Hand truck I use is a 1980s Magliner, magnesium frame, original wheels. Picked it up used off a rigger in Newark in 1994 for forty bucks. Frame's been welded twice, once by me after a bad night with a 400 lb block of Vermont slate that got away from me and cracked the axle bracket. Everyone who comes through the shop tells me to get a new one. The new ones are aluminum and cost $300 and flex under load.

I know where the welds are. That is the whole point. A tool you've repaired yourself you can trust past its rated capacity because you know exactly which part is going to complain first.

I think about this with the shop in general. People walk in and see a mess. What they're seeing is a map of thirty years of decisions, most of them made at 2 AM under a deadline.

Wagons. What's the tool you keep limping along that nobody else would.