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If what you want to do is make money, then go to school and get an education! Don't be concerned with the money, no matter how much money you make sooner or later your going to get burned out. The only thing that helps is doing a job you love. Short of enjoying the work you do, life is hard and exhausting. We can advise you and tell you the path we took, but only you know what makes you happy. A job I really enjoyed was industrial maintenance, it involved a little of everything and the pay was great. I just got a new job working in the AV field, a job I never thought I would be doing.. My point,... Your young, do what makes you happy, if in a few years you don't like it, try something else. The great thing about trades, they build on each other.

I can't recommend you wrap Tools with electrical tape and use them as "insulated", home or professional use. Although many contractors do it.. It's not best practice. More goes into insulated tools then just a coating of plastic and the effect can not be duplicated by wrapping electrical tape around a handle. The biggest problem is that you will try to use the tool on energized circuits... Never work on energized circuits! I would say generally you won't need insulated tools, but if you have the cash, they are good for safety.. Just in case you cut through or touch a live wire. A better way to spend your money is by buying a multimeter or voltage probe. It might save your life... Knowing when an outlet or fan is live. Nothing worse the falling off a ladder because of an unexpected shock.

Must be why the Sears near me is closing. I bought some new cloths, mostly Levi's, 65% off. Funny though, tool prices were marked at 20% off but the retail price was also marked up! many cases where online were still cheaper then their "going out of business sale". A ripoff for cheap stuff

I doubt the Bosh giveaway.. I don't expect to win but someone on TIA should... With all the guys on this site playing everyday, and not one winner.. Really! I bet a friend of the guy who does payroll for the brother of Bosh VP wins the truck

Posted that last one on an iPad.. Apple has an auto rotate thing.. It works well on apple products, guess it doesn't play well with the rest of the world.

It was under 24" but on the two end sides it was a bit more so that's the spots we closed the gap. I also primed the joints that would be hidden or overlapped when constructed and the top. Everything is built and the concreat is drying. Tomorrow a few coats of paint and remove the temp supports. A view from our master bedroom... (Primer only) Upside down? We have a lot of work left on this house, next are the windows and kitchen.

I really like the Rolair but I've had my eye on the MAC 5200.

I jumped in and worked with the crew today. Got most everything straightened out. Went with 4x6 pillars and closed up the spacing on the floor joist. Took out the slope with the new pillars. The only thing not to code, (to the best of my knowledge) the footing needs to be larger. That will be a project for another week. Guess the age ol' saying.. If you want something done right... Do it yourself. Pictures coming soon

I think I'll have them change it to a 6x6 and rais it about half an inch. I think 1/4" per 10' is about the right slope. It's only about 12' long so anything over 1" is too steep. I'll update tomorrow

What size should the post be? Can we wrap it or does it have to be solid? I took a level to it, the bubble even outs if I lift the level about an inch. Does that mean I have a 1inch slant over 12ft? The ledger looks well bolted and the rim joist is doubled

So we decided our balcony was finally bad enough we needed to tear it down and construct a new one. I talked to my sister and she sent out a crew. They are fast and work hard but I'm worried the construction might not be up to code. The balcony has what looks like a 4-6" difference between the back and front. The slope is at least in slated in the right direction... What do you guys think? Redwood construction.

It's not mythbusters but pretty close. Now hopefully I can make enough money to finally mail Conductor his prize I've been promising.

Hello everyone, I have been MIA for a bit. I started a new job. A very interesting career change. For those who don’t know, I have a range of skills from electronics to mechanical design. I accepted a job with an audio visual design company that specializes in building exhibits for museums, restaurants, and amusement parks. Although I can’t talk about our current projects, I can tell you the company has built things like an earthquake simulator, (stand inside and simulate a 4.0); water cannon that shoots above 150ft; Steam Powered Airplane… As expected from a mad scientist lab, it’s a mess, and it’s my job to organize the shop. I have a feeling we will be buying T-Stacks in the near future. I’ll try and post as many pics of builds as I can, but of course some projects are confidential. Aside from that I have a crew at my house this morning tearing down a balcony. The old one swayed and flexed when ever walked on. The start of my home improvement project has begun, may god have mercy on my wallet! Maybe now my wife will let me buy an air compressor?

wow.. i feel gay after watching that. Thanks DR99. I don't understand a lot about that guy, but what really bugs me is why the hell you would get bicep/peck implants. Just use roids like the rest of us.

The cleanup was hell! I did it all myself too. Shovel after shovel of brick and concrete. My poor wheelbarrow got a flat halfway through and I had to walk the pile over. .. no worries though, it was a good workout. I need to try and scrap together some cash and buy an air compressor. Otherwise I’ll be building the bench and planter with my Kreg Jig.

