dwasifar

I'm getting ready to build a new workshop. One of the things I want to do is build an island workbench with a flush mounted "jobsite" table saw (because I don't have the money or the space for a proper floorstanding table saw). Finding the right saw for this has been unexpectedly difficult. I've looked at, and rejected, in more or less this order: DeWalt DWE7480 - can't use a dado; otherwise, this is what I'd buy. Bosch GTS1031 - only 18" rip. Delta 36-6010 - universal bad reviews on the rip fence. Hitachi C10RJ - many reviews stating low reliability and unavailable repairs. Kobalt KT1015 - can't be easily used without its rolling stand. Ridgid R4516 - uneven user reviews for quality, many warranty service complaints. Ryobi RTS-22 - Ryobi. I've only found two saws that don't have any of these omissions: Skilsaw SPT70WT-22 - priced same as the DeWalt, can use a dado up to 1/2". Makita 2705 - well-regarded, can use wider dado, but very expensive. If I had five Benjamins burning a hole in my pocket, I'd grab the Makita in a heartbeat. But I may have to settle for the Skil, unless someone else has another suggestion...? Also: Why doesn't Milwaukee make a table saw in this category?

I don't have it yet, but my wife ordered this for me for my birthday: Should see it in a week or two.

I assume you mean any other DeWalt tools that use the same battery? I have an impact driver that came with it. Other than that, no.

Dan? Dan Quayle, is that you? Pancake compressor.

I have a DeWalt DCD780, about seven years old. It's been fine, but it does struggle with heavier work from time to time. (Don't know if that's the batteries or the tool; I'm guessing the tool.) So I'm thinking of getting something else, maybe a little beefier, but not a behemoth. With those requirements, what would you recommend and why? Assume for the sake of discussion that Hilti is too expensive, but any other pro or prosumer brand is on the table.

Oh, and I think I may have forgotten to post this when I got it a month or so ago: You can see I've already broken it in a bit.

Got these Irwin pliers and dikes: Made in Germany, not China.

Potato gun.

Signal flare.

You might remember recently I reviewed the Milwaukee 25' magnetic tape measure. I was so impressed with it that I went back to HD for the 16' version, and picked up one of the compact ones too: While there I saw a steal on a Fiskars splitting axe, marked down from $39.97 to $10.03: There were three of these left at that price, all a bit shopworn, but it's an axe, not a doily. Nonetheless I picked the cleanest of the three. The instructions for getting the tape measure out of its package are stupidly complicated: I understand why they have to do that, I guess, but it seems kind of silly that you need a tool to take a tool out of a package.

What'd you do? Just sister it up and move along?

I saw someone do YouTube teardowns of some of those HF power tools. There's a lot of corner-cutting to get them out at those prices, as you might imagine - flimsy bearings, cheap gearing, sloppy switches. They have a 90 day warranty for a reason. I am a cheapfugger. That's why I buy expensive tools. It's cheaper to spend $80 once on a Makita or Milwaukee than it is to keep spending $25 on Chicago Electric over and over and over. And that's not even taking into account the wasted time and ruined work from substandard tools.

I'll start. The other day I was replacing lights in the basement. The old lights were shop lights plugged into ceiling mounted outlets. The new lights are hardwired fixtures. What I was doing was mounting each new fixture, then turning off the juice, removing the outlet and metal cover assembly, and hardwiring the new fixture to the metal box. I was on my seventh fixture of seven. I mounted the new fixture, unscrewed the outlet cover from the box, and cut the wires to the outlet with my lineman pliers. BANGflash! And everything went dark. I forgot the "turn off the juice" step. Dead short of the two wires through the pliers' jaw. Got it right the first six times, slipped up on the seventh. Fortunately I have a long habit of handling any wire or device as if it's live whether it is or not, so I never touched the outlet contacts while I was taking down this inadvertently live outlet. So it was nothing more than a momentary surprise, an interesting new mark on my old pliers, and a rueful walk to the breaker panel. Could have been a lot worse.

I imagine about five seconds in the microwave ought to do it.

So is a cinder block.

It took me a while to look it up and find the title, but there was a science fiction story in the 1950s called "The Marching Morons." In the story, the world has devolved into a large population of idiots (kind of like Idiocracy) and a small group of overworked smart people who keep things running. A big part of their work involves keeping the idiots distracted by dressing up ordinary products to appear more powerful and advanced than they actually are. Cars have exaggerated speedometers and fake roaring engine sounds; jet planes are dressed up to look like rocket ships. That was 1951. Here's what your dad's (or maybe granddad's) drill looked like in 1951: Yes, there have been some technical improvements since, but nothing that requires the drill to look like that Porter Cable. Today, if you get a plain utilitarian drill in the consumer market, it's probably a sub-Harbor-Freight piece of crap: The whiz-bang decorations are apparently supposed to signify that the product is better than basic, which is deeply ironic in that they assume the buyer is buying the better product for stupid reasons.

