Official Contest Thread - Vote for the Most Useful Homemade Tool!

Click here for the contest's Final Voting Poll

It's time for another HomemadeTools.net contest! We thought we'd throw it wide open this time around, so...

The theme is: Most Useful Homemade Tool

Forum members may nominate entries as replies to this thread. Nominations should include both the name of the tool and its HomemadeTools.net link.

The official rules:

• Any forum member may nominate entries
• Anyone may vote, though only once per person
• A member may not nominate his own tool, but he may vote for it should it be nominated by someone else

Prize structure:

• 1st = $100 hardware-related gift card (winner's choice of several) + HomemadeTools.net T-shirt
• 2nd = $50 hardware-related gift card (winner's choice of several) + HomemadeTools.net T-shirt
• 3rd = HomemadeTools.net T-shirt
• Bonus = The nominator of the 1st prize winner will also receive a HomemadeTools.net T-shirt

Attachment 1565 Attachment 1566
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The Contest's nomination phase will last for one week, followed by a one week voting period conducted via forum poll. The three tool entries garnering the most votes will be declared the winners and announced on Friday, May 9.

OK, tool fans: get to it!! Reply directly in this thread with your nominations.

For me, multipurpose tools and machines are the most useful. Therefore, I would like to nominate sdudley's Mini-Tablesaw / Router / Shaper. A great tool to have if you're into woodworking. I highly recommend this one. Complete templates and clear instructions will speed up construction and enhance the quality of the build.

It's certainly challenging to identify the "most useful" tool. I will nominate a tool modification that meets my definition of useful...meaning a tool I would reach for over and over again. This idea seems particularly interesting to me: bfk's Tape Measure Modification

Ever since I started tinkering, I haven't been without an air compressor. It can be used for a multitude of things, so I'd like to nominate mr slug's Air Compressor. Nothing fancy, just a workhorse.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kbalch

It's time for another HomemadeTools.net contest! We thought we'd throw it wide open this time around, so...

The theme is: Most Useful Homemade Tool

Forum members may nominate entries as replies to this thread. Nominations should include both the name of the tool and its HomemadeTools.net link.

The official rules:

• Any forum member may nominate entries
• Anyone may vote, though only once per person
• A member may not nominate his own tool, but he may vote for it should it be nominated by someone else

Prize structure:

• 1st = $100 hardware-related gift card (winner's choice of several) + HomemadeTools.net T-shirt
• 2nd = $50 hardware-related gift card (winner's choice of several) + HomemadeTools.net T-shirt
• 3rd = HomemadeTools.net T-shirt
• Bonus = The nominator of the 1st prize winner will also receive a HomemadeTools.net T-shirt

Attachment 1565 Attachment 1566
Attachment 1567 Attachment 1568

The Contest's nomination phase will last for one week, followed by a one week voting period conducted via forum poll. The three tool entries garnering the most votes will be declared the winners and announced on Friday, May 9.

OK, tool fans: get to it!! Reply directly in this thread with your nominations.

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Here's my favourite it's a byMaverick Solar on mavericksolar.net DC Generator Homemade DC Generator

This was a very difficult choice, as "useful" is a label that could easily be applied to almost every tool on Homemadetools.net.

Nevertheless, I've decided on mafe's Homemade Pencil Keeper for my nomination. Super simple, with only two two basic components, but extremely useful.

Selecting a single "Most Useful Homemade Tool" was quite difficult, but I finally settled on Matthias Wandel's Sawhorses. They're simple, easy to build, and absolutely essential for a wide variety of shop tasks.

Ken