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Hed posted:Oh weird. I was just thinking LED with a decent diffuser for simplicity and durability but I'm really open..are there any standouts or is this pretty much a go and buy whatever is at big box store? I used to have an LED lamp set up where I was soldering, and I finally got rid of it. Something about the light just makes it difficult to do fine work and I find it throws off my depth perception slightly.
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Dec 24, 2013 00:55
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The cheapest reflector and bulb with a clamp on it, then clamp it to stuff + some halogen lamps. Lots of light for working at night.
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Dec 24, 2013 07:53
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Blistex posted:Sliding? Pffft! This is the 21st century! Everyone knows the future is "Gliding"! They make a sliding miter saw you can place on a workbench against the wall now? Awesome.
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Dec 24, 2013 21:32
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kid sinister posted:They make a sliding miter saw you can place on a workbench against the wall now? Awesome. Apparently it's such a good saw that Dewalt even took the time to make a nice comparison review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqCMquiX6wo
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Dec 24, 2013 21:37
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If we were to assume that money was of no object (it never isn't but let's go ahead and start there), what is the best hand drill (corded or cordless) in people's opinions? It's mostly for woodworking, so if that affects any opinions. I've been using a cordless ryobi 18v cordless (which has been reasonable but the batteries are dying) and an old 70/80s craftsman plug in that is slowly dying. Christmas time says it's time to get something nice. Currently looking at the Makita LXT218 combo: http://www.amazon.com/Makita-LXT218-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Cordless/dp/B001EYUQPK Which has a very highly rated drill according to Consumer Reports. Anubis fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Dec 26, 2013 |
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Dec 26, 2013 07:01
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I got this thing for Christmas. It's a tiny belt sander for sharpening knives and things. Has angle guides for all the popular knife/scissors bevels, or you can take the guide off to hone your axe/shovel/lawnmover. Opinions? Looks interesting. Of course I'll test it on the $20 Swiss Army knives before putting the Benchmade to it. Even if it's too much for the fine cutlery, it'll be better for the axe/shovel/mower than the bastard file and angle grinder. It came with coarse, medium, and fine belts, and I can't stop laughing at it -- "coarse" is 80-grit, "medium" is 220, and "fine" is six goddamn thousand. Bit of a gap there -- you've got "carving a knife from an ingot," "smoothing out the lumps left by the 80-grit," and "razor strop." I'd prefer 1000 or so for "fine" on pretty much everything except my straight razor, and I sharpen that on a hank of old blue jeans. In other news, my little brother has become a bit of an axe connoisseur. He fixed up Granddad's old 3-pound axe, and bought a new fancy US-made-for-umpteen-generations 2-pounder pack axe. The fancy one's handle is a bit shorter than he'd like, but he figures he'll break it eventually and then re-handle it to his liking. I reclaimed my good ol' Harbor Freight 4-pound felling axe today, since he has enough axes. We dared each other to take stewardship of Other Grandpa's double-bit axe. I readily gave it up, saying "that thing scares me;" he insulted my masculinity but didn't seem too hot on using it either. So now we each have two axes; he has the heirloom little axe and the hatchet writ large; I have a six-pound fire axe (it was $20 and I had dreams of a TF2 Pyro costume) and a 4-pound felling axe. Amusingly, we both own beefy chainsaws -- his a 24" Husky, mine the 18" Poulan Pro he gave up on -- but axes are fun and the saws aren't so good at splitting wood for the backyard firepit. The fancy axe is awesome. You got your standard axe with a bevel and an edge, right? The fancy axe is shaped more like a straight razor, a single hollow-ground surface from eye to edge. He's been obsessing over sharpening Grandpa's axe for weeks, and still can't get it to stick in the endgrain of the log he uses as a base for splitting firewood; the fancy axe stands on its own after being dropped from six inches under its own weight.
