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Do it yourself: the basics for your toolbox

Elina Blom

How to create your own toolbox from scratch – with the most important tools.

When it comes to DIY, it's easy to joke that everything you need is a little WD-40, some duct tape and a good pair of pliers. Just like Clint Eastwood's character Walt Kowalski taught his young neighbour in the film "Gran Torino". But the reality is a little more complicated than that.

So here's a brief introduction that will help you put together a simple toolbox that can solve most minor DIY tasks. These are the tools everyone needs to avoid having to call in a specialist or a friend for every small task.

Start with the container

Start your DIY toolbox by finding a good bucket, box or bag to hold all of your tools. There's nothing worse than having tools spread out all over the house and not knowing where to start looking.

Tool containers can be reasonably cheap or cost a huge amount. But an empty paint bucket works fine to start with if you have a limited budget.

If I had a hammer...

A good hammer is essential. And if you're only going to have one hammer for all your DIY tasks, it's important that it sits well in your hand and isn't too big or too small. Bacho, Stanley and Hultafors produce good hammers for reasonable prices.

Hammers are often measured by the head weight in ounces and the shaft length (e.g. XL). A 16 oz hammer with an XL shaft can handle almost every task, regardless of whether you're nailing up a window strip in your holiday home or building a shed in the garden. You can also use the claw on the back of the head in place of a small crowbar when you need to separate planks or pull out a nail.

  • Claw hammer

A claw hammer is a workhorse amongst hammers. It's versatile and the curved claw on the back of the head means it can easily be used instead of a small crowbar to pull out nails. At the same time it weighs enough to knock in the majority of nails without being too heavy.

  • Roofing hammer

A roofing hammer is the claw hammer's slightly heavier big brother, which makes it ideal for knocking in many large nails. These are often used by carpenters laying roofing laths; hence the name.

A roofing hammer has a small claw on the back of the head, one side of which is much longer and more pointed. This was traditionally used to get a better grip on larger beams and posts. Today, this pointed claw is more often used to attach the hammer close to the work area when it's not in use. But don't forget to attach it to the side of the wood that won't be visible when you've finished work!

  • Ball-peen hammer

A ball-peen hammer is a small hammer, without a claw on the head. It's light and not suitable for knocking in larger nails, but perfect for smaller nails and metal pins – and it's also better in tight spaces where a larger hammer wouldn't have room and might damage the surrounding surfaces.

  • Sledgehammer

A sledgehammer is a hammer on steroids. It's large and heavy and is mostly used for making sure large objects go where they're supposed to. For example if you're driving wooden posts into the ground to build a fence, or erecting a large tent.

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A saw for your DIY projects

A saw is also an essential. There are lots of different types of saws for all kinds of DIY projects, regardless of whether you're sawing along or across a plank or cutting out a hole in the middle of a sheet of chipboard.

Fortunately you can tackle most common DIY projects with a single saw. You can find good hand saws quite cheaply. And for those who are pickier, there are ergonomic saws with replaceable blades. More teeth make finer cuts, and fewer make coarser and faster cuts.

Hand saw

The most common saw is the hand saw, also known as the panel saw. Hand saws can cope with most tasks and are available with large or small teeth, depending on how fine a cut you want to make.

You can also buy an ergonomic hand saw with a replaceable blade. These are really useful for fine carpentry. One tip is to go for the cheaper hand saws, which you can then use to saw plasterboards and so on when the teeth have become too worn for sawing wood. Plasterboard is very hard on the blade but at the same time you don't need a saw with very sharp teeth to cut it.

  • Hacksaw

A hacksaw is intended for sawing metal and other hard materials. The saw is shaped like a bow with a narrow, very fine-toothed blade which can easily be replaced when the teeth get too blunt.

  • Bow saw

A bow saw is like an overgrown hacksaw. The teeth are also much larger, with a bigger distance between them. Just like a bow saw, the blade can quickly be changed if you want to cut down a large tree or lop branches in the garden.

  • Japanese saw

A Japanese saw is a different type of saw that, unlike the majority of other saws, doesn't cut on the push but on the pull stroke. This means that the blade can be made thinner, which also gives a finer cut.

In skilled hands, this type of saw can make extremely fine cuts, but they tend to hang up in many workshops without ever being used.

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Screwdrivers are crucial

It's difficult to complete any DIY project without a selection of screwdrivers, or at least one with a set of interchangeable tips. Every home contains a wide range of large and small screws of different types, and even if it's pretty much impossible to have a screwdriver that will fit all of them, you can get a long way with a good standard set. Let's take a closer look at the most common screwdrivers for DIY projects:

  • Multi-bit screwdriver

This is a relatively new type of screwdriver, where you can replace the tip (known as the bit). This makes the multi-bit screwdriver extremely versatile when it's combined with a good bit set.

