Progress on 'the new me'.

[Rick Potter]

I have always been a sucker for a really good deal. As such I ended up being quite the tool collector, especially a decade back with the last recession when tools were being sold at real bargains.

Anyway, yesterday I came along a CL ad for a decent looking Craftsman 12" band saw...runs good, just needs new blade. $25, and it is within a mile of me. The old me would have had it home by now. That is why I have 30 routers right now.

Proudly announcing that I never even made the call. After all I own three bandsaws anyway.

I know how trivial this sounds, but to me it is progress.

Then again, maybe it's because I don't own a truck anymore........nah.

[Chris Schoenthal]

Tiny steps Rick, tiny steps.
Next you'll have to work on not looking through CL for old tools in the first place. :D

[Frederick Skelly]

Good job Rick. Keep going.

[Alan Lightstone]

Let's back up a step. 30 routers????? Really?

[Jim Becker]

A 12 step program for GAS... :D :D :D

(Gear Acquisition Syndrome)

[glenn bradley]

Well done. One day at a time ;-)

[Brian Runau]

Withdrawal is a slow process.

[Bernie Kopfer]

Not accumulating stuff is un-American. Getting and keeping stuff you don’t need keeps our consumerist economy going. Do you really want to be labeled as being unpatriotic?

[Paul Wunder]

Where does your support group meet?

[Randy Viellenave]

I wish you were my neighbor, I could just borrow your extra tools instead of buying my own :)

[Michael Schuch]

Let's back up a step. 30 routers????? Really?


I am not up to Rick's level but I have about 20 routers. Mostly older models but still several newer models. When you see a PC 690 or Bosch 1650 for $40 how are supposed to pass that up? My justification is how much time I am saving on bit changes!

[Rick Potter]

Most of them I picked up used. Before the new style compact routers were fashionable I picked up four small B&D routers about that size. They are really neat, but cheapo. They look like a Bosch Colt with two D handles, which makes them really nice to hold safely. I bought them separately for $20, two $10 and a $5. They each have a small round over or laminate trim bit...ready to go.

Some I got with table saws I bought and turned over. I remember getting a barely used Bosch kit with plunge and standard bases...the one with the wooden handles. The lady advertised it for $125, I think. Offered her $100 and she refused. Couple weeks later it is advertised at $80 and I bought it. I didn't tell her I had offered more earlier.

Got a DeWalt 621 at Lowes at closeout of $40. Display model missing a collet and another part. Called DeWalt to buy the parts and they sent them free. Another I could not pass up was a new PC 690 from Lowes for $40 NIB.

I could go on, but I don't want to sound like a tool collector.

On the other hand, I have a few router tables, which will be found in the classifieds someday. My first one cost 50 cents.

[Alex Zeller]

It's hard. A few years ago one of the on-line auction houses had a commercial Rockwell radial arm saw (the one built like a tank) about 5 miles from my house. Nobody bid on it until the last few minutes. It received just one bid and sold for $25. Of course who knows how high they would have gone but I was so tempted to buy it. I have no use for one and just moving it (I think they said it weighed over 500lbs) would have been a pain. I even tried to talk myself into thinking I would sell it on Craig's list. But I resisted and have one less tool cluttering up my shop. Baby steps.

[Carl Beckett]

Well done. But be kind to yourself going forward because there is a high chance of a relapse.

I recently wanted to cleanup a bbq grill and restore it. Saw one like it for free that I could rob parts off. Then found another that had some different parts that were a bit better. So on and so forth. I now have 6 BBQ grills sitting in my workshop in various stages of disassembly. I gotta get these things out of here to make room for woodworking again...

Be strong my friend.

[Alan Lightstone]

I'm not immune by any stretch. I think I personally keep Woodpeckers in business. One day I might use one of the 4 edge rules I bought, and haven't used once yet. All hanging on the wall in a nice rack.

3 bandsaw tension gauges. Who needs 3???

Much less the Leigh FMT Pro with accessories whose box I haven't even opened yet.

So I guess I go for variety, not quantity.

Where is this support group meeting again???

[Ray Newman]

Gents: according to my physician, I am "at that age" (76) and about 4-5 years ago I found myself doing the same as Rick Potter. Passed up good deals, then slowly sold off some tools. Last year when my wife was sick, I sold off 35-40 years of collecting Enfield and other military surplus firearms. I found that when I approached 75 years, my attitude about a great deal of what I had and what was doing really changed. At first i thought it was just me, but now I see it in others I know. See what you youngster have to look forward to?:D

[Rick Potter]

Well said, Ray.

