how many of you have bought a tool you thought “i’ll use once, then never again”?
me i have a few
my favourite is a biscuit joiner, i’ve had one for a year or so and still find uses for it
door jambs, window jamb extensions, casing, baseboard, hand rails, cabinet parts, the list goes on and on, heck my fiance says i’d use it for framing our new deck!! uuuuummmmmmmm!!!
any other examples?
caulking is not a piece of trim
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1-1/2" & 2" timberframing Chisels
3/8" mortising chisel
5 pt. handsaw
Feather file for sharpening Jap. saws
Saw set
router bit for biscuit slotting
Pasta maker
1/2 & 1/4 sheet sanders (thanx CAG)
More as memory comes back.....
Mr T
Happiness is a cold wet nose
Life is is never to busy to stop and pet the Doggies!!
5 pt. handsaw One mean rip saw???
Feather file for sharpening Jap. saws What is a feather file? I love sharpening things!!
Eric
The cross section of a feather file is a very flat isosceles triangle. The two edge angles are very shallow, around 15 degrees IIRC. The narrow edge allows the file to fit into the tall skinny gullet on Japanese saws.
ya know, those sanders are sitting right next to my desk right now...In their box... used maybe twice since I bought them from you....
ah well, least I got them at a good price lol
know what you mean. got 5 RO sanders each with different grits and 6 circular saws each with different blades. O-yah just bought a gmc circular saw with a laser. its pretty cool. but my question is what to do with it
I thought you were asking about tools I didn't need but bought anyway, and sure enough, found out I didn't need them. In that category would be the several thousand dollars of used (mostly Starrett) machinist's hand tools I bought on eBay just as I was losing interest in hobby machining.
That's one great advantage to fine homebuilding as a hobby. I read the magazine and the web site, and think up lots plans, and never feel the slightest temptation to buy either tools or real estate. Except I did buy a Milwaukee worm drive at a garage sale about 12 years ago.
The 15th cheap homeowners skil saw at a garage sale for $2?? Burnt out more than one after just one use, but good for parts.
if you ask my wife she could proabably come up with a couple hundred,but the one that pops in my mind is a tapco siding break- had to have one ,looked at them for over a year. finally bought one and i've bent one pc. of metal in 2 yrs.someday when i have time i'm going to play with it and see if i can make some overlays with it. larry
Hardly ever used my biscuit joiner. Kreg jig has made it obsolete for me.
What do you think about using a Kreg jig to join the corners of home-made storm windows? Rather than a biscuit joiner, I mean. Sorry for the semi hijack.
We dont use storm windows down south so im not exactly sure, but it works great for cabinet face frames which should be similar. Ive used it on exterior work, to make a frame for lattice panels under a house and that would probably be similar to what you want. 3/4 inch stock is about as thin as you can go and get a strong joint. They advertise that it works on 1/2 inch but when i tried it the joint wasnt strong enough for me.
through dt jig
milwaukie remodelingl screw gun ILO dry wall screw gun
lots of router bits
door hole jig ( I should of borrowed shadys)
Darkworksite4:
El americano pasado hacia fuera ase la bandera
Kreg jigs work great on face frames and sometimes in place of many clamps, if the holes aren't going to show, but as far as holding together a storm window, that's not such a good idea. It's still basically a butt joint, maybe with a little glue. With all the varying weather conditions on that joint (expansion and contraction) it wouldn't hold for very long. Biscuit joints would hold up better but thru mortise and tenons are the proven standard.
Get the Kreg jig anyway. It really does make the biscuit joiner obselete. Dan019
sorry cant use pocket screws in my business, but agree its a good setupcaulking is not a piece of trim
Charles....I am with you on that biscuit joiner. I havent used that thing in years. That Kreg tool completely changed my life. I was at one of those "Wood Working Shows" in Indianpolis and they were 40 deep in line to buy one after each demonstratin. I was staring in awe thinking I could start building stairways for a living with that thing. Silly ideas we get...huh?
In '85, I got the job of building display cabinets and shelves for a boutique toy store. I popped for over $150 for a 9.6v Makita cordless drill thinking it would be handy for that job but would probably rarely be used afterwards.
To say I was wrong would be the understatement of the century! Within a few days, I completely revamped my construction techniques and never looked back. That Makita finally died a couple of years ago and has been replaced with two 14.4v cordless drills.
Forstner bit set. Nice looking, hope I find a use for it some day. Fuel oil fired steam cleaner, great deal, hope I need it some day. 25 ton press, built it myself, never needed it. I could go on but its painful. DanT
something i never would have bought but actually won at a grand opening of a huge radio shack was a little xcelite 3.6v drill/driver (panasonic and milwaukee make similar 2.4v units). i use that little thing all the time! it's the greatest for electrical work- i can stick it in my pocket, use it to spin out/in screws on boxes, etc. i love it and would never again be without one. surprisingly powerful, too.
