A word to the wise, you can often find tools at garage sales that are really pretty good, but watch out for certain brands. I generally stay away from Sears tools, new or used. I have been burned too many times by the corners that they cut in the quality area. Sometimes, they will look exactly like another brand and are in fact made by the other company, but I suspect that Sears specs them a bit differently to lower the cost. I do not know if they spec cheaper steels and plastics, or do not require as high machine tollerences, but I have had to replace every Sears tool that I ever bought. If you can find Sears tools that are more than 30 years old, they are generally pretty good, as I do not think that the company had been taken over by the bean counters then.
Delta has a good name. Although they have some cheaper tools, and you get what you pay for, Their low end modeles are not totally worthless.
I guess what I am saying is that you should be careful when buying tools. A good tool will be a joy to use, and you will curse a bad one for as long as you can stand it. Buy the best quality you can afford, but any drillpress is better than no drill press.
| Eye Protection | Tooling metal throws off lots of tiny bits of metal at high speeds
in all directions. If your eyes are not covered, they will get hit.
In the best case, you may end up with an eye infection or get a painful
cut in the cornea. At worst, you could loose your sight. A pair of
goggles is pretty cheap and easy protection. I wear glasses, so I had him make me up a pair of OSHA approved saftey glasses. Mine are from a company called Titmus and look like normal glasses, but have removable side covers. The glass is a bit thicker and heavier, and you cannot get many of the extra photo-gray type things, but it is hard to wear goggles over glasses so they work better for me. |
| General Tools | Screwdrivers, pliers, Swiss Army Knife, etc. |
| Scroll Saw | Lazy way to cut alumunim channel... A hacksaw works too! |
| Dremel MotoTool | Generally handy, it is the only way I have found to reasonably cut thicker guages of piano wire (using the cutoff wheel). You can also use it to cut and deburr alumunim and to cut off bolts. The grinding wheels help to smooth rough edges. |
| Drill Press | While you can do everything required with a hand drill, I have a hard time fdrilling a straight hole, so I use a small bench top drill press. You can get them for under $200 at Home Depot and this is a tool that a robot builder really should consider acquiring. |