I will be 80 in October, and I am definitely slowing down. I am wanting to avoid any new large scale builds and just work on small furniture, which I have never had a chance to play with. Always working on remodels, and rentals until recently when I started hiring out more of that work as I could afford it. Like the signature line reads...DIY journeyman.

My real hobby is cars, and I have also slowed down on them. I gave a Model T to my daughter a couple years ago, and a Model A resto rod to my son in January. Now down to four toy cars, and will probably sell the '55 T-Bird next.

A support group sounds good to me too.

[Alan Lightstone]

...

My real hobby is cars, and I have also slowed down on them. I gave a Model T to my daughter a couple years ago, and a Model A resto rod to my son in January. Now down to four toy cars, and will probably sell the '55 T-Bird next.


Wow. Simply, wow. Lucky kids.

[Michael Schuch]

Most of them I picked up used. Before the new style compact routers were fashionable I picked up four small B&D routers about that size. They are really neat, but cheapo. They look like a Bosch Colt with two D handles, which makes them really nice to hold safely. I bought them separately for $20, two $10 and a $5. They each have a small round over or laminate trim bit...ready to go.

Some I got with table saws I bought and turned over. I remember getting a barely used Bosch kit with plunge and standard bases...the one with the wooden handles. The lady advertised it for $125, I think. Offered her $100 and she refused. Couple weeks later it is advertised at $80 and I bought it. I didn't tell her I had offered more earlier.

Got a DeWalt 621 at Lowes at closeout of $40. Display model missing a collet and another part. Called DeWalt to buy the parts and they sent them free. Another I could not pass up was a new PC 690 from Lowes for $40 NIB.

I could go on, but I don't want to sound like a tool collector.

On the other hand, I have a few router tables, which will be found in the classifieds someday. My first one cost 50 cents.

So how do you organize all your routers? Drawers and shelves don't work very well for me. I was thinking of making a router book case where I could line them all up and only have the one deep, face ups, with a slot in the shelf for the bit and the cord behind the router. I would include router bit storage in the same unit. Then I start thinking that it would be really nice to store all my shaper cutters in it too. Then I pile up all my routers on the shelf and figure it is too much trouble to make a router specific book case like storage unit.

[Michael Schuch]

Gents: according to my physician, I am "at that age" (76) and about 4-5 years ago I found myself doing the same as Rick Potter. Passed up good deals, then slowly sold off some tools. Last year when my wife was sick, I sold off 35-40 years of collecting Enfield and other military surplus firearms. I found that when I approached 75 years, my attitude about a great deal of what I had and what was doing really changed. At first i thought it was just me, but now I see it in others I know. See what you youngster have to look forward to?:D

I started collecting military firearms back in the 90's. I had a curio and relics license in this golden age when they were importing all the European surplus arms. I am 54 and haven't gotten to the point of wanting to part with any yet but there are some less favorites that I am considering selling. My daughter will go out and shoot 22's with me but doesn't like the bigger guns and doesn't have the same appreciation of their history that I do.

479760
I have always been more partial to the Swedish Mausers than the Enfields myself.

[Rick Potter]

ORGANIZE??

Surely you confuse me with someone else. Stored on router tables, table saw wing, shelves, drawers, shed.

And router bits....believe me you don't wanna ask about router bits. I have over a hundred just from one purchase.
I'll bet most of us would have bought them too. I paid $100 for them, less than a buck a bit, and a lot were new.

I would love to see how others store them.

Lots of stuff needs thinning, but I have trouble putting pics on CL, and much of what I have is too heavy to ship, so I don't put much on the classifieds here.

Alan, yeah the cars are worth some money, but I have traded in them for 50 years and my monetary investment really isn't that bad. I sell one, buy another....repeat. Probably had about 170 over the years. Not rich, retired fireman.

[Michael Schuch]

ORGANIZE??

Surely you confuse me with someone else. Stored on router tables, table saw wing, shelves, drawers, shed.

And router bits....believe me you don't wanna ask about router bits. I have over a hundred just from one purchase.
I'll bet most of us would have bought them too. I paid $100 for them, less than a buck a bit, and a lot were new.

I would love to see how others store them.



I completely understand! And yes, I too am sure I would have bought them! I find myself passing on to good to pass up deals more and more but some still light off the G.A.S. I have always had a list in the back of my mind of the machines that I would like to acquire someday. There isn't much left on the list and the shop is full. I keep telling myself that I need to put some of the spares on craigslist. Used machines seem to be going for a premium these days. At least it seems to me like the highest prices I have seen in a long time and the adds are staying up for a pretty short period of time.

Pictures are pretty much a requirement to get much response off craigslist in my experience. Do you have a computer or are you doing everything through your phone?

[Tom Bender]

Is there a way to sell this stuff on commission?