Most indispensible tools so far

[svyolo]

I am a little over 2 months into a QB kit. I started with lots of normal tools that I already had, and bought a RV toolkit from Avery. Just got a welder and a generator to run it. But by far the two best purchases that improved my building skills are a set of 3.00 reading glasses (I normally use 1.50) and a cheap tablet for reference material, tables, plans etc. The tablet now has a huge amount of reference material that I can quickly get to. The shop has no reference material clutter, which is good because it is filled with too much other clutter.

The "super" reading glasses allow me to mark and drill holes with far better accuracy, and inspect parts/holes far better. If I didn't need reading glasses, I think I would still buy 1.25 or 1.50's for the same reason. They really help.

I needed a #5 step drill to drill a couple of holes over an inch. I already had a smaller one that came with my toolkit. They are pretty expensive. Harbor Freight had some cheap ones so I thought I would try it. It has 2 cutting edges instead of the recommended 1. I tried it on a piece of .025 scrap. Really bad. Once I got up to 3/4"of an inch, it just destroyed the hole. I tried different speeds/pressure. Same result. I ordered the 90 dollar one from ACS with one cutting edge.

[Archer39J]

Though not as large I got this step drill set off Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Seem to work quite well on thin sheets or plate. I’ll look for the same if I need larger in the future.

[svyolo]

I also bought a set of 3 smaller step drills at HF but haven't used them. The #5 has big steps between sizes. Maybe the smaller ones would work better.

[S Lathrop]

I have a Rotabroach kit 11075. This is a great tool for cutting holes in steel or aluminum up to 3/4 inch.

https://www.ohiopowertool.com/m-75-hougen-rotabroaches-annular-cutters.aspx#

[Bdflies]

I wholeheartedly endorse this recommendation! A while back, someone (probably Mr. Lathrop) recommend this kit. Because I'd never heard of such, I looked into these cutters. I bought the set. These things are amazing! They probably won't drill through a 1" steel plate, but they make really clean holes in sheet metal! Worth the price!

Bill

[svyolo]

I never saw bits like that before. I almost bought a 2 1/8 hole saw for the fuel tank filler hole. It had an abrasive edge instead of cutting edges. Has anybody tried one of those? In the end I just drilled a bunch of small holes and opened up the filler hole. I used a big drum sander, 1 3/4 I think, to clean up the edges up to a line.

My tool kit came with one of the smaller Irwin brand Unibits. It works really well, and makes a clean hole in thin aluminum up to its biggest hole. I order the #5, but it was 99 bucks.