fm2176

HD locations seem to be very sporadic in stocking the new clamps. Of five Richmond, VA area stores I visited in the past week, only one had DeWalt clamps in lieu of Bessey. I also stopped at stores in Durham, Greensboro, Charlotte, and metro Atlanta, all of which still had the Bessey clamps at full price. The Lagrange, GA store has emptied the pegs of Bessey but has yet to display most of the DeWalt clamps.

Finally picked up the DeWalt portable power station. I stopped at a HD I've gotten good deals at before on my trip home and found two display units for $199.50. Also picked up a 24" Bessey Revo and a 12" Bessey clamp today, along with 16 more 5-packs of Diablo pruning blades.

Phone home

That's the way to do it...stay busy and engaged. My father-in-law, an electrician for 4 or 5 decades, had to retire after a fall at work a couple of years ago. I was hoping he would tinker around in his garage and stay occupied but he opted instead to do what he used to in his off-time--chain smoke in front of the TV. Now he's incapable of almost anything physical. I'll be potentially facing an unknown period of unemployment when I retire in a few years, but plan to stay busy one way or another. In a pinch I'll take a low-paying job just to help pay for tools. 😄

Diablo 9" pruning blades, 5-pack for $3.80. These sell for $5 individually and the 5-pack was originally $15. Diablo 5" sandpaper discs with 7 FREE SandNet discs and backing pad (posted elsewhere last week). I've also seen the 3.0Ah Makita drill and impact kits as low as $65 recently, and the DeWalt 20v Max miter saw at $140.

That is a nice setup! While having a massive dedicated shop would be ideal, few of us have the resources to make it a reality. You have the makings of an outstanding shop; imagine how great it will be when you have a garage (or workshop) to yourself!

Most of us make them, only to forget or discard them within months, but what do you hope to change in 2018? I won't curse this by calling it a resolution, but I haven't had an adult beverage since the 20th of December. Honestly, I've never felt better, as drinking was less a social activity and more a reason to slip into reclusiveness. As for resolutions, I plan to cut twenty pounds, getting back to the 165 I haven't seen in 20 years; become proficient at woodworking; pay off my credit cards and knock at least $10k in principal off of my mortgage; and put a renewed effort into my career. I also plan to start a graduate-level certificate program and begin exploring post-military career paths. What are your resolutions? Best of luck in sticking with them, and I look forward to our conversations in 2018.

With the new year comes new deals! For at least the past few years, large retailers have put their holiday specials and seasonal stock on clearance through January and February, translating to great deals for the persistent and/or fortunate. Things to look for: DeWalt and Milwaukee bit sets Holiday tool kits Left over Black Friday deals (some Lowe's stores have stacks of the ugly camouflage Werner ladder for $25 still, this is sure to go down if they don't sell) Blade combos (check the aisles if the holiday displays are torn down) I've found leftover holiday promotions as late as May, often paying 50-75% less than the already great promotional price. So happy hunting, and I hope everyone has a great 2018!

Well, if you have an Ollie's close by, it may be worth a look. They had plenty in Richmond, VA and Columbus, GA, so I'm fairly certain that they are stocked in most stores. Ollie's is extremely hit or miss on tools, but when they get something decent it tends to stick around for a while. A few years ago they had some Husky hand tools and Hitachi power tools. They also carried Richards prybars; made in Canada and supposedly the manufacturer of Snap-On's paint scrapers and such. I kind of went overboard buying the prybars, especially when they cleared them out for as low as $3 each.

In the light Infantry world, where we live in the dirt? No. If I were mechanized or Stryker I'd find a way to have a fan, though, as I'm certain there's a way to plug it in or charge batteries. Then again, I've been in a Bradley twice and a Stryker once, so what do I know? Right now I'm a Drill Sergeant, so bivouacs involve us sleeping in vehicles, waking up every hour or so to check on the trainees in their poison ivy infested patrol bases (I teach them what to avoid before they even go into the woods but they usually avoid the Virginia Creeper instead, choosing to bed down in the pretty plants with three leaves). My truck is getting up there in mileage, so I don't run the AC like my coworkers do.

Skil 30-piece router bit set for $45.10 at Lowe's, along with another $10 Stanley tape measure set.

