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Tool Buying Guide.... Tools have been around for a very long time helping people everyday from just being there to show manhood to down right making a living. Everyone has to start somewhere, some people are lucky to have other people in their lives to help with this part of life by showing them the ropes. I'm going to go over a few things you should think about if you are ready to have tools be part of your everyday life for helping with self accomplishment or profit. There are many brand names available that tend to show off their flagship tools, with ads that tend to make the tougher jobs look simple, that is all well and fine if you have experience with tools but what if you don't. If you are ready to dip into the tool world and have very little to no experience here are a few things to think about. You can start out with basic hand tools like a hammer, tape measure, and a hand saw but now days we all want convenience as well..... so power tools are usually the way to go. Many brands offer corded power tools in pretty much every shape or form but taking a step further are cordless power tools. Now in saying that many brands have most all cordless power tools needed to do almost every tasks. Some manufactures cater to different area's of the work force, not all brands offer all kinds of tools in every field, think about what you might want to do with your new tools now and in the future. This is important because it can reflect on what brand to buy into. This without saying there is nothing wrong with buying into more than one brand or battery platform but you may want to do this in the future. There are also different power in tools mainly in the volts you see advertised. 12V and 18V/20V are the most common, most tool companies offer many tools in both power ratings. These tools are very different in size and power, the 12V options offer adequate power to handle most things with a compact size as well. The 18v/20v versions are usually the power houses of the line of tools offered. So the question is do I need one or the other or both, well this is where it can get tricky, the 18v/20v versions of the tools are not only larger and heavier but usually come with a larger price tag as well. Again it is not wrong to have or want both but if you are just starting out, the larger more powerful 18v/20v is usually the way to go to get started. Another thing is all the talk about brushed or brushless versions of tools, not all tools are equal not all brands offer all tools in both versions. The newer technology is the brushless tools and they usually come with a higher price. Is the brushless style needed? well not totally. They will however offer slightly more power and battery run time but that is not saying a brushed version is not good. If you are just starting out most times the best economical way to buy your tools are in combo kits, you will receive multiple tools that are mainly paired up with a drill/driver and an impact/driver, Note about impact drivers: Although most manufactures introduced the impact driver not all that long ago and deem the new tool to be the drivers of all drivers they don't play nice with every application. As impact drivers tend to pound or hammer when driving, an impact driver is still a great tool for many applications however for some delicate driving a regular drill will do a better job. Some of the larger kits will tent to include a reciprocating saw, circular saw along with a light of some kind. These kits generally come with 2 batteries ranging in power ratings of small compact 1.5 ah right up to 5.0ah batteries and a matching charger. You may think I'm never gonna need these extra tools that are included in the kit but when you add up the costs the more in the kit the cheaper the individual tools become, so in saying that once you do own them and you find you don't use them there is a good chances someone will purchase them from you to help offset the original cost. Do some research, think about what you will want to do, find a big box store that have these different brands on display so you can get a feel for the tools in your own hands, just like seeing a fancy sports car, it may look great but not always are they comfortable for everyone to drive. All different tool companies come with all different warranties for their tools, some are very different from one another some are better than others as well. This can reflect on what brand to buy into but it shouldn't. I am not going to go into what brand is best or what brand to try and avoid but I would stick to brand names that are known. I hope this helps by giving you something to think about before jumping into the tools world.....Good Luck!

With 2016 coming to an end, I would like to take this time to acknowledge all the new members that joined our tool enthusiast forum we all know as TIA this year including some second generation Tool guru's, Some of our members were blessed in receiving children, some as new parents and some with new additions to their growing family. Give them a special welcome for being part of a drama free community. As the latest appointed Moderator of the forums I would like to mention that this is an honor, Moderator is a strong name for my new position on the site as it is more focused on the inner workings of the site than actual moderation. Our community is growing each and everyday, the amount of knowledge is growing, the amount of giveaways, the amount of new tool information, the amount of members, everything about TIA is getting Bigger Better Smarter. I would also like to thank Eric and Dan for yet another year of exciting news on tools from all kinds of companies for providing a place on the internet that we all can meet up and talk about our own experiences with new tools we acquire or share stories of tools we have had for years whether it be at home or at our work place. I would also like to thank each and everyone for their contributions to the forum we all have learned mountain high volumes of knowledge with this shared information. So with only hours left of 2016 I would like to take this moment to hope everyone has a Bigger Better Smarter 2017.....

