Coping: With “Your Inner Tool Slut”

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One of the things that makes us all ‘urban survivors’ is that we have an interest in self-determination.

Now, to do this at work is hard, which is why so many of our readers are into gig work, contract work, and consulting.  No boss means more fun….except that then come quarterly taxes, insurance shopping, and all that happy horse-dink…

But outside of work, the typical US reader actual does stuff so this morning a romp through some of the new tool offers at Amazon which struck me as pretty interesting…

(Continues Below)

 

Fall is coming, so for $21 try a Greenworks 24012 7 Amp Single Speed Electric 160 MPH Blower.

I have a variable speed Toro and it was $90 bucks, so to find this one for $21 bucks shows you how value engineering is going.

Here’s another super deal: Westcott Titanium Bonded Scissors, Straight-Handle, Pointed Tip, 8-Inch, Gray/Yellow, 2 Pieces Per Pack (13901).

Why is it a deal?  Because it is $6.30 for two pairs.  How many times has the wife threatened you with celibacy over ‘borrowing’ scissors for shop use?  I’ve got this one solved now.  Elaine has three pairs in the kitchen (one for food, two general purpose) and I have ’em all over the shop.  (When I put a tool down, they immediately disappear and need to be replaced.)

Speaking of disappearing tools, sockets must have a secret hide-out somewhere in the woods.  So I’m looking at getting one of those wrenches which is ‘self-adjusting’.  One size fits a wide range of bolt heads.  Under $10 bucks is the BLENDX 7mm to 19mm Ratchet Universal Sockets Metric Wrench Power Drill Adapter Set – Professional Repair Tool.  Not if I use it, it’s not…

Now Let’s Talk Power Tools

I’ve already got a Dremel tool with a bunch of attachments.  But if you don’t have one, think about the WEN 2305 Rotary Tool Kit with Flex Shaft which is about $21 bucks.

Dremel, by the way, is out with a $25 lightweight cordless unit: Dremel 7300-N/8 MiniMite 4.8-Volt Cordless Two-Speed Rotary Tool.  Seems to get good reviews.

I should have been patient…  These rotary tools are really useful.  About twice a year I will find a problem where nothing else will do.  Example about three weeks back was the studio door.  Deadbolt was not engaging right.  About 2-minutes of rotary tool later, smooth as silk.

Must be something going around with locks and rotary tools this month.  Robin had the same problem on the door to his gazebo.  Weird coinkydink, huh?

No air compressor?

Well, if your main reason to have a compressor it topping off your bike tires, might want to look at the $59 Air Hawk Pro Cordless Portable Air Compressor, Easy-To-Read Digital Pressure Gauge.   Just be aware that the online reviews aren’t overwhelming on this one.  Harbor Freight has monthly specials in many of the home handy-bastards magazines and their pancake compressor (sure to wake the neighbors if you ride out at 6 AM) is often on sale in the $39 price range and will do real work when paired with a flex hose and something like the under $20 WEN 61720 3/4-Inch to 2-Inch 18-Gauge Brad Nailer.

I’m starting to look at my fall office remodel project.  Main reason for doing it is to make some wider counters for equipment and as long as I’ll be doing cabinetry and such, I may put in tile floors.  Lowes, now and then, along with Home Despots, occasionally have tile for under a buck a square foot.

As you remember, I did tile in the guest room/gym here and our SKIL 3540-02 7-Inch Wet Tile Saw ($89 and change) did a great job.  If you are planning to go into business, a bigger unit might make sense, but for the home projects, including a possible kitchen work-over here?  Plenty good enough tool.

A New Table Saw?

My current “Big Tool Decision” is what to do about a table saw.

I was spoiled by the Seattle Public School system back in 1961, or so, when Asa Mercer Junior High didn’t have metal detectors, but did have a huge, big deck cabinet saw in the wood shop.

This will make no sense to Millennials because we don’t let today’s sissified kids touch anything sharper than an Android.  But back in the day?  People like me made it through school on the strength of an A in woodshop to balance off the D in Spanish (which was from staring at Ms. Harvey’s physique…but a story for another day…)

Our current table saw is about five – maybe six – years old.  It was a Craftsman (Sears) but there are many parts about it that are disappointing.

Let me show you what I mean:

The top (lame) yellow arrow indicates that there is a sliding table extension which works OK.  Not real strong (as you’ll experience first-hand running 3/4″ Baltic Birch ply through it.

