As a woodworker or DIYer i know you're always looking for a good deal and in this box i've got
12 tools that are under 20 that i know you're going to love i'm bradford fix this bill that
let's find out what's in the box and just for some fun i've broken them out in some categories
for us we've got measuring and marking
finding and foraging
punching and spraying
cutting and stabbing
and i'll take what gets you weird looks for 500 Alex
so let's jump in and see what we got to kick off the measuring and marking category
what better else than a tape measure now you're probably familiar with regular tape measures and
i've got one here this is a 25 foot tape measure and it's got little fractions on it it's great it
works well and this is a 16 foot tape measure now the problem with these is they're huge
now if you use a 33 foot tape measure
i don't know something's wrong with you i'm just i'm just saying the 16
foot variety is the one that i use most in the shop because it is nice and thick and sturdy but
when i'm on the go the one that i like to use is the dewalt a 9 foot tape measure this guy
look how small it is comparatively look we've got a 25 foot tape measure and a nine foot tape
measure i don't want to carry this into the store i don't want to put this in my pocket
this little nine foot jobby it can fit right in your pocket it's got a little clip on it and it's
even got a magnet on the backside so you could stick it to your toolbox or whatever i buy these
buy the let's say about a dozen i don't buy them by the dozen they have a three pack of these that
you can get for like 15 or 18 bucks i got one of these in my truck i've got one in the office and
i've got one in the kitchen so having a small little tape measure really comes in handy when
you are on the run highly recommend to pick up one three seven twelve of these bad boys and just put
them all over so you won't misplace them now to go along with the measuring of course is the marking
and what i typically use in the shop is just these little mechanical disposable pencils this is a bic
it's got a 0.7 millimeter lead and it's just your standard mechanical pencil but the little
lead being so small it has a tendency to break off and also the mechanical pencils
it's always like they get that flat side on them so there's not really a point necessarily
but it's still a pretty fine line now on the other side if you want to do heavy duty work you can
get squirrely as it were this one's from my buddy john malecki and use a carpenter pencil
now these are obviously a lot more heavy duty but they're kind of hard to sharpen and they leave a
really wide mark and so it's good for framing and things like that but not for precision work but if
you want the best of both worlds you can pick up one of these the pika dry mechanical pencil this
guy is about 15 bucks and it is a mechanical pencil on steroids the lead on this thing is
super thick i think it's 2.8 millimeters and when i say i think it is i mean i just measured it with
my calipers to make sure it was the lead can go out really far so you can get a nice reach on that
but also it's really cool because as it dulls down there's a sharpener built in to the end of
the little cartridge here and all you have to do is stick that in and twist it around and you have
a super sharp tip on it so you can get the same fine point as you get with the 0.7 millimeter lead
but it's gonna hold up it's not gonna break on you i should start using it more in the shop
but i find that i use it a lot when i'm outdoors and doing outdoor projects uh but this thing is
really cool and it's even got a little clip for your belt or your pocket that you can stick on
and just click draw mark stuff because you never know when you gotta you know
be on the draw to draw it brings a whole new meaning to quick draw
it's also got different colored refills available so these are some white lead refills and this is
perfect for marking on dark woods like walnut so really dig this pencil and that wraps up the
measuring and marking category let's move on to the finding and foraging in our projects we
use a lot of fasteners maybe something like this quarter 20 nut and bolt and sometimes
mistakes were made and you drop things in places where you can't necessarily get them now of course
i could reach under my bench but i don't have to with a telescoping magnetic tool now these little
guys are you know seven or eight bucks and you can get some with leds that might be 10 or 12.