Just realized I hadn't shared this with everyone. As some of you know, my daughter was running the ATV MX Nationals Series this year. She spent all summer and about $20,000 (about half of it from sponsorships) running all over the eastern US, but as of October she is officially the National Champion in the Girls 8-13 90cc class. Still has 3 years of eligibility in her class as well, so she could put together a pretty good run.

Milwaukee has the Sawzall, Hackzall, Inkzall.....why not have a BENCHZALL..... standing height in the front and sitting height on the other side .................

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know the newest crew member is here! Lillian "Lillypad" Ann Hess She was born 3/6/17 7lbs 2 oz 19.5 inches we came home yesturday and are settling in. Soon she will be another helper for daddy and mommy.

Last spring, a guy on CL was selling a bunch of metal boxes from the Milwaukee 10 1/2" circular saws. At $12 each, I bought up as many as would fit in my van and brought them home thinking I would use them as tool storage. Well, I finally got around to building some shelving in the garage to give them a proper home. Presenting the Milwaukee Wallzall! Now if only I could find some magnetic sheets in the right color red, I could cover up the "10 1/2" Circular Saw" label with an actual printed label of what's in each box. That would be an awesome backdrop for a red tool family portrait.

Well.....in my "New Shop Underway" blogosphere thingy I eluded to something really crazy going on. I found out something really crazy on Thursday. Well...... Im going to be a daddy.

So for those that haven't heard(which is hard because I've been non-stop talking about him), my dog passed away on Tuesday. I've taken it really hard, I haven't been without a dog since I was like 6 years old and that was only a couple months since my dog "Went to live on a farm". I've literally had maybe three months of my life without a dog. Well today I went to the shelter and this guy put a little bit of tape on my broken heart. He's 8 months old, a hound dog mix, we think he was one of the "flood dogs" from LA. Very loving, quite energetic but he listens and aims to please. He seems really intelligent and is quite inquisitive so I named him Sagan. Here he is:

So Samantha and I had a surprise yesterday. I was finishing painting the nursery and Samantha was out raking. She came in and her water broke. Two high speed ambulance rides later we found ourselves at Maine Medical. Our hospital recognized that our lil one was coming in hot and heavy at 32 weeks. So they shipped us off to a NICU ASAP. Samantha gave birth to our son, William Lawrence (Will) at 415 am. Our son is in NICU, but they just removed a breathing tube and he is starting to push air with assistance. He's beautiful. A prayer wouldn't go unheard of but he's amazing. Samantha, true to nature, walked down to the NICU with me four hours later! This is our first....and the first Kelby grandson. My Mom is super stoked.

Yesterday I woke up to a positive pregnancy test on my night stand - I was floored because I'm 43 and my kids are 15-17-20 - a couple months ago business was doing great and I said to my wife what's the one thing you want that you don't have and she said a 4th baby - how could I say no - this girl has been by my side for 26 yrs since high school and has been an amazing wife and even more amazing mother so today I can honestly say I'm super happy for her.

Dual Stained 24" Sign....

Hey guys. Man I miss you guys. As some of you know, I had a pretty rough go for a stretch. I'll spare everyone the the boring details, but long story short, things in my neck of the woods kinda fell apart. Eventually I fell into untreated depression. I neglected myself to the point I became physically ill. Nerve pain, throwing up, couldn't get out of bed, and so on. My family stepped up and forced me to see a Doctor. I had dropped to 140 pounds, was only taking in 400-500 calories a day, and my traditionally perfect blood pressure had dropped to 80/45. They basically gave me the option to get myself straightened out or not live to see next Christmas. I took the medication for awhile, but I couldn't handle the way it made me feel. I'm doing good now. Now that I understand the problem, I've learned to deal with it. I'm starting to get back to my normal life and slowly starting to put weight back on. My situation isn't much better, but my outlook is. I have to admit, finally getting over the hump and posting here again feels pretty good.

