How we choose essentials

Every item on the essentials list has to earn its place in a small workshop. That means it must do real work in the first month, fit in a typical light industrial unit, and be serviceable with parts that can be found in South Africa.

What we look for

• Parts and consumables stocked locally
• Runs on the power most small units actually have
• Simple enough for a second operator to learn in a day
• Care that fits in ten minutes a day

What we leave out

Machines that need a specialist to run, accessories nobody uses after the first week, and anything whose spares only come from overseas. If a client needs something outside the range, we will say so and point them in the right direction.

How the list changes

We review the range when clients keep asking for the same thing, or when a part becomes hard to get. Changes show up on the essentials pages and in the runbooks.