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PutnamEco

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Posts posted by PutnamEco

  1. I am amazed that they are not available in the U.S.A they are a great tool and very very popular over here because you can do so much with them yet they take up so little room in your Van or truck.

    I wish they were available, tools like Makitas LH1200FL look like they would be the ideal tool for flooring work.

    I have never received a straight answer as to why they are not, I have heard both that they may not meet our safety requirements and that there is no market for them here.

  2. Air power tools are rare outside a mechanics garage over here Pal.

    Battery is king over here on power tools and corded if we have to.

    It is the rare jobsite here in the U.S. that does not use air. Cordless nailers are painfully slow and unreliable in comparison to pneumatic, not to mention the expense of fuel for the cordless. It is only in repair, small punch list or finish type jobs that cordless is common(outside of drills+impacts), most new construction is done with corded tools.

  3. I must admit it is not often you need a 12 inch slider, that's a hell of a lot of saw.

    The 10 inch are great for most things, and also a flip over saw is a real space saver and they cope with most jobs too.

    No flip or combination saws for us here in the U.S. :(

  4. Craftsman doesn't really make any tools, they rebrands other manufacturers tools as Craftsman. The Nextec line reminds me of another home owner orientated line that has since went down the tubes, the Black & Decker VPX line. I can’t really see taking these tools seriously for anything other than extreme light duty tasks.

    Re:

    To balance this out, the auto hammer from the same kit which knocks in nails has been a very handy tool I use it for nail on clips on pipes and wiring and it gets in places where you could never swing a hammer.

    I use a Grip-Rite mini palm nailer for close quarters nailing, and find this tool absolutely amazing. At first I thought it was some kind of gimmicky little goofball tool, but after the first couple of times I used it, my mind quickly changed. It has held up remarkably well, the only maintenance, beside keeping it oiled, has been tightening a body screw that vibrated loose. For the price they charge for this tool, there is no reason not to have one in your arsenal.

  5. Have any of you guys heard of Halfords ?

    I have come across them a couple of times doing web searches for items that are uncommon in the U.S., usually after about 20 pages or so. The last time I came across them I was looking for a Squire lock and chain set (decided against went with Abus), that is about all I know of them.

  6. Not where I live Pal.

    It is interesting how it can change by region as well as country.

    Some guys call they're impact driver just an "Impact".

    I'm wondering, do they differentiate between impact drivers and impact wrenches over there?

    Here in the states we do, an impact driver has a female socket on it that accepts bits, an impact wrench on the other hand, has a male driver in the same style as a hand held ratchet and accepts regular impact sockets.

  7. Hi folks,

    Just got an all singing all dancing new phone and all I have to do now is figure out how the bloody thing works. LOL :D

    :angry: So jealous...

    I can't have nice things like smartphones, I always end up trashing them in short order, even busted up a bunch of so called armored phones, so I purchase the cheapest phones I can get and swap out the SIM when the inevitable disaster occurs.

    I so could use BuildCalc

  8. We will all have to get used to each others terminology we call all drills with hammer action hammer drills and then divide them as S.D.S or none S.D.S. :)

    Its a bit like you say a 2 x 4 and we call it a 4 x 2 it means the same just a little different way of getting there.

    Have you ever heard of what we in the states call a hammerdrill refereed to as an impact drill?

  9. I also used it while it was absolutely hammering with rain up a scaffold and just had to plod on and keep working and it never missed a beat. :)

    I posted previously about using cordless tools underwater, (I used mostly cheap or older tools) they will work for a while, it is when they are taken out of the water and dried out that they stop working, very much more so when salt water is involved.

  10. If it was me, and I was looking for a SMALL miter saw, I would be looking very closely at the Makita LS0714, This saw will cut up to 8" stock at 45 degrees.

    If I was a home owner looking to save a buck or two, I would see what the rental companies in my area have to offer. $40 for a weekends work might make this an option.

    A regular 10" or 12" chop saw (non slider) should do the trick as well, sometimes simpler tools work out better with a lot less things to get bent or broken, and less chance of it going out of adjustment.

