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What’s one tool you own but never use? We are asking e14 in our Join, Share & Win Competition

Hello Everyone!

Firstly, I would love to wish you all a Happy New Year!

We’re back with another AskE14 question, and this one’s all about your tool stash! We all have that one tool tucked away in a drawer, gathering dust because we never seem to use it, or maybe you bought it for a project that never happened, or it just wasn’t as useful as you thought.

Here's the question:

What’s one tool you own but never use, and why?

Is it something you regret buying? Something that looked cooler than it turned out to be? Or maybe something you think you should use more often, but never do?

Competition Details

You'll have to be a member of the element14 Community to join in and take part in this “Join, Share & Win” challenge. It's simple, all you have to do is:

1. You need to make sure you are Register or Login
2. Then answer the following question by adding a reply or commenting!

What’s one tool you own but never use, and why?

The Community team will then select the best 4 answers to win the UNO R4 Arduino!

Entries close 1st February, so don't wait!

This month, we are giving away:

UNO R4 Minima

Terms and conditions

PDF

The Winners

E14Alice will be reaching out to you soon to confirm contact details

Top Replies

colporteur 2 months ago in reply to beacon_dave
It is one of those tools I use rarely. It works. Buying another one seems a waste. I don't have any hand-me-down hosts that would appreciate it. It was good quality and expensive when I bought it compared to others. Who knew 15 years ago battery drain when not turned on was important.

I just keep track of the new swear words I develop when I reach up on the shelf to find it. Augh Son of a

Beautiful, Intelligent, Talented, Capable, Hero

the battery is dead again!
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Workshopshed 2 months ago

I bought a cross vice a few years back thinking that it would be good for precision drilling. But it turned out that it was too tall for my drill press and difficult to clamp. So just last year, I gave that to the local "Tools with a Mission" centre who take old tools and give them a new life.
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JWx 2 months ago

fire extinguisher?
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kmikemoo 2 months ago in reply to dougw

dougw Alas, I have used every port in that crimper. I even have a cable testers for the RJ45 cables I make. (I would have two but I left the other one at work when I retired.) Oddly enough, some not so old amateur radios still use RJ11 connectors.
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kmikemoo 2 months ago in reply to beacon_dave

I thought mine was getting the power button pushed when I closed the lid on the case. I guess I was wrong.

The caliper I use most is an very inexpensive one that I think was part of a gift package from e14. I also won a really nice one from e14 - but the plastic one is just so handy.
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dougw 2 months ago in reply to kmikemoo

I have an RJ cable tester as well, but I have actually used it a couple of times.
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Gough Lui 2 months ago

A cheap pair of automatically adjusting wire strippers.

It turns out it won't do delicate things without marring the wire, nor can it handle shorter lengths or smaller gauges, so I went back to manual ones.
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vmate 2 months ago in reply to Gough Lui

I'm convinced that no good automagic wire strippers exist. I have half a dozen, and they all suck in different ways, making them close to completely useless. Oddly, the trend seems to be that more expensive means worse. The most usable ones are two 3 dollar cheapos.
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Workshopshed 2 months ago in reply to dougw

I've used an ethernet crimp a few times to make my own cables but not for a few years. Only just bought an IC puller last month so yet to use that by expecting it will be used a reasonable amount.
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Workshopshed 2 months ago in reply to Gough Lui

That's interesting to hear, also had no luck stripping very fine cables
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