In the middle by the blade (left) take a yardstick (or a piece of scrap) and run it up to the saw blade.  Then look down the right side of the ruler/yardstick and you’ll find the “run in” from the table edge is only about 8-1/2 inches.  When you get good at woodworking (I consider myself on the path but not there yet)  you will want (or build, which is what this may come down to) either a sliding table OR you look for a saw with 12″ of more table in front of the blade.

Yes, it makes for a heavy table, but a good cabinet saw lets you set up precision cuts.

The bottom highlight is my last bitch about this Sears saw:  It has an aluminum table and there is an odd extrusion that your miter-gauge sits in.  OK, in theory?  Keeps the miter gauge from flipping out on a kick-back.  Keeps lawyers happy.  BUT the trade-off is when you hit www.rockler.com and want a different/better/upgraded miter gauge…it’s not going to fit!.

One more problem with the current saw:  The arbor (the ‘bolt-endy thing that the blade goes on) should be at least an inch and a half long.

This one is an inch – if that.

What this means is that when I am setting up dado cuts, I can’t go more than 1/2 inch – maybe 5/8ths at a time.  You want to do single pass dados because every time you set up a multi-pass dado arrangement, the precision takes a lunch break.

So far I haven’t replaced the saw.  Moving?  Well, if we do that, will I even need a saw?  Yee gads, man, this is a head trip.  But if no one buys this old joint at a friendly-enough price and we live out our days here, why not a first-rate saw?

The old saying “It’s a poor workman who blames his tools” is one of the BS lessons from previous generations that didn’t get down to micro traces on silicon.   1/64th of an inch is a concern to me.  1/32nd becomes a noticeable lack of skill development.  A 16th is embarrassing and an 8th is grounds for a recut of a new piece.  A quarter off?  Time to be counting fingers, about there.

I’m still waiting for the ideal saw to show up.  Would I like a high-dollar Laguna, Powermatic, or Saw-Stop?  Oh, sure.  But unless I were getting a hair up about building a new home from the foundation up, I just can’t see the payback on it.

You know that one, I’m sure.  It’s the Curse of the Tool Slut.

Even so, it’s more pleasant than thinking about all the work ahead this week…

Write when you get rich,

George@ure.net

31 thoughts on “Coping: With “Your Inner Tool Slut””

  1. Dude, working 6 14’s this week. Soooo tired, with no end in site. I barely have enough time to cash my paychecks let alone pay bills.

    Ex wife is all happy with her man. Met up with them to drop off my youngest last night. Kinda weird. Better him than me. Lol

    I’m in no hurry. Lol. If I wanna get laid I have a half dozen I can send a text too and have some fun. Right now, I just don’t have the time. Money money money! Work work work. Priorities!

    Well, best get busy. Have a good week.

    0

    • Please share your methods of getting laid using only a text! That certainly deserves space in the “Coping” section!

      Thanks in advance.

      • Ha ha ha ha! I’m not a bad looker. George had seen my picrure. I’m going to be 48 this August. But i look like im in my early 30’s. Genetics and I amn usually in the gym 2 hours a day. Not lately, I’m on a hell paced work schedule. And im very intuitive. Very.. its a dance.

        I met a girl at Safeway last night getting some dinner. Cute lil tan, platinum blond. 5’4″ 115, mid 30’s, great legs. Wearing a very short skirt. She said she had a boyfriend but we could totally hang out. She gave me her number. I said isn’t your boyfriend going to have a problem with that? She giggled and said, well if things go well, I won’t have a boy friend anymore.

        Women are funny. Here i am covered in grease and dirt, smelling like a diesel truck and B.O. Just worked a 14 hour day and looking like hell. She is all dolled up and in this short lol skirt and get reply is “what boyfriend”. Lol she is in the insurance business in seattle.

        I will give it a couple days and text her then. It’s all sales really. I just sell me really well. That is why I have not had to look for work theblast 10 years. I network really well. Business call me to come to work for them. I’m confident in the product I’m presenting and selling. Which is me.

        As my second wife said and I quote, “I could talk the panties off a nun.” Since she hadn’t been with a man in 18 months prior to me and didn’t want a man at all.

        Both my Ex wives are extremely powerful, highly intelligent, fierce and cunning as F*ck. Extremely attractive and at the top of their fields in buisness. Most men were/are very intimidated by them. But that didn’t stop me. Lol

        Soooooo tired. Off to grab 18 gears. Think I will go see this girl after work, spend the night at her place so I don’t have to commute back to mine. 5’10”, brunette, hot yoga instructor I met at the car wash. Lol

        Have a great day.

        • Urban Survival tip: Look up pheromones.

