Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Hand Tools). This thread is read-only.
Found this at a garage sale by the house, offered $50 with the stuff in it, she countered with $60 and I said “Perfect!”. Figured $60 for the chest and roller was good enough, got it home and emptied it out and wound up with around 100 bucks or so worth of tie-down straps, really nice ratcheting ones, and probably 100 bucks or so worth of a bunch of random tools like screwdrivers, vise grips, etc.. Has really nice slides for the drawers, very smooth and strong. Now I just have to find a spot in the garage for it…
That’s a steal. That was one if those deals you couldn’t lose on.
It’s so hard to find good deals anymore. All I find at garage sales is junk that I don’t want or need. You can most guys don’t wrench or do much work anymore just by the average garage sale.
Pretty sweet deal man!
Good deal kato
Bet it’s a pissed off lady getting revenge
His loss your gain
It was one of those “I want my ex-husband’s crap out of here” types of garage sales. Lot’s of random stuff like crappy tools, motorcycle parts, etc.. You could tell it was a lot of guy’s stuff that looked like it was laying around getting rusty and dusty. A lot of house-brand types of tools, some decent stuff like Ace and Vise Grip, i kept the better stuff out of the tool boxes and through the rest in a box for our future garage sale.
One man’s trash is another man’s trash is another man’s treasure…or something like that…
You know, the thought occurs to me…while I’m not much of a sticker kind of guy, these boxes would probably look much prettier with a couple of TIA stickers on them. Just a thought…
Kato wrote:
You know, the thought occurs to me…while I’m not much of a sticker kind of guy, these boxes would probably look much prettier with a couple of TIA stickers on them. Just a thought…
Kato, I got your back my Illinois brother. PM me your address and I will get one in the mail to you.
Awesome, PM sent!!
I wish I could find deals like thid. I just don’t have the patience for yard sales. I always get my hopes up especially with real life stories like this but after a few houses it’s all junk.
Hell of find Kato.
That is a deal and a half
Javier wrote:
I wish I could find deals like thid. I just don’t have the patience for yard sales. I always get my hopes up especially with real life stories like this but after a few houses it’s all junk.
Yeah, a bunch of books I’ve already read and mismatched junk Indian wrenches and screwdrivers.
Flea markets are my go too, I have got so much stuff from them it’s unreal! I go every weekend and always find great deals. For every three tables I see one has loads of new/used tools for half price.
My flea markets all suck. Just junk as far as tools go.
I just looked on Craiglist to see if there was anything good on it like usual people are crazy on their prices. $150 for a Dewalt 14.4 nicad drill kit, and 175 for a new in box but older Craftsman framing air nailer.You can get a real brand new Hitach for 199 at Lowes. Who knows it might be a desirable nailer for some reason, but I doubt it its probably old and way heaver the the newer nailers.
Some of the stuff that was in the chest and roller…
I just realized that the stuff in the photos doesn’t include the box of random stuff I’m not keeping. Bunch of random no-name sockets, some Ace, an almost full set of deep impact sockets, about 8 or so screwdrivers that were beat up or bent or had bad tips, a bunch of small needle-nose pliers that I did decide to keep, a crapload of random driver bits (which I have a bajillion already, don’t need more), other crap.
For me adjustables commonly find themselves on wet job duty, so keeping them rust free can be a chore.
Very true conductor very true
I actually don’t like adjustables, the only time I use them is when I’m adjusting the springs on my fence gates, and I only use them for that because I haven’t taken the time to memorize what size wrench they take. I have a few adjustable wrenches, one really nice Stanley and some others, but I find myself using them only when it suits my laziness…I don’t want to take a handful of wrenches with me, or I just don’t want to bother trying to figure out what size I need.
They have their place but for me there a tool of convenience and a way to please my laziness. The rusty Crescent…oddly enough it runs pretty smooth, even being so rusty. It had a few tiny hitches in it but I sprayed some good old WD40 in it and it runs super-smooth. I don’t like the rust, but to be honest I probably won’t try to clean it up.
After a little Googling, since curiosity struck me, I found that one of the ratchets is/was a Proto tool at one time or another. “Fleet” as near as I can tell, was a brand made by Proto or for Proto or something like that. Thought Conductor would get a kick out of that info. The 1/2″ ratchet with the rubber grip in this shot, Fleet 165CN (or 1650N, can’t tell if it’s a zero or a C), and made in the U.S. (for those who are gung-ho about that sort of thing)…
[External image (farm4.staticflickr.com), not copied]Garage Sale Stuff 002 by Ed Durbin (Katodog), on Flickr
Quite a find. Tools look alright, ratchet straps are always great to have. Especially when you buy them for so cheap!
Fleet was a “budget” brand produced by Penens after Plomb bought them in the 40’s.
I’ve got some Fleet stuff laying around here somewhere. Pretty decent stuff. Similar to Challenger or the Blackhawk of today.
Conductor562 wrote:
My flea markets all suck. Just junk as far as tools go.
one time i bought 4 files at one, one nicholson half round two simonds and one lenox for 15 bucks it was in omaha nebraska and also i found a makita drill circular saw and impact driver combo set for 60 bucks but i didn’t buy it
What a find…I am jealous.
dude that was a super great deal Kato!!! I haven’t had one of those in a great while.
I just found so far a heavy a$$ crowbar on a real estate stale. bought it for $1.
a old school hacksaw for $1
5 gallon bucket full of nails, screws and on other miscellaneous items out of a garage sale for $5
Nice!!
Nice find….loving the diamond plate
Yup, me too. I took some cleaner and a kitchen scouring pad and went over some of it, got rid of a lot of dirt and rust. Still needs to be gone over again but looks a lot better than it did. It’s a little cannibalized now though, because I took the wheels off of the roller and put it under the bench, and took apart the drawers in the chest and mounted them to the bench. Works out a lot better for me with the small space I have. No biggie because any time I want I can put it all back together…
[External image (farm1.staticflickr.com), not copied]
Garage 053 by Edward Durbin, on Flickr
Nice score my man!
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Kato wrote:
Yup, me too. I took some cleaner and a kitchen scouring pad and went over some of it, got rid of a lot of dirt and rust. Still needs to be gone over again but looks a lot better than it did. It’s a little cannibalized now though, because I took the wheels off of the roller and put it under the bench, and took apart the drawers in the chest and mounted them to the bench. Works out a lot better for me with the small space I have. No biggie because any time I want I can put it all back together…
[External image (farm1.staticflickr.com), not copied]
Garage 053 by Edward Durbin, on Flickr
that’s a fantastic setup for the space! nice thinking taking the chest apart. i have to ask though… is that a microsoft zune on your wall?!
That is a great deal, Gotta love garage sales. Why were they getting rid of something as nice as that? Moving?
Wow that’s a great set up
ankur wrote:
that’s a fantastic setup for the space! nice thinking taking the chest apart. i have to ask though… is that a microsoft zune on your wall?!
Yup. 30Gb of music, non-stop, no commercials. It’s old, but it works splendidly, I use it all the time.
Nice job Kato. I gotta hit more garage sales, they have a ton of them going on where I live…
Kato. I love your shop man. Super inspirational.
Thanks everyone. To be honest I’d like more bench space, but I’m happy with the way things are for now. No plans yet to totally remove everything from the top of the bench, but knowing myself the way I do I’m sure sooner or later I might clear off the whole thing.
As for garage sales…I love them. Even if it’s all crap I enjoy going to them, it’s weird and fun to see what kind of “treasures” people are getting rid of. But, sadly, it typically is just kids clothes and toys and stuff like that. Nothing really good for me to grab.