dwasifar

I found it in a comparison test article about tapes. The article didn't say anything about its special design, it just put the tape through the same tests as the other tapes in the comparison. It came up short in the standard tape functions like standout length and surviving a drop. But I went and looked it up elsewhere because I figured there had to be some reason for its shape. I'm not sure I'd have a use for it. If I'm cutting framing, I'm using my speed square as a saw guide anyway, so this tape wouldn't take the square out of the task for me.

It may be even sooner than that: https://www.thestreet.com/story/13841052/1/sears-selling-craftsman-for-2-billion-likely-won-t-keep-it-afloat.html There's no reason to assume whoever buys the brand will honor the previous warranty commitments. Your lifetime warranty may end when the sale goes through. It's a shame. I have a large collection of USA Craftsman hand tools and although I generally don't break tools the warranty was nice to have for peace of mind. For a while, Home Depot used to offer free warranty replacement for Craftsman; if you brought them your broken Craftsman hand tool they'd replace it with an equivalent Husky at no charge. It was great for customer goodwill. Maybe if Sears really goes down, or the Craftsman brand does, they'll see a business opportunity and start that again. BTW the sale to Stanley Black & Decker mentioned in that article did not go through. They decided to buy Irwin, Lenox, and Hilmor from Newell Group instead. So Craftsman is still on the block, and some analysts think Sears will not find a buyer for the brand now that Stanley has opted out.

Not right now, but they're circling the drain. These days the lifetime Craftsman warranty means the remaining lifetime of Sears, not you.

Once I bought a pair of cheap laser levels that didn't work at all. Basically you had to set out a real level and align the laser line to it. So what was the point? Over the years I've received my share of gimmicky tools as gifts from well-meaning friends and relatives. There's a socket set that has a hole through the ratchet handle so you can turn nuts on long bolts. Another one that has a worklight on the ratchet handle (and this was in the days before LEDs). Interchangeable-bit screwdrivers made of cheap plastic with all the bits rattling around inside the handle. A dry car wash brush (yeah right, like I'm gonna drag a dry brush across the dirt). I know I'm gonna take heat for this one, but I'm not impressed at all with FastCap tape measures. Got a pair of them for christmas this year (I put them on my list because people here rave about them) and they're going back to Amazon. A 25' tape that's too flimsy to stay flat when you extend it across a flat surface is useless. Probably the most frustrating handfool was a Stanley combination square that wasn't square. I'd guess it was off about 1/16" across an 11.5" board. I used it for a stupidly long time, with cuts turning out just a little bit off, before I finally figured out that the problem was the tool and not me.

Now this is a cool idea: Anyone have one of these? Does it work as advertised?

Important news bulletin: Stanley has agreed to warranty that top right LeverLock with the touchy lever. That's really nice of them, don't you think? Hooray for Stanley! We now return you to your regularly scheduled forum thread already in progress.

Yum. Can I have hot fudge on it?

Following the disappointment with the FastCap tapes, I went shopping for the perfect tape measure. Fortunately I have a Lowe's, a Home Depot, and a Menards right down the street from one another. I haven't decided on a replacement 25' tape yet, but Menards had a crazy stupid price on these: Yes folks, you heard that right, only $4.99, I say $4.99, for a two-pack 12' and 16' Stanley LeverLock. I like the LeverLock design anyway, and for this price I jumped at it. You should too. Here is the current stable of tapes: The funny-looking green one is actually an old Stanley LeverLock from that period where hand tools were all turning Day-Glo orange and green. (I still have the orange and green screwdrivers that came with it.) It lost its label years ago. One day I was feeling artistic and drew that big 25 on it with a Sharpie. It's been my go-to tape for many years but it's getting a little creaky now, and the hook is bent from a drop. I've straightened it the best I could but it's still probably about 1/32" off. The one beside it was intended to replace it a few years ago, but the lever is just too darn sensitive; you can't handle it at all without the tape starting to retract, unless you pick it up by just holding the sides, and who holds a tape that way? I might ask Stanley if they want to replace it. And of course the others are the new ones. For a replacement 25', I was leaning toward the Kobalt at Lowe's. It's made by Komelon, and it looked really nice in the store - fractional read tape, auto-lock, big hook, nice long 9' standout, metric on the flip side of the tape. Then I got home and saw the reviews: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-25-ft-Tape-Measure/4640503 So maybe I'll just get a 25' LeverLock to go with other two new ones.

Thanks For some reason, cutting and splitting my own firewood makes the fires more enjoyable.

Someone on another forum asked if anyone had a "Mikita" chain saw. So I obliged him:

That's about half of what I had on hand when I took the shot. That's all red oak, from a single 160-year-old tree, except for a little bit of ash off to the left. And more oak from that same tree eventually made it into the stacks too. The pieces I was splitting had been noodled down, but they were still mostly 12"+ thick. So don't let anyone make fun of your electric splitter. They don't cycle as fast as a big gasoline unit but they do the job just fine. Mine is beat to shit by now, and still splits almost anything I put on it. I sharpened the wedge on mine and it works a little better that way.

Don't run out and buy one just yet. I'm not impressed with mine. Seems overall a little shoddy. Blade is too flimsy to extend out across a room without twisting, and it won't retract without being coaxed. After measuring three rooms for carpet I can already feel the coating starting to pill on the bottom of the blade. I might keep the 16, but the 25 is going back to Amazon. Really I don't know what you guys see in these. I expected a lot better.

Wife says Amazon.

I have a similar unit from Homelite: Here is just a sample of what it's done for me: Those little electric splitters are more powerful than you expect. I wouldn't run it in the garage as you're doing though. Sooner or later it'll throw a log, if you're using a push block, and you don't want your car to be within firing distance when that happens. What are you splitting there? It looks flaky, like maybe pearwood.

Presents and stocking stuffers from my wife: Super warm Carhartt gloves, two of those tapes you guys all like, and an Irwin multi driver.

You win the Stanley cup!

Are those WERA metric nut drivers? How's that handle shape work for you? They look cool, are they comfortable to use?

I got cool stickers for my new hard hat: BTW it is not a tiny hat and I don't have huge hands, it's just some weird perspective thing. My wife just saw the picture and was laughing at it.

Great, now you just put the song in my head:

Use that reasoning on your wife just ONE time, and she'll be using it back on you until one or the other of you is in a box.

They finally did respond. They told my buddy in Facebook chat that my email address was invalid, which is not true, because 1) that's how I often communicate with him, 2) that's the address where they eventually responded to me, and 3) it's my $*!@ mail server, I would know if it were down. But a very nice lady did answer, asking to be told the whole story, which I did, in painfully complete detail. She replied asking what I need now, and I said Just that jigsaw shoe. The circular saw ship has sailed. So we'll see what happens next.

Well, this is about Milwaukee. I've never needed to call Makita. It's been on their FB since Friday, courtesy of my buddy, and they told him they would contact me. Haven't yet though, and he's out, doesn't want to be the messenger boy anymore, so if they don't respond to me by email I'll just write them off.

That's partly what I was doing here. But I was also curious if it was just me. So far it seems like it's just me and mike_dave.

What would "Miss Makita" be in Hindi?

Okay, I'll bite. What is NAINA? I googled it and I got this: Surely that can't be what you mean. You said Bosch, and this looks like Makita.