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The Human Cow posted:Do any tools have an accurate laser? It seems like no matter which brand, type of saw, or whatever I try, they're always just a little off.
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Nov 26, 2013 19:51
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I have Porter Cable corded and cordless circular saws. The corded one is awesome, lots of power, lightweight, dust port that ejects sawdust wherever you want it. The cordless one spews wood chips directly at your face making it extremely unpleasant to use. Awhile back someone mentioned another brand of cordless that does the same so beware. The corded is a better choice unless you really need cordless.
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Nov 26, 2013 20:13
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Might've been me talking about trying to add dust collection to my Bosch cordless. Only about half the dust and chips actually go into the guard, the rest spray past it into your face. Thanks to that, my dust collection modification isn't super effective. On my corded Hitachi just putting a vacuum connector over the dust port worked great. Unfortunately, I can't use the Hitachi at the same time as dust collection without blowing fuses.
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Nov 26, 2013 20:34
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I would go corded instead cordless for circular saws in a heartbeat. If you are up on a roof and need to cut a bit off of some sheeting then a cordless saw is really handy. If you are in your shop all the time it really sucks when a battery dies right in the middle of a cut. Corded is way more reliable and more powerful. My cordless saw shoots the sawdust right at my eyes too.
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Nov 26, 2013 20:58
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I bought this Porter Cable corded circular saw several years ago and I've been really happy with it. Cuts strong and clean every time.
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Nov 26, 2013 21:05
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mds2 posted:I would go corded instead cordless for circular saws in a heartbeat. If you are up on a roof and need to cut a bit off of some sheeting then a cordless saw is really handy. Personally I'm a fan of cordless everything. Though I have sort of an eclectic work pattern where I do random things at random times across home and a boat. I also have a small shop which gets cluttered by cords and has limited outlets. So I supposed I'm biased. But I hate cords. Also, I find over and over again that even simple jobs benefit from having a variety of tools on hand which lends itself to a cordless which can be picked up, used and put back down again. For example the cordless oscillating multi tool sits on the pegboard with a sanding pad all the time and gets picked up often, same with the hackzall and the circular to a lesser extent. They wouldn't get the same use if there were cords involved. If you have 2 lithium batteries and you alternate you can pretty much run anything all day if you have too (which I never do). So I think battery life is barely a downside for cordless today, though power may be depending on the tool/application. That said, besides power, the clearest downside is tool lifetime. Cordless tools are attached to their batteries which will inevitably go obsolete some day. A circular saw is something that probably isn't going to change a lot in 2 decades, the corded saw you buy will still be useful, the cordless - probably not.
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Nov 27, 2013 02:18
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Any recommendations for safety goggles/glasses that don't easily get scratched up? Im guilty of often not wearing them because the two pairs I have reduce my vision considerably because of how scratched up they are.
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Nov 27, 2013 04:35
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wormil posted:I have Porter Cable corded and cordless circular saws. The corded one is awesome, lots of power, lightweight, dust port that ejects sawdust wherever you want it. The cordless one spews wood chips directly at your face making it extremely unpleasant to use. Awhile back someone mentioned another brand of cordless that does the same so beware. The corded is a better choice unless you really need cordless. that was me and it was Bosch I still like it a lot because of the blade brake but man dust goes everywhere it's weird, I have a decent corded but I reach for the cordless now every drat time. not sure why exactly but it's just nicer
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Nov 27, 2013 05:04
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dwoloz posted:Any recommendations for safety goggles/glasses that don't easily get scratched up? Im guilty of often not wearing them because the two pairs I have reduce my vision considerably because of how scratched up they are. The biggest thing is to replacement them more frequently. Any plastic lens is going to get scratched up over time. These are cheap and decent. Not much optical distortion and they fit nice and close.
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Nov 27, 2013 07:12
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I really like these Uvex goggles: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010ZJ50U/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M2T1_SC_dp_3 When I just use safety glasses I seem to get dust and poo poo in my eyes that the goggle totally take care of. And yeah, they're cheap enough that you may as well just switch them out more often. My Bosch pin nailer came with a set of safety glasses that are some of the nicest I've ever had.
