Yes, I have many tools from Harbor Freight and Northern Tool, but there are a few tools that I want to be of a higher quality, and they don't have to cost much or any more than a knock off if you are willing to shop around. I did not buy any of my body hammers from a tool store, I bought them all online mostly used. I bought a couple dollies as a set from HF, the rest I also picked up on line or made myself. I justify my tools by comparing the price to what it would have cost to hire someone else to do the work then take 25-50% of that cost and use it towards tools and materials. Each new project I do means a new tool or three into my collection. I make a lot of my tools as well.
The right tool can make the difference between a quality job and a crappy one. I am currently upfitting the upstairs in my garage, and I can do far better quality framing work much faster using my chop saw to cut studs and my air framing nailer to put it all together with than I ever could with a hand or skill saw and a hammer, I've done it both ways. It also helps me to do a lot of the work by myself that otherwise would require a helper. Plus I do find uses for the tools on other projects that I'm willing to tackle that I would have shied away from otherwise.

 

sorry double post.

 

...I been havin' fairly good luck lately here in Michigan on Craigslist.com with body tools...I dunno...maybe it's the crappy
economy...

 

I was in the body repair business for about 5-6 years, a long time ago. I had basic tools; a couple of body hammers, a few different dollies, a good 6" DA (dual action sander) and air file. While the other guys in the shop had huge tool boxes full of tools I got by with the basics. Don't cheap out on the air tools. I found the cheapie ones don't last as long, maybe for a backyard garage job they're OK but I just don't like them. As for had tools I found the cheapies work fine but I like a good quality hammer. While all the other guys in the shop were buying the gold plated Snap-On tools I went to Sears and got the two hammers I used, and still have. They are very good quality.

I also improvise a lot of tools. I use a piece of rail road beam as an anvil. I also made tools to push panels into place as I spot welded them in. I have made tools as the need arose, many times just copying tools in the catalog.

I believe in doing things as economical as possible (you can read that a "cheap")

 

I've used both high and low dollar tools. The one biggest thing I've found, is that the "cheapies" are often of a softer steel. They can dent somewhat easier than the high-quality, which can transfer to what you are working on. Just be aware of that, and they will work great. Also, ditto on the smoothing of them, before you ever start using them. It's really amazing how a little dent, or the such, can change the quality of your work. But for most (if not all) of us, the cheapies will do just great. Another ditto - get a GOOD hammer or two, that you are comfortable with, with a good handle. Nothing worse than spending an hour getting something just about perfect, then get fatigued, and mess it all up with a few poor hammer strokes...

R

 

A hammer, when used to form metal, is considered a "precision" tool, not a "brute force" tool. You can do some very precise work with one when used with care and skill.
As stated a well designed and balanced hammer can be used all day long like an extension of your body. A poorly designed one is clumsy, awkward, hard to control and tiring. The handle is as important as the head. It should be slender, springy, allow a sensitive grip (a body hammer is held LIGHTLY with the finger tips and with the index finger resting on the back of the handle pointed towards the head) and sized and shaped so that when swung lightly from the elbow with a stiff wrist the head contacts the work flat and centered. You DO NOT grab the handle like a battle axe or sledgehammer, you are not chopping down trees or enemy knights or tearing down walls!

 

I guess I could say something similar. I have a chunk of rail road rail that my grandfather gave me I use for an anvil. he lived by the railroad and got it from the workers when they replaced one. They cut it into several pieces for him. He, dad, and myself all have one.

I worked in a steel fabrication shop for years and have an odd assortment of "dollies" that we made. They are shaped with a grinder to whatever panel we were pushing out at the time.

I also have a lot of home made pry bars and assorted things for panel allignment. We even have tools that we made for working on automatic transmissions. They are copies of expensive ones and work just as well.

I wish I had a porta-power, but I do not (yet). I used to borrow one from the shop where I worked. I don't think they have one anymore.

One thing I use quite often is a hockey puck. I do not have the rubber heel/tow dollies, but it works fine.

 

I have a scrap/recycle yard near my house that I frequent regularly. They specialize in stuctural steel, stainless and aluminum. I'm like a kid in a candy store there. I have quite a number of short cutoffs of I beams, blocks, large rods etc that I use for various tool making projects.
Hockey pucks are extremely useful! Not just for dollies, but I also put them under the feet of my compressor to quiet it and keep it from walking, I use one on my floor jack to keep from crushing the pinch weld seam on the rocker panels of the Solstice when jacking it up.
When shaping metal that you don't want to stretch, use a steel hammer with a rubber or delrin dolly or a rubber or delrin hammer with a steel dolly.
A porta power is also a very useful tool. A 4 ton set is plenty, the 10 ton is overkill. I made a really nice hydraulic spring compressor using my porta power to compress strut and coilover springs.

 

We had a scrap-yard, the owner made his fortune by catering to people like us. When he passed on the business to his kids, they changed it to "new steel" only, then you had to buy complete lengths, then you had to have a $200 minimum order, now it's all new, full lengths, and a $300 minimum order. They don't want to mess with the "little guy", even though the old man built the business on us. Shame...

I have found one place about 30 miles away, that will sell you anything you need. So, they will get ALL my business, even the full-length stuff I'm getting ready to buy, for my shop shelving, etc. WELL over the $300 minimum, but I'll take care of those that take care of me...

My plasma cutter got here today, although I'd already left for work!! I'm at work now, get off at midnight, but will be playing with it all night, I imagine, after I get home...

YeeHaw!

R

 

Mmmmmm.... Plasma cutter! You're gonna love that new toy!

 

I've been walking around in a daze, since I decided to get one, just thinking up projects!!!!

I'll be certainly giving a review, in the garage forum, when I've had some time with it.

"Have myself a merry little Christmas..."



R

 

I bought my Martin set from Eastwood some years ago. They haven't failed me yet. Like AX says, you don't need to be in a rush. You can add as you go. I finally received my chopping and sectioning dvd from Ron Covell. I like it. I'm thinking of getting some more. He has a selection of videos to choose from that may help in your learning the body hammer and dolly.

 

I keep preaching the message, EVERYONE who is even thinking about doing body work needs to have a copy of Ron's "Basic Techniques for Working with Steel" DVD. Seeing and hearing him (the sounds the hammer makes is as important to learning the process as seeing it done) demonstrate the differences between "on dolly" and "off dolly" hammering and when to use each, how to shape patches, how to fill holes and how to do heat shrinking with the clarity he puts into the DVD is worth 10 times the 40.00 price tag. It is as valuable a tool as a good hammer.

 

Thats the main reason I don't own any of his DVDs. I can't HEAR them and they are not captioned for what he is saying. I will have to learn by trial and error (and reading online). You can learn a lot by reading.

 

And even more, by that "trial and error"...my best lessons have come from a great teacher...me and my "mistakes"!!



r