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Comment by flyGuyOnTheSly | Hacker News Reader

>But it's a lot of trouble to find high quality items these days. I want to own few things and keep most for the rest of my life.

I concur on both fronts.

Might I suggest you check out thrift or second hand stores?

I have a collection of old aluminum cased power tools made in the mid 20th century in North America, and I think the most I paid for any one of them was $12 CAD.

They look amazing.

You can take them apart quickly and easily if you need to re-grease them.

You can re-wind the motor if you somehow manage to short it out.

They don't need a warranty, as they have proven themselves over the past 50+ years already.

Etc.

We've made a LOT of quality products over the years, many of which make their way into thrift stores sooner or later.

Paying 10% of what something would cost brand new, and getting quality that is typically 10x greater than the brand new version is a steal imho.

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Take a bit of care with those... When I was a kid I was using my granddad's orbital sander - with a beautiful alloy body, when one of the brushes _finally_ wore right through, and the spring and pigtail popped out of the brush holder and put the live 240V AC conductor into the casing... (Not at all helped by the fact I was using the extension cord from the double insulated electric lawnmower, which had earth pins on the plug/sockets, but no earth conductor in the cable...) My arm waved around uncontrollably as I couldn't release the grip in my hand - until it _finally_ bashed itself into the boat I was sanding down and hammered it out of my hand. I have no idea how I came out of that unscathed...

A valid warning, indeed!

I will admit that my drill has had the grounding pin cut out of it's once-3-pronged plug.

Apparently it was common for contractors to cut it out as many of the houses they were working in didn't have grounding sockets.

I've only used it a couple of times, after checking it over mechanically inside, so I'm not too worried about it.

The beautiful thing about old power tools however is that replacing the power cord is as easy removing 4 easily accessed screws in the outer cover, removing the cover, then removing 3 further easily accessed screws that connect the plug to the electrical system of the drill.

Which as you remind us, I should probably do sooner than later.

Thanks for the story, and thankfully you still have an arm to type with!

With the grounding pin absent, even a small amount of leakage can result in the enclosure of the tool being anywhere between mains and ground potential. I'm neither an electrician nor an engineer, but I suspect that the newer "double insulated" standard is a worthwhile improvement.

Either (or both of) roper grounding or a residual current detector would have made that day of mine a lot less exciting. I'm still happy using metal-cased mains powered devices, but I'm somewhat more careful about checking those two things before I hang on to them tightly these days...

In the UK most 'thrift' or charity shops are hollowed-out since they realised they could make much more money selling valuable items online in auctions. Since then they have a national audience and not just wall-ins from one town.

Any tips on how you identify such items that are worth buying? Those tools sound like an amazing deal.

It's tougher than it looks.

Especially so with newer Chinese made products actually adding lead weights inside their cheap plastic cases to make their cheap products feel as though they were cut from a heavier cloth.

Some rules of thumb that I have when it comes to buying old power tools are:

Does it look like something your grandfather might have owned?

Is it of all metal construction? If not, are the plastics of a high enough density to make them almost as indestructible as metal?

Does it plug directly into the wall? And does it work?

If you can answer those questions in the affirmative when it comes to any power tool, chances are it is of good quality.

The best way by far imho however is just to get out there and start looking.

After a few months, you'll begin to notice lots and lots of exactly the same items showing up in the same shelving sections.

The same kettles, the same breadmakers, the same drills, the same table lamps, most all of them having been made in the past 20 years and currently knocking on death's door.

Once you've seen enough of that crap, when a quality item displays itself in front of you, you'll know it's a great deal and snap it up with excitement.

I love thrifting.

Good luck out there!

Also - keep in mind a lot of places you find these things they're _really_ cheap, so it's often perfectly fine to buy one that is _probably_ good, then pull it apart when you get home to check it's interior and construction. If you only dropped $5 at a thrift store, it doesn't hurt too much when you find its actually shitty plastic with a lump of rusty steel inside - and you just trow it out...

That is a great point.

Plenty of items that I have purchased and been unhappy with personally have found their way back to thrift stores.

I try to donate primarily to the more local actual charities that do a lot of good in my community like the salvation army, but I have no problem donating to for profit thrift stores either as I am in them often and I can see the great things that they're doing for a very large number of less wealthy people.

Salvation army isn't a non-profit in the strict traditional sense of the word, they are a church that happens to do a lot of worthwhile charity, The church part of their mission has led to some controversy regarding how they treat members of the LGBT community. While each individual office is different there's been a consistent thread of this running through the organization in line with their belief system. If that's not a concern to you then disregard, if it is you may want to consider how your donations and purchases are being spent.

As for finding thrift store items in general, you can find some great things in need of minor tlc, especially hand tools. I tend to use my battery powered told for most things these days that are have tools so plugged tools aren't my forte but I still have a drill I bought ages ago that's lasted me numerous projects and years without failing. It's kind of remarkable how well built some tools are.

>If that's not a concern to you then disregard, if it is you may want to consider how your donations and purchases are being spent.

That is absolutely a great concern to me, but the fact remains that there are at least 10 homeless shelters and soup kitchens in my area funded completely by the salvation army.

While savers et al might be more supportive of the LGBT community, salvation army is literally putting a roof over hundreds of heads who call my city home every night, which is why I choose to support them.

I don't deny in my comment that they do good work. It's absolutely a double edge sword and not an easy or clear cut case of what's right versus wrong. It's well within their rights to choose how to spend their money and I wasn't attempting to assign moral or ethical judgement, just to bring up the point that if it's a concern then your money and time might be better directed elsewhere. This isn't a case of some monolithic evil organization demanding intolerance on high, but as part of their belief system it has led to multiple occasions where people have been thrown out of facilities, denied services, etc. It's up to everyone to find the line with which they are comfortable, especially in areas like this where the best use of resources might actually be giving to a cause that could be antagonistic to another cause one supports.

I'd stay away from used circular saws. The shaft may be damaged, and having the blade come off or shatter at high speeds could be pretty bad.

I'll be sure to check out the shaft before I use it next time, thank you!

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