I can't believe it I actually won something for the second time......wow gonna have myself 9.0Ah battery and rapid charger

Good Day Crew! It arrived, my Forum Member of the Month Giveaway! A BIG thanks to the crew for voting for me, Dan and Eric for creating a great place for us folks to hang out, and DeWalt for putting up the prize. Looking forward to putting the nailer to work. Video coming soon. -Steven

UPS stopped by today

little back story, My father passed away just about 2 yrs ago now (82yrs) and he had a love for woodworking, taught me all I know. He owned a construction company while I grew up and every chance he had he was in his woodworking shop tinkering on some kind of project. Back in the late 60's about 50 some years ago he built some shelving with good old 2"x 8" lumber, this shelving unit he built was always inside so it was just bare wood all the time it was in use. He built it with the good old fashioned hammer and nails. My brother and I was dismantling the shelving unit to make room and I started looking at it and thought, there were hammer marks that he made while putting it together here and there ...what better way to preserve this little part of him and to be in my shop......... so I decided to make a bench top with the same wood he used at one time hammer marks and all. Here it is ready for a sealer and with sealer. now his hammer marks can live on.........

My son just started cub scouting a couple of months ago. He is a late starter to this and joined the den over half way through in the year. About two months ago, they asked for volunteers to host the woodworking requirement for the Bear rank kids. I jumped at the opportunity since I love my shop and teaching kids about woodworking. Everything was all pre-cut for the kids, so it was just hammering in some finished nails and a little gluing........we snuck in some battery operated drills as well...... Before the kids showed up, I had a ton of shop cleaning to do. I hit up The Home Depot to donate some aprons for the kids and then I bought each kid a hammer and set of safety glasses. The kids were super happy to get their own tools and safety gear. The kids had to complete two projects along with learning about tools and shop safety. Here is the den leader doing the teaching. After that, it was the kids and parents hammering away. We only had an hour to work with and it just flew by. The kids were very happy to complete their first project.....a tool box. It went so well that the den decided to come back for a second week and complete a bird house project. I would do this every week if they wanted to.

Hey guys. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, this is really appreciated. I am home now, I came home Christmas Day to my family with my Wife driving me through a major snow storm. She left our home at 5 am not even knowing if I would be released. She is awesome. She spent most of the week at Mass General with my Son who is 13 months old. He couldn’t even recognize me, it was terrible. The Neurosurgeons and Nurses and ALL of the personnel from the janitors to transport, security and cafeteria employees were amazing. They tried to med flight me from Dover NH but couldn’t get one so a ground ambulance brought me down and they were awesome. I started to check out after we got to Mass General and my poor wife got a lot of bad news Thursday and Friday that she had to cope with by herself. I’ll never forget how hard this was on her or my son. My parents got here from Florida and my brother and his fiancé were there. They had to stabilize me prior to surgery and call in a specialized neurosurgeon. Needless to say God watched over me and two hours after surgery I was walking into the bathroom with my nurse. The next morning I was on my feet doing physical therapy with my therapist, Maria. On October 1st, I got a concussion. I had an MRI and started to see a neurologist. He continued to ignore my complaints and refused to give me another MRI. I stayed working thinking that I was being a wimp and started to see spots last week. I got an eye doctor appointment and my Optometrist saved my life, she found my optic nerves were being crushed by blood and it turned out I had a massive brain hemorrhage. The head neurologist at WDH couldn’t believe I was conscious let alone working. For future reference......ALWAYS.....get a second opinion. God watched over me and put me in contact with the right people and I am able to be with my beautiful wife and son. I have been unable to be online because of what happened in October and the last two weeks I started to deteriorate. I woke up at 3 this morning and am typing this at five in the morning. The screen isn’t bugging me. That’s amazing. Thanks for for your thoughts and prayers. I have loved this forum for years because of its members and it’s amazing how a bunch of perfect strangers in life can care so much about eachother. 🙏 You guys are awesome and this moved me so much I couldn’t respond until today. It’s amazing when something crazy like this happens that people care so much. I had visitors at the hospital and calls from guys that I work with but rarely see. I had family and friends pulling from everywhere. My ex-wife was at my house twice while this was going on, once when I was in surgery clearing my driveway and on Christmas, snow blowing the foot of snow we got and she and her girlfriend (long story....) brought my family and I dinner. This is what has helped me recover. I’ve been at a loss for all of the love and support. I cannot thank you all enough. Thank you. Chris 😎

