JMG

It is always a sad day when an item in your tool collection outlives it's usefulness. With the changing methods and new designs for tool storage, this old tool box has one last use in store for it... Collecting small steel scrap pieces until it is full, and then on its way to the recycler. The box is probably older than I am and started out life as a silver and red lettered Milwaukee Sawzall container. When it was gifted to me as a useless old beat up box, I refinished it and turned it into my small plumbing tool box, and it worked as that for close to two decades, when it was relegated to storing old brass fittings. As I move to more modular storage solutions, this item no longer has a place, and so it goes. When I ran across it, it was about to be tossed into a trash can, as the tool it had housed had long since died, and they were just as happy to hand it off to me as to throw it out. Over the years, it has been a benchmark of how steel tool cases have declined in quality of construction. I was attracted to it simply because it was a quality steel box, even if the internal brackets got in the way on occasion. It has served well. Having had this box for around three decades, it seems a sad way to finally release it, but no one in my current close circle had any use for it either. So, one last job for it and off it goes to be turned into something new.

Were you not also planning on merging the UTB and giveaway section?

This puppy showed up today, courtesy of Stuart from over at ToolGuyd, via ACME tools. A month or so ago, Stuart had a spot contest on his site for a Veto pack of the winners choice, and I feel quite lucky to have won this one. Awesome tool pack... Thanks again Stuart!!

Once in a while, when looking of some off the wall item that no one else seems to carry, the discounts are the only thing that makes it worth ordering something from them. I bought a vacuum pump from them last year and one of the coupons made it the lowest price I could find, but it was also one of those 30% off coupons they occasionally offer.

And then there are the types who will tell you something as advice just to see if you will actually do it... True story; My brother and a partner owned an auto repair shop for a few years. They had a "sort of customer" who would come in every week and ask for advice on how fix his own car. It was rare that he ever bought anything from them or had them fix anything for him. My brother's partner thought the guy was a tool and also got a bit tired of seeing him roll in every week. One day the guy rolls into the yard and the partner yells out, "HEY George, your brakes are squeaking, you best oil em!!" Three days later... "You fuckers almost KILLED me!!!"

Zoro currently has a 20% off coupon code for five of their categories through 13 Sept.. Code: WORKSHOP Lighting, flashlights & batteries Cutting, holemaking &shaping tools Storage & shelving Hand tools Fall protection, facility & traffic safety equip. For September 18 & 19 they are running 20% off $200+ or 25% off $300+. Code: SEPTSAVE (They do not list any exclusions for this one on the flyer though.)

I like the banner at the bottom of the page much better than the full page pop over. It doesn't force me to have to close it in order to read one of the reviews. I don't have the browser set to auto delete cookies, but I do believe it is set to clear browsing history on exit. I have had issues with Firefox processing certain types of cookies related to financial processes in the past. There are a few online stores that I have to switch to chrome or some other browser in order to complete a transaction due to Firefox's internal security code and how the websites attempt to use cookies that cause Firefox to not process them.

It shows up every time I restart the browser. I am using Firefox and it is possible the security settings interfere with cookies, but even so... I find small pop up windows that show up in an out of the way spot on the page to be more appealing than one that blocks your view of what you are attempting to read.

Would it be possible to change the "Win tools" pop over that activates when you scroll down the page to a small pop up in the lower left corner of the page, one that does not interfere with clicking on any of the reviews? A five to ten second timer for the pop up to auto vanish would also be appreciated. Full page pop overs can be a bit annoying to repeat visits to the main page, or any other site that constantly shoves an in your face message at the repeat user, that has no bearing on them, for that matter. Discretion is the better part of valor, as it were... Less shouting, more subtle persuasion please.

I plan on picking one up at some point, but I am not in a great hurry to do so as I am a bit over my budget already this year and will wait for a Makita sale to come around before pulling the trigger.

Three piece combo kit was added to the site. https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/CX300RB Kind of interesting to see an all black tool bag instead of the normal teal color, but I would have preferred they use a MakPac over a soft case.

MILWAUKEE-48-59-1890P MILWAUKEE-2810-20 RUBI TOOLS-25979 RUBI TOOLS-76908 Well, my tool budget, if not my altoids tin as well, has been officially crushed. I am almost thankful that Makita tools were not included in that sale.

