My wife and I are supposed to give each other and the kids some Christmas gift ideas, but I’m drawing a blank.
I have all the tools I think I need… except a planer, but that’s too steep for a Christmas gift…
Also, my family tends to rely on Amazon wish lists, prob cuz I’m lazy and passed that trait on in this department… 
Anyway, I’m looking for inspiration. So what’s on y’all’s which list? Say, for between $10 and $100, that might be available on Amazon? Or, if its super cool, elsewhere?
Bruce gave me the corner one, it’s awesome!
You use a metric version, right?
It’s amazing what comes up on Amazon for “fancy toothpicks”…
Mostly imperial as that was all that was available here 15 years ago. I have one metric one, but thanks to your question, I’ve just added the 3pc metric set to my cart.
I love their T-squares
Ironically, Herself & I have a lot of imperial rulers due to having hobbies that predominate in 3 countries. Dividing by 10 or Multiplying by 2.54 has become a way of life in this house. So there should be a yellow dot in South Australia too.
The entire Evergreen styrene catalog. 
On this note, this is exactly why I convinced my wife to stop exchanging gifts. She buys what she wants when she wants it, I buy what I want when I want it. Win win.
On a more serious note, I use one of these exclusively for scoring and snapping styrene.
https://a.co/d/9jkDN16
Yeah Craig,
We put up a tree though, then have to explain why there aren’t any presents there too.
Great idea Hollywood, I’d never thought of that.
I got mine probably 20 years ago from my dentist when I asked if they had any dull tools. This was one of them, and I wasn’t sure what to use it for as the original thought was for carving plaster castings->RTV->resin casting of a block wall for my feed mill.
Anyways I noticed how the plaster peeled off and thought huh let’s try this for scoring styrene. I’ve never sharpened it beyond the first sharping when I got it.
It works for me and MicroMark even sells a knock off version.
i got some old tools from my dentist too. used them for many things, but one - i never shoved them into my mouth.
wish list…
i found a short list of essential tools, every modeller should have:
DRILL PRESS:
A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.
WIRE WHEEL:
Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh SH-- '. Also good for nearly slicing off fingers.
ELECTRIC HAND DRILL:
Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.
SKILL SAW:
A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
PLIERS:
Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
BELT SANDER:
An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.
HACKSAW:
One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VISE-GRIPS:
Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH:
Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.
TABLE SAW:
A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:
Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
BAND SAW:
A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.
TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST:
A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:
Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER:
A tool for opening paint cans.
Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.
PRY BAR:
A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER:
A tool used to make hoses too short.
HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.
UTILITY KNIFE:
Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.
DAMN-IT TOOL:
Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ‘DAMN-IT’ at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need
Korm, this looks like something Bill Hines would post! I believe you are stepping up your game. I printed a copy for the guys at work, LMAO. These definitions are spot on.
seems, that he is contagious…
I found a few more, Korm:
WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you’ve been searching for the last 15 minutes.
EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off of a trapped hydraulic jack handle.
TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters and wire wheel wires.
E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps off in bolt holes you couldn’t use anyway.
CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large prybar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.
AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.
TROUBLE LIGHT: The home mechanic’s own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, “the sunshine vitamin,” which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.
AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts which were last over tightened 50 years ago by someone at Ford, and neatly rounds off their heads.
EXPLETIVE: A balm, also referred to as mechanic’s lube, usually applied verbally in hindsight, which somehow eases those pains and indignities following our every deficiency in foresight.
Hand hygiene…
This what adult money is all about.
I think this probably covers 2 out of the 3.
Has anyone even thought of a “FIRST AID KIT”…useful while waiting for the ambulance, after trying to do a job without any thoughts about safety, and using the wrong or bad /worn out/dull tools. ?
