ShopTalk Sunday: Black Friday Tool Planner

by

With our house guest due here in about 12 hours, we are going through the last-minute detailing of this, that, and the other thing.  Elaine keeps getting sidetracked with the feral cats and there are all these nifty “Buy Now!” emails – making it hard to get things really done.

Tool Slut or Check Slut?

Tools for the home are always a great matter of Turkey Day convoy because most people live under a roof (of some kind) and all of these – given enough time will leak.  So we begin with that.

There are several basic solutions to the problem of a leaky roof.

  1. Burn the house down, claim it was an accident, but while in prison for arson, you are unlikely to have a leaky roof.
  2. Call the local Roofing Company and write a check.
  3. Buy an emergency roofing patch kit and attempt makeshift DIY repairs.
  4. Or buy the whole kit: Compressor, nail guns, Skil saw, roofing hammers, roofing spade (basically a straight blade shovel with notches so you can pull off old three-tab roofing nails quickly.
  5. Then, because everything than can go wrong will, you’ll need vapor barrier, additional insulation, and (potentially) a boatload of OSB roofing material… Oh, and 30 squares of roofing.
  6. And then, when you fall off the roof (having stepped back a bit too far to “admire your work), you will go to the hospital – where you’ll be shocked at how few real (or competent) friends you have so you’ll  for a [RETURN] function toward the top of this list and call the Roofing Company.

Additionally, age figures into it, too:  My son regularly yells at me (“Dad you’re not stupid, so what the f are you doing on a ladder?“). At which point I tell him (let me quote a great writer here): “…you’ll be shocked at how few real (or competent) friends you have...”  There are times doing it yourself IS the only option.  (whew!)

Now that we have that clear…and after we pencil out the economics (of buying a shitload of tools, then blowing the job, and having to pay the roofers anyway) We get to walk through what kind of Life you live, dream of living, and what the budget, and what a certain square footage out of the rain will allow.

  • Apartment Dweller Shops #1 (with no deck or balcony) You need enough basic hand tools to take care of really simple repairs.  Like the license plate falls off the front of your car and you need a wrench to put it back on, kind of thing tool set.  You need an all-purpose – has a little bit of everything.  I bought such a kit for Elaine (who never opened it) so I took it back to the shop and it’s still a great “grab and go” answer for “little stuff” around the house. Got this one but nothing holy about the brand. Read the reviews and don’t cheap out. Our ProStomer was about $80 bucks (2022) and on a BFD (black Friday deal) they’re just over $60. Sick-em.
  • Apartment Dweller Shops #2 (with no deck or balcony).  Get really good small tool sets.  I recently picked up a watchmakers kit.  This one and under $30 bucks.  You can get old watches (a hobby that doesn’t take too much space) and maybe put a new crystal in, and things like that. Retro rules!  A second kit to go with it? Take $20 and grab a precision screwdriver (and lots of other things) kit like this one. A few YouTube videos on watch crystal replacements, and changing out batteries, plus klutzy friends who drop their phones and you can make enough money with a “Mr. Fixit Side Hustle” to buy an occasional beverage.
  • Apartment Dweller Shops #3 (with a deck or balcony). The right tools for the balcony depend really on where your heart leads.  If you like Breaking Bad, you could get a few hydroponic units (we like the Mufga’s 18-plant site variety for about $40 on sale).  But they weren’t on sale really when I looked here. Or you can buy some really good hydroponic meters.  A cheapie TDS (total dissolved solids) meter with temperature can be had for $8 bucks.  But before you leap, a kind word about TDS PLUS pH meters.  More like $20-ish (like this one) but for $25 (go ahead, live a little, you’re worth it!) you get the pH with your TDS and this puts you in the league of “real growers.”  (Of what is up to you. Though we like romaine and tomatoes…this is Texas after all…)
  • Crazy-Big Apartment? Well… There’s this very small “all-in-one” tool that hasn’t been manufactured for years and years called a Porta-Shop.  You can still find them on eBay once in a while – and there was one listed Saturday for $299 on eBay.  It’s a very small table saw, drill press, lathe, sander, etc…and it all fits in a housing that’s only a bit larger than a good-sized sewing machine.  Yes – in a closet!
  • In a town home or small house with half a garage to mess with?  Now you can begin asking the toughest questions in life: Do I get an all-in-one machine? (ShopSmith makes dandy gear, but it ain’t cheap and it does take time to change from, say, a lathe into a jig saw….but it’s a smaller footprint overall than discrete full-sized tools.)  There was a ShopSmith V – “Loaded to the Gills” on eBay Saturday and the only thing wrong was the price:  $3,000 which is on the wrong side of cheap for us.

