DIY - Auto and Home weekend warriors

HawkGold said:
My 25 plus yo makita is still humming quite well.

Im looking gor a cheap but good table saw or radial arm saw so I can put in a wood kitchen floor using planks. Need the cuts to be good to prevent spacing. Done much of the house with planks and concrete nails but this needs to be more accurate.

Those looking for tools you might be surprised what turns up on fb marketplace. Its destroyed yard sale mania.
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Bosch and DeWalt make great contractor saws for under $400. I have the Bosch 1031 and have put thousands of board feet through it. Done tons of laminate flooring with it and never had a problem. The fence is amazing and it has an extendable table out to 24” which isn’t common on portable saws. Also compatible with dado blades which is usually unique to stationary cabinet saws.
 
Just get a variable speed angle grinder of any make and you will be happy. If you were using it every single day, then you might want to get a Makita.
As for a welder, if you get a flux core, look for the highest amps and unlimited adjustment of amps. Years ago I used one of those little ones (I guess they have gotten better) that had only a high/low setting and I have no idea what you would weld on low, tin foil maybe. They are small and the duty cycle sucks anyway, so you have to go super slow, but I had that one on high trying to weld 3/16 pipe and it had zero penetration.
That was 20 plus years ago and I heard they are better now though.
 
Never liked table saws, they seemed to kick back a lot. Had an old woodwoker guy say to me the one tool that he could not go without is a bandsaw. If I had room I'd get a drill press and band saw. I also wan to get a grinding / polishing wheel.

I have a kit of about 8 Ryobi battery tool. I like them a lot. Now I have 4 batteries, 2 chargers and a lot of tools. they're good tools but a corded tool will have more RPMs and more torque

No longer use my corded drills. I found the battery powered circular saw to be awesome, but it did not have the torque and often stopped while cutting 3/4 inch osb - I finished the job with my corded circular saw


Thanks for the tips about the vice !
 
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I still see the miter box in my nightmares. We lived in a house in Dubuque from 1996-2001. We stripped every baseboard and window in the house of it's old paint finish and replaced it with polyurethane.

It looked nice when it was done. But did I mention that I also see electronic sanders in my nightmares as well?
 
Fryowa said:
Bosch and DeWalt make great contractor saws for under $400. I have the Bosch 1031 and have put thousands of board feet through it. Done tons of laminate flooring with it and never had a problem. The fence is amazing and it has an extendable table out to 24” which isn’t common on portable saws. Also compatible with dado blades which is usually unique to stationary cabinet saws.
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People are usually shocked when they find out i am not a very good electrician
 
NCHawker said:
I have a kit of about 8 Ryobi battery tool. I like them a lot. Now I have 4 batteries, 2 chargers and a lot of tools. they're good tools but a corded tool will have more RPMs and more torque

I found the battery powered circular saw to be awesome, but it did not have the torque and often stopped while cutting 3/4 inch osb - I finished the job with my corded circular saw
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The newer 20 volt lithium ion stuff and especially DeWalt’s FlexVolt and Milwaukee’s FUEL lines are torque monsters. The 1/2” DW drill just almost ripped my arm off a couple weeks ago drilling through a 6x6 and 2x12 for a carriage bolt hole on a swing set. And I am a fairly stout guy. The circular saw is a beast too.

Battery tools have come a looooooong way on the last couple years alone; if you’re going to spend a few hundred bucks on corded tools anyway, I’d go the battery route today.
 
Fryowa said:
The newer 20 volt lithium ion stuff and especially DeWalt’s FlexVolt and Milwaukee’s FUEL lines are torque monsters. The 1/2” DW drill just almost ripped my arm off a couple weeks ago drilling through a 6x6 and 2x12 for a carriage bolt hole on a swing set. And I am a fairly stout guy. The circular saw is a beast too.

Battery tools have come a looooooong way on the last couple years alone; if you’re going to spend a few hundred bucks on corded tools anyway, I’d go the battery route today.
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Yeah, we replaced our string trimmer and leaf blower with 40-volt models. Wish I could find a good chainsaw in battery-powered, but since I use infrequently, I'll keep my corded one. Of course, the only time I think about a gas model is right after a hurricane when you can't find a single one in the state of Florida for a couple weeks!
 
NCHawker said:
Never liked table saws, they seemed to kick back a lot. Had an old woodwoker guy say to me the one tool that he could not go without is a bandsaw. If I had room I'd get a drill press and band saw. I also wan to get a grinding / polishing wheel.