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Dec 26, 2013 09:40
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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Anubis posted:If we were to assume that money was of no object (it never isn't but let's go ahead and start there), what is the best hand drill (corded or cordless) in people's opinions? It's mostly for woodworking, so if that affects any opinions. I've been using a cordless ryobi 18v cordless (which has been reasonable but the batteries are dying) and an old 70/80s craftsman plug in that is slowly dying. Christmas time says it's time to get something nice. Milwaukee is almost certainly the leader in battery tools at the moment, closely followed by Dewalt. Everything else is a mild step down, but truly in this day and age you can't go terribly wrong with any known good brand.
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Dec 26, 2013 15:54
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Anubis posted:Currently looking at the Makita LXT218 combo: http://www.amazon.com/Makita-LXT218-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Cordless/dp/B001EYUQPK Which has a very highly rated drill according to Consumer Reports. We've got a couple of those combos here at work and they get beat on pretty regularly with no complaints.
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Dec 26, 2013 18:42
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Anubis posted:If we were to assume that money was of no object (it never isn't but let's go ahead and start there), what is the best hand drill (corded or cordless) in people's opinions? It's mostly for woodworking, so if that affects any opinions. I've been using a cordless ryobi 18v cordless (which has been reasonable but the batteries are dying) and an old 70/80s craftsman plug in that is slowly dying. Christmas time says it's time to get something nice. M12 Fuel. Smaller and lighter than 18v. Almost as much power and battery life. And it has a 1/2" chuck so you're not giving up larger bits.
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Dec 26, 2013 18:44
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I'm also here to show off my new goodies. Starrett double square.  DMT diamond stone set.  And the crown jewel... veritas quick release front vise. Unfortunately it's shipped ground from Canada so god knows when it will get here. 
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Dec 26, 2013 21:43
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Delivery McGee posted:I got this thing for Christmas. It's a tiny belt sander for sharpening knives and things. Has angle guides for all the popular knife/scissors bevels, or you can take the guide off to hone your axe/shovel/lawnmover. I'm seriously considering using this thing with the 6k grit belt to touch up my actual razor -- it's an antique and has a little ding in the edge that the strop won't quite buff out.
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Dec 27, 2013 06:11
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Delivery McGee posted:I have run out of things to sharpen. The $5 Chinese butcher knife that resisted every effort I made with stones and rods and even the lovely pull-through sharpeners is now sharp enough to shave with. As are the axes and chisels and shovel and every knife I own. Good to know. I looked at one of these awhile back but something persuaded me not to buy it.
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Dec 27, 2013 07:46
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Hypnolobster posted:Milwaukee is almost certainly the leader in battery tools at the moment, closely followed by Dewalt. Everything else is a mild step down, but truly in this day and age you can't go terribly wrong with any known good brand. Says who? I'd rate Makita and Milwaukee as tied for the top, with Dewalt a big step down, along with rigid. Makita and Milwaukee have amazing selections, wide availability, and great products. Makita is introducing more and more brush-less tools. I'll take my lxt 18v set offer anything other than Milwaukee 18v.
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Dec 27, 2013 15:16
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asdf32 posted:M12 Fuel. Smaller and lighter than 18v. Almost as much power and battery life. And it has a 1/2" chuck so you're not giving up larger bits. I switched over all my Ryobi stuff to the Milwaukee M12 line over the last few months. Really liking this stuff and with the only exception being the ryobi cordless circular saw I have not had any need for more power or missed any of my ryobi stuff. Would love for them to come out with a M12 small circular saw. When the ryobi batteries that I have finally fail I'll probably get a M18 one.
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Dec 27, 2013 21:58
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Tindjin posted:I switched over all my Ryobi stuff to the Milwaukee M12 line over the last few months. Really liking this stuff and with the only exception being the ryobi cordless circular saw I have not had any need for more power or missed any of my ryobi stuff. Would love for them to come out with a M12 small circular saw. When the ryobi batteries that I have finally fail I'll probably get a M18 one. If I had one cordless line it would be m12 but ryobi is worth keeping. They have a lot of unique tools and they're a great value. I've got their cordless router, fan, inflator, weedwacker and hedge trimmer. None of those were more than $50 tool only. I also couldn't resist their Christmas sawzall/drill/2xbattery/charger combo for $80. I split it between 3 people (including myself) for Christmas. I kept a battery, gave my uncle the full sawzall kit and added the drill to a hedge trimmer kit for my mother.
