PutnamEco

Here is an excellent article on building a hidden hinged bookcase door. http://www.garymkatz...ase_install.htm

What tool companies do you find interesting? Here are a few of my favorites. Fastcap I really like their Pro Carpenter Old Standby tape measure. It is my favorite tape measure to use when I'm doing bench work or for around the shop. Fastcap has a lot of interesting tools, I can't say they are good tools (most seem to be made in China) but I will say I do find them interesting. Tools like their Pocket Chisels, Long Nose Marker, and KnukleBender show some innovative thinking, by what appears to be someone who may have actually spent some time on a jobsite. Tajima I will definitely vouch for a few of Tajimas tools. Their Chalk-Rite chalk boxes are good. I have had excellent results using them. They use a braided line rather than the more common cotton string that comes with the chalk boxes you might usually find, this tends to leave a thinner line, which I find more accurate. They also make an ink box for those inclined to go that route. I'll also recommend their premium Convoy caulk guns which are very easy to use even with the thickest caulking compounds. Lastly, I'll also recommend their Snap Blade Knives which are as good as any of the other snap bladed knives on the market Eurekazone While I don't use their products, I do love their home grown inventiveness. The founder Dino Makropuolos always comes up with some really creative ideas, and is very enthusiastic about promoting them. They have produced some interesting and informative YouTube videos as well.

The thread on good footwear has gotten me thinking about one of the things that I use to make my feet a lot happier, after market insoles. They can really make a big difference in how tired your feet feel at the end of the day and can extend the life of your shoes, should your stock insole wear out. My current favorites are Spencos Earthbound Although it would seem that a lot of people prefer gel innersoles, I find that gels are really soft and don't really help my feet that as much as these firmer innersoles do. So, how many of you all use aftermarket innersoles and which ones do you prefer?

The one thing I noticed, is that Makitas batteries seem to shut themselves off. I had a pair of batteries that I really babied, using them mostly in my radio and as occasional back up batteries for my other tools and at about the three year mark they set off an error in the charger and could never be charged again, this happened to the other battery in the pair less than a month later. Both batteries seemed to be working well beforehand, showing no obvious signs of failure like any real reduction of run time or overheating. My Milwaukee batteries on the other hand show a really noticeable shortening of run time before they will no longer accept a charge, either that or they go up in smoke on the tool. I really can't complain that much as I'm getting 2-3 times the life I was getting from my NiCads with out the self discharge of the NiMH batteries. Even though the NiMH seem to last longer, I still prefer Lith-Ion.

What set is it you have? I really like the Wiha driver and security bits sets. I hate it when I have to break it out, why do people have to make it hard to work on things?

There are a number of cordless drill powered projects around. There is the Crawler powered scaffold Make Magazine did a dual drill powered Drill Kart, DPX Systems markets a drive system for cordless drills. I know you have probably seen the bike they built featuring their drive.

Apparently.

Here you go, making me feel old again, I'm an ex smoker and still enjoy a good lighter. I have a few Zippos, the oldest being one engraved with Reddy Kilowatt, that famous mascot of power companies. I got that lighter from an friend in the late 70s and as far as I can tell it was made in the early 50s. I EDC a Bic lighter, just because I have a bad habit of destroying or loosing everything I carry when I get to crawling and climbing around. Another of my favorite lighters is Country Comm peanut lighter. I'm still looking for a decent butane "storm" lighter, one that I could count on in adverse conditions and have found all that I have come across to be posers, not a single one worthy of being called an armored durable lighter. Cool accessory Zippo fuel storage device, great for when your heading out for longer than your lighter fuel supply will last but not long enough to carry a full sized can of fuel.

LOL

I hardly ever use my cats paw. It would depend on which hat I'm wearing, If I'm wearing my carpenters hat, I would have to say single function screwdrivers, I live with my Klein 11 in 1, rarely every using a dedicated single use screwdriver, unless I'm going to work with a single fastener for any length of time. Conversely, when I don my mechanics hat, I hardly ever use a multi bit screwdriver. I have a bunch of tools that I seldom use because of age and the associated lack of available spare parts. My Black & Decker Sawcat comes to mind. I only break it out for special occasions, like showing for the young ones how much better older tools really are. Probably the least used power tool I own is my power planer. I have a couple that I rarely use. I basically only use them for fitting doors. As for cordless, my Bosch PS 40, I find I get along much better with an 18 volt impact driver.