Big Boy Shops

Maybe you have a lot better Focus than I do.  I saw the hell my late father went through, trying to figure out what would get him into being able to “get the most done” in a roughly 15 by 13 basement shop.  He eventually had to let it all go. A small table saw, was all that would fit in the space.  The rest were the power hand tools: A portable planer, two sanders (belt and orbital).  Tons of clamps for glue-ups, and more hardware than most aisles at Lowe’s.

Being a slow learner, I tried to do the “all things in one shop” and finally gave up on it back in 2010, or so. A huge bench isn’t the answer. Trust me.

Metalworking needed it’s own space.  Wood went over there. Drilling, buffing, jewelry work on that bench over in the morning sunlight.  Welding outside near a charged garden hose (where it rightly belongs) and such.

Even now, the shop is excessively crowded and when George2 comes home (assuming he ever does), he’s looking at a 60 by 100 ft steel building which would be half shop (workstations) and half barndominium.  Which ain’t a bad plan. Because as long as we’re both in good shape (yes, stay off the ladder) we could knock out a good barndo with shops in 4-5 months. Depending on how often we’d have to stop to pull bank robberies to afford it all. And getting early parole…

Prioritized Big Tools

Looking at what I use the most – and least – I’d offer some ideas:

  • DeWalt, Black and Decker, Skil, or Craftsman.  Pick one that has every tool God put on earth. Or, your shop will become like mine with one charger each, and that means more electrical than you can shake a stick at.  You will want a drill, impact driver, sander, circ saw, grinder, material cutter (one of these).  Funny story  – when I bought the 4V Worx cutter, no one else (B&D et al had one for their battery line.  Yep, another outlet occupied…
  • Get a good Drill Press.  Swing is how far in from the edge, a hole can be centered.  So an 8-inch swing can’t do what a 12-inch can.  If you are going to do more than right-angles, consider a radial drill press.  Variable speed, of course. Shop Fox makes a good one but it’s a little over $500. If you look around, Vevor and many others have a 12-inch swing and a rotating table that will get you most of the way there for less money.  Try this one. Send us the leftover dough.
  • Chop Saw would be my second power tool after the drill press. Hard to beat the harbor Freight 12″ saw on a good (spend a little dough on it) miter saw stand. But don’t go overboard.  A reasonable one – heavy on the one feature you want to get right – is how far apart the support arms will go.  Which means with a BORA Universal Miter Saw Stand with Quick Release Tool Mounting System- Portable Miter Saw Stand 500 Lbs Max Weight Load – 34-inch Height with Outrigger Arms Up to 114 Inches  you can cut to the middle of an 8-foot two by four without it dropping around on you.  About $68 bucks.  
  • Table saws are tough.  You need a good one and I rue the day I https://amzn.to/4fFBr6dbought a Sears Evo.  The saw’se miter slots are not standard!  Table saws come in three varieties.  Regular – which had the blade mounted equidistant between the front of the saw and back. A hybrid saw moves the blade back a little bit. The Cabinet saw…oh yummy!  All kinds of infeed room.  About the only major things to add (besides a zero clearance throat, dado blades, finger holding devices to reduce kickback) would be a long Fence. See, ultimately the squareness of the cut will depend how well you can potion (and hold!) the work feeding into the blade. I like at least a foot sticking out from the saw.  Powertec makes a 36″ long 3-inch high fence extension.  Much better indeed accuracy. $42 and change for the 36 – less for the 24-inch. Peachtree Woodworking makes an inexpensive outfeed table kit, too, which will really help with table saw work. Not killer reviews, though -so I need to ponder, study, and think on this one.

There – that ought to rip some thread out of your wallet on Black Friday…have fun and send in a write up on your latest projects – we can run ’em with pictures because we are all geeks at heart around here.