but this little guy has saved my bacon so many times mainly when i'm trying to get things from
under a cabinet it's got a little magnet on the end which is very strong and you can use that to
fish out little items that you may have dropped look at that huh so if you're a little bit of
a butterfingers like me then you definitely need to get one of these to forage for all those parts
that you drop on the floor now the next tool is the little brother or maybe the annoying cousin
to the telescoping magnetic tool and that is what i affectionately call
you didn't think i could fit that in there did you no because it is flexible this guy is i don't
know it's 24 inches long and the cool thing is is it's got a trigger down here on the end
and this is great for grabbing things that aren't magnetic so i can just push this at the end and
these little claws come out and can grab it so let's say i dropped this little bubble level which
is plastic i can reach down in there and pick it up and grab it with the little claw pieces
this thing works really well and i have used it so many times so much so actually that i have
broken the little piece off i actually need to get a new one but i jb welded it back on but i
use this thing all the time in this corner because i will drop stuff down here and it's kind of hard
to reach but when you have the claw you can reach things that are out there there's some trash i
should have picked up a long ago let's see if we can grab it what is this so this was not staged i
just fished out ant killer that i had dropped off the top there and i probably couldn't reach it and
so i just left it alone but using this little claw you can reach down and grab things that are out of
reach and you can bend around corners and things i've even pulled out little scraps out of my
miter saw dust collection stuck this up in there grabbed the little cutoffs and pulled them out so
highly recommend one of these again this is in the 10 to 15 range depending upon what types
of things you have on it i've actually seen these that have magnets on them as well so you can even
combo those last two tools that i showed you and i drop things all the time so i use it all the time
all right now let's move on to punching and spring and inevitably if you are using an air nailer and
this is a cordless variety this is clearly not under 20 but it's a nice tool if you're
brad nailing things you're gonna have a nail that doesn't quite drive down to the surface i showed
that in my six nail gun mistakes video and if you haven't seen that you can check that out
right up here but if you have a nail standing proud then you're gonna need a nail set what
i have typically done in the past is get a little nail set and a hammer and just whack away and try
to drive it in there which is fine and dandy but you know you need a hammer and you need a nail set
of different sizes but one year for christmas my dad got me tool number five which is this
springy punchy nail set thing this is awesome this is double sided so i don't know what the
sizes are here i think that might be one thirty second on this side and then a sixteenth on that
side or a sixteenth and an eighth but basically this has two nail sets that are connected with a
spring and as you pull them out then they smack against each other so if i wanted to set a nail
i can just have that in there hold it down with one finger pull it up with the other smack it down
and it drives it in so i don't need a hammer i can do it a few times if it needs to be done
sticks right in mdf which is a nice little feature and this is also great for taking the pins out of
door hinges so you can just put that little bad boy right on the underside of the pin smack it
up there and it will shoot that pen out be ready to catch it because it might come flying out it's
about 15 bucks and it comes in different sizes so you can check it out and it is nice and compact to
store away and it is great for working on the job site now drilling is part of a lot of different
woodworking in diy projects and you might be doing it in wood or metal but either way you want to
make sure that you have a good starting point so if i have a drill bit you know drilling into
wood pretty easy and it's pretty easy to hit the mark but when you are trying to drill into metal
that bit wants to just run all over the place when you push down the trigger so the next one
is going to save you and that is the automatic center punch now this guy is about 10 or 13 bucks
again depending upon which one you buy but this is a punch that will make a dent in the metal and
you don't have to use a hammer it is automatic so i can just mark where i want to have my hole
this is dead little trick to get the ink back into the pin spin it around just like this
if you do it too much ink will fly everywhere there we go so you mark where you want your
hole then just take your center punch and you can mark it right there and now when i use the drill
it is going to go right in that hole and stay there
so this is great i've used this on several projects and i would not
want to try to drill metal without having a center punch but it also works well on wood
if you just want to make sure that you're getting right in that center spot you can use this little
bad boy and it'll do you right now loosely related to the punching is spraying because whenever i'm
working with metal i am typically spray painting it and i will use a filler primer and then go to a
flat black enamel which i think is a great look as well as a top coat but if you've ever spray
painted something where you need two or three cans to get it done you know that holding down
your finger on that trigger it's really annoying after you get into that second and third can
and you're switching hands to get it or i don't know maybe it's just me because i'm a wimp