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Nov 27, 2013 18:24
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Thanks for the circular saw input everyone. I think I'm going corded. I've owned a cordless circ saw before and I ended up hating it because it just didn't have the power necessary to make the cuts I needed. Now that might have been old batteries or whatever, but it just left me not liking them. I do appreciate all the thoughts though.
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Nov 27, 2013 21:08
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oschesar posted:Thanks for the circular saw input everyone. I think I'm going corded. I've owned a cordless circ saw before and I ended up hating it because it just didn't have the power necessary to make the cuts I needed. Now that might have been old batteries or whatever, but it just left me not liking them. I do appreciate all the thoughts though.
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Nov 27, 2013 23:39
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dwoloz posted:Any recommendations for safety goggles/glasses that don't easily get scratched up? Im guilty of often not wearing them because the two pairs I have reduce my vision considerably because of how scratched up they are. Do you have to wear them a lot? You can go two ways: Buy cheap glasses and replace them more often, or buy a more expensive style and try to take better care by using lens cleaning wipes, not throwing them in a tool box, and making sure you don't drop them. I have a pair of Pyramex Ztek glasses that I got as a sample from work. I wear the amber lenses every time I mow the lawn. I've been wearing the same pair for 3 years. I think they are pretty great for being about $2.00 a pair. http://pyramexsafety.com/products/eyewear/s2514s There are cheaper and there are better, but it all depends on what your needs are.
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Nov 27, 2013 23:42
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If you work anywhere with that has a Grainger account, look for safety glasses there. I can buy Condor clear safety glasses for like $1.50/pair with the discount through work. My local Grainger counter will give me the same discount our company gets if I walk in and show them my badge. They're pretty basic and I've had a couple pair that I've had to trim some of the flash off the nose piece, but you can't beat them for the price. They're reasonably scratch resistant too, but at $1.50/pair even if you replace them every two weeks it's not a ton of money each year. They also make them in several tinted options. Great for mowing the lawn in the summer.
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Nov 28, 2013 01:54
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The key to safety glasses is having plenty available to grab a new pair as needed. If you're looking for a different solution you could consider a flip-down face shield like this http://www.grainger.com/product/Headgear-8ZE66?s_pp=false They can be less frustrating than safety glasses. Just remember any difficulty with wearing safety glasses is preferable to a little piece of poo poo struck in your eye. As far as cordless v. corded, cordless tools are a convenient light duty solution but real heavy work demands reliable corded tools. Honda makes a neat little suitcase generator which is the perfect portable power solution. http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu2000i
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Nov 28, 2013 02:15
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Cordless versus corded? Everyone knows the only real answer is a full set of both.
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Nov 28, 2013 07:46
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GD_American posted:Cordless versus corded? This man knows! I've got corded versions of almost all my cordless tools although I mainly use the cordless versions.
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Nov 28, 2013 13:08
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Hi, I need some advice. I'm currently looking for something to cut metal. I know there are a lot of options out there, angle grinders, jigsaws, aviation snips, air nibblers, etc. Unfortunately, I've hit a bit of a complication.  Those are images of the thing I'm cutting. The inner part is only 16, 17 gauge metal, which is easy enough to buy a tool to cut. The outer edge, however, is thick enough to be classified as 9 or 10 gauge. Since I need to get through that, I'm in a bit of a bind. Most tools that can cut that thickness cost 800+, so I was wondering if I could use a lower powered tool and push it to it's limit, since I don't really need to get through much of the 10-gauge stuff. So, what is a cost-effective tool that can do this for me?
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Nov 28, 2013 15:53
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Globofglob posted:So, what is a cost-effective tool that can do this for me?
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Nov 28, 2013 16:29
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djent posted:The key to safety glasses is having plenty available to grab a new pair as needed. If you're looking for a different solution you could consider a flip-down face shield like this http://www.grainger.com/product/Headgear-8ZE66?s_pp=false Just from a safety perspective, even with a face shield, you should still always wear safety glasses. The face shield will stop sparks and fragments from hitting your face, but there's always the chance of something getting up under the shield and into your eyes. Also, as an alternative to Grainger, they actually own a more "consumer based" site called zorotools.com You can check pricing on both websites and 9 times out of 10, it's actually cheaper on Zoro Tools (you can type in Grainger part #s and it will come up on Zoro). They also send out a bunch of coupons. I shouldn't support them because I work for a competing distributor, but sometimes a good deal is just a good deal on some of their generic "Approved Vendor" items.
