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i don't know which i like better -- browsing the art supply stores or the hardware and tool supply places. Here are a few tools i picked up in the past year that make me happy every time i use them: 1. Leatherman multipurpose tool. Who ever knew there would be so many times you need small plyers? 2. Counter brush. Its 15" long, nylon bristles, and cleans off the surface of a sanded 4x8 faster and better than a tack rag. 3. Casters. I started with one set.. now i have five. I have a rolling toolbox (big), rolling computer desk, rolling plotter stand, rolling chair, rolling creeper, rolling stool, and four rolling workbenches. i have a small shop, and everything can be mobilized and pushed someplace else. 4. 4" black plastic (ABS?) spring clamps with orange cushioned tips. i think everything in my shop that isn't on wheels is held down by a clamp. they hold plywood steady for routing, they wont mar the surface of thin alumilite, and they can be opened and closed with one hand. 5. Stanley utility knife. the new one has snap-off blades, feels great in my hand, is cushioned plastic, and holds four extra blades inside so the chance of running out of fresh steel when you're miles from nowhere is minimized. (i haven't tried the Olfa, so i can't compare).
And for a tools i'd like to see: 1. a heating element on the end of my shop-vac. i think if it had a radiant heater it could soften and suck off old vinyl at the same time.
2. a paint can opener with a paint can rim hole punch (instead of a bottle cap puller). that way i woldn't have to go looking for a nail and the hammer every time i open a fresh can of paint. (hey, 1-shot! that would be a great promotional item...)
3. radio control units for all my rolling carts, for slow days.
-------------------- :: Scooter Marriner :: :: Coyote Signs :: :: Oakland, CA :: :: still a beginner :: ::
Posts: 1356 | From: Oakland (and San Francisco) | Registered: Mar 2001
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Scooter, I need electronic detection devices on my tweezers,exacto knife, scissors, pounce wheels, stabillos,on good days. On the bad ones I need them attached to things as large as my plotter! When I get busy I can't find things I just laid down.
But my favorite tools are my dremil mini sander(which gets corners so nicely), rotary tool and my scroll saw. Dremil scroll saw doesn't dance around table, tain't even bolted down yet, quiet and smooth.
-------------------- Kathy Joiner River Road Graphics 41628 River Road Ponchatoula, La.70454
Old enough to know better...Too young to resist.
Posts: 1891 | From: Ponchatoula, LA | Registered: Nov 2000
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Scooter, I basically never open my cans of 1-Shot but install a butterfly type screw in the cap after squirting a little Paint-Sav into it. This system saves the paint from skinning as well as easy pouring as for use all I do is shake the can, unscrew then squeeze and pour, it stops any mess from occuring.
I also work from one of my Killerkarts and though I have wheels on almost all my work benches and tool boxes, I never use them when working because my Killerkart is more versatile then either of them.
Try sandwiches your brushes between 2 pieces of foam rubber soaked with oil in a brush box. After the brush is used and washed out, just open the box, put the brush in, close and it gets oiled.
The Exacto I use is an X-Calibre retractable which has worked with me for over ten years without one mishap and even clips onto your pocket like a pen.
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
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Gosh I just love cruising the hardware stores. You get plenty of help from the studly men and there is so much fun stuff to look at. For my birthday I finally got a utility knife that you don't have to take apart to change the blade. You just twist the bottom...and wa~la. Another tool that I love is a combo tape measure, level, calculator all in one. And I don't share.
Posts: 3729 | From: Seattle | Registered: Sep 1999
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Oh yeah! I just received a Stewart-MacDonald catalog in the mail. The hand luthier's supplies and tools. Very interesting array of percision tools.
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Hey Scooter, from up the coast, here's a tool that works good! I was doing a parkade, painting 24" bands of colour on cement pillars. Got this unit from Home Depot, Big Box Store up here, It's made in USA, Speed /Level it's called, an aluminum (anodzed "ruler" with a built-in level in it. The way it's made, with an extruded part at the bottom, is very easy to use to get level on anything. Plus, it's only 36 inches long, none of that extra metric crap to chop off!!! JOEY, your foamin' oil box sounds real neat, like a sunbed, but no bad rays! Cheryl,how about a "finder' for my mittens and touque.? Always losing them! Joey, you leave that blade out, and you'll be doing your own open heart surgery!
John of Big Top
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006
Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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scooter a coupla years ago in redding ca. i bought two can openers with rim punch at harbor freight i've since lost one but use the other every week i havnt found any since and was thinkin about having some produced just gotta find a manufacturer when i get off my lazy a**
jon
-------------------- Jon Peterman 200 Summit Loop Grants Pass, OR -------------------- a.k.a. dc-62 success is in Jesus Christ
Posts: 434 | From: grants pass or. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Here's a tip on a non sign making tool that will not be needed often if at all, but when you need it I can maybe save you from waiting till your half done to get it, like I did. I've been scraping up 20 year old VCT floor tiles in a 500 square foot cottage. after about 8 hours of back breaking, palm bruising, intense physical labor spread over 2 days I decided to do more tool research.
