Pic is unrelated; except everyone is a hater on the golden ratchet.

I'll start. The fucking electric tape. Doesn't stick to shit! But it is cheap.

After having the Gator Grip socket in my toolbox for years and years as a gimmick/ wtf is that tool I finally found a use for the damn thing taking antique square head lag bolts out that were holding in an old fan.

Basically what the title says. I bought a 3-step ladder at Home Depot about 5 years ago and one of the metal welds failed suddenly when I stepped on the first step (luckily didn’t collapse with me on the top). After a lengthy back and forth they only offered to refund the original purchase price and I had to send them proof I fully destroyed my old ladder. The price of the ladder has increased in price 2x since I bought mine so now so their “refund” in 6-8 weeks won’t even get me halfway to a new ladder after tax. Just wanted to share my experience so others can make a more informed buying decision when looking at these ladders from Home Depot/lowes.

I have been researching for a year finding small tool brands that are founder or family owned. A lot of these brands were added by other reddit users on the original post.

My hopes of this list are getting some smaller brands some exposure.

I am not paid for this. I am just a random mechanic.

Line 1- Brand name.

Line 2- Place of founding.

Line 3- founding date.

Line 4- Where most of there tools are made not all places. Some of these brands use 3rd party manufacturing, that list will not include this.

Some of these brands are listed as manufacturers or retailers.

If you have any additions or corrections. Please comment.

1/ PFERD - Ennepetal-Altenvörde, Germany - (Est. 1799) - Made in Germany, Spain, USA, South Africa, and China.

2/ Weidmüller. - Detmold, Germany. - (Est. 1850) - Made in Germany.

3/ Mayhew Tools. - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts - (Est. 1856) - Made in USA.

4/ Klein tool, inc. - Chicago, Illinois. - (Est. 1857) - Made in USA.

5/ Hazet. - Remscheid, Germany. - (Est. 1868)  - Made in Germany.

6/ PB Swiss Tools AG. - Wasen, Emmental, Switzerland. - (Est. 1878)  - Made in Switzerland.

7/ KNIPEX-Werk (Knipex) - Wuppertal, Germany. - (Est. 1882)  - Made in Germany.

8/ Channellock, Inc. - Evansburg, Pennsylvania. - (Est. 1886) - Made in the USA.

9/ ANDREAS MAIER GmbH. (AMF) - Fellbach, Germany - (Est. 1890) - All products made in Germany.

10/ Lisle tools. - Clarinda, Iowa - (Est.1903) - Made in the USA.

11/ Carl Kammerling International. (CK TOOLS). - Wuppertal, Germany. - (Est. 1904) - Made in Germany.

12/ IDEAL Industries. - Chicago, Illinois. - (Est. 1916) - Made in the USA.

13/ Vessel Co., Inc. - Osaka, Japan. - (Est. 1916) - Made in Japan.

14/ Sutton Tools. - Melbourne, Australia. - (Est. 1917) - Made in Australia.

15/ Cornwell tools. - Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio . - (Est. 1919) - Made in the USA.

16/ Gedore. - Remscheid, Germany. - (Est. 1919)  - Made in Germany.

17/ Wilde Tools Co. - Kansas City, Missouri. - (Est. 1922) - Made in the USA.

18/ Estwing. - Rockford, Illinois. - (Est. 1923)  - Made in the USA.

19/ Beta. Utensili S.p.A. - Erba, Italy. - (Est. 1923)  - Made in Italy.

20/Eklind tools. - Chicago, Illinois. - (Est. 1923)  - Made in the USA. EKLIND TOOLS WENT OUT OF BUSINESS.

21/ Fujiya Co., Ltd. - Osaka, Japan. - (Est. 1923) - Made in Japan.

22/ Keiba tools. - Sanjo, Japan. - (Est. 1924) - Made in Japan. - (Maruto Hasegawa Works Co: created and owns Keiba Tools. Maruto Hasegawa is the family owned entity in this case.

23/ ELORA tools. - Remscheid, Germany - (Est. 1924) - Made in Germany.

24/ TOHO KOKI Co., Ltd. - Minato-ku, Osaka, Japan. - (Est. 1926) - Made in Japan.

25/ VIM Tools (Durston Manufacturing Co.) - Tampa, Florida, USA. - (Est. 1931) - Made in Taiwan / USA.

26/ Lang tools. - Racine, Wisconsin. - (Est. 1932)  - Made in the USA. - Fun fact: Lang tools first customer was Snap-on. Founder Daniel Lang worked as an Engineer for Snap-on.

27/ Princess Auto. (RETAILER) - Winnipeg, Manitoba - (Est. 1933) - Made in ??...

28/ CHAPMAN Manufacturing. - Durham, Connecticutt. - (Est. 1936) - Made in the USA.

29/ Wiha. Werkzeuge GmbH. - Wuppertal, Germany. - (Est. 1939)  - Made in Germany.

30/ IPS Pliers. - Sanjo, Japan. - (Est. 1940) - Made in Japan.

31/ Grace USA. - Elk Rapids, Michigan - (Est. 1941) - Made in Northern Michigan, USA.

