Showerthought: that $14 magnet I laughed at now lives in my boiler bag
Bought a cheap magnetic pickup tool at a swap meet in Gary last month just to mess with it, and it fished a dropped nut out of a firebox tube where my hand had no chance. I used to cuss and bend coat hangers for 20 minutes every time something fell in there, but now it's like 10 seconds. What small cheap thing turned out way more useful than you expected on a job?