Holy crap, yeah. I hadn't seen Porter Cable in stores recently, but I googled for it, and wow, they are up and over the high side: That is just ridiculous. It looks like a twelve year old's idea of what a drill would look like in Star Wars. Was this the more or less the image you were trying to post? I don't know that I'd say it's excessively decorated, but that sure is one weird design. I don't like it. Seems like it would get in the way.

Too bad about your friend's business closing, but it looks like you got a sweet deal.

Yes, Hilti tools mostly look like they mean business. Makita and Bosch haven't gone quite as far down that road as some of the other makers, but they're starting to. Also, I notice that cordless tools are much more likely to be covered in crazy decoration. The corded versions tend to be more no-nonsense. Case in point: Hitachi's 1/2" corded drill: Compared to their 1/2" cordless: I have that corded drill, btw. It's a monster. Use two hands.

Why so many duplicates? Do you break them? Lose them? Wear them out? Stocking stuffers for xmas?

Guys, check this out: Sitting at my desk in my office, I can extend this tape into the far corner of the ceiling without it buckling. Better than ten feet of standout. That's just insane.

I assume you're talking about DeWalt yellow. Tonka was called that because, read backwards, it's "a knot," which is what came up on your little brother's head when you hit him with your Tonka truck. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Well, I didn't buy this today, but I took it out of the package and started using it yesterday evening. It's a "Milwaukee 25-ft Premium Magnetic Tape Measure": I was at HD a couple of months ago and they had them on display. There were two options: one for $24.97, or two for $24.97. Gee, I wonder which is the better deal? I couldn't resist the two-fer, and they've been sitting on top of my toolchest waiting to be put into service until yesterday. I was doing a basement lighting project where I had to measure along the ceiling, and my 25' Stanley magnetic Leverlock just wasn't cutting it. Too much sag and droop. So I unpacked one of these babies and man, SO much better. The magnetic hook is just the right strength. Stuck it to an electrical box and, while standing on the floor (not a ladder), I was able to feed the tape upwards and extend it along the ceiling, out to about 10' with very little sag. Quick easy retraction; I don't have to coax it back in when I've spooled out a lot of tape like I do with the Stanleys. The hook seems to have a little spring behind it to take up the play. Push it inward to make an inside measurement, and it gives easily; let it go, and it eases back to the outside measurement position on its own. The tape itself has an interesting, lightly textured feel, which is useful for the finger stop: Markings on the bottom side of the tape are a plus. The case also has a nice grippy texture. Touch surfaces are slightly rubberized, just enough to optimize grip without feeling sticky or gushy. It's a little bulky and blocky, but still fits well in my medium-sized hand: That little indent on the back of the case provides a perfect grip for the pinky finger, and the groove on the bottom guides your index finger naturally to the finger stop notch. The wire belt clip is surprisingly easier to use than the usual spring steel ones. Milwaukee claims this tape is tough, and I see no reason to doubt it; it feels solid. The only complaints I have are its weight and appearance. This thing is heavy as tapes go; 1lb 2.5oz by my scale. That's enough to sag your pants if you're not using a tool belt. But if you want a thick, tough tape that doesn't sag or collapse, I suppose weight comes with it. As far as appearance goes, this is going to be a big digression, but I wish mass market tools looked a little more utilitarian, instead of trying to look mean and exciting. This is more an issue for power tools - they all look like they've been drawn by sneaker designers, covered with needless jagged decorations - but since Milwaukee is primarily in the power tool business, it's not surprising that their hand tools have matching designs. This tape is a minor offender compared to, say, these: And Milwaukee is pretty conservative compared to some others: But still, every time I see a tool with this kind of decoration, be it hand tool or power tool, I feel like the tool makers think we're all arrested-development cases, stuck at about 14 years old, and choosing a brand because they look cool and mean instead of on their merits as tools. The tape reminds me of this general complaint, which is why I bring it up. I seem to have yammered on longer than I intended. Back to the point: It's a mighty good tape. I'm impressed.

That partial invisibility feature looks like a great convenience.

I got these pliers and dikes on the clearance rack at Lowe's: And my wife put this under the tree, sort of: The reason I say "sort of" is that what she actually bought was a Hitachi, because that's what I had been looking at. But the moment I opened it she was urging me to return it. She works for Lowe's, and in the time between when she bought the Hitachi and when I opened it, she saw five Hitachi sliding miter saws come back with various customer complaints. So I took the Hitachi back, and then had to choose between spending more money for DeWalt, or taking the Kobalt and putting a little money back on the card. I don't need a sliding miter every day, so I decided to give the Kobalt a shot, and hope I won't regret it. It does seem like an extremely nice saw for the money, and the adjustments are all up front, which is convenient. I haven't unboxed it yet, because it's freakin' cold in my garage/workshop.