Comments on: 8 Great Frugal Tool Options for Home Improvement Projects

By: John

John — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:44:05 +0000

I have purchased many good quality used and almost new tools at local pawn shops. In this economic enviroment they often are willing to let them go at very reasonable prices. Hint here: know the values and bargain with the seller.

By: Paularado

Paularado — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:25:15 +0000

Call me the spoilsport, but we have every tool on earth from gutting/remodeling one home and building another from scratch and we don’t lend out our tools. From doing so we now have an expensive tile saw that was obviously dropped and now bent, dull saw blades, etc. It’s not that people are intentionally careless, but people who don’t own tools don’t seem to know how to care for them.

Be careful with renting. Our experience has often been that you spend more than it would have cost to buy the tool because things ALWAYS take longer than you think. That isn’t true for all tools, but we’ve regretted renting on a number of things. You can always sell it when you are done, but you get a brand new tool vs one that may or may not be in good condition.

Tool King and Max Tool are good sources of refurb or cheap tools.

By: Pablo

Pablo — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:10:44 +0000

Many jobs require seldom used or specialty tools. If you haven’t discovered Harbor Freight, now is the time. Harbor Freight sells decent tools for really good prices. These are not tools suited to daily uses but they work great for me for the ocassional DIY job.

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:31:37 +0000

Definitely a good point. Also, we’ve found that people tend to underestimate the amount of time they’ll need the tool for the job. I recently helped a friend lay hardwoods. We had the best of intentions to finish about 800 square feet in 1 day with 5 guys. In reality, the job took a full 12 hour day, plus about 3 more 4-hour days.

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:29:25 +0000

Very cool! What kind of tools do these tool libraries typically offer? Any fees?

By: Dennis

Dennis — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:05:04 +0000

I just moved to Chicago and miss my network of home improvement buddies. I did use a new service called servicelive.com, let me name my own price for my job, nice to have options until I can connect with some help out here.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:44:40 +0000

My neighborhood is great about the borrow it. Between about four houses on our street we have almost every tool you could ever need. We swap out all the time and the best part is you can usually pick up some free labor along with your free tool.

By: Nate @ Debt-free Scholar

Nate @ Debt-free Scholar — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:30:36 +0000

I have actually only bought using the last method…time for a change!

Thanks,
Nate

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:05:44 +0000

You can get some high quality tools at pawn shops.

By: Jadzia

Jadzia — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:38:17 +0000

GREAT tips! I am a huge proponent of tool rental, although it must be said that for larger tools (I am thinking of an unfortunate experience I had with a rented rototiller), you need to look out for burning money on transporting the things back and forth. If you end up having to rent a truck, your savings are somewhat diminished.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:36:36 +0000

That’s really cool, I’ve never heard of tool libraries before!

By: Miranda

Miranda — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:21:02 +0000

My husband got two different saws (table and mitre) for the price of one with the combination of a sale and a mail-in rebate. We like having the tools,and we like letting our friends and relatives borrow them. The more use they get, the better of a deal they are!

By: j

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:59:06 +0000

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area there are actually tool librarys associated with the public library. If you are fortunate enough to have one of these in your library system it’s a great way to borrow tools for free.

By: the weakonomist

the weakonomist — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:23:00 +0000

Refurbs are great for just about anything. The biggest hindrence to my doing home improvement projects is skill with the tools. Perhaps someday when I have a house I’ll learn.