Gar's Tips & Tools - Issue #191

Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY

Gar’s Favorite Tools of 2024

Here are some of my favorite (mostly small) tools from this past year. This is in no way a comprehensive list, just a miscellany of go-to tools and tool discoveries I made this year.

Every maker’s coffee table (or workbench) needs this gorgeous, eye-opening tool tome. Same approach, structure, and design as Gray’s amazing The Elements.

I actually bought this Fiskars folding utility knife in 2023, after seeing a Project Farm video comparing folding utility knives. It’s become a near-daily go-to.

These Amazon Basics heaters, at $23, were another great Project Farm find. So far, we’ve bought two of them for my wife’s art studio and our guest room.

Another surprisingly decent Amazon Basics product — a set of three groove joint pliers for $27. Perfect for lightweight, periodic use.

In response to my piece about the expensive but really great JustRite dispensers, Cool Tools’ Kevin Kelly introduced me to these plastic acetone dispensers (just $7 for 2!). They now happily sit on my painting desk, dispensing acetone, alcohol, and Goo Gone.

My tool of the year would definitely be the Workpro 18-in-1 multitool. At $20 (sometimes as low as $17), and with such surprising quality and feature set, I can’t stop buying them to hand out to family and friends. Stocking stuffers!

I have finally found an amazing pair of socks that my feet don’t hate! These Carhartt Men's Force Performance Work Socks are comfortable, don’t make my feet sweat, and don’t bind my calves too tightly. At $15 for three pairs, the price is great, too.

Via Scott at Essential Craftsman comes his recommendation for the ideal filthy shop cleanup combo: Fast Orange and good ol’ Tub o’ Towels (which we’ve covered here before).

I bought one of these vortex mixers (widely used in the salon business for mixing nail polish) for my miniature painting. It works great. I don’t get to paint on the regular, so my paints settle in their small dropper bottles. With this device and two mixing balls added to bottle (which come with the mixer), you’re quickly good to go.

Via Adam Savage comes a recommendation for these brass jaw pliers. As he points out, pliers are a great way to accidentally mangle hardware and other materials. These pliers are brass-lined, soft, and smooth to prevent marring of finished or delicate parts.

I’m not going to lie. I’ve been known to strip a few screws in my day. This magical mixture, a polyvinyl alcohol with a gritty mineral filler, adds some grip to fastener heads for sinking them in without stripping or for backing out lightly stripped heads. It’s worth having in your toolkit.

Weird things can change your life. Unexpected things. We finally decided to get one of these heated mattress pads for our bed, and oh man, has it been a revelation! I can’t belief I’m six decades in (never you mind the raw number) and have never had one of these. As my wife said the first night we slept on it: “It’s like a trip to a spa!” Warm, relaxing, good for tired muscles, and it allows us to keep the nighttime house temp lower without getting uncomfortably cold in bed. This pad has two zones and two controllers, three layers of soft, quilted fabric, a quick-heat feature, 10 heat settings and a 12-hour timer. If this at all appeals to you, don’t be like us and wait years to get one!

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Your Favorite Tool?

What were your favorite tools for 2024? I’d love to see (and share) some of the tools that made your life and projects easier.

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