The pnumatic (sp.) floor scraper! The "AIR RAM" by EDCO I think. hooked up to a compressor and finished the second half of my job in 4 painless hours. It's like a long handled light weight jack hammer pounding a 4" sharp scraper blade into your work
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Hey Joey, exactly what type of screw do use use for your 1-Shot cans?? I've heard of this before but never tried it. Almost all of my cans have old dried paint around the rim, makes it a bitch to work out of. Oh, and what about the Paint-Sav? Do you shake or stir your paint when ready to use and doesn't the Paint-Sav get into the paint??
-------------------- Mark Neurohr "Ernest" Paintin' Place 141 Sunnyside Road Kittanning, PA 16201
I'm with ya on most of those tools! I'll offer this though .......
I gave my Leatherman to my dad when I found the Victornox SwissTool. It is the best designed multi-tool I've ever seen and I looked at them ALL before I plunked down the cash to replace my venerable Leatherman. They really did their homework, find one, and you'll see what I mean.
I bought two dozen of those same black and orange clamps at the local Northern Handyman. They are just the ticket for banner hold-downs.
A tool I took on trade has become a favorite - a wall mounted mat cutter. This thing is fantastic for cutting mags, pvc board, and other materials.
And the most versatile of all shop tools - the cordless drill! I bought a 12v Milwaukee about 10 years ago (back when 12v was the biggest available). The 12v was my choice for its double duty as a ready 12v powersource when working on automotive electronics (radios, alarms, lighting, etc.)
Finally - on ya'll's 1-shot screw questions - WHY do you even cover it back up????
My boyhood hero and all american sign legend Robin Caldwell had about a zillion one-shot cans in his shop, and not one of them had a lid on it. When he needed to use one, he knocked a hole in the 'skin' and dipped out what he needed, then let it seal itself back up. Give it a try.
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Do any of you use knockout punches. They are alturnatives for hole saws. Electricians use them. They dont work on wood and they are expensive but I wouldnt give them up for anything. All you do is drill a small hole then bolt the tool and die on each side of the metal and turn the bolt a few turns. It punches out the hole prfect no burrs and no scared metal. You can get them at any electricians supply store they go from 1/4 inch up to 5 inch. Later
-------------------- Ryan Young Indocil Art & Design indocil@comporium.net 803-980-6765
I highjacked Letterville!! Winter Muster 2004 Posts: 904 | From: Rock Hill, SC | Registered: Sep 2001
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Rob Lowe, that ol signpainter knew absolutely zip about paints or at least what paints are made from and how they actually work. Thats no use of me going into this any further as leaving the cap off and cutting the skin with your ol'trusty palette knife is the biggest crock I ever heard.
This type of behavior always puts a dampner of my sense of humor.
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
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Just to add a twist to the screw idea in the 1shot lid. I use 2 sheet metal screws placed opposite each other near the rim of the can. To remove a little paint, remove one screw, tip the can and (squeez) out a little paint. Now replace the screw BEFORE you right the can... this creates a vacume in the can and skinning is reduced. If you need a lot of paint, remove both screws and pour away. Just before you have enough, replace one screw and finish like the suggestion above. This works great with stain and house paint too! Makin Chips and Havin Fun! Joe
-------------------- Joe Cieslowski Connecticut Woodcarvers Gallery P.O.Box 368 East Canaan CT 06024 jcieslowski@snet.net 860-824-0883 Posts: 2345 | From: East Canaan CT 06024 | Registered: Nov 2001
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I'm sure he knows a thing or two about paints (he's won a Car Craft Street Machine Nat's title a few times for example..), but cant say for sure. I do know his signs and lettering have lasted for decades, and his techniques have never changed.
Like a lot of things, it might have everything to do with how you hold your mouth or which side of the bed you get out of in the morning.
Things I can elaborate on - you dont 'cut' the skin, you poke a small hole in it, using the end of your brush or a nail. You use the natural shape of the 'well' of the skin as your palette to load the brush.
Whatever works for you is fine, but dont make blanket statements about how something doesnt work (in your opinion at least), when I've witnessed it first hand for 20 years.
When the paint skins it removes the original formular as well as some binder, pigments and solvent. Old sign painters never impressed me with their paint habits and as far as show quality work is concerned, true show cars have been embellished with Dagger-Lac and HoK for years where the embellishment is under the clear. The difference between clearcoating 1-Shot and the other 2 is day and night.
I can understand how ones work has lasted for decades but these days paint formulars do not have the same kind of lead for instance as in the past. The changes made from one year to the next with the formular inconsistencies due to new production and along with the EPA etc has made it practically impossible for paint these days to last as long as paint did back then without the use of additives. Skinning removes certain properties which are needed in order for your paints to last.
Unless persons are totally up on paints of today on an everyday basis, whatever you learned yesterday is water under the bridge.
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
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( have to agree with Joey! The skin that forms on paint is mostly binder and some pigment. After many skins have formed, you wind up with lots of pigment and not enough binder! Covers better....but won't last out in the elements anywhere as long.
After my paint has formed a few skins, I add a little Sign Restoring Clear....it makes up for the lost binder.
-------------------- Si Allen #562 La Mirada, CA. USA
(714) 521-4810
si.allen on Skype
siallen@dslextreme.com
"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"
Never mess with your profile while in a drunken stupor!!!
Brushasaurus on Chat
Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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and there is so much fun stuff to look at. For my birthday I finally got a utility knife that you don't have to take apart to change the blade. You just twist the bottom...and wa~la. 
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