Thought it might be interesting to see what everyone considers must have items for a shop to be useful. Of course some of us are far beyond the minimal requrements to get things done, I'll start off with what I'd consider minimum, and why it's necessary.
Power - You really need to have power available to run a drill or battery charger, much less any of the other necessities.
Air - If nothing else, just being able to air up a tire or blow off an piece of equipment, compressed air is a must. Depending on capacity, you'll soon have an abundance of cheap, but surprisingly good, air tools for all kinds of tasks.
Hydraulic press - You can pick up a press pretty reasonably, and can often snag one off craigslist that's perfectly fine. The ability to press a bearing on, or separate something that doesn't want to come apart will quickly pay for itself vs. lost time and taking it somewhere that can.
Fairly sturdy workbench - Can be temporary if need be, I was driving along and saw a stack of free house doors on the curb. Loaded them up and stripped the hardware, they make a great extra table on some sawhorses for laying out bigger projects, and if you need to nail on some stops for fixtureing it won't hurt as much as defiling your main bench.
Vise - Sooner or later you'll run out of hands, or need to bend or squeeze something. Plus, the vise won't curse if you hit it with a hammer.
Tools - End wrenches, sockets, pliers and screwdrivers for what you mostly work on, of course. Drill bits, tap and die sets, torx drives are just about must haves anymore. A universal puller, they will do most of what needs pulled, and HF has one that isn't that expensive.
Assortments - These are absolutely wonderful. Nothing irks me more than not having some simple thing to finish up a project due to loss or breakage. Grease fitting, snap rings, woodruff keys, automotive fuses, roll pins, O-rings,there is a kit for it. Some extra hardware, like nuts, bolts and washers.
There's probably more; what motivated me to do this thread was all the posts where people ask how to do something; we all approach the answer from what we have to work with. There is working in the dirt with a bent screwdriver and broken pair of pliers to having a 3 phase Bridgeport and multiple two post lifts, most of us fall somewhere in the middle. What do you consider mus have items?