          It’s why some of the artists in places (France comes to mind) don’t shower twice daily.
          Psychology Today reference here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-love/201211/human-pheromones-fact-or-fantasy

          Beyond pheromones: People of either sex can be attracted to someone of the opposite who looks like a “bad boy” or “bad girl” – it’s just how we’re wired.

          Has to do with perceptions of who will give most violent protection on the one hand, or who is more likely to produce offspring on t’other.

          Dr. George Ureheimer now returns you to the PG portion of this site..

  2. Hold on – I’m confused now> You said you have moved to silly con valley – and now you have a workshop and a shop????

    Failing to follow – and most of the school shops were gone prior to 1990….

    • I’m confused too. Kaisich was not “on the ballot” in California for the 2016 president vote?

    • Jon, You have a credibility problem we need to straighten out.

      You wrote on 6/15:

      “…As of this week, it is my new home. And, as I wait for my house to close escrow, I am living in a new apartment complex in Mountain View courtesy of my company. It is one of those 5 story cube like complexes with a huge courtyard, pools, game rooms, business centers, party areas, etc. Every Wednesday and Friday, they have happy hours for the tenants….”

      It stretches my belief system that a) you closed and b) moved and c) really work in Mt. View and d) have already set up our shop in the garage, given your wife drives a Mercedes GLA and you drive something that sounds like a Tesla?

      We are confused…so whose car sits outside? :-)

      SERIOUSLY/???

      I AM SURE ALL URBAN READERS WOULD LIKE TO KNOW:
      How you have time in 39 days to close on a house, move, be a high tech Musk-adorer, world-traveler, and still have time for a wife with a Mercedes, a shop in the garage, and STILL have time not only to author 101 thoughtful posts to the UrbanSurvival crowd (not counting the one with the apartment rental details and such) and still have children and those relationships?

      I have been a CEO – as has Oilman2 – and others around here. We know what the workload and the headspace requirements are.
      While your presence here has been amusing, it’s time to go back to the real job you have, talk to your kids again, and see that nice wife of yours.

      In our world, there’s far more to do than bash Trump – and by the sound of it, you’re likely a 20-something – or 30 something – living in mommy and daddy’s basement and being a paid soros/dnc/liberal troll.

      But you’ve failed badly.

      While this isn’t the first call-out we’ve spied (a lot of your other posts last “ring of truth”) we will be enforcing a now political content from Jon in the future.

      UrbanSurvival is about do-nothing politicians of any stripe and the biggest problems facing America are the 535 on the Hill. Not the one guy in the WH.

      So, how do you do it – why do you do it? – and who pays you to? – and what’s the real story, slick? That’s what we want to know…

      From here, it looks like you have some serious secret sauce or you’ve tilted our bullshit detectors for the last time.

    • I still had a shop class with a table saw when i went to high school. I did 2 classes, one building a functioning hand and another a functional “egg” car. The shop class is still there and i only graduated 4 years ago… I know all the other local high schools have a shop class or allow their students to come to this one if they don’t.

    • oh wait a minute Jon I got a friend who lives in Los Angeles and he lives in his basement I think it’s because of his wife lots of laughs

    • George,

      We have a high school in Portland – Benson Polytechnic – that is aimed toward people learning ‘professions’ whether computers, or ‘shop’ or whatever – and they used to – and may be still do have ‘a fair’ to show off what the students are doing . . . not all high schools are focused on traditional university subjects and some students get a ‘head start’ in what community colleges offer. Benson is well regarded in Portland.

  3. “Regular guys” don’t drive 75D’s and wives don’t drive GLAs. Our megabuck friends all drive new black Denalis and are too busy with their hedge funds to “vent.”

  4. In linguistics, this is another “tell.” If you actually were real and had moved to CA, you would not refer to it as “there yet.”

    If you were really in Calif you would not have “registered HERE” yet.