but if you use tool number seven you can spray paint in the lap of luxury and this is a spray
trigger handle this thing is awesome they make some cheaper ones don't get those get this guy
it's still only i think about seven bucks and this just goes right around the top of
it and this will work it says rustoleum but this will work on almost any spray paint can
and when you pull down the trigger it sprays the can so you have a lot better control with it as
well as it's got a two-finger trigger which you can pull back instead of having to squeeze your
finger down which again just becomes a pain in the finger i guess after you do it for too long
i love this little handle great little thing if you do any level of spray painting definitely
pick one up all right our next category is cutting and stabbing and clearly i was watching a little
bit of pinky blinders when i came up with that category but typically in my shop i will use some
box cutters utility knives and i use them a lot i actually love using just a razor blade on its own
i mean it works really well especially if you're scraping something or if you just kind of want to
carve around and just have a little closer to the hand feel when you're really cutting something up
but i do use a box cutter and these are great i like this one because it's got a little storage
capacity in here where you can store some other blades and so you can get a fresh one easily but
the problem with both of these is that you can't really cut super deep if you need to and sometimes
you just slide out of a cut if you're cutting cardboard or whatever it is so to solve that
i'm going to use tool number eight down here which is a snap off utility knife now these things you
can get them in multiple packs i like this little stanley model i think the new one is the fat max
but you can get it for i think 12 or 13 bucks and i will have links below to all these things down
here and also we're about halfway through if i've missed a tool that you think is really awesome
that's under 20 bucks let us know down below in the comments i'll go down there and read them
and heart some of those ones that i think are really awesome and if i buy it i'll let you know
i really like this style utility knife because it has a huge blade on it
now the draw on this is that it's got the little segmented pieces so you can snap it off and have a
new clean tip there at the end but honestly what i really like it for is just the length of the blade
i mean look at that bad boy what you've got three three and a half inches of cutting power there
and this is great if you're cutting through things that are pretty soft like cardboard
uh you know you don't want it to be fully extended be safe while you're cutting things
but this is nice to have that extra length in it when you're trying to cut through some foam
insulation things like that i just really like it because it's got the extra extension on it
and so it's better than a box cutter in my opinion for certain things go check these out link down
below now this next one is probably my favorite and it's really just because of nostalgic purposes
now i've got some tools in front of me here and these used to be my granddad's my granddad lived
down in florida i was actually up in cincinnati at the time in 2004 when he passed away i didn't
get to spend a lot of time with him he didn't get to teach me a lot of things on woodworking
but whenever i was down there he would show me some things and i always saw his shop and when
he passed away my grandmother gave me some of the tools that he had and they are super special to me
so i've got an old combination square that was his which is awesome an old stanley block plane
which has the side knocked off which just gives it some great character and this screwdriver which is
a complete tank this thing is amazing i love this screwdriver and i will never clean it up because i
love the patina on it but the other thing that i got from him was this vintage ice pick so an ice
pick is something you might not think of in the shop but it is really great tool and definitely
less than 20 so you can pick these up online some have wooden handles some of them are aluminum
brass jimmy diresta's got a really cool one that you could pick up from him but an ice pick you
will not believe how many times you use it and i love this one this is actually a vintage coca-cola
ice pick i use this guy all the time either holding things down or prying out little loose
parts that i've cut out one of the things i use it a lot for is stabbing into the drywall to make
sure that there's a stud in that location so i like to use the magnet trick to find the screws in
the drywall and that usually tells you where the studs are but sometimes the people installing the
drywall mist the studs so i use this to confirm it i'll just drive it straight into the drywall
and if it hits a wooden stud then i can feel that but if it doesn't then i'll just scooch over a
little bit and if i do miss a stud then i can fill that in with a little spackle and it's no big deal
i would say go find one at a garage sale you could probably find one for a quarter or 50 cents look
at that bin of tools that they got sitting over there and just pick that out and maybe you'll
find some cool screwdrivers or whatever too but definitely get a vintage ice pick if you can find
one now the next one is going to be some hardcore woodworking cutting so this is like legit no ice
picks or utility knives now i have this japanese style saw and this is actually a vaughn bayer saw
and i really like this this one is really nice it's got fine teeth on one side and ripping
teeth on the other and it's nice and flexible and it makes a fun noise when you hit it on things
but sometimes it is a bit too unwieldy it's really large and it's great for cutting large