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Dec 28, 2013 00:06
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sharkytm posted:Says who? I'd rate Makita and Milwaukee as tied for the top, with Dewalt a big step down, along with rigid. Makita and Milwaukee have amazing selections, wide availability, and great products. Makita is introducing more and more brush-less tools. I'll take my lxt 18v set offer anything other than Milwaukee 18v. I also have had zero problems with any of my Makita products. Great tools in every possible way and they absolutely feel better-built than anything except the Milwaukees. I wouldn't trade them for DeWalt or Ridgid or Bosch or whatever.
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Dec 28, 2013 08:42
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Sounds like the current market is basically Cola Wars and specific oddball tools are the selling points. And color. 
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Dec 28, 2013 17:37
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Was building a deck this summer with a contractor. He had two dewalt cordless drills, 8 batteries, and 6 battery chargers. Most of what we were doing was driving 3" deck screws into 2" of cedar, fastening it to PT lumber. We started the day with all of the batteries having a full charge, (oldest battery was 1 year old), by lunch (started at 7am) we had reached the point where we had ran out of juice, and the batteries were only holding 2 minutes of work between swaps. Drills and Batteries we were using:  Personally I'd spend 25-50% more to have Makita or Milwaukee cordless.
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Dec 28, 2013 17:43
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Sagebrush posted:I also have had zero problems with any of my Makita products. Great tools in every possible way and they absolutely feel better-built than anything except the Milwaukees. I wouldn't trade them for DeWalt or Ridgid or Bosch or whatever. Interesting. I tend to prefer the look and feel of Dewalt but I think their cordless lineup is just way too small right now. Otherwise it seems like they're all basically identical to me although performance and features are what they are. Speaking of tools I've got a few gift cards that need spending. I'm thinking about a belt sander to add to the orbital I already have. I was reminded while building bookshelves recently how much drat time sanding takes. Anyway, I'm sort of surprised at the costs here. I'm not spending $200 and that's what a Maikita costs. Looking at a $99 ridgid at home depot, $50 Ryobi, or $75 craftsman. I haven't bought craftsman anything for years but I like their price point (between like Ryobi and the "real" brands). Any pointers on belt sanders in general? http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-3-in-x-18-in-Portable-Belt-Sander-BE318-2/100047418 http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-3-x-21-in-belt-sander-8/p-00911726000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1 http://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-3-in-x-18-in-Belt-Sander-R2740/100618248 Blistex posted:Was building a deck this summer with a contractor. He had two dewalt cordless drills, 8 batteries, and 6 battery chargers. Most of what we were doing was driving 3" deck screws into 2" of cedar, fastening it to PT lumber. We started the day with all of the batteries having a full charge, (oldest battery was 1 year old), by lunch (started at 7am) we had reached the point where we had ran out of juice, and the batteries were only holding 2 minutes of work between swaps. The problem for Dewalt is that they're still clinging to NiMh and they're way behind on lithium with the confusing split between 20V and 18V. They also have basically nothing in 12V.
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Dec 28, 2013 18:38
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asdf32 posted:M12 Fuel. Smaller and lighter than 18v. Almost as much power and battery life. And it has a 1/2" chuck so you're not giving up larger bits. I did exactly this and haven't looked back. Drill and impact get used everyday. I can hook the both of them to my work pants and not feel the weight much. Just got the Hackzall also and its handy. Milwaukee warranty is also top notch, 5 years on most tools
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Dec 28, 2013 20:17
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Blistex posted:Was building a deck this summer with a contractor. He had two dewalt cordless drills, 8 batteries, and 6 battery chargers. Most of what we were doing was driving 3" deck screws into 2" of cedar, fastening it to PT lumber. We started the day with all of the batteries having a full charge, (oldest battery was 1 year old), by lunch (started at 7am) we had reached the point where we had ran out of juice, and the batteries were only holding 2 minutes of work between swaps. I dunno, it would be nice to use a cordless all the time everywhere, but in that particular scenario I wouldn't expect any cordless drill to be more convenient in the long run than an extension cord and a drill motor.