I have a kit of about 8 Ryobi battery tool. I like them a lot. Now I have 4 batteries, 2 chargers and a lot of tools. they're good tools but a corded tool will have more RPMs and more torque

No longer use my corded drills. I found the battery powered circular saw to be awesome, but it did not have the torque and often stopped while cutting 3/4 inch osb - I finished the job with my corded circular saw


Thanks for the tips about the vice !
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I have my drill press now but not a bandsaw. My dad had this portable drill press thingy he got from my uncle that was never used. One you attach a corded drill to. I tinkered with it and solidified the drill attachment a little better now and really acts like a true one piece drill press now. I made a combo drill stand that I bolted it to that I also bolted a grinder on the other side. Cabinet space underneath. I never take the drill off or move it at all after calibrated. I have my cordless 24V drill and driver that I use for projects.

I did pick up the Bauer planer from Harbor Freight this year. Also have a stand just for that. My next purchase will be the combo disk sander and belt sander from HF.
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Then I think I will be set.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
Yeah, we replaced our string trimmer and leaf blower with 40-volt models. Wish I could find a good chainsaw in battery-powered, but since I use infrequently, I'll keep my corded one. Of course, the only time I think about a gas model is right after a hurricane when you can't find a single one in the state of Florida for a couple weeks!
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I got a cordless Stihl trimmer that I picked up cheap on a Buy and sell site, like $40 and one year old. The guy was moving and threw it in with the Toro lawnmower I bought from him, also cheap. Anyway, it keeps blowing thru trimmer string and can't keep enough in there. It just eats it up. Anybody know what the F could possibly be happening. I still have my gas trimmer and deciding if want to piss with the Stihl. I've ran trimmers for years and never had this issue. Don't understand what am doing wrong or is happening. Googling Stihl cordless trimmer and I see very many other people with same problem.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
I got a cordless Stihl trimmer that I picked up cheap on a Buy and sell site, like $40 and one year old. The guy was moving and threw it in with the Toro lawnmower I bought from him, also cheap. Anyway, it keeps blowing thru trimmer string and can't keep enough in there. It just eats it up. Anybody know what the F could possibly be happening. I still have my gas trimmer and deciding if want to piss with the Stihl. I've ran trimmers for years and never had this issue. Don't understand what am doing wrong or is happening. Googling Stihl cordless trimmer and I see very many other people with same problem.
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Length of string or diameter?
 
MelroseHawkins said:
I got a cordless Stihl trimmer that I picked up cheap on a Buy and sell site, like $40 and one year old. The guy was moving and threw it in with the Toro lawnmower I bought from him, also cheap. Anyway, it keeps blowing thru trimmer string and can't keep enough in there. It just eats it up. Anybody know what the F could possibly be happening. I still have my gas trimmer and deciding if want to piss with the Stihl. I've ran trimmers for years and never had this issue. Don't understand what am doing wrong or is happening. Googling Stihl cordless trimmer and I see very many other people with same problem.
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Stihl’s eat through line like crazy, even the gas models. I’ve had two gas Stihl trimmers since I left my parents house in ‘98, and the only reason I don’t have the first one is because I sold it to upgrade to the one I have now (I’m 6’1” and the curved shaft models aren’t as ergonomic for me as the straight shaft). The one I have now I set the choke and prime, pull twice, flip the choke off and it goes like a violated ape. Never had it be tough to start, same with my Stihl blower and chainsaw. That’s why I justify going through tons of trimmer line.
 
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hawkeyebob62 said:
Yeah, we replaced our string trimmer and leaf blower with 40-volt models. Wish I could find a good chainsaw in battery-powered, but since I use infrequently, I'll keep my corded one. Of course, the only time I think about a gas model is right after a hurricane when you can't find a single one in the state of Florida for a couple weeks!
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I’ve heard good things about Milwaukee’s saw vs the DeWalt. This guy tears one apart and does a pretty in-depth review and he has one on the DW as well

 
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Fryowa said:
Stihl’s eat through line like crazy, even the gas models. I’ve had two gas Stihl trimmers since I left my parents house in ‘98, and the only reason I don’t have the first one is because I sold it to upgrade to the one I have now (I’m 6’1” and the curved shaft models aren’t as ergonomic for me as the straight shaft). The one I have now I set the choke and prime, pull twice, flip the choke off and it goes like a violated ape. Never had it be tough to start, same with my Stihl blower and chainsaw. That’s why I justify going through tons of trimmer line.
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There are times when my wife uses it she comes back within 5-10 minutes and went thru all the line I just loaded. Not kidding.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
There are times when my wife uses it she comes back within 5-10 minutes and went thru all the line I just loaded. Not kidding.
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That's more excessive than i'd think. I have a 4,300 square foot yard (front/back), and with the perimeter of the yard, fence, driveway, sidewalks, and house perimeter I get about 3 times out of one full spool. My spool takes 2 separate pieces both 6 ft long, so I'm gonna say I use about 4 feet each time I trim.

Maybe check the price of a new spool on Amazon and see if that helps. I've gone through two or three in the lifetime of my trimmer, they're kind of a consumable item.
 
Im going to be cutting through some concrete and putting a door in the back of my garage next month hopefully, should be interesting!
 
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