Did you know you can use cordless tools underwater? They won't last long doing this, but if there is something you just have to fix and the money is right......

I'm guessing this is pretty common knowledge, you can use a roto-hammer or chipping hammer to drive things into the ground. They even make some bits for this usage.

The Arbortech blades are useful for more than just "carving". They can be used anytime a lot of wood has to be removed, like when fitting deck boards around curved objects, when you just need to remove that last little bit that would be hard to remove with a jigsaw but is to much for a belt sander, or for hogging out wood when you have to notch cribbing to support oddly shaped objects and I even seen them used for texturizing wood for that hand hewn look.

Most all of the manufacturers are compromising on battery charging since the optimum charge time for Lith-Ion is around three hours.

I use a Purdy 6 in 1 painters tool in so many ways, I even have one in the kitchen. I have to wonder though with such a versatile tool if there really is an off label use for it. Speaking of tools in the kitchen, I have a mud mixer reserved just for those large pots of mashed potatoes, breezes right through them. I'm not against mixing trades, I often can be found using my pneumatic impact wrench to drive lag bolts or tighten down plates. Got the compressor on the jobsite, might as well use it. I don't see a lot of people using angle grinders as sanders, but they do work well for aggressive sanding tasks. With the right wheel, they can even be used as a carving tool. I can't believe I'm the only one thinking outside the box.........

I want to see a retest after a year or so of work. A lot of manufacturers are putting "hot" cells in their packs, that is cells that perform well for a short period of time at the expense of a longer life, the "colder" batteries won't come into its own until the batteries are on their degradation curve. Certainly makes the tools look good for the press, who only really test new tools, but in the long run, not so good a strategy for the end user/consumer who plans to keep the tool for more than a few months. Go to Battery University if you want to start to learn more about batteries. There is also a guy over on the Dewalt owners group forum who dissects cordless drills and batteries, that you might find interesting.

Until someone comes up with a better tool. How do premium brands like Snap-on stay in business?

1 quid = $1.60 more or less

I have a large pair of end nippers that I use for pulling nails and such, I'm just breezing through during a break, I'll reply later with some more of my misuses of tools

Not all of them, I just had a chance to use Boschs new tablesaw the 4100, my older 4000 model has a much longer cord. I will say they have improved the saw in a number of ways besides the shorter cord though. I have noticed a steadily declining quality of most "pro" grade tools over the years, at one time it was not unusual to expect to get 10 or more years of daily work out of your tools, now it would seem they are all disposable after a couple years. They keep the price of the parts up so it is not really worth it to repair them. What bothers me about this, is there are hardly any tool manufacturers who actually make a tool that is meant to be anything more than just another consumable. While we have brands like Hilti, and Festool, they are 10% - 20% better but they are 50% more expensive. Granted they do support their tools better which is hard to put a price on. I wouldn't mind paying 100% more if I was getting a carbon fiber and titanium tool that was durable enough to last ten years and had ease of repair as a design criteria.

Laser on drills was one of my favorites, what were they thinking? Re:China I don't really mind China making tools, What I do mind is them trying to imply that our once iconic American brands are still the same once they get a hold of them. Why don't they build their own brands instead of trying to ride on the reputations of once great American tool brands.

All this talk of angle grinders reminds me that I have a problem with this new generation of angle grinders. What is with these accessory handles being at an odd angle (not 90 degrees) to the tools body. Obviously the designers have never had to grind close to a corner which is near about impossible with this new angle. Both my new Bosch and Makita have this "feature". I'm glad I still have my normal old grinders. I won't be buying any more of these new grinders as they just don't work for me.. Luckily a lot of the older grinders seem to last quite a long time. I've been caught out a couple times and have had to resort to using these tools bare, without any handles, and this does not strike me as being particularly safe, as I don't feel I have the same control over the tools without the added leverage of the side handle. So, what is it that drives you nuts about todays tools?

I can see it now, his and hers DVRs

Wouldn't that be something, all the manufacturers using a standardized storage system, only thing that might equal that is having them all agree on a standard battery.

Sortimos are a cool option, I have been wanting to get a few of their T-Boxxs but they have been a little hard to find. Maybe now that Bosch is using them, they will begin to see wider distribution here in the states. They do offer a dolly, but it does not strike me as particularly jobsite worthy, that is unless your jobsite is on finished floors....