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Nov 28, 2013 16:39
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grover posted:Two tools. Dremel or angle grinder should work fine for the thicker stuff, and you can use whatever you want for the rest. What should be the radius of the wheel, if I go with the angle grinder? I've seen 4, 4 1/2 inch, 7 inch, and 9 inch variants.
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Nov 28, 2013 16:48
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Globofglob posted:What should be the radius of the wheel, if I go with the angle grinder? I've seen 4, 4 1/2 inch, 7 inch, and 9 inch variants. The most common grinder is 4.5". This is a common tool that you can find for any price range from like $15 at harbor freight to $100+ for powerful name brands. There isn't a lot of variation - it's basically, quality, power and switch choice/location. I settled on the one below after considering the purchase on/off for a year or so - it comes with a nice case and several wheels, and has a full length paddle switch which I wanted (the locking thumb switches don't seem safe to me). If I were doing it again I might buy a cheaper ryobi since they're all pretty drat similar. http://www.amazon.com/Makita-9557PBX1-2-Inch-Grinder-Aluminum/dp/B0010DHFTK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385657125&sr=8-1&keywords=makita+grinder That said, the dremel will do that easily too (buy some extra cutoff wheels) and is generally the more handy/versatile tool to have around in my opinion.
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Nov 28, 2013 17:57
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The angle grinder would be about 10x faster than a dremel. The abrasive dremel disks are also pretty pricey in comparison (one angle grinder disk cuts through a lot more metal than a dinky dremel one, and the cost isn't too much different). The dremel is probably more precise though.
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Nov 28, 2013 18:51
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Depending on the shape you need to cut I'd recommend one or the other. If you need to cut tight inside corners, the dremel wins. Also an angle grinder is something you should practice with rather than doing your first cut on the piece you want to come out right, they can eat up a lot of metal really fast. After having a friend's harbor freight angle grinder fire a cooling fan blade out of the motor housing AT ME, I will never, ever buy one. Up to you though, maybe you like eating fan blades. I can get 4.5" angle grinder cutoff wheels for 50odd cents each off heleta.com; fiber reinforced dremel wheels are around $1 a pop unless you go with a no name chinese brand off ebay.
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Nov 29, 2013 00:51
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Unfortunately even if you are wearing safety glasses things can still make it into your eyes. I've taken several of my ironworkers off the bridge and to the eye doctor after wind blew metal shavings into their eyes. Fortunately the doc knows his business and takes the offending bit of steel out no problem. Do you guys use guards on your angle grinders? This is a frequent issue between myself and site safety managers. Oftentimes my work demands access to tight spots and leaving the guard off is the way to go, but apparently it is an OSHA policy to use them with the guards. I've managed to reach a compromise where use of an angle grinder without a guard requires a face shield and gloves to provide similar personal protection.
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Nov 29, 2013 02:22
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I always use the guard unless I absolutely can't make a cut without it. I try to remember to wear gloves especially when doing a lot of work. Cost me $1300 last time I didn't - 3 stitches and 3 xrays because I cut my finger to the bone. Got lucky and didn't sever any tendons or nerves. Face shield I wear when I remember. Honestly, if you aren't an idiot you won't have your face anywhere near the plane of the cutting wheel, unless grinding/cutting overhead, in which case goddamnit, wear your goggles and face shield.
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Nov 29, 2013 02:28
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Didya know that if you've been a metalworker for any reasonable length of time hospitals won't do MRIs on you? They just assume that you've probably got metal shavings settled in your eyes or lungs or whatever and they don't want the MRI magnet to start wiggling them around and chopping up your retinas.