(and now my plug for xcelite/cooper tools group service- it died a year or so ago, i sent it back, they determined it was a dead battery and replaced it for free! didn't even charge me return shipping.)
m
I do all the work on my house. Luckily most of it constitutes just finish carpentry. Therefore I'm able to get by with a sliding miter saw, portable table saw, drill, and my finish and brad nailers.
My sister bought me a Makita circular saw for Christmas 3 years ago. So far, I've only used it to cut down a 4x4 mailbox post to height and also to trim the width on two interior doors.
I had the Bosch Jigsaw for over 1.5 years before using. Now I love it an use it for a ton of stuff. I've had the Dewalt plate joiner for about 3 months now and haven't used it just yet. I got a great deal on it at Home Depot. I got over 30% of it with the special 20% off power tools they were running around Xmas and the extra 10% coupon that I had.
hey cordless tools revolutionized our trades and it all started with a little cordless drill
who started it, anybody rememeber?, first cordless tool?, who has the oldest still in use?caulking is not a piece of trim
The Makita drills are the first I remember. They go back well over 20 years. And they work better than my memory does.
-- J.S.
Methinks B&D had the first cordless screwdriver..wait ALL screwdrivers are cordless...ok, the first battery powerd screwdriver..
I still have a 7.2 v makita 3/8 drill..non-removeable battery..somewhere in my pile of old stuff..keyed chuck, wall adapter charger..musta got it in..about ...'82?..pretty old for cordless standards. Built a lot of stuff with that little bugger..it has driven a million drywall screws..and then some.
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Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
I think the first bat powered drills were by skill got one over 26 years ago. Was doing a lot of drapes and blinds when I saw it and bought it on the spot. built in batteries wall charger I think 12 hrs to recharge.
But it was a great advance no cord to drag
around the room and get caught in the furniture no lamps knocked over.
When it died I gave it to my son to play with .Replaced it with a Makita 9.6.
Robert H. Riley Jr.Invented first cordless drill for Black & Decker in 1961; developed tools for early space programs
Robert Riley never knew what would happen when he tested battery packs for the first cordless drills in his lab at Black & Decker, so he built a special room to contain the occasional explosions. Nicad battery technology was in its infancy in 1960 when Riley experimented with portable power, so he had to improvise. He created four-cell packs consisting of half-sections of D-cell batteries held together with plastic shrink wrap.
He'd hook them up, max them out, and see how much power he could generate with his DC motors.
These days it may be hard to imagine a world without cordless tools, but the motivation behind Riley's research stemmed from the day's demographics. Aluminum storm window installation was one of the biggest markets for contractors in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A contractor would typically show up at a home during the day, plug his tools into a porch lamp adapter, and ask the housewife to turn on the light switch. Then the demographics changed and women entered or re-entered the job market. Homes were vacant during the day, and nobody was there to turn on the power for contractors. Battery power seemed to be the answer, and cordless tools got off to a fairly inauspicious beginning.
Riley faced a tough challenge. In 1960, 120-volt, professional-grade drills put out 200 to 250 watts, Riley's first 4.8-volt cordless drills could only produce 10 to 20 watts, so he employed new techniques to make his battery-powered tools as efficient as possible. He made the brushes out of silver graphite, designed a 12-to-1 gear reduction to increase torque and reduce gear loss, used a 64-pitch gear with very fine teeth, and reduced the armature pinion's diameter to 1/8-inch. He also made the rotor out of silver graphite to reduce voltage drop on the comutator, and wired the switch contact with flexible wire so he only needed one stationary contact.
In 1962, Riley filed for a patent on a heavier duty ½-inch drill for industrial use. It had two handles and each housed a battery pack. Early test results proved the tool could drill 567 3/16-inch diameter, 2-inch-deep holes–or run continuously for one hour and 16 minutes–on one charge. Riley's patent application clearly set the stage for today's cordless tool designs, stating the intent that the invention produce, " ... the same output torque as that of a conventional ½-inch electric drill." Riley received a patent for the drill in 1965.
By the late 1960's Riley had doubled the tool's power output to 35 to 40 watts. His research took an unexpected turn when Martin Marrietta contracted with Black & Decker to design tools for the national space program in the mid-1960's. The first tool Riley helped develop was a zero-impact wrench for the Gemini project. The tool allowed an astronaut to spin bolts in zero-gravity without spinning himself. And then came the Apollo moon program. Black & Decker developed a cordless rotary hammer for the mission; it had hollow core-sample drill bits and could operate at extreme temperatures and in zero-atmosphere conditions.