Man, I couldn't help it... there was a spring sale and I splurged. This saw is way overkill for my needs, but it was cheaper than the single 18V brushless saw. I'm just a home DIYer, but I love these teal tools. I'm such a tool poser, lol

About 22-weeks into pregnancy and everything looks good. Except for me, I'm still a mess. ?

Not a bad Christmas haul at all fellas! Check out my new yellow!

Mrs. Conductor bought lots of shit. We fill up her car every year, but this year was the worst yet. She rode home with a shop vac on her lap and I literally had to stuff the last couple of bags in the window ?

I've been putting together a small woodworking / project shop in my 2 car garage. It takes up just about half of the space as shown in picture. I mounted the lathe and the band saw on Harbor Frieght workbenches, then installed drop casters so I can move them around as needed. This also allowed me another full empty workbench for misc activity. A lot of clean up and re-organizing, and this is what I got. I hope to keep it at least half this clean going forward. let me know what you think .... THANKS CREW !!!

Got this Friday. Seems much nicer than my old 18 volt Black and Decker Firestorm

These are the most recent purchases. I need to replenish the too buying funds

Oh self control, where art thou? -

ok guys here is my very first shot at a video, it isn't very long but would like feed back please remember this is my first video.....thanks in advance

Today we made a little investment in the community. The Town Little League field was hard as a rock, well beyond what a simple drag would fix. It's damn near impossible to get people to volunteer to help, much less people who have any idea what they're doing. Our last work party yielded 2 people who showed up at 0900 and had to leave by 1100 ?. When I was a kid I hated playing on shitty fields and I've spent God only knows how many hours working on ball fields to make sure my kids didn't have to. After a couple kids took bad hops to the face, my buddy and I borrowed a skid steer and a powered landscape rake from a local construction company (his employer) and went to work. We were unsure how it would do. We've worked on lots of fields, but never with this attachment. We made 1 pass back draging toward Left Field, and another toward Right Field. Once we found our stride, things went pretty smooth. We tilled about an inch deep and ended up with a very nice dirt-sand ratio. The rake did a great job taking out the high places and with only minimal shoveling of excess dirt into the remaining low spots and 20 minutes worth or hand raking, it was damn near perfect. We ran a toothless drag over it to smooth it down, straightened out the gassline, and it came out as close to perfect as you could ask for. With 2 people, about 4 hours, and $80,000 worth of equipment, it was fit for play. We finished up about 5:00 and by 8:30 we'd already gotten a call to do 4 High School fields prior to the Sectional Tournaments. We've got some other improvements planned and they've given us permission to do whatever we want, so we plan to have a much nicer field in time for next season.

Because Milwaukee won't let us have nice things in North America, I had to import from Belgium. I haven't had a chance to put it through all of the paces yet, but so far, it looks and works great. The Milwaukee tool case is also just awesome. It's about as strong as a Systainer and looks to stack and hook up to each other. Now, if only Milwaukee would sell these in the US, they'd make a killing.

Pulled the trigger on this yesterday. Had enough with the loud compressor that I had.