    Lowes just recently came out with a Kobalt 7 1/2" SCMS for $109 that would have you covered capacity wise. I will not vouch for this tool, but it might be good enough for one or two jobs....

  11. You sound like you have the same problems with the cost of shipping as me.

    It is easy to forget just how vast countries like the U.S and Australia are compared to the U.K and so shipping across them costs as much sometimes as say me buying from abroad.

    It also seems sometimes that it is easier for me all the way over here to get information about tool availability in the U.S than people I know over there.

    Maybe it is how our internet is set up to work or something but I do not get bombarded as much as you guys with crap I don't want while searching for stuff I do, compared to folks in the U.S.

    But once you deal with a company in the U.S you find out just how great they are on service and they go the extra mile, or they have for me thus far. :)

    Shipping is remarkably cheap here in the states, it is when you go for the overnight or express options that it starts getting expensive. Most shipping charges tend to be around the $25 mark. I can get most tools cheaper even with the shipping charges than I can when I go to a brick and mortar retailer. A lot of our online vendors often run specials in which they offer free shipping as well. Even with the expense of overnight shipping it often is still cheaper than paying for the fuel to get to a store that actually has what your looking for.

    One of my strategies for dealing with my rural location and internet shipping is to have duplicates of any tools that may be job stoppers should they cease to function.

    Re: searching for stuff.

    I feel your pain, so often when I look for things I get all the "yellow page" type listing rather than the actual company I'm looking for, it can be rather maddening.

    Compare my local tool stores price to Amazons on the Milwaukee impact driver and you will see what I'm talking about.

    local (which by the way, will take up half a day to do my shopping there and cost me $15 in gas)

    http://www.erniestools.com/impacts/

    Amazon

    http://www.amazon.co...+Driver+2650-21

  12. In my younger days when I lived in New Jersey, We had a Black & Decker factory store that was like hog heaven to me. Mind you this was before Dewalt had come out and they still had some decent tools. They used to be an awesome place to get both recon tools and tool parts. I remember picking up plenty of tools at less than half retail price. I used to get their home owner grade tools so cheap that I could easily afford to use them as disposable tools. I used to keep a bunch of them around for all those dirty tool killing jobs. I was filled with great sadness recently, when I learned they were closing all their factory stores.

    Here in my rural county in Florida, tool shopping is absolutely dismal. The nearest tool supply is a pretty long drive and it is in a shore town so the prices are not good. I haven't really found a good tool supply within what I'm willing to drive. Then again I'm spoiled, I used to live in Connecticut before I came down here and had easy access to all the tri state areas shopping, even my local hardware store had a better tool selection then I can find in my county here in Florida If it were not for the internet and online shopping I would not have any easy access to quality tools.

  13. I would like to get my hands on some of the new Panasonic range,as they are awsome for those of us who need to keep working when the weather is awful. :)

    Does Panasonic have a reputation for working in inclement weather over there???

    Panasonic is one of the worst at marketing their tools over here in the states, I hardly ever see them, in fact I see more Festool than I do Panasonic. What little exposure I do have to them has lead me to believe they are a worthy contender. One of the groups I volunteer for has one of their 15.6v NiMH drills and it is still going strong. I also tried one of their newer impacts at a demo station set up in a store and it felt really good. Panasonic is a manufacturer of batteries and I would hazard a guess that they put some of their best in their tools.

  14. Yay a name we can buy some of over here LOL. :)

    We can get the heavy duty stuff over here.Pipe wrenches inspection cameras, and mainly industrial pipe fitting gear.But we don't get a whole shed load of gear that you guys can in the U.S.A.

    I can remember when AEG made a few great tools, back in the day, they used to have one of the best hammerdrills and they also had a kick butt belt sander, now it would seem they are just another homogenized consumer tool company like the other members of the TTI group. You probably get a better selection of AEGs tools than we get of their rebranded Rigid line, as AEG still has a limited presence in our tool market.

  15. yes pal apparently so. :)

    Thanks for the info :) , that greatly eases my grey market fantasies of bringing in a PDC 18-4 and using a Festool charger and not having to deal with an inverter/transformer. Now if I can figure a work around for the CSP 85/60 circular saw. I have always wanted to try a regular circular saw with a riving knife.

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