We live by a certain saying around Eastwood and that is “You can Never Have Too Many Tools”. It’s true, we’re always looking for new tools to make a job and our lives easier. We’ve done a pretty good job over the years of putting together an impressive catalog of unique tools that will make your friends jealous. I decided to go through our long list of tools and give you my top 10 must-have tools that you need in your garage or your tool box.
- Air Compressor- Some of these tools are “gateway tools” that open you up to owning and using new and more powerful tools. The air compressor is probably the biggest and best addition to a home garage. Once you have compressed air at your finger tips you can upgrade almost all of your tools. Air compressors come in all sizes and can fit most any budget. We suggest considering what the largest job you’d need air tools for and get a compressor that meets or exceeds the tools needed for that job. If you just need to fill tires, rotate wheels and change brake pads you can get away with a portable, inexpensive air compressor like a 3 Gallon Pancake Air Compressor or a 29 Gallon Single Stage Air Compressor . If you want to upgrade or jump right in you can get a professional-level compressor like a massive 7.5HP 80 Gallon Air Compressor or save space and get close to the same performance with the impressively quiet Eastwood QST 30/60 Scroll Compressor. No matte which you choose you will be the envy of your neighborhood when you’re getting jobs done more quickly with an air compressor.
- Torque Wrench- This is a tool everyone should have in their home garage. Even if all you do is rotate your own tires and change the oil you can use a torque wrench. All wheel lugs should be torqued to factory specs and oil drain plugs are often over tightened causing damage to your oil pan. If you’re just doing basic auto maintenance a simple click-style torque wrench is suffice, but if you plan to dig into major engine work you may want to invest in a digital torque wrench with a torque angle function. You can find a torque wrench to match your job and budget HERE.
- Car Lift– How do you know you “made it”? If you’re a car guy/gal it’s when you get a car lift in your home garage. No more laying on the floor to do maintenance and you’ll instantly become the biggest the most popular garage in the neighborhood! A simple floor lift like a Quick Jack make normal maintenance like brakes and wheel rotations easy, but a large 2 or 4 post lift will allow you to gain storage and also do major restoration or repair work.
- Media Blaster– Cleaning grease, rust, dirt, or any coatings off of a part can be a time consuming process and very tedious if you don’t have the right tools for the job. By adding a media blaster to your arsenal you can speed up the process of cleaning items. This works for cleaning old paint off of wheels you’re repainting, grease off of old engine parts, or even cleaning rust of a lawn mower deck to repaint. If you want to keep the dust and mess to a minimum you can hook up the Eastwood Liquid Dustless Media Blaster up to your pressure washer and blast and clean parts at the same time.
- Mini Metal Saw- Cutting metal cleanly doesn’t have to be an expensive or mess job. The Eastwood Mini Metal saw can cut thick to thin metal and with very little heat or sparks generated. The carbide tipped blade allows the saw to cut cleanly and the metal chips are stored in the a transparent compartment that can be easily emptied when full. For the low cost of this saw you can cut almost any type of material with one tool.