Want to donate tools?

Thank you for thinking of us

Firstly, thank you for thinking of us when choosing to reuse your tools rather than throw them away!

Unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to accept all donations. We have limited storage with over 4000+ tools in our inventory already. But more importantly, our ethos is to make sure tools are working for the community. We want to accept donations that will be of definite use to our charity and our community.

If you have tools you think we might need, please email hello@edinburghtoollibrary.org.uk with:

  • details of the tool(s) (make, model)
  • photos of the tool(s) and and extra parts it comes with
  • relevant answers to the questions below

We will take into account the following factors:

  • Is the tool working?
  • Is the tool complete? E.g. if it’s a cordless tool, it’s not missing the battery or the charger (these sometimes cost much more than the actual tool!) 
  • Is the tool something rare that we don’t have in our inventory yet?
  • Is the tool far better that the equivalent tools we currently have in our inventory? Would it be worth it for our community to actually take it to replace an already registered tool?
  • Is the tool a valuable antique that can be used to fundraise to support our charitable programmes working with people from disadvantaged backgrounds?
  • Is the tool listed in our tools wish lists below?

So if we say no to your kind donation of equipment, please don’t think we are ungrateful, we are merely trying to ensure that any kind donation can help us achieve our goals*.

If that is the case, we will arrange a drop-off time and place. Please be aware that in donating tools to ETL, they may not necessarily be used by us forever – we might give them to other tool libraries set up in Scotland, to other community groups, or sometimes we sell them to raise funds for our charitable programmes.

We won’t accept donations without prior agreement.

Please do not turn up during our opening times to donate tools. Volunteers on shifts will not accept donations without prior agreement. Please don’t put them in the uncomfortable position of having to turn you away. Thank you!

*PS: We’ve listed at the bottom of this page other organisations that might make great use of your donations!

Want to donate tools? 1
💔 What we definitely don’t need

Click here to see other organisations that might appreciate the tools we can’t accept.

  • Hammers – we have a lot of hammers already!
  • Individual screwdrivers – see above! Although if you have a full boxed set, that can be very handy.
  • Many other small hand tools – most people will have the very basics and so things like small hack saws, pliers, scissors don’t get borrowed so we don’t need to have many sets available..
  • Broken tools – our repair team does an amazing job repairing our current inventory, but they don’t have time to fix extra things unfortunately.  Broken garden tools can be donated to the Tools Shed project of The Conservation Foundation.
  • Large petrol garden tools (rotavators, mowers) – these are big, heavy, and not nice for air quality, so we would rather you didn’t donate them to us.
  • Antique tools – we know they have value, but that is only if we can sell them, and we don’t have capacity to do that ourselves.
  • Liquid Consumables – paints, silicone, putty, plaster, etc. We know they’re useful, but we don’t have the capacity to dispose of them and keeping in accordance with safety regulations for unknown materials is too complicated to ask our volunteers to keep up with.
😃 Current wish list!
  • Pocket Hole Jig(s) – members have been curious and would like to build the types of projects that can make good use of these, we have some small ones, but they don’t tend to last long or work well for more than a few holes.
  • Impact Wrench – we’ve never had one, but many members have asked about them and we believe it will be more popular than expected (we’d also like to avoid our impact drivers being used as impact wrenches)
  • Garden Hoses – we’ve had a few over the years, but all have been worn out or broken beyond repair
  • Strap Wrenches – so useful, yet so rare
  • Ratchet Straps – we have some huge ones, but many of the smaller sizes are more commonly needed
  • Floor Sander – the holy grail, haha … we have a feeling this tool will cause heated arguments and possibly break up long relationships over rights to access
  • Post Hole Digger – ours has suffered some catastrophic failure, great for fences, play equipment, or light security in small areas.
  • Carpet cleaners with upholstery attachments – we have one in Meadowbank and it’s very popular. We would love to have one in Porty too!
  • Battery powered gardening tools – we have moved away from petrol driven tools for environmental, air-quality, and noise reasons, so if you have battery powered alternatives, we would love to make use of them.
  • Workshop equipment – we are opening a new larger workshop with all the large-format tools in Leith.  If you have something you think might be useful to us (e.g. table saw, band saw, chop saw), or professional grade hand tools that are potentially an upgrade for us, please get in touch with details.

Tools that are “always needed”. These tools tend to be well used, but rarely built to a sturdy standard. We do our best to keep the running as long as possible, but still tend to need a fair number.

  • Pressure washers – these are incredibly useful, really popular, and very fallible.  If you have one going spare, we would love you to donate it.
  • Wallpaper steamers – again, we have lots of these, but the element also burns out quickly on them, so we always need a good supply of spares.
  • Stud finders – like sanders and steamers, these are rarely made to a durable standard and tend to disappear, but are well used.
  • Buckets and Tubs – for mixing and hauling, so simple and so abused, the more durable the better
  • Sanders – our members use all types of sanders A LOT, and they are something that we are constantly having to repair and renew.  If you have a working sander to give (belt, orbital, mouse, detail etc.) we will happily accept your donation. Thanks!
🌲What about wood donation?

Same rules apply. Please contact us with the list of wood you want to donate and corresponding photos.

  • What we might need: large pieces of solid timber as we use a lot of wood in our workshops for various charity projects and to teach people on our programmes.  Solid wood is welcome, but drop us an email first so we can work out where we have space.
  • Acceptable Conditions for Donation: we can only accept the lengths that are over 1m which also need to be clean and de-nailed prior to us accepting for our workshop use
  • What we definitely don’t need: composite timber like MDF, chipboard, OSB. These are not safe to work with in terms of the glue that holds them together, and how they age over time.
🔩 What about plaster powder, paint, nails, screws and other consumables?

Same rules apply. Please contact us with the list of consumables you want to donate and corresponding photos.

  • What we might need: T-shank jigsaw blades, sandpaper, grinding discs.
  • What we definitely don’t need: jars of rusty screws, nails, etc.

Several of our Tool Libraries have a “help yourself” donations shelf, in order to avoid these resources getting out of hand and becoming waste we have some policies about what we accept.

What we do accept:

  • nuts and bolts
  • screws
  • nails
  • rawl plugs
  • washers
  • any consumable that matches tools we loan out
    • sandpaper
    • t-shank jigsaw blades
    • multi-tool blades
    • non-expired angle grinder discs
    • drill bits (SDS+, 1/4″ hex drive, straight shank)
    • etc.

What we do not accept (examples, not exhaustive):

  • liquids of any type
    • glue
    • silicone
    • paint
    • solvents
    • cleaners
    • if it’s in a bottle, tub, tube, or a can, we can’t take it
  • powders that are meant to be mixed into liquids
  • fittings/furnitures (hinges, locks, handles, latches, levers, …)
  • wall sockets, plugs, cables, wires
  • pipes, ductwork, junction boxes
  • random bits of plastic
  • shelf brackets
  • the list goes on!… :-O

If you still have questions feel free to reach out to us via email.

Other organisations that might appreciate the tools we can’t accept: