What Should I Bring??

[MadDog]

OK, I have a few years before I can retire. I understand that the Philippines will let you bring some household good if you are going to live there. What kinds of things would a person want to bring that would benifit? I was thinking basic tools for fixing stuff and may be some kitchen stuff. What would be the best advice for stuff? Thank you all.

[lost_in_samoa]

basic tools for fixing stuff

Here is my two cents on the portion of your question that I have some experience with.  How much you wanna fix?  I see in one of your earlier posts that you are considering hobby farming. 

Well lots of things break on a farm.  More importantly lots of parts/materials that you take for granted are not available, of really poor quality, or named under some obscure dialect nick-name and are not locatable unless you manage to decipher the super secret moose and squirrel slang.

Ordering work stuff off-island and shipping it in is playing Russian roulette with Customs.  Really expensive, and usually has a long shipping delay.

Then there is the electricity differences as it applies to your tools.  Transformers readily available in the province are not going to cut it.

All of that being said,

I shipped in an older ShopSmith.  What folks in that sub culture call a "Greenie".  All metal construction.  Designed to be locally serviced.  For the most part uses standard tool implements.  Most importantly it is a multi function platform that allowed me to bring in 7 bench power tools in one small system.

I can machine wood / plastics / soft metals with acceptable accuracy.  But it does have a large learning curve.

I also shipped in an arc welder / generator.  But I see a lot of them here now, so you may skip that part.

The tools we use the most here are ....

Pliers, Channel locks,  Vice grips, all manner of clamps, A brace and set of bits, Draw Knife,  Chisels,  Files, Augers and Awls,  A good T square and set of levels.  A good plum bob.

Hand saws of all kinds.  Especially hack saws with LOTS of replacement blades.  They are preferred for cutting bamboo as they do not cause splintering.  The hack saw blades you get in the provinces are made from recycled steel and don't last very long. 

We have a couple of long two man cross cut saws and they are everyone's favorites.  We actually process wood faster manually than with a chain saw.  Taking in account fueling, oiling, and getting the damn engine to run. Bring in a set of saw tooth setters and sharpening files.

Bring in a lot of quality screw drivers.  The local ones are cast from pig iron like materials and last about a month.  And folks here use them for every purpose under the sun.  They break or grow legs at an alarming rate.

A really solid set of hammers / sledges with synthetic handles.  The wood ones died within a year.

A manual cable winch and a 2 ton jack.

I did bring in a complete set of DeWalt battery tools.  But the heat killed the batteries.  I have since switched to wall current, or rice and fish powered tools.

Another point to consider.  Most members in my family, and neck of the woods,  had no clue on how to use tools.  As a result stuff broke and folks got hurt.  That is not a disparagement just an objective observation.  Folks don't know.

If your gonna run a farm shop and your circle will be involved,  a large part of your time will be teaching.   I have a full set of the WoodWright videos and routinely make people learn how to mano-mano drill a hole and finish with ten fingers still attached.


Hope this helps.

[Dawg]

Great advice from Lost in Somoa...

When we made the jump we sent 26 Balakbyan boxes to ourselves and timed it so they started arriving about a month after we did. Everything made it fine with no issues at customs or shipping and only 1 glass figurine was broken. (my fault as I didn't wrap it properly)

I brought all my Dewalt cordless power drills/saws/equipment with multiple replacement blades and bits. Also, we brought several power converters as all my stuff was 110. When we were settling in I bought a 3000 watt step down converter here as a Miter saw drew a lot more than the little converters would allow.

Also, my favorite hand tools took up 2 BBs with tool boxes aplenty.

Televisions are expensive here so we put 2 BBs together and bubble wrapped 2 32" and a 52" flat screen. Again, these were 110 so the converters we brought were a must. Along with those we brought 3 DVD blue ray players, on sale at Wal-Mart.

I brought all my kitchen gadgets, food processors, blenders, coffee makers etc. You guessed it, all 110.

I took some good advice from the Forum and wrapped red electrical tape around the plug of anything that was 110 to give me a visual before I plugged it in without a converter. Good idea but I still fried about 20% of my electronics...so far!

If I were to do it again I would ship the cordless power tools and of course all my hand tools but I'd garage sale everything else and buy it here...coffee makers, kitchen appliances and plug in machinery. I've purchased some good tools here at descent prices. Lotus is a brand I've had good luck with.

Tapcons!!! Load up on these. I have found them here but super expensive and you'll need these for attaching anything to concrete.
Drill bits!!! they are not very good quality here, stock up.
Assorted screws for wood & metal! Also poor quality here.
As LIS said, saw blades, hack saws and hand saws

Here's a good one...coolers! Coolers are super expensive here and not much variety. Every time we visit the States I buy a couple of coolers on sale and load it with stuff we are bringing back. These will each be one of our checked luggage so know the size and weights.

