JMG

The super cut has a slightly different configuration and is designed more around automotive issues than woodworking. It has its own blade selection that is not designed to work with the multi-master, but you can purchase an adapter for it to use standard multi-master tooling. The Fein adapter, however, is a complete piece of shit, in no unmitigated terms, and does not line up with the normal tooling positions. They even use a picture of an adapter that would work correctly when selling you this piece of garbage, that in no way matches what is being sold. What it boils down to is; if you need to remove window glass from a car or truck, buy the super cut. If your needs are more in line with woodworking, then purchase the multi-master.

Yeah, that would make sense. Had one knucklehead racing the fork around the wharehouse section of a shop I worked at, a long time ago, and snapped the steering link in half. They had to hand carry every sheet of material for a couple of days waiting for it to get fixed.

Tile saw showed up the other day looking like it had taken a hard hit, so I took some pictures as I unboxed it... Any of the smaller items in the box were definitely not in their original starting locations, with a couple of them even having slipped out of the plastic coverings. The allen wrench was caught up in the exterior plastic wrapping on the box. Haven't figured that one out. Fortunately, there seems to be no damage to the saw itself, but I will be paying extra attention when I start assembling it. I have to wonder at how hard of a hit, or how many hits, that box had to take to fracture all of the internal packing.

Tying up loose ends today. Need to fit a top plate over these blocks as this is where the return air feeds over the wall between the joists. Will be able to get a much better seal than what was here before... The old gravity return air used to feed from two different spots in the house, but one of the locations was not optimal for the forced air system currently in play and was blocked off long ago. Need to install pre-filters in between two joist sections under the floor grate here to limit any necessary future duct cleaning. Just trying to make the best of a less than optimal situation.

You want it? PM me your shipping address and I will see if I can't find a box for it.

That particular bag in the pic is not that small either, and I dislike lumping all the different parts into one large open container where they just beat on each other when riding down the road in the truck. Also, when quoting large posts, please edit the quote to remove excess items like the pictures and spurious text. It makes it easier to read the thread.

A short note on the backflow device that was mounted at the floor drain. It was useful for stopping sewage from running back up the floor drain itself, but when the water level exceeded a normal flow and drain rate, it acted like a plug and ended up keeping the flood water trapped in the basement for upwards of thirty six hours. It also only stopped the back flow only at that trap in the floor leaving possible issues in other areas, along with stopping sludge in the trap itself and causing another form of plug. The backwater valve in the main pipe was the best solution overall, as the float ball at the drain ended up being just another problem child. So happy that is over with. Concrete work is definitely not my favorite pastime.

Tool setup is a time sink and profit killer for any type of repetitive manufacture process. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty routers in my kit to this day, a majority which were set up for specific cuts with only a couple of them left for random processes or dedicated to a specific router table. These generally being the more expensive routers of the group. Over time, it is simply more efficient to be able to pick up a tool that is set to a task, and not to have to spend five or ten minutes adjusting the cutter or wandering around looking for where you last dropped said cutter, instead of returning it to the proper location it was supposed to be stored in. When the time crunch hits as that absolute deadline looms, not having to stop and spend ten minutes you don't have fiddling with setup will ease frustration levels and pay for the cost of an extra tool in a relatively short time. After a few years of running my own wood shop, I came to the conclusion that if I needed a tool, I should buy it and figure out how to pay for it after the fact. After one major purchase and loan from my credit union to do so, I ended up being able to to secure a signature loan at any time for up to ten thousand for a business purchase. Having access to funding is a tool in and of itself. Having the correct tooling on hand will save you time and maximize your profits, but it is a balancing act that takes time to work out and many mistakes can be made along the road. Routers and cordless drills were probably the most duplicated tool in my kit over the years. Finish sanders were another, but more due to constantly wearing them out and rebuilding them than to what they were being used for. Tape measures also. The one tool that always seemed to be playing hide and seek, or wandering off because someone said, "Hey, that looks like mine.". I am a firm believer in multiples of tools where they are not of a specialized type, but the tooling for their use may be.

Haven't had access to one for more than thirty years myself.

Have I mentioned recently that I dislike FedEx? It seems they lost my Dewalt wet tile saw for some oddball reason and ACME is having to ship a replacement. Evidently they had a problem with the label on the package and sidelined it somewhere along the shipping route and now can't find it.

