wingless' Hand Tools

[wingless]

This topic shows details of hand tools that I purchased with my cash from my own pocket.

 

There is zero affiliation between me and the manufacturer or the vendor.

[wingless]

Lenox HT50 High-Tension Hacksaw

 

The Lenox HT50 hacksaw is a very nice tool. This is my go-to hacksaw.

 

This tool holds a standard 12" hacksaw blade at a high-tension, up to 50,000 PSI. It comes with a single 24T blade when new.

 

The handle has an integrated crank that is specified for 12 turns, maximum, from slack to fully tension the blade. There are user reviews where the internal parts are broken from exceeding that limitation. An image is attached showing an image of a broken internal part posted by a user with a broken hacksaw.

 

There is also an internal cavity that can hold up to 5 additional blades. 

 

One listed tool feature is the ability to hold a standard reciprocating saw blade to work as a jab saw. That feature doesn't work well. When the blade is inserted into the pocket and the side clamping screw tightened, there are not any mechanical features to resist the blade pivoting up and down making this jab saw useless as currently configured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wingless]

Bar and Pipe Clamps

 

There are several long antique bar clamps, plus current pipe clamps that I find very useful for projects, such as the construction / installation of the kitchen cabinets, as-shown.

 

My preference is the antique clamps, w/ the "large" rectangular clamping surfaces. One of these has a 36" capacity, one has a 48" capacity.

 

The pipe clamp has flexibility, by getting / using different lengths of 3/4" threaded pipe. Mine is currently setup w/ a 36" pipe.

 

During assembly the bar clamps permitted squeezing the glue joints tight, prior to securing with fasteners, such as brads or screws.

 

After assembly  they were handy for bonding the cabinets together prior to screwing them together.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ray_jones_RB]

On 11/28/2018 at 11:14 AM, wingless said:

Lenox HT50 High-Tension Hacksaw

 

The Lenox HT50 hacksaw is a very nice tool. This is my go-to hacksaw.

 

This tool holds a standard 12" hacksaw blade at a high-tension, up to 50,000 PSI. It comes with a single 24T blade when new.

 

The handle has an integrated crank that is specified for 12 turns, maximum, from slack to fully tension the blade. There are user reviews where the internal parts are broken from exceeding that limitation. An image is attached showing an image of a broken internal part posted by a user with a broken hacksaw.

 

There is also an internal cavity that can hold up to 5 additional blades. 

 

One listed tool feature is the ability to hold a standard reciprocating saw blade to work as a jab saw. That feature doesn't work well. When the blade is inserted into the pocket and the side clamping screw tightened, there are not any mechanical features to resist the blade pivoting up and down making this jab saw useless as currently configured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like the packaging. they are dope.

[wingless]

My recent Lark Builders Lumber Jack End Gable Accu-steel shed was just wired by me in the plan to become my new workshop.

 

For this wiring I selected 12/2 MC wiring, for 120VAC / 20A receptacle circuits. I also have 12/2 MC wiring for the interior / exterior lighting and the thermostatically controlled exhaust vent. There is also a 240VAC 10/2 circuit for the tankless water heater (so I can wash my dirty hands in a small sink). Note that 12/2 MC also includes a ground wire, like the plastic jacket NM-B wiring, except the MC wiring has green insulation on the ground wire, not a bare copper ground wire like the NM-B cable.

 

This is all powered through a properly wired / installed Siemens PN 125A PN3048L1125C sub panel.

 

The tool I selected to remove the MC sheathing is a Southwire Roto-Split RS-101A armor cutting tool.

 

This tool is super easy to use. Lay the cable into the trough, hand squeeze the grips, one grabbing the cable, one pressing the saw into the armor sheathing, then hand turn the crank until the fine tooth cutting wheel is felt to spin freely, having easily finished cutting a slot though the aluminum sheathing.

 

The cut sheathing is then unwound a ½ turn to disengage from the end, then slides right off, exposing the desired conductor length.