With finals over and summer session not starting for a few weeks I found some time to do a side job. While most people were BBQing and drinking brews, I decided some physical "therapy" was in order. My mission was to demo two small brick and mortar pillars. I got my hands on a Bosh Bulldog and chisel bit. I figured I would be able to knock out a few rows of motor and tumble the tower. That plain didn't work out so well. Although the Bulldog is a great tool, the center of the pillars were poured concert. About a half-hour of hammer drilling and this was all I could remove. So, not wanting to burn out the Bulldog, I took a trip to HD and rented a Makita 27 lb AVT Demolition Hammer-HM1214C. Armed with a point and chisel I tore into the pillar! The outside bricks came off easy, the core was cinder with concert. AVT is a beast and with a little hardwork I powered through it. Sword In the Stone One down, one to go Knocked down two, need to cut the rebar The mess! Finished! Next I will build a bench and planter to cover the old pillars.

Congrats! Where are you going to Tech School?

i think your on the right track and will get that gun fixed. even if it never works again, your learning something! but when it does work, your going to fell like a king.

I had a Savage X Nitro. I must of dumped $3k into that truck before I sold it for $500. It was fun but I would do electric next time. Anyway, I'm a poor college student right now so I can't buy an RC.

You can install your own ground. First go buy a new outlet with a ground prong, GFIC is even better. The GFIC is a protection circuit that trips a breaker when the outlet detects an impedance imbalance between Hot & Natural. The circuit is based on the principal of differential pairs but really all you need to know, it can detect a very small imbalance and react very quickly. So, if you are standing on your front lawn and you hold one of the power wires, your body creates a path for the electricity to travel to ground. Normally this would kill you, but with a GFIC, the circuit detects the imbalance between the two power wires and trips off. GFIC will only protect you from a ground fault so don't trust the circuit 100% Anyway, you can run your own ground to any outlet. The two most common ways is to either attach a wire to a copper water pipe that is buried under ground. You can buy a ground clamp at HD. Just make sure you have good contact between the clamp and pipe. Clean it and remove any paint. The clamp has a spot to attach a wire. Use solid core ground wire, you can run the ground directly to the outlet but it's a better idea to run it to your circuit box. You would need to add a ground bus in the box, from that bus you can pull a ground wire to each outlet. The other method is to go buy a solid core copper ground rod and hammer that sucker into the ground. I use this often on remote jobs that don't have water pipes. Same rules apply, clamp and run a ground wire to the box or outlet. As always check your local code to see which method is legal. Also, never work on a live AC circuit, turn the power off from the breaker or main. If you don't feel comfortable working with mains power.... Don't do it! You can be killed. That being said, a quick solution would be to shut off the main breaker, run a ground wire directly to the air compressor outlet by way of ground rod or water pipe. Still... 120 year old house, I am willing to bet your wires/circuit in your house may not be able to support the load of the compressor. In fact it is very possible your wires can catch fire, even without the compressor. The wires in older homes were never designed to handle modern loads. Sometimes the wires are even aluminum instead of copper, bad news! If I were you I would hire an electrician to run a ground to your main panel and install a sub panel in your workshop. It's not worth messing around.

Humm. I program in C/C++ and a little Java. Android would be an easy platform to build the app for the first run. If it does well time can be spent on an iPhone version. Any other programmers out there? I'm mostly an embedded programmer. The app would have to have a tool inventory feature. I want to scan my tools and save a pic of a receipt. Link it to the online data sheet/user guide for the tool. If my tools are stolen I can flag them, and if another user goes to buy them, their scan will return a stolen tool icon or something. Also maybe a wallet for homedepot/lows cards. A project list and about 1000 other things. I say start small and build it up linked to your YouTube and forum. It's easy to get carried away with wanting to add features, you might lose control of the project. Instead start simple and add features as requested.

I have the K4 and it works great. You could buy the K5 and have the built in storage or.. Save some money and build a storage container for the Kreg yourself.

There is a poem that compares an atheist view vs a christens view. It's very interesting and I think it is relevant to this post. You may have seen the poem circulate around twitter or facebook. The clever thing, read it through normally and it takes on an atheist viewpoint, but read it backwards and it has religious viewpoint. Much like our generation, people may have different beliefs, and even the choice to not believe in something is a belief in itself. ---

I just like to argue, mostly because I'm always right. when it really comes down to it a persons beliefs don't matter. I may sound jaded but that's because I'm a Vet. It doesn't matter if you believe in god or celebrate Christmas because your recognizing the birth of JC. It doesn't matter if you don't believe in god and think Christmas is a bunch of marketing bull. The only thing that matters is that you live your life with respect and honor. You can worship a spaghetti monster if it makes you happy. For me at least the holidays and birthdays have nothing to do with religion, instead it's about family. I never had a family growing up so it's really no surprise I never attended church and ended up in the Military. Now that I'm married I have a different view on celebration. I don't give the Church power over my life and I'm not going to let them deter me from a celebration, after all there is enough shit in this world, a party is much needed.

Maybe it uses gas? That would be a fun grill/table if run on gas... And a messy pain in the a$$ if not