Tools that changed your life

[Love2 boat]

A really large hammer for those square pegs in a round hole...

[mako]

JB Weld

Is that considered a tool???

[Love2 boat]

Originally Posted by mako

JB Weld

Is that considered a tool???

Home Depot says it is...

[OZwingle]

The small butane torch-lighters. Hot enough to solder medium sized lugs to wire; small enough for heat shrink wrap, great for heat-cold cycling to free corroded fasteners, refillable. Also known as a crack torch.

[jeanathon]

If you can't fix it with a hammer the problem might be electrical.

[sv_isara]

For me, 3 things (but i could list more):
Going all lithium 20v. Getting cheap generic additional batteries so I'm never without a charge. For my house I have a 20v chainsaw which is great for a small yard. Chopped down 18"+ trees

flexible drill extension bit. I can drill holes as long as I can get just the drill bit itself (plus one more inch for the flexible extension) to the location. example: https://www.amazon.com/Superbit-Flex...Y2hfYXRm&psc=1

plumbing snake tool that I use for wire and rope fishing. I hate doing it but I've fished countless wires through long (10 foot+) invisible routes. I even cleared a vent hose with it!

[SomeGuyInaShirt]

Impact gun. Though mostly for land vehicles (so far) it saves so much time. I remember it took me 6 hours to drop a fuel tank and change a fuel pump on a car once due to stuck fasteners. Undoubtedly the impact gun would have saved hours. Used it on the boat for keel bolts too.

[CaptainRivet]

For those with limited space have a look at AEG Multitool omni pro
https://www.aeg-powertools.eu/de-de/technologies/omni-pro
All you need in a bag 30cmx30cmx25cm
Have it and can recommend it.
Add their 18V powerdrill and 18V Orbital Sander and get 5x battery pack und you have all you need.
What really surprised me is the AEG 18V Powerdrill is a beast and easily beats the 18V Makita but you can nicely adjust the torque setting to your liking.

[Calaban-Alleria]

Originally Posted by mako

JB Weld

Is that considered a tool???

I consider it a GREAT tool - used it to fix my broken steering radial wheel. Got us where we were going and lasted till I could get my hands on a new one.

[Iron E]

About 30+ years ago I bought a Skewdriver off of the Cornwell truck. Initially, I looked for things I could use it on... then came in a Lincoln Continental Heater Core replacement.
I found that the handle is removable and the angle head can be placed on a cordless drill. It has become one of the most used tool in my $50k toolbox.

A couple of week ago I was installing a new Vetus water strainer and needed to drill and add fasteners back in a long galley drawer... The Skewdriver and a cordless and 5-10 minutes.

[westsailwill]

Electric Windlass…

[Cheechako]

iPhone
Swiss Army Knife mini.

[mako]

Originally Posted by Calaban-Alleria

I consider it a GREAT tool - used it to fix my broken steering radial wheel. Got us where we were going and lasted till I could get my hands on a new one.

Best use I had was to rebuild and reform the corroded water passage seats on the blocks of my 6-71's. They were aluminum blocks and had corroded over 40+ years, allowing cooling water to seep into the oil. Cruised thousands of miles after that.

It's hard to kill a Jimmie... maybe that's the problem

[babyhauler]

bash command line utility

I learned command line computing in the 80's. Mid 2000's rediscovered it on Ubuntu Linux. Used it daily for work and personal computing since then. It's a computing super tool.

[ChrisJHC]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

iPhone
Swiss Army Knife mini.

With the plethora of YouTube videos available to show you how to do just about any job on the boat, a phone or tablet is a great supplementary tool!