CMU School of Drama


Monday, February 06, 2017

A residential contractor shares what's in his tool belt

Boing Boing: Paul Abueva is a residential contractor. He shared the contents of his tool belt at Cool Tools (a web site I run with Kevin Kelly and Claudia Dawson). I am a residential contractor who does remodeling and repair work, so I carry tools that that are useful to a variety of trades work. Over the years I’ve put together what I believe to be a perfect compromise between weight and function.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Totally love this article since I think this type of stuff is awesome. Whenever I see other carpenter's, technician's, marker's every day carry systems, I think about how I can upgrade mine and improve the efficiency of my tool kit, ultimately increasing my work rhythm. Obviously, every one creates a kit that agrees with the type of work they do, with the type of person they are and obviously having the same tools as your favorite person isn't going to give you the same skills that person has. I thought it would be a little more interesting if the article could have focused on the tips and tricks he's learned over the course of his career because anyone who takes stagecraft with DR knows just how many cool tricks there are with the simplest tools. This is still a great opportunity to learn about a few tools that are dug underneath all the mainstream stuff on Amazon and to learn about what's important in a tool when it's being put to use professionally. Granted, he is a contractor and a lot of this doesn't apply to us, but, especially to the carpenters, this could be pretty huge since we're practically doing the same thing, in a different area.

Unknown said...

I don’t know anything about residential contractors, tools, or tool belts, but I thought this might be a fun and informative article to read. Inevitably, there were some things I could not understand, like how a tool belt can be right- and left-handed at the same time, or what a chalk line is, but this article was generally pretty satisfactory. The inclusion of pricing is much appreciated since it immediately gives me an idea of if I can afford an item and/or if I would be willing to buy it given its uses. I also really appreciate the hyperlinks to Amazon where you can buy each of the described items. This article is generally very user-friendly because of these reasons. It did slightly mess up by hyperlinking the Ticonderoga pencils twice, which clearly shows a lack of proofreading/editing, but for a first draft of an article this is pretty decent.

The tools in the article minus the belt and the titanium hammer are all also very affordable (all under $30), which is a great feature of the article—it gives off the idea that an ordinary person can match the tool-belt of a professional individual.

Chris Calder said...

I really need to invest in something like this. Our shop manager is always walking around with a tool pouch on his hip and being able to have everything you need in a convenient place right when you need only increases your productivity level. I cant imagine myself needing every single thing that is posted in this article but having a pencil and a sharpie along with your Leatherman in one place is something everyone on the shop floor should have. I might just have to log onto amazon right now and create my shopping cart full of tool belt supplies. There is also something to be said for buying very high quality tools. Looking at this article I see some tools have definitely seen a lot of love. So it goes back to not being cheap when it comes tools. You get what you pay for and honestly you will see the difference.