Cool Tools, lesser known tools that can improve your life

Another tool I just heard about on this thread https://permies.com/t/55529/Perfect-offgrid-welder#539094 is the Ready Welder.





It seems this has been well known in the 4X4 off road circles, for out in the field repairs. But for the same reasons the off road folks love it it makes this a great off grid welder option.



I am not going to go too deep into it here since I don't have experience with these, I would suggest if you are interested check out the thread I linked that specifically discusses it by someone who does have experience with it. One last thing to mention is that it is said to weld steel, stainless steel, and aluminum. So not only portable and small sized, but versatile too.

You can find all four versions at their website http://readywelder.com/products-page/?doing_wp_cron=1488198527.2970209121704101562500

I have a Wallenstein Trailer.

It can be use as a log trailer to haul out logs for firewood, building WOFATI's, setting rafters and timbers in place, picking anything heavy, moving big round bales, or any other number of things. But then the grapple can be changed out and a post hole drill put in its place so you can bore fence posts, posts for WOFATI's, or any number of things. But then the log bunks can be swapped out for a dump body that comes with it, so you can move brush and dump it, place big rocks you have picked up with the grapple in the dump body, or fill the dump body with soil or gravel to build driveways, paths, move manure, brush for hugels, etc. But wait there is more. You can then put a backhoe bucket on it so that you can dig trenches, make swales, make hugels, cover WOFATI's, etc.

I am in the process of building an upside down woodsplitter for it so that I don't have to lift firewood at all.

In short it is the swiss army knife of homestead equipment. And with its own 6 hp engine driving the hydraulics, it is self powered. I use it on my bulldozer, farm tractor, but honestly use it the most on my Ford Explorer! That is because it is so fast, can go down the highway, and is so versatile. Besides my bulldozer, it is the second best purchase I ever made.

Oh, my goodness, Travis! That is a magical machine! Having major machine envy over here . . . Tell me how much it cost, so I can get back to reality and realize that it's out of our price range.

Tracy Wandling wrote:Oh, my goodness, Travis! That is a magical machine! Having major machine envy over here . . . Tell me how much it cost, so I can get back to reality and realize that it's out of our price range.

Yes I am imagining those cost a pretty penny, but it has me wondering if one could find them for rent somewhere. I could see how they could make a great rental for a homesteader to get some good log hauling wofati work done.

*edit to add, A quick search and I am finding the lower end ATV and side by side pulled version is $15-$17K I don't think I want to keep looking to see what the larger ones cost.

James Kniskern, thank you. I just watched the video and ordered the set. I have clayey soil, tons of weeds all the time (not ones I WANT to eat, anyways) and foot issues so a hoe type item is the way to go. Might even be able to dispense with the tempermental gas powered weed whipper (part temper, part mental, that thing is always sulking instead of working).

Tracy Wandling wrote:Oh, my goodness, Travis! That is a magical machine! Having major machine envy over here . . . Tell me how much it cost, so I can get back to reality and realize that it's out of our price range.

I got it because I needed a way to get wood out with my bulldozer. It can pull wood out dragging it on the ground, but when I hit a root, stump or rock, my bulldozer would break 3/8 chain chokers. Bigger chain would work, but really getting the wood off the ground was really best, plus I could move more wood since my dozer will go anywhere, but does so very slowly. When I saw this at a local dealership, I inquired.

Note: NEVER just go in to "inquire" at any tractor dealership, you may be surprised what you walk out with.

Tracy, it was $17,999 to the penny delivered to my driveway.  However, this was with the "powerpack", a 6 hp engine and hydraulic system that makes it work independently of the machine pulling it. It can tap into a tractor's hydraulic system, but honestly I use it on my Ford Explorer about 3 times as much as my bulldozer or farm tractor. I just got back from delivering two Spruce Logs to a guy about 10 miles away. He is a Luther (makes custom acoustic guitars) and wanted a few choice logs I cut while logging today. I could not have given them the logs without the ease of this guy.

Next to my bulldozer, it is the second best purchase I ever made. I use it almost every day.

Another thread got me thinking about this: My Cement Mixer.

We honestly use our cement mixer for a lot of stuff other than mixing cement. We have used it more for mixing potting soil, garden soil, mixing compost, mixing large batches of paint, mixing feed rations for my sheep, than we have for mixing concrete.

But cement mixers can also wash. As it tumbles around you can add water and rinse the dirt off rock for landscaping, pond edging, erosion control, even wash sheep fleeces, and heavily soiled clothing.

You can also use it to crush and pummel. Have a party and need to smash up a lot of ice? Put it in the cement mixer with a few bricks or clean rocks and in short order it will pummel the ice into manageable sizes. This works well if you are making lots of ice cream and are using your own ice taken from a water body of some sort.

It has worked well for that, and while it is a pain to do big jobs, a bag of cement costs $6 and takes (5) of them to make a cubic yard, where as delivered redi-mix cement costs $100 a cubic yard with a 3 cubic yard minimum. Some jobs do not require 3 cubic yards of cement, and $30 a yard is better then $100! Our kitchen counter tops are made from concrete mixed with gravel from our gravel pit and a bag of purchased cement. It is 42 linear feet of counter top for $6!! Its hard to beat the square footage cost on that!

So I have been collecting some timber frame tools for building my house, and thought I would share a few cool tools I have discovered and picked up.

These are a bit expensive, but are the top of the line multi function multi generational lasting tools that are being made for a small nitch community so just don't have low price from volume production.

Timber Frame HQ's Timber Frame Layout Tool
It incorporates the features of a framing square, try square, speed square and a protractor all wrapped into one



A slightly cheaper version is Borneman Layout Tool or Big Al layout tool.



This is an earlier design video review


You can find Timberframe HQ's here http://timberframehq.com/shop/layout-square/

You can find the Borneman version here http://www.tfguild.org/products/layout-square

Chappell Universal Square
These squares include useful tables that can help you dramatically in building timber frame structures.



You can find them here http://chappellsquare.com/

Ok for the bit more budget minded there is

The Universal Square
Which is made for the more standard stick and frame building. Sized for standard 2X4 construction.



A decent review of this tool


Can be found at Homedepot http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Universal-Square-HUS125/203951642 or Amazon, and plenty of other places.