Sugar free anything. If you're watching your sugar load up before moving, they haven't figured this out in the Philippines yet.

Most everything else you can buy here. Good luck and jump early if you can. You'd be surprised at what you can live without!

[FastWalk]

can I tag in on this topic?

Any opinions about air tools (all types not just ratchets) or 24 horsepower 4x4 kubota with implements (tax exempt due to travel status). 

[lost_in_samoa]

Dawg is right.  The pasak and torneleos, (nails and screws),  here are downright criminal.   An uncle of mine passed on a few years back.   He was one of the last Mom -n- Pop hardware stores.  We bought up all of his stock of nails, screws, bolts, nuts, etc for pennies on the dollar.  Shipped 3 bboxes full of them.

Another point to consider.  Anything non stainless is going to rust to pieces.  I lost an antique carpenters square the I inherited from my grandfather that way.

There is a running rust battle over tools now.  I force folks to clean everything after every use.  I keep containers of waste motor oil and rags around so we wipe everything metal down before we put it away.

implements

Interested in hearing what the forum customs experts say.  I asked the same question a few years back. 

As a sideline the one implement that I would give my left n_t for is a flail mower.  Bush-hogs will chop the invasive saw grass down.  But leaves it whole in win-rows that are a pain to deal with.   I was thinking a flail mower would mulch the cut matter much finer.

[Lee2]

IMO everything that is not electronic that you already have, as I have posted elsewhere, I have burned out 110 volt electronic stuff, even when I knew to not plug them in, so
silverware, all kitchen stuff including cookware, dishes, glasses etc, hand tools, sheets and other bed accessories, quality hangers, shoes, clothing, computers and routers if they are 100 to 240 volt and be sure to switch the switch on desktops to 240 before you ship them, TV's as long as they are 100 to 240 volt and you already have them, IMO it is not worth going out to buy them new to ship over, bathroom health tools including nail clippers, metal files, digital scales  and other personal health items, IMO most of the stuff they sell in the Philippines is junk, computer cables, memory sticks etc, so again, if you are moving there permanently, then IMO bring everything that is not voltage sensitive that you regularly use and already have. 

[MadDog]

Thank you for all this wonderful advice. I am writing it down in my notebook. This has been a wonderful place to learn some things. My next mission is to plan a trip. Thanks again.

[BudM]

IMO everything that is not electronic that you already have, as I have posted elsewhere, I have burned out 110 volt electronic stuff, even when I knew to not plug them in, so
silverware, all kitchen stuff including cookware, dishes, glasses etc, hand tools, sheets and other bed accessories, quality hangers, shoes, clothing, computers and routers if they are 100 to 240 volt and be sure to switch the switch on desktops to 240 before you ship them, TV's as long as they are 100 to 240 volt and you already have them, IMO it is not worth going out to buy them new to ship over, bathroom health tools including nail clippers, metal files, digital scales  and other personal health items, IMO most of the stuff they sell in the Philippines is junk, computer cables, memory sticks etc, so again, if you are moving there permanently, then IMO bring everything that is not voltage sensitive that you regularly use and already have.

Like you said, most stuff here is junk.  Well, I would say, a lot of stuff.  But, it is like other stuff.  You get what you pay for.  So, whenever you are here, if you get it here and want better quality, you will need to pony some more.

[lost_in_samoa]

You get what you pay for.  So, whenever you are here, if you get it here and want better quality, you will need to pony some more.

Very true.   Magnify that with the on island distributors NOT pony-ing up so only low or marginal quality stuff makes it into the provincial boonies.

A lot of fairy decent stuff can be found ......... in Manila.

[BudM]

Very true.   Magnify that with the on island distributors NOT pony-ing up so only low or marginal quality stuff makes it into the provincial boonies.

A lot of fairy decent stuff can be found ......... in Manila.

Maybe, as you say, not getting to the provinces is so.  I did not realize there were issues there. I am not in Manila but the Metro area.  I know it gets to me so when I eventually get out to the province, I know to stick around to here for my tools.  All my power tools are mostly Bocsh, Black & Decker, and McCollogh.  Someone was pounding the drum for Lotus on one of these threads.  They have had good luck with Lotus.  Well, that is great.  Not me though.  Everything Lotus that I have gotten since I been here both power and hand turns to crap.

[Sam218]

Bring the gadgets with you when you move in the Philippines. As what they say, quality electronic items or gadgets in the Philippines can be actually be a bit pricey.