Singapore Expats

I used to get most of my stuff from:

Handyman Centre
#4-06/7 Shaw Centre

But insing.com suggests that it has closed.

[Can anyone confirm?]

p.s. It's moved rather than closed (http://www.facebook.com/HandymanCentre).

It's now at #16-01 Shaw Centre.

I like that place as the guy on the till is the owner (not 'some spotty drone') and he knows his stuff and so can advise and give tips on doing various jobs*...


* I had to find some very obscure lightbulbs that I couldn't source anywhere, and he gave me the address of a lighting shop on Balestier Road where I found them.

Go amazon and get a set of locking hex keys otherwise ur best bet for tools are in Jalan besar

I've been using Handyman Centre for 30 years. When I was rebuilding my antique Singer sewing machine, I wanted bake on enamel as it's extremely hard and virtually chip proof. He got it for me in a couple of days. I've still got the Sewing Machine till today and it works like a charm. I stripped the entire unit and took all down to bear metal to restore it.

Before that, I needed a pair of proper long handled fencing pliers. He found them for me, and ordered two. One for me and one for him. You could find almost anything in that shop. But it was dearer than most hardware shops but you really didn't mind. In fact, JR8, if you think back hard enough, you will probably remember the display of Katanas by the checkout counter in the window (fakes).

Glad to know he didn't close up for good.

jezzadazzler wrote:Go amazon and get a set of locking hex keys otherwise ur best bet for tools are in Jalan besar

Most of the tools there are made in China and only good for one use, if that. Bloody "diamond" brand.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:In fact, JR8, if you think back hard enough, you will probably remember the display of Katanas by the checkout counter in the window (fakes).

Indeed I do! And I recall having a bit of a vent with the owner that swords (even reproductions) are legal, whereas catapults are apparently not.

Great shop, glad it's still there!

p.s. Agree with you. It is definitely worth paying for quality tools, I learned that young. They tend to make a job simpler, and they last. Most of the smallish quantity of tools I have today are good ones, some I've had and used for 20+ years - bought after learning the aforementioned lesson!

Cheap tools are often a false economy. An acquaintance of mine swears by picking up good old tools at flea markets. Even 'rusty old stuff'. He swears that older tools are generally much better made (i.e. not Chinese junk), and, he pays peanuts for them.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:

jezzadazzler wrote:Go amazon and get a set of locking hex keys otherwise ur best bet for tools are in Jalan besar

Most of the tools there are made in China and only good for one use, if that. Bloody "diamond" brand.

Lol or that sellery brand. I am a tool nut myself with all sort of tools for bicycles and Working round the house. I found quality stuff like facom, Elkind, wiha ESP hex keys where I change my sets every year to ensure sharpness when I do wrench stuff. To be fair most of the good stuff was found at sim lim tower basement. Sin Ming industrial park also have tool shops with quality stuff.

If you are having to change a set every year, you are buying substandard tools.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:If you are having to change a set every year, you are buying substandard tools.

.... or not using the correct sizes (example: an Imperial set, versus a Metric set).

I've only ever had one set of hex keys, my original carbon-steel ones, and there is nil wear on them.

This is true. But then I guess that why I've got three full sets of tools at home. SAE, Metric and one other oddball one - Whitworth (it wasn't always odd ball and you will understand) . I've got a full set of Whitworth wrenches, taps & dies. (That what happens when you restore your '57 AH 100-6 without doing research first). And that was 35 years ago. All of my tools are Craftsmen except for some specialty tools and my antique set of custom made high carbon steel gouges made by my paternal grandfather some 90+ years ago when he was a Pattern Maker with Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:This is true. But then I guess that why I've got three full sets of tools at home. SAE, Metric and one other oddball one - Whitworth (it wasn't always odd ball and you will understand) . I've got a full set of Whitworth wrenches, taps & dies. (That what happens when you restore your '57 AH 100-6 without doing research first). And that was 35 years ago. All of my tools are Craftsmen except for some specialty tools and my antique set of custom made high carbon steel gouges made by my paternal grandfather some 90+ years ago when he was a Pattern Maker with Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore.

Learn something new every day!

I have done lathe/woodwork (and metalwork) at school, but I'd completely forgotten that the '''rotary chisels''' are called gouges.

Ah, Austin Healey My dad was driving his one day, when he noticed a very pretty young lady and as it was raining took the initiative of offering her* a lift (dear reader, those were much more innocent times).

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&si ... 6sEMwD7ovE

Whitworth taps and dies, makes sense (I've used taps and dies in metalwork classes). Still don't 'get' what's different re: these Whitworth ones, despite a quick skim of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Standard_Whitworth
If you have a moment can you sum it up in say 12 words or less?


* my mother!
So... my very existence is down to the pulling-power of AH cars...


Oh, and talking about quality tools. Not saying they're the greatest quality, but I did my best. My parents still use two fire pokers that I made c35 years ago. One out of round bar, eye-hole top, good solid point at the other end. The other out of square bar, more detailing, and oval eye, with a tiny 'fold back' right on the end, and a full 360 degree twist over c4" a little below the handle.

That was right before a friend and I made a 'flint-lock' pistol (the stock in woodwork club, the barrel from like 3/4" round steel bar, and firing mechanism in metalwork club. The thing used a little screw-in cartridge (the size of a tiny medical plastic dropper-bottle). On one side you had a cavity filled with 'classic gunpowder', connected via a small hole to the other side where you put the high-percussion explosive soaked/dried in blotting paper (I won't go into details but that charge was based around Potassium Hexa-cyanoferrate II**). I have no idea how on earth we got these recipes... as this was long before the internet, but heavens did we have some fun (except 'that day' when I could have blown my hand off, but by luck only got hospitalised with 1st degree burns! [Pro Tip: grinding gunpowder in a pestle and mortar is not a good idea]).

In the next episode: DIY 'depth-charges', aka water-activated hand-grenades ... lol.


** My cohort in all of this was THE science swot at school, you know the type, 'genius but stupid'. Whilst making the percussion caps he decided to dry the infused sheets of paper in his mothers gas oven. Well that was his v1.00 (and only) attempt at doing it that way, but it was terminal for the oven, as he succeeded in literally blowing the door off it!

JR8 wrote: Ah, Austin Healey My dad was driving his one day, when he noticed a very pretty young lady and as it was raining took the initiative of offering her* a lift (dear reader, those were much more innocent times).

Whitworth taps and dies, makes sense (I've used taps and dies in metalwork classes). Still don't 'get' what's different re: these Whitworth ones, despite a quick skim of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Standard_Whitworth
If you have a moment can you sum it up in say 12 words or less?

* my mother!
So... my very existence is down to the pulling-power of AH cars...

This is for your Dad & Mum who can appreciate it. I'm sure you'll like it as well. My restored AH 100-6

Oh wow! She looks absolutely amazing!!

This one was my 2nd restoration project, 1960 MB 190SL. in late 78 to late 81. (unrestored photo as Hurricane Isabel seems to have consumed later photos) This one down in Louisiana (Morgan City).

Wow, lovely.

Old cars have so much more character. Like my '74 Malibu, pretty gronky, but a lot of fun to drive, what with the 2 tons of steel*, c18' length, bench seats 'n all.

I've have killed for a 60s Impala, but they were $$$





* or what ever, it felt that way anyhowz, as it didn't have power-steering...