Yea ya heard, I got some tough boxes at HD today, 2 DS130s and 1 350, no wheels yet not sure my direction but this stack will be dedicated for my sanders, time for kaizen foam!! Had to put my 1 systainer on top I may not keep this one and put the sander in a tough box These pull down storage boxes are cool too I made some modifications, I cut out a hole to slide the palm sander punch in and out This one will be for my ryobi detail sander and a couple OMTs I use for sanding And the bottom, just threw some stuff in I'll keep updating as I organize and modify Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well I bought it two weeks ago but it just came in. I had the Milwaukee before, this feels more refined and well balance and I really like the LED work light and the fact that it comes in an lboxx insert and has a little accessory box with an extra collet clamp and a mandrel as well as an extra nose piece. Six speeds 5000-35000 rpm, and both the power switch and speed dial are much easier to move on the Bosch than on the Milwaukee. Also this is NAINA and I purchased it through Axminster Tools in the U.K.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would like to take this time to thank the CREW for another great year here on the TIA forum. Dan and Eric provide us a fantastic place to come and hang out and talk tools and make new friends. I have to say the the TIA forum is one of the best tool forums on the web and what makes it the best forum the CREW. With out you guys this would be a lonely place. Merry Christmas CREW and a Fantastic New Year.

Cat S60 came in.

This beauty arrived thanks to the crew and Milwaukee, best Christmas gift I've received in a long while:

all set up...

Got this new bad boy today

I didn't get any run time with this little fella this evening, but I did at least get it out of the box! It came with the 6.2 LiHD battery, I had heard there may be a chance some of the kits had the 5.2 ah battery. Just looking around and messing with all of the moving parts the fit and finish seems really nice. Everything is very smooth and seems really solid. The saw is pretty light with well placed handles making it really easy to carry. I have to finish framing out my shower niche this weekend so I should get a chance to cut a few 2x4's. Nothing really exciting but should at least get a few cuts in. I ended up getting it out the door at Lowes for $190 ( $347 plus several gift cards) couldn't really pass it up. The 8-1/2" blade combined with being able to slide should be more than I will need. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

We have been living in our house now for about 11 years. The garage has always been a bit of a sore spot for me. I've really never taken the time to properly set it up. I have assed hung things up with peg board and added to it as I went along. Oh, I hate peg board. This has led to much of the kids' toys to spill out of their bins and right on the floor by my garage tool box and work areas. I quickly get frustrated if I don't have a trip free area to work in. Last week, I decided to tackle this garage organization issue. I spent a Sunday removing everything from my garage and putting it back one piece at a time so that like items were next to like items. (did I mention that I removed almost all of the peg boards from my garage---free at last!) I was able to finish two of the three walls. On one wall, all of my garden tools, air compressor, Ego equipment, generator, tool box, and work bench now reside. On the wall opposite the garage door now has out lawn chairs, another work bench with top cabinets and some extention cords. That just leaves the kids toys and grill. The grill is a no brainer, shove against a wall. For the toys, I have decided to build a couple 5 foot cabinets, a place for basketballs and one more small cabinet. Since my house was built in 1960 and all the walls are rock lathe with plaster covering it, none of the walls are consistently flat. So, instead of building the cabinets individually and then tying them together, I decided to build it as one single unit as I go. Both ways have their issues, but with the walls the way they are, this way seemed to work pretty well. Here is the wall that I was dealing with. I don't have the time or desire to spruce up the patches and paint, so I will live with it. Here was my work setup for the day. I used three sheets of 3/4 inch plywood for the cabinets. Here is the basic cabinet setup. For the basketballs, I actually used a 5 inch hole saw to cut the recess so the balls won't move around. One the first day, I got the bulk of the work done and put some of the junk out of my way for now. I still need to face frame the unit, add doors and some shelves. I can't wait to have this done, but looking at my schedule for this week, I doubt it will happen any time soon. Let me know what you think or what I should have done differently. I am always looking for ways to improve my storage solutions.