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Nov 29, 2013 09:00
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Interesting. I usec a magnet out of an old hard drive to lift a piece of metal out of my eye last time, actually. Stuffed it in a rubber glove, disinfected with peroxide, let it dry, and carefully touched my eye with it. Straight in/out, no scrubbing... picked the filing right up and was better in hours. It wouldn't come out with a moistened qtip and I didn't want to scrub it further in.
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Nov 29, 2013 16:07
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Sagebrush posted:Didya know that if you've been a metalworker for any reasonable length of time hospitals won't do MRIs on you? They just assume that you've probably got metal shavings settled in your eyes or lungs or whatever and they don't want the MRI magnet to start wiggling them around and chopping up your retinas. Weird, we just do screening x-rays of the orbits (eye sockets) to see if theres any metallic foreign bodies
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Nov 29, 2013 17:48
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dyne posted:Weird, we just do screening x-rays of the orbits (eye sockets) to see if theres any metallic foreign bodies Well, that makes sense. I dunno, I was told it by an old insane shop guy a number of years ago. I guess they wouldn't do the MRI without the x-ray, anyway.
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Nov 29, 2013 22:02
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Home depot has an M18 sawzall and a battery, with no charger, and thats what I want, but I want that in an M18 Fuel. I have a charger already. Anyone seen this anywhere? Just the tool and a battery. edit: Oh hey I found some...and they are the same price... Hell might as well get the one with the case and charger. Make him give me the extra one, and I can start getting Milwaukee tools for myself. Johnny Aztec fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Nov 29, 2013 |
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Nov 29, 2013 23:27
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I'm sure you've been told already, but just to re-iterate if you're new to grinders: 1. Glasses + shield are an absolute necessity. Do not grind anything without them, please, ever. These things fling massive amounts of fine, hot metal particles. 2. Good thick gloves unless you absolutely have no maneuvering room. They'll give you a half-second of protection if you ever bump the grinding wheel, and that's saved my rear end a few times. 3. Keep the guard on unless you have to take it off to get it in a tight spot. Then put it right back on when you're done. 4. Keep in mind where your cord is. This might not be a problem for non-retards, but I once cut the extension cord that was leading down into the tank I was in, which not only powered the grinder, but my stage lights  5. If you're using the cutting wheel, make ABSOLUTELY drat SURE not to put any sidewise pressure on the cutting wheel. Those things fly apart and fragment, and when they do, they do it incredibly fast. 6. Also, make sure that the max RPM of the cutting wheel is higher than the RPM of the grinder you're using. This is usually something to think about if you're using cheap wheels (like Harbor Freight); it's not a common issue but I have seen safety bulletins where people were hurt when the wheels basically exploded. As for which tool to pick, you can get 3" grinders, but usually a combination of a good Dremel (for fine work) and a 4.5" (most common size, wide variety of wheels) is good enough for 99.9 percent of anything you can get into in a home shop. 7" and 9" are for heavy steel construction work, they're ridiculously overgunned for what you need unless you're building your own ship. I try to keep in stock a couple of good grinding rocks (can't go wrong with DeWalt), a stack of cutting wheels, a wire wheel (good for taking stuck gasket material off), and a buffing wheel. I've also got a pencil grinder (super-sized Dremel, basically) with a few different flapper wheels. My grinder is a cheap Ryobi, because Santa is a mean bastard who hasn't brought me a Metabo for the last few years running 
GD_American fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Nov 30, 2013 |
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Nov 30, 2013 02:08
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We use those supersize dremels (foredom grinders) at work for shaping/trimming carbon fiber assemblies. They're awesome. I have also butchered an angle grinder cord... rolled over under a truck and snagged it. It proceeded to wrap around the grinder about 19 times (had a knotted wire wheel on it at the time) and fortunately unplugged itself before it did anything but tear up the cable sheathing  so I untangled it all, gave it a neat wrapping of electrical tape, and kept working... with more attention paid to the cable.
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Nov 30, 2013 02:34
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Reposting this here: Zoro Tools is offering 30% off on Cyber Monday.
