Tools

Electric tools, hand tools and the air tools in between:

the line is drawn by what drives the tool. Anything that plugs in or takes a battery, from a drill-driver to a circular saw, is under electric tools, along with spare batteries and chargers. Tools that run on your arm are under manual tools: the pipe wrench a plumber puts on galvanised pipe, the hacksaw that cuts rebar on a lot with no power yet, the chalk line that marks out a wall before the first block goes down. Air nail guns and impact wrenches sit with air compressors, because the compressor decides which ones you can run.

Kits for the mason, the plumber and the electrician:

buy for the trade rather than the catalogue. A mason’s kit is mostly hand tools that take a beating, the trowel, the float, a hammer and a cold chisel, with a rotary hammer added once there is concrete to drill. A plumber carries two pipe wrenches, one to hold the fitting and one to turn, plus a hacksaw and a PVC cutter. An electrician’s pouch is about insulation: screwdrivers and pliers with handles insulated and rated for live work, a tester, and a fiberglass ladder from ladders and scaffolding. For repairs at home a light-duty set is enough. For anyone who picks up a tool every working day, the heavier forged line pays for itself. Truper sells both: the Truper name for trade work, Pretul for light home use.

Forged hand tools and budget sets after years of use:

a good hand tool barely wears. A forged hammer, a pipe wrench or a set of combination wrenches from Truper or Stanley works the same years later if it was kept dry, so it holds most of its value and a used one saves you little but costs you nothing in quality. A budget set in a moulded plastic case is the opposite: cheap new, so one with sockets missing is worth very little. Cordless tools lose value fastest of all, because the battery ages whether or not the tool gets used.

Mushroomed chisels, loose hammer heads and ground-off initials:

most faults on a used hand tool show up in a minute. A chisel or punch whose struck end has spread into a mushroom can throw chips of steel; it can be ground back, but price it as needing work. Tap a hammer on something hard: a head that shifts, or a wooden handle split near the eye, means a new handle. Close the jaws of pliers and an adjustable wrench and look for daylight, because worn jaws round off nuts. Pull a tape all the way out and let it run back in; a kinked blade or a lock that slips is finished. Rust that comes off with an oily rag is cosmetic, but pitted jaws or a ratchet that skips under load are not. Then look for owner’s marks. Tradespeople engrave or paint their initials on their tools, and a pile where those marks have been ground off, offered cheap with no receipt and no charger, deserves a straight question before you agree a price.

A retiree’s workshop or a builder’s tool bag, as one lot or piece by piece:

tools come up in bulk when someone stops using them: a builder retiring in Chitré, or a couple in Coronado selling up before they move back north with a garage full of tools nobody wants to ship twice. A whole lot sells quickly to someone building a starter kit, but the good pieces fetch more on their own: list the best tools separately and bundle the rest. Give brand and size, say whether each set is complete and count what is missing, and for power tools say which batteries and chargers go with them. Photograph the jaws, the striking faces and any rust. Someone driving in from Arraiján or Las Tablas will ask whether it all fits in a pickup, and whether the rolling chest or the workbench is part of the deal.