And.....drum roll please! The Dewalt DCN660 brushless 20v 16g angled finish nailer!

Big thanks to the crew for voting me to win the Amazon gift card and Dan and Eric for setting this up! Wouldn't have gotten this bad boy without you guys!! Jimbo Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This past weekend I purchased quite a bit of stuff from Menard's, table saw, lumber, and screws for some Adirondack chairs that I am building to raise money for St. Jude. After I had left I realized that the cashier over stated how much cash I used by $100. I went in today and they were greatly appreciative of me coming in. The manager and cashier had freaked out about the missing amount. The cashier I was told is a great employee. I could have taken the money and ran but that wouldn't have been right. I didn't want the cashier to get into trouble or possibly fired for an accident. A $100 to me isn't worth her possible firing. Just a reminder for everyone to keep other people in your thought and not just yourself. When you do good and set an example it will be seen by others and maybe some day we can make this world a better place. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Mmmmmmmm .....I love the smell of sawdust in the morning

That's the advantage of the home shop. Just like everyone else here, it's our shop. Safety is a personal goal. These videos are made by industrious members for industrious members. If a guy wants to cut a 4x in a particular fashion in his shop, so be it. Jim, great video. Even if it is a Milwaukee And if a guy wants to tell me how to do stuff in my shop....? Well....he's entitled to his opinion. I hope he keeps it to himself but at the end of the day. It my shop. My rules. Take what you will from my shop and my video. We open ourselves to criticism every time we shoot a video or write a post. I hope, on our forum anyways, we keep that criticism professional and friendly. Any rude commentary or disruptive behavior will be dealt with immediately so let's everybody keep focused and friendly. This is a great site. I've been here for several years and want to see it stay that way. Like elbows....Everybody has an opinion and when it comes to criticism it is kind of interesting to see how people come across. This forum, Tools In Action, is NOT the Journal of Light Construction. This is a tool forum. Plain and simple. We are full of amateurs and hobbyists and professionals. Everybody comes from a different background, myself included. Everybody has different levels of experience and training. Some in the pro field, some in their shop, some as enthusiastic home owners or renters. I for one like reading all of your articles and if I can't take something out of it? Great. If not? Who cares? Somebody else might take something from it. Monday Night Quarterbacking shows up to ALL of the members. And the guys that contribute to the forum? Keep on keeping on guys. God bless you. I love the information. The guys that don't really contribute but like to criticize? Well....like leaves in the Fall, they go away. Keep up the good work all of you guys that take the time to make this forum unique and informative. And if you screw something up? IT IS YOUR DARN SHOP!!!!! Be careful but have fun. Remember what Tools In Action is about. It's about Tools......in action. No misnomer there.

So I'm home today didn't go to second job today very happy bout that but as I'm just relaxing on the couch I hear the sound of an impact going off I walk into my garage and find my littlest fixing his bike and to top it off he had the correct socket on so had to get a pic of him, very proud of lil guy

All Finished. I think It turned out alright!

So here is what I came back from my Florida trip with for myself. 5 guys from my crew went , some bought more then me some bought less but this gives an idea of the amount of tools we got. We all made the switch recently from Ridgid / DeWALT to Milwaukee Milwaukee Vise grips ( 4 ) Milwaukee M18 5.0ah Batteries ( 2 ) Milwaukee M12 4.0ah Batteries Milwaukee M18 Fuel Sawzall 5.0 Battery , Charger , carry case Milwaukee M18 Fuel Skill saw ( 2 ) Milwaukee M12 3/8" Ratchet bare tool Milwaukee M12 Hackzall , 2.0 battery , charger , carry bag Milwaukee M12 Blue tooth speaker ( 2 ) Milwaukee M18 Fuel 1/2" Impact High Tourque Milwaukee M18 Fuel 3/8" Impact Milwaukee M18 Fuel 1" SDS Rotary Hammer drill Milwaukee M18 Grinder Milwaukee M12 4 port charger