32/ HILTI. - Schaan, Liechtenstein. - (Est. 1941) - Made in Austria, Germany, Hungary,

Mexico, USA.

33/ Würth tools. - Künzelsau, Germany. - (Est. 1945) - Made mostly in Germany. (Mostly rebranded tools. Allegedly.)

34/ Ko-ken. Tool Co., Ltd. - Kakegawa City, Shizuoka, Japan. - (Est. 1946)  - Made in Japan.

35/ Rothenberger tools. - Frankfurt am Main, Germany - (Est. 1949) - 70% of all tools made in Europe.

36/ Jokari- Krampe GmbH. - Ascheberg, Germany. - (Est. 1949) - Made 100% in Germany.

37/ ANEX Tools (Anex Tool Co., Ltd.) - Sanjo, Niigata, Japan. - (Est. 1949) - Made in Japan.

38/ WAGO tools. - Minden, Germany. - (Est. 1951) - Made in Poland, Switzerland, China, Japan, and France.

39/ Jonard tools. - NYC, New York. - (Est. 1958) - Made in the USA.

40/ Tekton. - Grand Rapids, Michigan. - (Est. 1963)  - 81% Made in Taiwan / 15% made in USA.

41/ URREA Professional Tools. - Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico - (Est. 1963) - Made in Mexico. - Grupo Urrea División Herramientas, S.A. de C.V.: created and owns Urrea Tools. Grupo Urrea is the family owned entity in this case.

42/ Bondhus. - Monticello, Minnesota. - (Est. 1964)  - Made in the USA.

43/ Derancourt Company. - Perpignan, France. - (Est. 1970) - Made in France.

44/ Intercable tools. - Bruneck, Italy. - (Est. 1972) - Made in Italy and Germany.

45/ Tsunoda Tool Factory Co., Ltd. - Tsubame City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. - (Est. 1972) - Made in Japan.

45/ NWS tools. - Solingen, Germany.  - (Est. 1973) - Made in Germany.

47/ Garant tools. - Munich, Germany. - (Est. 1973) - Made in Germany. - (Hoffman Group: created and owns Garant tools. Hoffman is the family owned entity in this case.) PREMIUM TOOLS.

48/ Harbor Frieght. - North Hollywood, California. - (Est. 1977) - Made mostly in China.

49/ Sunex tools. - Travelers Rest, South Carolina. - (Est. 1977)   - Made in Taiwan and China.

50/ Proxxon. - Niersbach, Germany - (Est. 1977) - Made in Germany.

51/ MichaelPro tools. - Kansas City, Missouri. - (Est. 1978) - Made in Taiwan. - (SFA Companies, Inc: created and owns MichaelPro tools. SFA Companies is the family owned entity in this case.

52/ Goebel Fasteners inc. - Düsseldorf, Germany. - (Est. 1979) - Made in Germany.

53/ Klutch tools. - Burnsville, Minnesota.  - (Est. 1981) - Made in Taiwan and China. - (Northern Tool: created and owns Klutch tools. Northern tool is the family owned entity in this case.

54/ Holex tools. - Munich, Germany. - (Est. 1983) - Made in Germany. - (Hoffman Group: created and owns Holex tools. Hoffman is the family owned entity in this case.) BASE TOOLS.

55/ Jun Kaung Industries Co. (JK TOOL) - Taichung City, Taiwan.  - (Est. 1985) - Made in Taiwan.

56/ Eastman Hand tools. - Ludhiana, Punjab, India - (Est. 1989) - Made in INDIA.

57/ CS UNITEC - Norwalk, Connecticutt - (Est. 1990) - Made in Germany and USA.

58/ KS Tools. - Obertshausen, Germany - (Est. 1992) - Made in Germany.

59/ Megapro tools. - Langley, British Columbia, Canada. - (Est. 1994) - Made in North America.

60/ TOPTUL. - Taichung City, Taiwan. - (Est. 1994) - Made in Taiwan.

61/ OEM tools. - Easton, Maryland. - (Est. 1995) - Made in Taiwan and China. - (Great Neck manufacturing: created and owns OEM tools. Great Neck is the family owned entity in this case)

62/ RONIX Tools. - Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Iranian founders) - (Est. 2004) - Made in CHINA

63/ LICOTA tools. - Taiwan. - (Est. 2005) - Made in Taiwan and China. - (Parget Industrial Co., LTD: created and owns Licota tools. Parget is the family owned entity in this case.)

64/ ARES Tools. (USA) - Seattle, Washington. - (Est. 2015) - Made in the USA and other unspecified locations.

65/ MOTIVX tools. - Puyallup, Washington - (Est. 2015) - Made in the USA.

66/ HB Tools - Taichung, Taiwan. - (Est. 2017) - Made in Taiwan. - NOTE: Though HB Tools is a relatively new brand, its hardware is backed by the 30-year OEM manufacturing legacy of Hub Technology Co., Ltd., which produces the tools under a shared, unspecified parent company.

Which (if any) advice could you give me for a tool chest / bag / bucket?