things but if i just wanted to get in something tight or if i need to flush cut something
this is probably not the tool for the job and it's not under 20 bucks although i'll link down below
to it because it is a nice tool so for those times i am going to use a small flush cut saw and it is
basically the same thing as this with just the fine teeth and it is flexible so you can put it
down and really get a flush trim on something this is great for cutting dowels flush or if
you're just going to be cross cutting something and you want to do it really quickly i'll use
this a lot when i'm edge banding something with solid wood and i just want to quickly get that off
and maybe i don't want to grab the big saw so having a little flush trim saw is really nice
and it comes in handy for a lot of small jobs but if you do want something like a japanese saw
or maybe a dovetail saw or something else like that you can pick one of those up at today's
sponsor woodcraft now woodcraft is a woodworking store that has all kinds of tools and supplies
and basically everything that you need for your woodworking projects you can go check them out at
woodcraft.com i'll have links down below to some items that you can pick up there and to their
website go check it out they have tons of stuff for under 20 bucks and they have even more stuff
for not under 20 they can have table saws bandsaws everything you can think of go check them out they
are a great sponsor of the channel and thank you woodcraft for sponsoring today's video
all right we're coming into the last category which is things that might get you a weird look
when somebody comes to your shop or if you go buy them in person maybe just shop online for these
but now some of the things that i always do in the shop is mix things and i've got like these little
stir sticks and these are just like paint stirrers and you could even have a larger size one and
dixie cups these are both great items to have in the shop because if i'm mixing up little portions
of things and i want to do it but you know this paint stick's kind of big and like you don't
want to just be burning through a bunch of these because you know it's like nice it's like a big
chunky thing so instead of that what i like to use is the senior tongue depressors by dynarex
these are awesome and basically it's a six inch popsicle stick now quite frankly i have no idea
what a senior tongue depressor is i guess it's graduated from a junior tongue depressor you know
maybe it's a tongue depressor that's uh getting ready to go to college and they're just still not
sure what they're going to do with their life so a little six inch senior tongue depressors these
are awesome because it fits nicely in a little dixie cup and what i really like to do is snap
them in half because i am a thrifty woodworker and if i am mixing up pigments or epoxy i'll just use
half i'll get the pigment with one side and then mix with the other one and these are great they
come in packs of 500 i think this version right here is about 16 or 17 bucks but i've seen them
as cheap as maybe 13 bucks for 500 i would highly recommend grabbing these and i don't know maybe if
you need to depress some seniors tongues as well then you could also use these we're bringing it
home for the last tool we're just going to stay here i'm not switching camera angles the last one
this really also has to do with mixing and things that you're doing in the shop with liquids now i
don't use stain a lot but sometimes i need to mix things so i've got some rubio monaco here which
is an awesome product and i had some charcoal and i had some chocolate and i had some havana unanna
and when i was trying to build the nightstand with the hidden drawer the plywood i was using was kind
of washed out and i wanted to darken it up but when you're using the rubio monocoat it's like
a thousand dollars an ounce so you want to make sure that you're mixing it properly
and i don't want to use a big jug or anything like that so instead what i did was grab some
syringes that's right these are blunt tip syringes but do not get like the medical grade you know
needle tip like you know they might just give you weird looks but they come in all kinds of
different sizes and they have also different tip sizes at the end and these just screw
right on and so what i did when i was mixing together my pigments is i could get really
accurate so i could pull in and get you know one and a half millimeters of the havana milliliters
not millimeters and then maybe three milliliters of the chocolate and mix it together and then that
way when i was doing my testing i could figure it all out and then scale it up if i needed to
so there's a few different tip sizes and i think these come in gauge sizing but you should go out
there there's like a ton of different options and they're really inexpensive i think this whole kit
right here was maybe 12 bucks the other thing that i've used these for is for epoxy so i'll grab like
the largest one because epoxy is pretty viscous so you want a large opening and i'll just suck
in some epoxy there and then put it into some little fine details if i had some engravings
or small things or if you just wanted to be really precise while you're filling knots in your project
you could use these it works really well and you know you might get some weird looks when
your friends come over and see syringes in your shop but you know just let them know what's up
you've got a habit and it's epoxy so whatever i'll be checking the comments below for your
recommendations but if you want to see some other videos i got them queued up for you right there
i want to give big thank you to those folks that have been joining the ftbt builders club
and until next time guys get out there and build something awesome