Get your own tape measure!
- Steel tapes are best – a wider tape will be more robust and last longer. If you prefer only millimetres for measuring, you can get mm only tape measures in Europe. Nowhere in England sells them! Go to Italy or Poland to get one – when you go, get a few! The advantage is you can measure stuff from both sides of the tape – amazing how annoying it can be when all you can see is the inches side!
- When purchasing a drill, take into consideration the ‘Ah’ number of the battery. The higher the number, the longer it will last without having to be recharged. Always go for lithium batteries rather than nickel-cadmium.
- Smaller combination sets with drill and impact driver are great and will be good for most things – 10.8 volts.
- Never get a cheap drill – it is totally pointless. It will break.
- The best quality drills are made by Panasonic, Makita, Milwaukee, Festool and some Bosch.
- It is often cheaper to buy the drill body (‘naked’ drill) and batteries separately.
- SDS – for when your drill is not strong enough to drill into something.
- Don’t buy a cheap spirit level – good to get a long one for hanging – can also be used as a straight edge.
- Jigsaws are just right for certain things, and solve many problems that most other cutting tools can’t: cut a rough shape, cut through, a half-radius, geometric forms. You might not use them that often, but when you do, it saves loads of work.
- A good handsaw has 90 degree and 45 degree angles for you. Beware: cheap saws mimic the shape of the angles but they are not true.
- It is generally worth building up a collection of good power tools – build it up slower and have fewer, but make sure they’re good.
- I find it useful to have a bad set of chisels; you will use them for a variety of things – screwdriver, taper wedges, wrecking bars, scrapers, levers.
- A hairdryer. Yes, a hairdryer. A really useful tool to have around the place when you want to dry something quickly or add a little controlled heat.