    See how this works? Sheesh. I should be charging for better-spoofing lessons, Jon

  6. Let’s say 10 people had really marvelous things that they have written

    On your blog
    Your website
    Your comment section

    Now how would the world be able to find that out

    I mean these are extra contacts right

    If it’s connected and are connected with YouTube, Google Google search engines Yahoo and all the rest and maybe some Facebook and all of those

    Now you have some very good commenters on your site

    And every once in a while even the bad commenters have something good that should be able to be looked up and referenced cause someone across the globe wants to use which in fact increases your rating of searches on your site

    You can interact with Google and Google can have all of those things on your blog

    But now here comes the test, if all that’s on your blog and some things in the past a couple years ago and as it is now nobody can find that comment that’s on that plug

    It was a good piece let’s say, let’s say the world needs to see that piece, but as it is now it’s hidden

    The only thing that’s exposed is in peoplenomics

    If you pay x amount of dollars a year, you have access to the complete index of people nomics

    Now what we’re going to do is talk about the blog, you can do the same thing with the blog have it indexed and for sale and those people who want to pay x amount of dollars a year to get into that

    Now the discretionary part is will it be put on YouTube anyway, which is what they do , if someone wants to they can look it up on, if they have an idea of what they looking for it may come up on YouTube

    Or Google or both

    so what you need is if it was my website

    I have to stop here and take a break y’all have a good day and may all beings be lovingly fulfilled so be it

    • Anyway that food concoction was pretty good but I got one that I’m doing right now it’s called macaroni and cheese you know just the standard macaroni and cheese and some frozen cod fish in there and some Frozen Catfish in there course I will probably have to put some red pepper and some garlic seasoning in there but anyway I’ll let you know how it comes out

  7. John let’s see you do something at 6 and you do something else at 5:10 you’re so contradictory I mean I know I am kind of Dick tree because you know I’m full of b******* but you’re even much more full of b******* come on now you say you get up at five for this or 6 for that I mean you’re so contradictory you’re worse than the day gum Bible

    But anyway keep texting I’m enjoying I’m enjoying this this is pretty fantastic you know I enjoyed the Bible for a little while until I got bored but go ahead but eventually we’ll all get bored when when people do contradictory things it means they’re lying little bit I know I lie I mean you know that’s something I do know I’m not a CIA agent but yes I was so stupid in my life that I had to lie to get ahead you know it’s like can you do the job oh yeah I’ve done it but you know but I did pick up on it and did it until I became ownership of my own properties then I was able to do anything I wanted to do so yeah I understand you might have a lying problem there I mean that’s okay to a point but how far do you want to go to with it

  8. Lying is our survival Instinct, even animals do it if you study the animal kingdom they will lie in order to survive

    We are no different

    Can’t you imagine the future where everybody can read each other’s thoughts no lying there huh

    • and my latest food concoction is a can of clam chowder and a can of beef hot tamales roll mix them together heat them up star I’m up and before you know it when you taste it is like have never had this kind of this is never happened before I’ve never tasted this kind of thing before but anyway there you go try it you may like it

  9. Anyway that food concoction was pretty good but I got one that I’m doing right now it’s called macaroni and cheese you know just the standard macaroni and cheese and some frozen cod fish in there and some Frozen Catfish in there course I will probably have to put some red pepper and some garlic seasoning in there but anyway I’ll let you know how it comes out

  10. At somewhere at the top of your website you can have like do you know who killed President Kennedy you know that be the Clincher or learn how to make good Investments or you know each day have a different clinte
    Well you know I mean yeah I mean you’re going for the the stock market people and you’re going for a whole heck of a lot of other people too because urban survival is not just about stock market so you open up a bag of worms when you open urban survival now I got to do is go with the flow and my goodness you could become one of them billionaires there’s lots of laughs

    • I misread, I thought you typed, we are going for the “SHOCK MARKET PEOPLE,” yeah, once people finally get the drift, the hint, the tip, the critical mass, the message, the vision, the reality, the agenda, they will be SHOCKED. Shocked they cruised along so long without a plan.

      All of this site has a lot to offer to keep people off of the SHOCK STRAIN BRAIN syndrome.

  11. And the bankers before the day of the Federal Reserve System we’re like hey we got to get this thing going somewhere we got to take over the United States Treasury but just got too many Bankers that are opposed it so why don’t we just put them all invite him on a big party on the Titanic and sink that sucker and then we can go ahead and go forward with our plans oh well history tells us about how that worked didn’t it

  12. So you say how would that work that you know a you is George erkin’s can charge people to to have access to comments of times well a lot of people are just plain vein and they’ll pay anything to see what the past was for their future

      • Interesting that Jon self-identifies as a Millennial, yet at age 39 clearly falls into the Gen X category. Much to commend the Xers, so not quite sure why he’d eschew being one. Something to do with protective coloration at work, I would suspect. He’ll be 40 this year or next, and thus of less perceived value in the workplace as a result. Fortunately, he’ll always have Uber to fall back on.

        And for the record, Benjamin Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731, considered to be the forerunner of the public library system, the definitive book-sharing instrument. Ahead of his time, but also definitely not a Millennial.

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