  • Flat-blade screwdriver

A flat-blade screwdriver is a screwdriver with a straight blade that fits into – mostly older – screws with a straight groove in the head. Flat-blade screwdrivers are available in several different sizes from very small, for working on things like electronics, to large ones that are often only used for opening paint pots.

  • Phillips and Pozidriv

Phillips and Pozidriv screwdrivers are two closely-related and very common variants, even if the details are a little different. Both of them are shaped like a plus, but a Pozidriv screwdriver blade also has small lines at each inner corner.

  • Torx screwdriver

Over time, screws with Torx heads have become increasingly common. So it's very useful to have a Torx screwdriver in your toolbox. This type of screwdriver is characterised by having six teeth, which means it grips well and it's easy to use on a screw without damaging it.

  • Hex screws

Hex screwdrivers have hexagonal bits the same shape as the Allen keys that come with IKEA and similar furniture. If you don't have a hex screwdriver, you can use a Torx screwdriver, which will also fit the same screws. It won't be a perfect fit, however, so be careful and don't force it or you may damage the screw. It can be useful to have a good Allen key or hex screwdriver handy if you often have to assemble furniture.

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Pointed, combination and slippy

Pliers could have an entire series of articles to themselves. A very wide range of pliers are available, all of them ideal for a different task. It's impossible to give a brief review of all types of plier, but the main types we name below will get you a long way with most DIY tasks. Even if you're just crimping the catch on a necklace.

  • Tongue-and-groove pliers

Also known as adjustable or slippy pliers. These are versatile pliers that can be used to hold both large and small objects as a result of their adjustable grip. The form of the jaws means they almost always get a good grip. Regardless of whether you're pulling something or breaking off the sharp edges of a sheet of glass, these pliers are a great choice.

  • Combination pliers

Combination pliers have both a straight head for gripping and a cutting edge in the joint for cutting wires, making them extremely useful for DIYers. You can use them to remove insulation from electric cables, trim steel wire and many other functions. These are often well-designed, strong pliers with many purposes.

  • Wire cutters

Even though combination pliers are capable of cutting wires, specialised wire cutters are often a better choice for this task. They're specially designed for cutting cables, steel wires etc. They may be a little less versatile, but the shape means they can often get into spaces where larger pliers won't reach.

  • Needle-nose pliers

Needle-nose pliers are long and very pointed pliers that aren't actually very strong. But what they lack in strength they more than make up for with their ability to get into small corners and cracks where other pliers won't fit. Needle-nose pliers are often used to extract wires from a wall.

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Other useful tools

Your toolbox should now contain the most basic tools you need. But there are another few small items that are essential when you're doing woodwork, building or fixing something yourself.

  • A sharp knife

Probably the most widely used tool in the toolbox is the utility knife. For some projects, you spend quite a lot of time using just a good utility knife – scoring and cutting plasterboard, trimming edging strips, winkling splinters out of fingers and opening bags... The things you'll use a good utility knife for are pretty much endless.

  • Tape measure

Just like a utility knife, a tape measure is an essential element in every toolbox. Folding metersticks are also very useful if you're measuring distances of up to a couple of metres. They fit easily into your pocket with a utility knife and can also be used as a set square or to insert into narrow spaces if your fingers won't fit. Tape measures are often longer and perfect for measuring larger distances. The minimum length of tape measure in your toolbox should probably be 5 m.

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  • A good pencil

A pencil is used for lots of things – taking notes, drawing cutting lines or marking where you want to hang up a picture. A pencil will find a permanent home in the pocket of your work clothes, together with your utility knife and tape measure. You can also sharpen it easily with your knife.

  • When you need to level up

The last tool you need in your basic DIY toolbox is a spirit level. With a spirit level, you can be sure pictures are hanging straight and that you're erecting the garden shed so it's vertical at all four corners. Spirit levels come in several different sizes from really small ones to large ones that can be 4-5 m long. But a normal-sized one of about 60-80 cm is fine for most tasks. At the same time you can use the edge to draw straight lines.

DIY: Now you're ready

With these tools, you can carry out most DIY tasks in the home. But most of us love gadgets, and there's certainly plenty to choose from in the world of tools. So we'll soon be looking more closely at other special tools, with an introduction to the electrical tools useful for many of the tasks you can already tackle with your newly constructed toolbox.

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