If I had to buy one again, I would probably pick the Porter Cable. The only reason to pick the Leigh over any of the others is if you wanted to vary the width of the pins along the joint. I probably spent more time figuring out where I wanted pins and fiddling with the jig than I did actually cutting the joints.

Dovetail jigs are great if you are going to cut a large number of joints. I have a Leigh jig and I like it for the adjustability, but I can't remember the last time I used it. I found that if I were going to cut just a couple of dovetail joints, it was almost as quick to mark them out and cut them by hand. My brother had an old PC jig, and it was easier to set up and use than the Leigh, but he hasn't used his in years either. The only time either of us have used them was for personal projects, as they were just not a cost effective alternative when building for others.

Spent a majority of the day trying to get this one finished up. Assembled the parts last night and let them set up. Then cut into the pipe this morning. Iron pipe was in much better condition than expected. Ended up buying a ten foot section of six inch pipe for less than a one foot section for the riser. Ten foot of pipe at Lowes was almost the same price as a two foot section at Menards. (Couldn't find the riser kit they supposedly had in stock) Hard part is over at least, but I am beat. Forgot to pick up a decent pair of knee pads before hitting the point of no return. Cement is going to have to wait until I recover from tamping all that dirt back into place with the short sledge.

And Makita pulled the 7" grinder off the US site. WTF Makita....

With all the rain that is supposed to be headed this way next week, and all of the flooding problems I have had this year, I decided to jump off on this dreaded project. You never know what you are going to find under an old slab, and I have been procrastinating the start of getting this part of the plumbing work completed. The Makita saw has plenty of power to horse through the cuts, but the dust collection port is only marginally effective. It did a good job of drawing anything off that made it to the back side of the saw, but a majority of the dust just shot out the front. Might have been better if the dust port had been mounted on the front edge of the blade guard instead of the tail, at least for this type of dust. Floor in this section was less than 3 1/2" thick, so a couple of strikes with a six pounder was all that was needed to get started. Took most of the morning to get to this point. Could not stick a shovel into the dirt without getting jammed up by a chunk of concrete left behind by the original plumbing crew. Filled up a five gallon bucket with pieces of concrete. Turns out the soil pipe is of the larger variety at this point and I have the wrong size check valve on hand, so off to Menards I go... All in all, no major surprises or problems at this point, so I feel fortunate.

Home Owners Warehouse. They were located in the southeast US and liquidated in the early eighties. They used big bright yellow banners and they were originally competition for Home Depot in the Jacksonville area and had a mascot named Mr. How, but when the owner passed away the family decided they did not wish to continue running the business, and sold everything off. I bought my first cordless Makita 7.2v tool from them.

Makita Australia has a recall notice up for three different petrol brush cutters due to possible fuel leakage issues. (EM2600L / EM2600U / ER2600L) Details: https://www.makita.com.au/recall

I was living in Jacksonville when Andrew passed across the state. I still remember all the pictures of the destruction exacerbated by the building practices that had been allowed prior to that storm. The changes to the codes afterwards were nothing short of phenomenal. The insurance companies added to the reconstruction problems with many of their payment practices that allowed many contractors to collect and skip town without finishing work, or refusing to pay homeowners directly for whatever reasons. Had a friend who was a federal building inspector in Dade county who had weathered the storm there too. He had some wild stories to tell about the aftermath. I wish y'all luck in the coming weeks...

They have black MakPacs in Europe in certain kits. Wouldn't be too big of a stretch if they used them here for the compact kits. (Also, you can edit quotes and remove pics and misc. text to keep the size down)

This mornings project: Bumped the flu vent the other day and the existing mortar patch holding the pipe in place fell out. Just another pita to deal with. Trying to keep it close to the vertical surface while still being able to get a screw into the pipe. Break time again.

Probably have to buy the tool from the car dealer parts department. I have a socket in my tool collection from a Porsche special security nut that was only available through their part system at the time I needed it.

Heh, I can see the kids swiping it and running around the yard playing Darth Vader.

OooooOOoooo... The new x2 seven inch grinder was posted to the site this morning. Oi Vay, I am going to go broke buying tools this holiday season. https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XAG12Z1 https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XAG12PT1 Not impressed by the soft case tool bag with the kit though.

Back to the beginning. Started this small repair today. Set up, prep, and clean up seem to take longer than the the actual work does. Gonna go take a break while the initial patch work sets up...

I don't have a scale handy, but I would estimate it weighs around four to five pounds.