A bit premature, perhaps, but I'm heading to bed soon, so this will be my last post of 2017. I hope everyone enjoys themselves, and for those of you celebrating, please stay safe. 2017 has been a better year for me than the past five. 2018 should be even better, as I'll both get promoted and earn my Bachelor's early in the year before moving back to The Old Guard mid-year. By this time next year I hope to be debt-free (besides the mortgage) and by this time next month I will be resuming my diet and exercise regimen that saw me drop thirty pounds in a few months two years ago. Anyway, it's been great interacting with everyone here, and I hope to learn a lot more from all of you in the coming year. Thanks for making TIA great!

Smart bomb

A FlexVolt coffee maker would be nice for FTX and bivouacs. I invested in a couple of Ridgid fans (DeWalt's was still a couple of months out at the time) to help fight the GA heat a few months ago. It's great using these newer innovations to make life a little more comfortable in training. Obviously, I'm not in a tactical unit at the moment.

Thanks! I picked a set up last night after seeing that HD still lists them on their website at $25. As I said in the initial post, these will become my abusees soon enough, but for now they are the only chisels I have consolidated. I have a few Buck Bros chisels somewhere and hope to find them when I move.

I have mostly Estwing and Vaughan, as well as my old Fatmax Anti-Vibe and a few wooden and fiberglass hammers. I've been considering the DeWalt and would love to justify a Stiletto, but I rarely drive nails anymore. I prefer screws when possible, and after using my DeWalt 20v Max finish nailer quite a bit I plan to pick up the brad nailer and perhaps the framing nailer.

Anyone have these? The three piece set was sold at Home Depot earlier this year, but now only a single size is sold for $10. These are the made in China chisels, not the Sheffield ones still sold at HD for $30. I found the 3-piece set at Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Georgia for $15 a few weeks ago and am thinking about picking up a set if they have them here in VA. Are they worth the price for beaters?

I couldn't pass up the Irwin mini-trigger clamps for $15 (4-pack) or the 4-pack of Stanley tapes for $10 at Lowe's this morning.

The DeWalt is a great tool! A good friend can attest to its effectiveness...he almost lost a finger when he failed to respect its authority. Nothing like derailing a drywall project by dropping off the help at the ER.

Bunker rake

I've cut out my usual hobby of excessive drinking and have instead been making signs and other projects out of wood. I started with a basic tree shaped stocking holder similar to one Home Depot demo'ed a month or so ago. A piece of the remaining 1x4" went to a Happy Holidays sign, then a scrap of cull fence board became signs for my brother and his fiance. They requested signs for the kids' rooms, so I worked on those today. Initially, I used my M18 Fuel circular saw due to the number of angles cut for the stocking holder. It's overkill for the signs, so the DeWalt 20v Max jigsaw and the 18v Ridgid ROS and router have been put through their paces since then. The router works great for etching out signs with a 1/4" straight bit. I've gotta admit that this is therapeutic in a way. Work and school haven't challenged me to the point where I've felt a need to slow down on the drinking. Learning new skills and honing them has been a refreshing change from the status quo. The cull rack at Home Depot offers much potential for inexpensive projects, and I'm thinking about offering my crafts for free to neighbors so long as I live in the apartment. There are lots of college students and others who may appreciate rudimentary pieces of art as I strive to perfect my techniques.

I noticed that Home Depot currently has 50-packs of sanding discs that come with 7 free 120-grit SandNet discs. Having just read a review of the SandNet discs, I'd say that this is a good deal for those wanting to see how the newer product works and whether the purported benefits are for them.

I've been using my small blower to clean the sawdust off the work area as I've been putting the cordless router and sander to the test this past week. At night it inflate my air mattress here while on leave.

Yes, it is. Older thread, I know, but I've used my router quite a bit over the past few days for rounding over edges and especially for scribing letters into wooden signs. All pine so far (I'd never tried this before Saturday), but the router has performed well and is only on the third 4.0 battery. It is easily controllable and the like the deadman switch of sorts...pull it out to start and push it in to stop (meaning if it hits the ground or another surface on the switch side it will stop). Since I'm new to routing I'm sticking to cheap Skil bits in pine. I have some Freud bits and a PC router in a Ryobi table I'll be honing my skills on next.

I've used mine a fair amount so far this week, making signs and small wooden toys for the kids. The sander works well and battery life is great! I've had to swap out the 4.0 battery once since Saturday.