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Nov 30, 2013 07:26
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I bought the locking shifter after seeing the recommendations in this thread. http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-85-610-10-Inch-MaxGrip-Adjustable/dp/B00009OYGZ/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t Forgive a dumb question, but how the heck do you lock it? The lever to unlock it is narrower than the ridge on the shaft so I can't press the lock in. edit: it won't lock the handle or tighten the jaws unless the jaws are around something, duh. ~Coxy fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Nov 30, 2013 |
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Nov 30, 2013 08:12
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Got the Ridgid combo pack with the impact, drill, and radio. Word of advice; I was looking on garage journal to see if there were any reviews on it and I found out you could you "competitor" coupons at home depot. I was able to use a Harbor Freight 25% off coupon when I checked out. Some Home Depots will not honor the coupon, but if you have a Home Depot near a Lowes, they usually are super competitive so they will honor coupons. Make sure you bring in a original coupon and give it at check out and not at customer service.the spyder posted:Reposting this here: Zoro Tools is offering 30% off on Cyber Monday. If this is legit I might have to buy a loving TIG welder... Apparently they had 40% last year. ASSTASTIC fucked around with this message at 08:55 on Nov 30, 2013 |
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Nov 30, 2013 08:32
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ASSTASTIC posted:Got the Ridgid combo pack with the impact, drill, and radio. Word of advice; I was looking on garage journal to see if there were any reviews on it and I found out you could you "competitor" coupons at home depot. I was able to use a Harbor Freight 25% off coupon when I checked out. Some Home Depots will not honor the coupon, but if you have a Home Depot near a Lowes, they usually are super competitive so they will honor coupons. Make sure you bring in a original coupon and give it at check out and not at customer service. Zorro is 100% legit. I bought a Honda generator and plasma cutter from them last year. I'm seriously thinking about buying a natural gas garage heater this year.
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Nov 30, 2013 13:18
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~Coxy posted:I bought the locking shifter after seeing the recommendations in this thread. 
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Nov 30, 2013 16:17
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dwoloz posted:Any recommendations for safety goggles/glasses that don't easily get scratched up? Im guilty of often not wearing them because the two pairs I have reduce my vision considerably because of how scratched up they are. Safety glasses are one of those things where you can try to treat them well and pamper them with tender loving care as much as you want, but they're eventually going to get messed up because you put them in your pocket that also had a bolt in it or they got hit with hot sparks from grinding something or they got knocked off a workbench on the floor. What I do is get really cheap-assed ones for around $1.50 from HF and get them out of my sight when they're all scratched and irritating. The reason a lot of people don't wear safety glasses is because their shop class just had the same set of glasses for ten years and they figured, well, this is stupid and I can't see anything so why bother. Just treat them as consumables. If you're trying to do something and can't see it and you've already wiped them off eight times, just throw them away or put them into That One Drawer for use as crap-rear end spares in an emergency. It's not worth tilting your head constantly to move the little scuff out of the way so you can look at something, and it's definitely not worth losing an eye.
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Nov 30, 2013 18:37
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 15:36 |
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Here at London Hackspace, we have a terrible problem of tools being used for unintended purposes by ignorant members (wood chisels used to open paint tins  ), this ends in lots of our hand and power tools getting broken/destroyed. One of our members recently bought some of the lockers used in the Olympics in an attempt to have somewhere to lock away nice tools from ignorant members until they had been trained. Now that we had somewhere to keep nice things so they would stay nice, a few budding members set up a woodworking group, we started collecting tools from donations and pledges (members pooling together to buy stuff) and rigged out one of the lockers to store them all. We're all total amateurs in the most amateurish way and it's fantastic, we're teaching ourselves to sharpen tools using guides and different stuff and we meet every Wednesday evening for communal wood-banging, it's turning out to be amazing fun. Our groups HILARIOUS name.   TOOLS!  All now wonderfully sharp after a pass over a members sharpening machine Squares and stuff, the majority of the chisels where donated from multiple members, I think we only bought the two giant ones and two of the small ones. The planes are on a long term loan, we've got a Stanley No5, No4-1/2, a Draper No4, a cute little wooden smoothing plane and a little blue record push plane. Apologies for the poo poo photos.   
Yeti Fiasco fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Nov 30, 2013 |
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Nov 30, 2013 20:12
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