Need tool suggestions

[Fishbone333]

Been at my new position about 60 days. Maintenance at a school. The tools that are there are crap and the board told me to make a list of what I need. Looking for suggestions, I need everything. Screwdrivers, socket sets, cordless drills, all kinds of shit. I do everything from plumbing to hvac, electrical, mechanical the whole 9 yards. What say ye fellow wrenchers?

 

[Clb]

Quality first.
as they are gunna balk at a $20 list, I would look at tools that will be multi taskers first.
Then must have specialty trade tools.
Then tool maintenance equipment, and the like.

 

[Benny]

Are you working alone?

Good tools tend to disappear if there are several people working together. The amount of money spend on tools may depend on it.

 

[Yblow]

I love my milwaukee 12v nut driver with Its adjustable torque settings. That would be 1st on my list along with sockets and bits for it.

 

[cj3a]

I run the maintenance and facility department at a new site. I took all my tools home which I bought so I needed a new tool set. I had the company buy me 3/8 and 1/4 drive, pipe wrenches, screw driver set, pliers and a locking tool box. All from macmaster Carr. Just give them the part numbers it was all good stuff. It was about 25% of what I had bought originally for my self. I am surprised what I can get done with less. But I am also management so that maybe part of it

 

[Fishbone333]

Quality first.
as they are gunna balk at a $20 list, I would look at tools that will be multi taskers first.
Then must have specialty trade tools.
Then tool maintenance equipment, and the like.

Yeah was going to go with a knipex plier set, some good insulated screwdrivers, a decent socket set then specialty tools.

 

[Fishbone333]

Are you working alone?

Good tools tend to disappear if there are several people working together. The amount of money spend on tools may depend on it.

I'm the director, got one guy that works for me, hiring another shortly. I will lock and police the tools as if they were my home shop tools.

 

[arse_sidewards]

I'm the director, got one guy that works for me, hiring another shortly. I will lock and police the tools as if they were my home shop tools.

Don't be an ass. It's a school. Even if your guys don't steal shit the kids and teachers will when they turn their backs. You probably won't lose too many power tools but hand tools and anything small enough to pocket will absolutely go missing. Buy cheap shit and expect to be replacing it from the time time. You can pretend to run an aircraft maintenance facility and track shit but you're just gonna stress everyone out doing that.

If it were me I'd go to the local used tool dealer that does estate clean-outs and work out a package deal for 3-4 guys worth of basic hand tools and then go with Ryobi or some other value line for the power tools and then get a HF toolbox for each guy and put a cheapo security camera in the tool rim. No matter how much you want to delude yourself you're not working in a high dollar faced paced industry where spending 3x as much for a tool that will take 4yr to break instead of three makes sense.

 

[Johann]

Where are the tools left by your predecessor?

Is there a Facilities Group for the entire system that does larger stuff or are you it? Do you hold a cert in each trade they expect?

 

[Pocahontas]

I would go with a set of wrenches/ratchets/ sockets and screwdrivers easily warranted(home depot, lowes, hf, ace whateveris convenient), in my experience nice stuff is nice but middle of the road do just fine. Then decent set of adjustables and channel locks(knipex just do it, they are worth it) then pick your poison on cordless and get the 'kit'(impact, drill, Sawzall, circular saw, oscillating saw) then buy whatever you need as you go. You can do a ton with just a set of hand tools and a set of drills may not be the fastest but you will get it done with a bit of time and patience.

 

[HELL BOUND]

Proto has been the industrial standard pretty much everywhere I've worked. But proto is expensive. If your looking at budget friendly id give the tekton stuff a shot. I've watched quite a few reviews and they hold up pretty dang good for the price. Also the warranty with them is the best I've seen. No more hunting down the tool truck for repairs simply email a picture name and address to them and they send you a new one.