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Dec 28, 2013 21:31
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King of Gulps posted:I dunno, it would be nice to use a cordless all the time everywhere, but in that particular scenario I wouldn't expect any cordless drill to be more convenient in the long run than an extension cord and a drill motor. I would have traded my right arm for a few extension cords and a real drill. The PT lumber that we were putting the cedar into is really taxing on drills, but only 1" was actually going into them, so I walked away from that experience with a really bad impression of dewalt cordless tech. What asdf32 said explains a lot.
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Dec 28, 2013 23:04
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I used to have that model of dewalt, and upgraded to the LiIon line a few years ago. The difference is like night and day.
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Dec 28, 2013 23:07
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The investment in an impact driver is worth it if you drive a lot of screws. Seems to make a big difference...I have a corded one, but the battery stats I have seen comparing drivers/drills of the same brand have been pretty impressive. If you only have one tool, have a drill, but any pro should or somewhat serious DIYer should have an impact driver
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Dec 29, 2013 00:29
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Also, were you predrilling holes, or using self-tapping screws? Spending an entire day driving self-tapping screws through 3" of wood is going to be hard on any drill...
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Dec 29, 2013 00:48
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sharkytm posted:Says who? I'd rate Makita and Milwaukee as tied for the top, with Dewalt a big step down, along with rigid. Makita and Milwaukee have amazing selections, wide availability, and great products. Makita is introducing more and more brush-less tools. I'll take my lxt 18v set offer anything other than Milwaukee 18v. I love all my LXT Makita stuff, and I have great incentive to do so because a family friend works for their North American operation and I get to play with all number of new and unreleased stuff but the LXT batteries have a terrible bug that kill the batteries if they aren't used/charged routinely. Check the reviews of the batteries on Amazon for more info but its a serious issue that prevents them from charging if they are fully discharged three times. If I couldn't bypass the normal return policy by basically saying "hey grab me a new battery" I simply couldn't recommend them. I've killed three in 3 years of using them. Great tools, but until this battery thing is resolved, well...
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Dec 29, 2013 02:55
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These were 3" deck screws (green PT specific ones) going through 2" of cedar and sinking 1" into 2x8" PT boards. I didn't buy the equipment, but it's a good lesson on the difference between a regular drill and an impact driver (no I didn't turn on the hammer drill mode). Personally, I find a nice corded drill to be all I need as I don't often find myself working more than 4' (standard cord) or 20' (extension cord) from an outlet. Some people say the cords are a hassle, but I've yet to hang myself with one or knock down a massive replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa made of Jenga blocks. Just personal preferences.
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Dec 29, 2013 03:01
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I'd still say that the biggest problem you ran into is NiMH battery chemistry. Compared to lipos they are absolute dogshit. I raced Lithium packs, on the other hand, can be recharged much, much faster without overheating or damage, and will deliver more usable power over the charge cycle. A NiMH pack at 25% charge is going to be quite noticeably weaker than one at 75% or 100%. A lithium pack will feel just about the same from 90% to 5-10%. That said, I'd expect even high-capacity lithium packs to have trouble keeping up on a workload like that.
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Dec 29, 2013 04:30
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Blistex posted:These were 3" deck screws (green PT specific ones) going through 2" of cedar and sinking 1" into 2x8" PT boards. I didn't buy the equipment, but it's a good lesson on the difference between a regular drill and an impact driver (no I didn't turn on the hammer drill mode). Yep. Thinking the same thing. If you are doing THAT much screwing, might as well bring a corded as well just in case.
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Dec 29, 2013 06:07
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SuperDucky posted:I love all my LXT Makita stuff but the LXT batteries have a terrible bug that kill the batteries if they aren't used/charged routinely. I would like more info on this that isn't just insane rambling Amazon reviews, if you're willing to provide it.
