Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Today, we quickly ran up to Home Depot in Glastonbury for a few things. I had to get some yard stuff, some more light bulbs and some little pine trees. I got seven Blue Spruces. Oh yeah, I also wanted to get some screwdriver bits.
What I really needed was some sort of an extender for my existing screwdriver bits. I find myself increasingly needing longer bits, but I am stuck with all these short bits I bought a while back. I was just going to get a few long bits, but then remembered back to when I actually had one of these things…it got dull fast.
As I was looking around for alternatives, this little DeWalt set of screwdriver bits caught my eye…
I love these little kits. This one has the extender piece I need and a whole lot more. It is also the same size as my DeWalt drill bit set. I love having the kit, because I can keep it in my tool box, use the tool and then return it to the tolbox, nice and neat.
That’s the way I roll. Don’t try to change me.
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Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Up to yesterday, I have had this gift card that Laura gave me for Christmas burning a hole in my pocket. She told me it was for a tool, not for some basic supplies like molding or something like that. By the way, how the heck do you spell molding? I have found it “Molding” and “Moulding.” They both seem correct according to the internet. From now on, I am going to use molding. That’s the way Wikipedia spells it.
Anyway, since I had to do some molding work in the kitchen yesterday, I thought it would be good to have a very handy jigsaw. I had one, but unfortunately that one was far too weak to really cut through anything. I needed to cut around some things that one wouldn’t normally have to cut around when hanging molding.
I took a trip down to Home Depot to get me a jigsaw. Ye Haw. I had decided earlier that I would get the Bosch model for about $129. Bosch is a good name. When I got there, I was happy to find a DeWalt model for about $99. I played with the two of them for a little while and decided on the DeWalt because it was a bit lighter than the Bosch. Really though, either one would’ve been fine.
I got home and put the blade in. Then I fired her up to see what she could do. I guess I really never used a good jigsaw before because this one slid through the wood like a hot knife through butter. The trigger controls the variable speed, which was nice. The harder I squeezed, the faster the blade would move. There were a few things I had to careful of…if I kept the blade going too slowly, the wood would splinter. If I kept the blade moving too quickly and didn’t move the saw fast enough through what I was cutting, the blade would wander slightly side to side. I found a good mix of speed and speed after a while and my molding came out superb. I said SUPERB!!! Also, the blade I was using was kind of wide, so it didn’t do a good job going around corners. I will have to get some thinner blades for this type of work. But, that would be the case with any model jigsaw. I just hope I don’t burn this one out, like I did with my belt sander.
Now, I now have another good tool to add to my collection.
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Thursday, December 13th, 2007
I am all about getting the good stuff these days. I don’t know anyone who can dispute the fact that working with quality tools is better than working with cheap ones. Tool manufacturers do a very good job of making “good” tools feel really nice in your hands. There is a big difference.
Yesterday, I took a trip to Lowe’s to get a few things. I wanted to get a chalk snapper (You know…it looks like a tape measure. You pull the string out of the thing and snap the line of chalk) and two garbage cans. I need the chalk snapper for the floor of the kitchen. I have to make lines to help me screw the subfloor down to the joists. Whenever doing a floor over, this is a good idea. I needed the garbage cans because I have a bit of a mess outside. I already have four full garbage cans outside under the porch and one inside the porch. I have to get the sheetrock off the driveway, so I bought two more. By the way, I filled those two and need about two more. I’m not going to get them though.
So I wandered into Lowe’s. I began searching for the chalk snapper and happened to pass by some face filters. I picked up a nice 3M Dual Cartridge Respirator Assembly and held onto it. I needed this for the sanding of the sheetrock, among other things. My old one leaked. I found this out during the previous day’s sanding. I like these better than the little white ones because they stay on my big head better. Also, I used to wear them when I worked at a bodyshop back in the day. They do a nice job filtering particles.
As I continued my search for the chalk snapper, I passed by some razor blades for my Stanley razor knife. I remembered that I just dulled out the last one on the sheetrock. I picked up a ten pack and held onto them. Then, I saw some screw bits. I picked up the 25 piece Dewalt bit set. I thought of how nice it would be to toss the two bits that I keep switching back and fourth in my screw gun now. It’s like they are going to heal themselves or something. I held onto them.
Boy, that’s weird, where the heck are those chalk snappers? Oh well, moving on. Geeesh, I wish I didn’t see the screw gun battery replacements. I thought back to the day before…me running back and fourth, between the basement and the kitchen to replace the battery in the cordless screw gun. Remember I just got this screw gun about a year ago? Yeah, that’s the last time I buy anything other than DeWalt, Makita, Bosch or Milwaukee. As I said above, I am into the good stuff, especially when it comes to tools. In this case, since the gun is so new, I picked up a FireStorm Two 18-Volt Extended Run Time Battery pack. Just one thing, remember that these are meant for home use. Contractor use is not covered under the warranty. One DeWalt battery is twice the cost of two of these. Say anything about quality? I held onto them.
This trip was getting expensive. I only came here for a few things and haven’t found either of them yet. I swung around the corner and there they were…the chalk snappers. There were a few of them there, but I got the best one. It’s called the Stanley FatMax Chalk Reel Kit With Blue Chalk.
A funny thing happened on the way to Lowe’s. I called my friend, Craig and told him that I was getting a chalk snapper. He said, “Oh good. Just remember to get a good one.” I told him, “Well, the most expensive one is around $12, so ok.” I thought that was amusing. I picked it up and held onto it.
Onto the garbage cans. I took a look outside to only learn the garbage cans were inside. I walked back in and found the correct aisle. I went to the cheap section and grabbed two black garbage cans and their lids. Over and out.
I stumbled to the register and paid for all the stuff I just had to have. Can I ever get out of that store without leaving with a bunch of stuff I didn’t know I needed? Does this happen to everyone when they are initially stocking their tool collections? Perhaps it’s just me.
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Saturday, December 1st, 2007
Ok, I am sure you all think I am rather crazy at this point. If someone told me they wanted to use a belt sander to sand their walls, I would think they were nuts too. That’s why I am writing this post. To show that actually, you are the crazy ones. Just kidding.
I went to Lowe’s this morning to get what was on my list (previous post). I got everything, except for the respirator. I found my old one downstairs. The best things I got were the shims and the Dewalt Belt Sander. I have to say, after talking to the guy who works in the tool department, I was a little nervous about this whole belt sander thing.
Well, here’s how it went. I got home and unpacked the sander. I found a nice spot on the wall that requires some sanding. I plugged the sander in and put it against the wall. A small part of me thought it was going to go right through the minute I hit go. Well, it didn’t. It did a very nice job of finding the high spots and lowering them. Here, take a look.
This is a before shot. I am sure you can see the imperfection in there.
This is the after shot. I spent just a few minutes sanding this. Can you see where the high spots were? Also, this roughed up the paint enough to let the skim coat of joint compound stick better.
What, you can’t really see what I am talking about yet? Take a look at the next picture and tell me you still don’t.
Uhhhh, can you see that? I have no idea how the people before us did that. I also have to say, the paint is like cement. It’s hard and slippery. The sander works much better once it gets through that tough surface. This thing is going to make this job much easier.
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