The Great Tool Debate

One of the things that you simply can't live without if you own a boat, whether it's sail or power, is tools. If you own a boat it's going to break. A lot. It doesn't matter if you're a mechanic or not, unless you're independently wealthy you better own tools and learn how to use them. A lot of tools.

In addition to anchoring tackle and procedures, tools probably hold one of the top discussion topic positions among cruiser gatherings. Types of tools, brands of tools, favorite tools, can I borrow it tools, and what tools are on the buy-next list. There's even discussions about the degrees of list your boat might have depending on where you store the tools. On Kintala, we had a workshop in the aft cabin starboard side that meant she listed about 5º to starboard. If you're really lucky, you can balance out the tool weight with batteries or food storage or water tanks, but in Kintala it was the only option to keep them organized.

So, you might ask, why the word "debate" in the title of this post? Well, it's because one of the most fevered discussions among cruisers is whether to buy really good tools so that they last, or whether to buy Harbor Freight tools because they're cheap. I'll tell you where I stand on the issue, but I promise there are many that disagree.

First of all, almost everyone I know has a missing 1/2" socket in their set. Why you ask? Because it's one of the most common sockets and it almost always involves working either over the water or over the part of the bilge under the engine where no man, woman, or child can retrieve it. Tools get lost overboard at an astonishing rate (along with the hardware you were trying to remove) and, at some 50 years in the future when your boat gets dismantled for the dump, all manner of tools and hardware will likely fall out of the bilge. Replacing your favorite Snap-on socket with an original in the middle of the Bahamas isn't even an option, and watching that Snap-on 3/8" drive ratchet that you've had since you were 18 sink slowly into the abyss can bring one to tears rather quickly, as anyone who has ever forked over hard-earned cash for Snap-on tools can tell you.

In addition to losing tools, the salt air is brutal to all things metal. Unless you have nothing but extra time to sit and polish and lubricate all of your tools at least once a month with WD-40, they will rust. Salt has no respect for the fancy Snap-on logo. It is an equal opportunist when it comes to destruction. This brings us to the power tools.

Power tools will rust inside the deep, dark depths of their inners, and there is very little you can do to stop it. The corrosion lifespan of power tools seems to be exactly the same whether you buy the $400 drill or the $38 drill. There's also the discussion of cordless vs corded power tools. We have a cordless drill onboard for ease of use, but we also have corded tools of every other variety—sanders, drills, multi-tools, angle grinders. They tend to be more powerful dollar for dollar and last exactly the same. Yes, powering up the Honda generator and lugging a 50' extension cord to do some work can be an inconvenience, but much less of an inconvenience than running out of battery before you finish a job.

So you can see where I'm going with this. Yes, Harbor Freight is our favorite tool store. And while we have had a couple tools fail early on in their lives, for the most part the tools are very sturdy and do the work well. The one exception we had was their 1/4 sheet palm sander. The brackets that held in the sandpaper wouldn't hold and after exchanging it twice we went to Lowe's and bought one of their less expensive sanders to replace it. Harbor Freight is also the best place for buying consumable supplies—sandpaper, grinding disks, tie wraps, buffing pads, electrical connectors, tapes of all sorts, zoot suits, masks, vinyl gloves, foam brushes, chip brushes, plastic sheeting, blue towels, safety glasses, knee pads...The one thing that I won't get there is hardware. While their hardware is fine for my household applications, the stainless isn't of good enough quality to survive boat life.

I do have to add a caveat—we did bring some tools to the boat that Tim has owned for half a century from his days as an aircraft mechanic. Most of our hand tools and sockets came from those tools, as well as specialty items like compound dikes, a gear puller, a tap and die set, hose cutters, tin shears, safety wire pliers, punches and chisels, easy-outs. These were from his original Snap-on and Craftsman sets that he bought for his aircraft mechanic school and the 40 years of being an aircraft mechanic in shops.