As in block of salt salty? The price on that thing is horrifying. Makes the price on the rocket look tame...

Surfing through tools on the ACME site I noticed this new addition... http://www.acmetools.com/shop/tools/milwaukee-48-59-1890p $199 for two 9ah batteries and charger. It is also eligible for the Labor day 15% off on four items which would drop the price to $169.15. You could add three drill bits or cut off wheels or other small item to get to the fifteen per cent. Seems like a screaming deal for a pair of 9ah.

Me either really... I actually use an old altoids tin for my cards & cash.

DEWALT-DCC2560T1 DEWALT-DWST08810 DEWALT-D24000 DEWALT-DWST08212 Man, these ACME 15% off sales are gonna break my wallet...

Makita has posted some items on the USA site today. Sub compact brushless recip. https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XRJ07ZB Also the two versions of the wheelbarrow/dolly... https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XUC01X1 https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XUC01X2 Not sure what to think of the recip.. Doesn't look all that compact in the picture.

While Bosch and Hitachi are capable of being at the top of a game, per se, personal experience from over forty years in buying power tools for use in shop, and on the job site, belies the fact that they build for long lasting reliability or durability. Of all the brands I have used over the years, Bosch portable power tools have shown the highest critical failures of any other brand, from my personal consumption, and Hitachi power tools have had the highest design failures due to cost saving measures that have severely shorted tool life and or use. Due to this, I cannot judge any of their current offerings on the market because I refuse to trust them to surpass their own history. On the other hand, my first choice of jig saw blades, as well as core bits and concrete drills, are Bosch products. I also would consider purchasing a Hitachi industrial grade shop tool, having owned one in the past and it not having any of the issues that their portable power tools displayed. Opinions change, but in my view, large corporations have great difficulty in doing so, unless monetary losses force them to change. I use what works for me, regardless of brand name, and what generally works for me has had a long history of doing so.

These old steel frame basement windows were just not made to be removed. They were originally installed as the basement block was finished out and before the rim plate was added. Dropped into vertical grooves in the side blocks and set into a sloped bed of mud, bottom and sides. SDS hammer is a wonderful tool to have for clearing the excess mortar prior to cutting away the frame. I can remember having to do things like this with a cold chisel and a single jack.

I also have one of those love hate issues with HF. We just got a new one here in my town a couple of months ago and I think it is a good thing. The current trend here has been stores just closing up shop and leaving with little to no warning, so it is refreshing to see someone who is willing to expand into the area. I just need to go visit them now... maybe... sometime...

Regardless of the compressor you end up choosing in the end, it will probably be a good ideal to add a regulator for each gun supply line. Hose length and size can also cause issues for gun performance. If your compressor ends up over a hundred feet away from where you are working, a booster tank on the end of a half inch id hose with a regulator manifold mounted on it to supply your guns can cure pressure drop issues caused by longer small id hose lengths. Think of it as a step down transformer... Unregulated high pressure to the secondary tank and a functional pressure level on a short air lines to balance pressure variations.

I've never been able to stick with one particular brand of blade for all of my needs. I do like the diablo blades, but in cases where a clean, uncontaminated cut is critical (solid surface materials), the red coating on the diablo blades, or any other blade with applied coatings, is problematic. Most of my solid surface work in the past has been cut with FSTool XL4000 series blades. They are not cheap by any means, but they were ahead of the game when it came to specific application cutting back when I was still running my shop. I generally used the sixty tooth combo blade on solid lumber and chose other configurations for other materials. I almost never used a combo blade on a miter saw. I prefer a negative rake tooth on miters in many cases.

This section has been a long time coming... The last two joists over the window were a right pain to get locked in. The two damaged ones were badly deformed from the combination of water damage, age, and original poor grade of lumber used. Spent a bit of time with the bar clamps and jacks getting things lined up and tied in. Time to change hats...

Not all the old concrete block was equal in density. These were hard enough that if any real feed pressure was applied the anti-kick would engage.

Pics bring back memories of working on a framing/demo crew. We demoed a multi family brick unit of P&L on one of the projects, and had to deal with nine to sixteen inches of pigeon crap that had accumulated in the entire attic crawl space of the building. Guess the previous owner thought it was just insulation or something.