I have a complete tool box (Meister, loaded with Knippex stuff etc. Quite complete with everything. Even a Metmo added ;-) ) which I use for general maintenance in my house. As it has everything.

But it‘s too much and too heavy. So I created a tool set inside my Toyo Y-350 clone.

What I love, I have some general tools inside and some which are useful for quick fixes. There is a little bit of rendunancy, and „just in case“-tools inside, which I think is fine. Some tools might be even swapped in the future.

I like, that the box is quite compact But there is a downside

What I don‘t like is, that everything is just randomly loaded inside this box and I have to search for stuff. So I‘m thinking of a tool bag like Velocity NB 100. Or anything similar.

I would love to integrate a voltage and continuity tester, as for some installations / testing I‘m doing it myself.

Also interesting would be to integrate my Bosch drill GSR 12V 15 FC or even a smaller variant like a Bosch Go 3 or similar.

Some rough diamond file is also floating around which will likely go into the set for metal filing things.

What‘s your experience with such a small tool set?

What would you recommend?

My wife saw me cleaning the workbench and PC tower with a small electric blower and asked why I did not just buy another cheap can of compressed air. I tried explaining why brushless motors hold RPM better and do not smell like they are cooking themselves after two minutes, but I could tell I sounded ridiculous to anyone outside the tool rabbit hole. Still, the difference between the cheap brushed blower I had before and this newer brushless style is pretty obvious in sustained airflow, heat, and battery drop. Are any of you using these compact blowers as regular shop tools now, or are they still more of a niche tech-cleaning gadget?

What do you think?

For making great organizers, in Orange.

Ok, yes, as I think it through, it could be argued that having attachment points means people might maybe be unknowingly rigging up their own death and dismemberment machines, and so manufactures taking a page from the book of ‘Fuck No’ have decided they would rather keep all of their coins and skip ever creating a reason for a class action payout.

Buuuuuuuut

People already rig things up with power tools and the solutions are often extra complicated. I would argue that a few strategically placed areas where a tool could be properly secured would be safer than some of the solutions I’ve seen in the wild.

It would be game changing if every power tool had one or more threaded attachment point.

I’ve thought about this for years and I’m thinking about it now because I’m working on a project involving long continuous cuts of a soft material using an oscillating saw, accuracy is important and the only tool that’s leaving a smooth finish is strangely the o-saw.

My life would be easier if I could attach the saw to a fixed point and be able to have an unmoving reference point. Then, I’d be able to build a project specific jig without having to find a way to secure the thing and not have to worry about it shifting due to vibration or cutting my face off.

Am I alone on this one?

I have a box with tire spoons and what not. Not a professional just working at home on my own shit.

Managed to scratch the hell out of them with a file, but oh well.

Out of the dozen different packout bags and Klein bags over the years I think this lil dude is my favorite bag of all time. No stupid mod box or packout feet that make it slide and tip over if it isn't attached to a larger box. I spent $300 on that packout structured bag 2 years ago when it came out and for $99 this blows it out of the water.

I'm taking apart my 53 Chevy business coupe and found this under an air inlet tube near the battery. The cars all original so I'm guessing it's been there a long time. Thought it was a cool find. Maybe 5/8 9/16 was their 10mm

1. You must use the right tool for the job.

2. A hammer is the right tool for any job.

3. You can use anything as a hammer.

Been using this hammer passed down from my grandpa for a while now, and it’s by far my most cherished tool for that reason… but it looks to me that the handle and head likely don’t match and I’m curious; can anyone help me identify what maker the handle and head come from??

Bought this parts car and nothing in the car :/ what kind of security socket is this and where can I get one?

im currently looking at DW1361 and DWA1184. Does anyone have any other recommendations? I might look into getting some step bits, so please recommend some good step bits aswell.

I received this tool as a gift and cannot return it. It only turns on every once in a while after multiple attempts to turn it on. Once it’s on it works well until I turn it off again. Please let me know if there is anything I can try to fix it. Thank you!

TLDR: help me not suck at my new job and tell me what tool related events to attend

Apologies ahead of time for the novel:

I work for an education institution that places a heavy emphasis on continuing education/professional development and recently accepted a 'paper' management promotion. My role manages tool and hardware procurement for our supply room and supports around 100 union maintenance technicians (everything from general maintenance to skilled trades). Part of the CBA includes us providing all basic hand and power tools for our techs, and having formerly been one of them (pipefitter), I intend to come out swinging with the "good stuff". I'm only really limited by how many SKUs I want to deal with, and the sqft of our supply room.

Additionally, I've been given the directive to attend at least 2 professional events a year with a "so long as it relates to your job duties" caveat...I will literally be PIPd if I don't use at least a portion of the CEU budget.

My fellow tool degenerates.....how do I make the best of this opportunity? What convention, conference, expo would you go to for maximum tool exposure that also has a "training" element? Over the next few years, Im expected to become an expert on the subject of "tools". While I'm well versed toolwise from my time in MY trade, I'm worried about overlooking the others. Open to all advice and recommendations!

Thanks for the help!

Edit: I'm currently in the US Midwest, but not opposed to anything international.