Harbor Freight is also the place I buy my hardware boxes. We use them for small parts, hardware, sewing supplies, and even for snack boxes on overnight trips. They come in several different sizes. The thing I really like about these boxes is that instead of dividers inside they have individual little boxes that you can lift out. So when you're up working on a rolling deck, you only lose the contents of the one little bin instead of the whole hardware box. Ask me how I know...

So I thought I'd add here a list of the tools that we've bought at Harbor Freight that we have found indispensable, or just plain useful, and have stood the test of time.

1. Absolutely at the top of the list is what we call "The Magic Tool". It's an oscillating multi-tool with many different heads that allow for grinding sanding, cutting, plunge cutting, and scraping. We use it constantly. They carry all the attachments for it as well and if you watch their coupon sales you can pick them up pretty cheap. We always have a supply of both wood and metal cutting blades on the boat.
2. Corded drill. A good, basic, variable speed drill.
3. Drill Bits.  We have four different sets: a drill bit set for wood, and a better one for metal, a set of spade bits and a hole saw set.
4. Angle grinder. We don't use it very ofter but when you need it, you need it.
5. Jigsaw. We use this all the time.
6. Screwdriver sets. We have 2. A cheap one, and a better one. We have the cheaper ones in places like the galley junk drawer (doesn't everybody have one???) and the more expensive ones in Tim's tool box in the engine room.
7. Heat gun Ours came in a box with a tool kit but they don't offer it together anymore. Honestly, we rarely use the accessories.
8. Soldering iron. We don't use it very often but boy when you need it...
9. Buffer. This is the 10" but we currently only have the smaller 6" polisher onboard.
10. Saw horses. As cheap as these are we never expected them to last but they have held up dramatically well and they are super lightweight, a big benefit on boats. They fold flat and store easily in our lazaretto.
11. Work bench. Harbor Freight doesn't carry the one we bought anymore but this one on Amazon is the same although it's ten dollars more than we paid at HF.
12. Circular Saw. We don't own this one yet but plan to own it soon. 
13. Sander. This orbital sander has worked well. This square sheet sander is the one we returned. This detail sander has also worked well for us, although the dust collector tends to fall off so we have to tape it.
14. Knock-off Dremel tool. We also bought their tool kit which is a fraction of the price as the Dremel brand and does an equally good job. It comes in a nice storage box.
15. Clamps. We have three different styles. The metal screw type, the ratcheting plastic ones, and the hand clamps. We use all of them all the time.
16. Rulers. We have several and use them all the time. the most used is this combination square.
17. Spotlights. We'll be replacing ours that died before this season with this rechargeable waterproof version.
18. Flashlights we have several of these in various locations on the boat.
19. Extension cords these are super heavy duty 12/3 outdoor cords. They also carry a heavier 10/3 with a triple outlet head on it.
20. Crimper. The ratcheting type like this one is the best type. We also have this hydraulic crimper for heavier cables like battery cables.
21. Rivet Gun. We love this rivet gun. Everywhere we go it gets passed around the boatyard.
22. Tool Kit. This is a very cheap kit of very cheap tools, but we keep it under one of our settees just so that we have a complete tool kit for very quick jobs. It also goes to the apartment when we're off the boat. 

I'm sure that there's a bunch of things I'm missing, but these are the ones that we use all the time and come to mind. We have a standing joke that we can't get out of Harbor Freight without spending at least $100. But oh boy what you get for that $100! 

I do want to mention two particular tools that didn't come from Harbor Freight but are worth mentioning because they're very good tools. When we first bought Kintala we bought these Gearwrench wrench sets from Home Depot. They are ratcheting wrenches that come in SAE and Metric combination wrenches as well as stubby ones and both come in flex head versions. We have all three on board.

The other tool is our Ryobi cordless drill. We bought this drill way back at the beginning of our boating adventure and it has held up well ever since. We've had it so long that they don't even make it quite the same anymore, but we bought the newer version for our daughter for her birthday last year and it's held up equally well so far. I know a lot of people swear by DeWalt, but this drill has performed flawlessly.

So the debate will continue to rage, and everybody has to do what their budget allows, but for us the solution has been Harbor Freight for almost everything we use.