Cordless tools didn't become widely popular until the 1980s, but Robert Riley stands near the top of the Hall of Fame list for his inventions and the way they changed the tool industry forever.
I got that excerpt from Tools of the Trade Magazine
They also provide the origins of:
Sawzalls
jigsaws
flooring nailers
Unisaws
Combo squares
and some more.
Check it out here: http://www.toolsofthetrade.net/articles/showarticle.asp?articleID=1472&position=0&type=article
Then you all can go to work and impress your coworkers with your amazingly vast knowledge of tools! (it just may cover up the fact that you don't know what you are doing)
BTW...I bought makita drills because of the fact that they were taken into space. I mean, NASA has the funding to buy or make any drill tool they want. I figured Makita must be pretty hardcore to be NASA worthy.
gk
from what i know the first jigsaw was made from a sewing machine??
Albert Kaufman Invented first jigsaw in 1946
Nobody knows or remembers much about Albert Kaufman, except that he worked for Bosch-owned Scintilla AG in Switzerland where he made his own bit of tool history. In 1946, Kaufman removed the needle from his wife's sewing machine and replaced it with a blade so he could make intricate cuts in wood. In the process, Kaufman came up with the world's first jigsaw, a tool that remains at the core of Bosch's design strength. We don't know how his wife took this, but we're glad Kaufman selflessly risked her wrath for the good of tool users everywhere
ThanksLife is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
about 20-25(?) yrs ago i was wandering through a big shopping mall in sw denver and was approached by one of the ubiquitous clipboard carrying pollsters. i was bored, she was cute, so i stopped to see what she was taking a survey on. well, i was led into a small office (cue the cheesy porn movie soundtrack and then she... oh wait, nothing like that happened, darn. where was i? oh yeah-) and there were several inoperable prototype mock-ups of cordless screwdrivers. she asked me about my preference on switch type and location, what i would like in the way of power, torque, accessories, etc.........and then she picked up one of the long cylindrical tools and stroked it along her thigh and seductively purred... um, sorry about that, i guess i kinda drifted off again-
anyway, some months later it was either skil or b&d (that's black & decker, not bondage & discipline, for you gutterminds) that brought out that lame little home unit. you know, i still marvel at how anything ever got built before the cordless drill/driver.
m
Long ago, I bought the first cordless drill that I had ever seen. It was a Sears Craftsman, black with red lettering along the side, if I remember correctly. The battery was sort of thick clamshell looking and plugged into the back of the drill. Didn't have the power to twist a wet noodle. Didn't have enough power to be useful so I through it in my junk box and probably still have it somewhere. I don't know who actually made it or when, but I am guessing it was around 1980 or before.
I have a Makita 9.6v i bought in 84. Still works, still on the original batteries.
In '84 I got an AEG (euro stuff) small powered screwdriver (folded 45 degrees in the middle) and their T handle cordless drill. They were great, but pricey. Stolen.
Replaced with Makita 9.6. (still have it, but trigger is sketchy)
....and a Bosch 12, a 14 and a 24 volt as well. The 24 smoked and is getting seviced. The 12 is from 93, and i used it and the 14 today!Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
black and decker i think made the first cordless drill for NASA.
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9811/03/nasa.byproducts/
Then how come the took an AEG...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
Dave,
I can tell almost the same story as you. In 1985 I bought a 7.2 volt Bosch drill with (drum roll, please) _trigger_control_variable_speed_! It was a silly extravagance for predrilling way up on a ladder while building my house. I figured it would justify itself and then I'd have a high places drill for future ladder work.
Oh, it drives screws, too. This thing is pretty darn handy.... You know the rest. Cordless drill started a tool revolution that is still underway.
Bugle
PC 19.2 circ saw. Had to cut back masonite siding and put up 1x4 trim around some windows..the blade being on the "Other" side from my milwaukee made cutting easier I could get close to the window with out the motor hanging up..Actually use it more than I ever thought I would...great for quick cuts in thin stuff and way up outta the way places where a cord would be a pain for just a "NIP"..
Fien triangle sander...got it WAY before they were cheap and before they were "multimaster"...use the saw blade mostly, great for trimmin door jambs for new floating floor installs
Vacuum veneering bag..had to have it for a big cabinet job for a beauty salon..my helper loved the demonstation when I seal-a-mealed a ham an cheese in it..till he realized it was HIS sammich
rotozip..had 3 die so far..must be doing something right..I hate em. But there are times they are handy as hell..
I am sure there are a bunch more..I'd haveta think tho'...
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
how about the moulding around the new table your going to build for her wedding present. the hell with niagra falls, I've been there. its better in the shop
hey ive been to niagara falls too, between there and my shop for our honeymoon??
we're considering a new brunswick tourcaulking is not a piece of trim