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Dec 29, 2013 06:13
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Sagebrush posted:I would like more info on this that isn't just insane rambling Amazon reviews, if you're willing to provide it. the insane rambling sounded insane but was widespread enough to keep me away from a Mikita cordless circ saw
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Dec 29, 2013 08:29
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Not sure if they are widely available over in the States but I am loving my new 18v hitachi brushless gear. Made in Japan and the impact driver is IP56 rated. No complaints here so far!
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Dec 29, 2013 11:52
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Anubis posted:If we were to assume that money was of no object (it never isn't but let's go ahead and start there), what is the best hand drill (corded or cordless) in people's opinions? It's mostly for woodworking, so if that affects any opinions. I've been using a cordless ryobi 18v cordless (which has been reasonable but the batteries are dying) and an old 70/80s craftsman plug in that is slowly dying. Christmas time says it's time to get something nice. We have that drill at London Hackspace, it is the only tool that can be reliably counted on to work after being treated horribly by a load of ametures and art students, the thing is nigh on indestructible. Highly Recommend it. The batteries are also really drat good and last forever. Yeti Fiasco fucked around with this message at 13:15 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 13:09
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Sagebrush posted:I would like more info on this that isn't just insane rambling Amazon reviews, if you're willing to provide it. Essentially, the control/monitoring circuitry for the batteries draws its power from only one cell in these multi-cell batteries. If left alone for enough time, we're talking like ~3 months, the circuitry can discharge that cell to the point where the control circuitry shuts down. The circuit records this as a dangerous discharge to non volatile memory. When you then try and recharge the battery, it will be okay--for 2 more occurrences of this. Do it three times and the battery will not accept a charge when put on the charger, presumably because it thinks its preventing what it thinks is an obviously damaged battery from exploding and netting Makita a nice lawsuit. Its just so frustrating because every physical tool they engineer is top notch and has no achilles heel such as this. I've remedied the problem by only having two batteries, one of the larger 3.0Ahs that stays in my impact gun and the smaller, stock battery that I keep for when the 3.0 is dead or I need two tools. I haven't killed one recently and its not like I have to partake in any special ritual to keep them from dying. It is, however, an impediment to my recommending them when the batteries for Makita gear are the main sunk cost versus the tools themselves. tl;dr: Don't buy Makita LXT gear if you're not using them once a week and or charging once a month.
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Dec 29, 2013 14:19
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I know about that issue, but I only use my tools maybe once a month or so, but I've never had a problem. Both original batteries are from 2009, and still work great. I keep one on the charger at all times, and the other gets swapped onto the charger when I remember. I've actually got two chargers, and just bought a third battery, do I don't think I'll have any problems. I've got the: drill, impact, sawzall, circ saw, grinder, vacuum, and flashlight. If you are only using them once every three months, why buy anything decent?
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Dec 29, 2013 23:24
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sharkytm posted:If you are only using them once every three months, why buy anything decent? Why buy lovely tools if you have the choice? Proper tools let you do better work with a lot less headache, and they last a lot longer too.
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Dec 29, 2013 23:37
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The most expensive tool you can purchase is the one you have to buy twice!
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Dec 30, 2013 02:00
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Blistex posted:The most expensive tool you can purchase is the one you have to buy twice! I don't know man have you ever looked at those festool things?
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Dec 30, 2013 04:41
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you can buy a cheaper tool like 4 or 5 times for cheaper than that
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Dec 30, 2013 04:42
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I'm on the fence about Festool. On one hand, they rank the same as Powermatic- you buy once and you're set until you outgrow it. The quality is amazing, the dust collection can't be beat, and I have yet to see a truly negative review. On the other hand, a full set cost more then a new car, and once you drink the juice- you are screwed. I almost bought a TS55REQ- but ended up saying screw it and bought the $300 cheaper Makita. I do plan on buying their sander/vac combo if it drops below $500. Dust is a killer and most comes from DA sanding.
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Dec 30, 2013 23:12
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