NiCd cells over time. On the other side, as long as it's something brand-name like Bosch, these things are built to last - and there are still shops around selling new battery packs for them (or you can replace the cells yourself - no fancy BMS required like with modern lithium batteries and no risk of things exploding or going up in blazes if you mess something up!). I'm still using power tools from my grandfather, meanwhile a friend recently complained to me that one of his "new" drills broke less than two weeks in his house renovation. The thing is, what you can buy in construction stores these days is optimized to last for the two years warranty period aka six or seven times of being used. Keep that "old" stuff, it will likely outlast you. And if you go and buy lithium-based tools, please buy brand name (=Makita) and don't buy knock-off batteries. These are fire hazards. ETA: The worst thing you can do with NiCd packs is using them while they are nearly empty or squeezing out that last bit of power. That will drive one of the cells into reverse charge and by then it's effectively forever toast [1]. [1] https://www.icmm.csic.es/jaalonso/velec/baterias/aboutn~1.htm https://www.icmm.csic.es/jaalonso/velec/baterias/aboutn~1.ht...

kevinpet 4y ago

Specialty tools that fit vehicles you don't have. Specialty tools for operations that no one would perform by hand anymore. E.g. a cylinder honing tool. Whitworth wrenches, sockets, taps, and dies. My dad had a British motorcycle shop around 1980 and I'm pretty sure there is still some of this in his tool boxes in the garage. Homemade jigs whose purpose you can't even figure out. I think the dominant category would just be extra or broken or cheap tools that aren't worth hanging on to. For some reason I have like four stubby Phillips #1 screwdrivers. Cheap hatchets with broken handles. Mushroomed lead mallets. A whole drawer of dull drill bits.

drewzero1 4y ago
Ooh, those are good. I have a few homemade (or home-modified) specialty tools for my old cars, and some I'll certainly never have use for again. Those are one reason I've never yet had a British or German car, though I do have one with a British-derived engine and a German fuel injection system. (I'll have to remember to pass on all the custom tools when I get rid of the car. The chances are slim to none that I'll ever own another one.)

Freak_NL 4y ago

Look at what gets put out at jumble/rummage sales and charity shops. In addition to what others posted, I see a lot of rusty screwdrivers (Phillips and slot) which everyone already has (and most of the time you're using Pozidriv or Torx anyway) and rusty spade drills. Every once in a while you spot a good one before someone else does (pincers, a good vintage cast-iron hacksaw frame for €5, a pristine sheet metal clamp for €1), but most of it is crap. Which does make me wonder where all the good tools go.

Teever 4y ago
> Which does make me wonder where all the good tools go. Now I'm imagining tool companies sending people around to garage sales and estate sales to buy up good used tools to landfill them so that they can sell not so good new tools.
matth3 4y ago
Snapped up by collectors if they are desirable enough, check out the going rate for pre 1960s hand planes or vintage Snap On socket sets in obsolete sizes!

Sander_Marechal 4y ago

I have a manual hand drill and it's awesome for large holes using self-feed bits and for delicate jobs.

mauvehaus 4y ago

A eggbeater drill is as obsolete as it'll ever get. Good ones are worth hanging on to for those occasions when you need to drill a couple of holes some ways from the nearest outlet. Plus, kids love them and will happily spend a ridiculous amount of time drilling holes in scrap. They also work in tighter spots than an electric drill. There's usually less bulk off the axis in at least one direction, generally opposite the crank. If you're in a corner, you're usually boned though. The drills that are guaranteed to be trash in 20 years are the battery ones. I have a set and love them for when I need to drill more than a couple holes, but I have no illusions that I'll be passing them down to anybody because the batteries will be unavailable.

mensetmanusman 4y ago

My favorite: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planimeter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planimeter Found one of these cleaning an old science lab, was very confused by what it was initially. Wonder what tools will look like in 1k years…