 

When I changed from using 12/2 to 10/2 I discovered the size adjustment screw required to be loosened by one turn. The adjustment was restored once that sheathing was cut.

 

This is an excellent tool and I have zero hesitation recommending it for this application. It provided flawlessly on well over 50 uses.

 

Note that the walls / ceiling are insulated w/ Kraft faced fiberglass batting, the ceiling covered with painted sheetrock and the walls covered w/ sanded plywood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eric - TIA]

Great pictures and overview of the project.  When it comes to electrical, it's just not my thing.  Never have really understood or grasp the concept.  Wish I knew more about it.  I love you you have outlets everywhere.  When I redid my garage for my workshop, I put it a bunch of outlets also and each wall was on it's own circuit.  You have a great set up, nice job.

[wingless]

Thanks much.

 

This reply is dedicated to the tool, not the projects. This was my first project using the MC (metal clad) wiring, so the Roto Split tool was essential.

 

I started wiring houses as an early teenager, now it is second nature to me. I have wired many houses, plus many, many wiring projects. 

 

At one point I owned a 150 year old New England farm house that was built prior to wiring, interior plumbing and central heat, so I swapped out EVERYTHING to be correct. That was prior to THE BEST wiring invention tool, the blinky / chirpy voltage sniffer hand tool. Despite my best efforts at safety, I was electrocuted more times than I can count working on that house. (I still HATE getting electrocuted.) 

 

There will be multiple topics posted on the projects for this house, w/ one big one dedicated to the wiring. This house was built in 1963, prior to requiring dedicated ground wires, instead using the conduit for ground. The Earth ground was not even close to current standards. The entirety of the wiring has been reworked and is now terrific.

[wingless]

My recent purchase of a Safety Seal KAB30 Tire Repair Plug Kit (Click to expand) that is carried under the cargo floor of my new Macan led me to conclude that I should swap the hand-held razor blades w/ a utility knife.

 

My selection to include w/ this carried tire plug kit was this Fiskars 770210 18mm Snap-Off Utility Knife.

 

This has very nice features:

• Large dual direction blade extension / retraction thumb lever
• Bi-color multi-material body grip materials covering metal body
• Detent action rotary blade lock wheel
• Toggle blade change release switch
• Blade snap tool w/ integrated storage
• Tool tether hole
• Painted metal end caps

The tool does not have spare blade storage.

 

The tool includes a single 18mm Fiskars CarbonMax blade.

 

The tool has a lifetime warranty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wingless]

wingless' Fiskars 1902477 16 Foot Power Lever Extendable Pole Saw and Pruner

 

My long term ownership (~20 years) of a 16' pole pruner was REALLY starting to suck. The twist friction grip tube lock wouldn't fully grab and the cutting action was getting pretty poor.

 

My old pole pruner was fine for routing maintenance, removing an elevated palm seed pod or palm front, but when confronted w/ a serious task the only thing that was working hard was me.

 

My really nice southern Florida AirBnB has a very cute peanut-shaped exterior 10K gallon swimming pool on a postage stamp sized property. I have already removed / changed all my plants so they don't dump dead vegetation into the pool. But, the really tall trees on my neighbors properties overhang the fence and dump leaves continuously onto my patio and into my pool.

 

I would clean the pool at each guest swap, but by the next day the pool would be full of leaves. When the recent guests immediately inquired about when is the pool guy coming I decided enough is enough.

 

My 20 year old pole pruner was used (w/ massive amounts of sweat added) to cut all the branches overhanging the fence adjacent to the pool.

 

That helped but it was still a problem.

 

This Fiskars pole pruner was for sale at Costco, so I finally decided to get one. Of course the two closest stores were sold out and the item was being discontinued, but the next store had 70 (a city where EVERYONE hires a yard crew), so I purchased mine.

 

WOW! This is sooo much better.

 

The pole has two extension sections instead of one, so it stores much easier being shorter. The aluminum pole is oval so there is very little flex.

 

The extension has detent holes about every two feet, so there is absolutely zero slippage!

 

Of course the Fiskars blades have an AMAZING cut! There is the large coarse tooth saw blade, perfect for sawing through thick branches. That saw blade has a J hook at the end w/ a heavy duty knife edge, also great for cutting. There is also a power lever cord actuated pruner that chops through smaller stuff.

 

This tool was used to quickly and effectively remove the neighbor's branches overhanging my fence. My expectation is that the pool leaf problem will be MUCH easier to control.

 

An added plus, I managed to perform all this trimming w/o electrocuting myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Right Side Cleaned w/ 20 Year Old Pole Pruner

 

After Remainder Cleared to Fence w/ Fiskars 1902477 Pole Pruner

[wingless]

wingless' Wera 056490 Tool-Check Plus Metric Ratchet / Driver / Bits / Sockets / Holder Set

 

My gorgeous new-to-me Marble Grey 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa has a complete OEM tool kit, but this Wera tool kit was recommended on a Porsche forum, it looked good, so I added this to me arsenal. Small size, low weight, high quality and great utility were all favorable in this selection / decision. I would not hesitate to recommend this tool set to others. As would be expected this kit is also available in SAE size.

 

 

 

This metric tool set is based on the standard ¼" six-sided hexagon bits.

 

The main components of this tool set are:

• Highly Polished 3½" Long Chrome Plated Steel Fine Tooth Reversible Ratchet Wrench W/ Thumb Wheel w/ Dual Drive Entry
• Smooth Molded Grip 3" Long Magnetic Driver
• Molded Grip 1½" Long Magnetic Extension w/ Bit Ejector
• Easy Access Multiple Hinged Storage Case w/ In-Use Ratchet Wrench Holder for Added Leverage

The set also includes these ¼" hexagon bits, all w/ excellent laser engraving:

• ¼" Hexagon to ¼" Square Adapter
• Seven Color Coded Six Point Standard Depth ¼" Drive Sockets w/ Circumference Speed Knurl, from 5.5mm to 13mm in Holder Clips
• Five Hexagon Allen Bits, from 3mm to 8mm
• One Flat Head Bit, 1mm x 5.5mm
• Six Phillips Bits, from #1 to #3
• Five Gold Pozidrive Phillips Bits, from #1 to #3
• Six Torx Bits, from T10 to T40
• Five Secure Torx Bits, from T10 to T30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eric - TIA]

nice buy on both the car and the tools.  Wera is awesome.  I haven't used them much but from the ones we have tried here, they are great.

[wingless]

Drove the 911 round trip from southern Florida to near Dallas to watch the eclipse, meeting and staying w/ my brother and his wife in their amazing camper after they drove in from Virginia.

 

The eclipse weather forecast was not great. The actual weather was on and off clouds when the eclipse was starting, but became 100% clear throughout totality.

 

Can totally understand why people chase eclipses. That was an amazing experience.
 

There was a 911 parking lot repair to fix an issue that arose on the way to Dallas. During that repair I discovered that I needed to borrow a 5mm long arm Allen wrench from my bother to augment my on board tool set. 

 

This carried tool deficiency needed to be resolved so I searched for my options.

 

In the end I decided to get a long arm Allen wrench tool set, instead of just that single 5mm wrench.

 

To that end I selected this Wera 950/9 9-Piece Long-Arm Ball-End Metric Allen Wrench Set. 

 

This is a very nice set, having a long colored sleeve w/ clear black printing on two sides, rotationally oriented, identifying the tool. The color coding follows their size / color standard. The tool holder is hinged w/ a sliding thumb latch. The tool holder folds open to lay all the wrenches out in a row.

 

The tools included are: 1.5mm; 2mm; 2.5mm; 3mm; 4mm; 5mm; 6mm; 8mm and 10mm.

 

These tools have their Hex Plus ends, designed to prevent damage to the fastener receptacle. The packaging hex cross section image looks like scallop instead of flat sides.

 

These tools have been used and I am very happy w/ this set.