Keep “Workstations” In Mind

Remember in all your shopping that humans are “workstation-oriented” and this will clarify your tool slut addiction a great deal.

Definition: A workstation is where you part your butt to do work of some kind – and where (generally) the Four Shop Operations are performed. These are 1) cut, 2) measure, 3) join, 4) finish.  The order can vary – a bit.

Take a “normal” person.  They have only a few rooms in their living space and each of these is a kind of “workstation” unto itself.  The bedroom?

Think of it as a workstation, too:

  • Cut (the lights) and sleep
  • Measure (an alarm clock says for how long)
  • Join (unjoin to take clothes off, rejoin to put them back on)
  • Finish (make the bed when done).

Following?  So each workstation needs what?

  • Measuring tools.  Tape measures, voltmeters, clocks, scales, etc.
  • Cutting Tools: Wire cutters, saws, grinders, plasma rig, and so on.
  • Join: Glue, Solder, Weld, Nail, Screw, attach with bolts.
  • Finish: Reassemble, sand, paint, varnish, slice (as in turkey, or prime rib at the kitchen/workstation).

These steps are inherent for each “workstation” in your world.  Whether its the kitchen – where the measuring is cups, the cutting is the slicing and dicing, the joining is done with heat, and the finish is presentation at serving – all workstations have necessary tool lists.

My screw up in Life was not recognizing the expense for square footage and for tooling involved in having too many personal workstations, though it’s a dream to choose from:

Each of these is well-equipped, but it didn’t happen over night.  It has been almost like the gardener who – upon finding an unfamiliar seed, plants it and comes back later to label/identify what he’s grown.

And that’s where this fascination with workstations  came from.  People with tons of interests can’t have too much space or too big a budget.  And once you “have it all” (that you want) there’s always one more “place” to build out as (yet-another) workstation.

Example: We have most of the parts for a “rustic furniture” workstation.  A bunch of rustic woodworking tools, clamps, bench materials, and a forest of fresh wood, for example. And assorted chainsaws and…. well, you get the idea.

Have fun with Black Friday.  I bought a few “supplies” for a couple of workstations this week – solder for the electronics bench, some late winter crops for the hydroponics, and a new cable for the audio/video workstation.

“He who dies with the most tools workstations wins!”

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

85 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Black Friday Tool Planner”

      • Yeah..I have a really smart dog to..
        I asked it … what’s it like going outside to got potty….
        Ruff Ruff

        where does Santa land his sleigh…. Roof roof..

        she can hear the fed ex truck or the UPS truck 3 blocks away…
        funny story.. the grand kids dog Fang 2 ran off.. they looked everywhere..then they seen the UPS truck and sure enough Fang 2 was right behind him..see ups drivers give the dogs a treat..lol lol lol he’s no dummy .. every time he stopped there he was waiting for a treat…

      • Out of curiosity… I wonder what would have been said after congress opened the toilets to people that see themselves as gay or lesbian.. if men just started walking into the women’s toilet at the capital..

  3. Warning, danger, warning danger G2.
    In the county where I reside, if you put an apartment, or even a lavatory in a 6000 sqft steel building, then you are taxed at the same rate as a 6000 sqft McMansion. A neighbor found that out the hard way. If you can live in it, then the entire square footage is taxed as residential, even if it is vacant.
    Detach your living quarters from the steel building. Also plan on building a detached solar equipment building if solar appeals to you.

    • Just tear out the “living quarters” and park a motor home next to it. It doesn’t even need to run.

    • As if there wasn’t already too much work for a human lifetime! Why do people bother with these protests? Does it ever really change anything?

      People are weird!

      • No.. it rarely gets anything done..I believe the puppeteers plan these demonstrations.. why else do they march and destroy their own homes and local businesses..
        consider the Rodney King demonstration.. twenty years later a resident was on the news and couldn’t quite understand why they have to drive so far to go shopping.. hmm
        you never see a demonstration or riot in like a neighborhood where the people that make the laws and can make the changes live..that is by design.. I can see it now one neighbor out watering his garden and he asks his next door neighbor..say Jim we are going to demonstrate tonight..mind if we destroy your car burn your house down.. your wife’s pretty and so is your daughter..mind if some of us take a turn..

        where if they really wanted to make a change..write a letter.. legal size envelope or larger.. simple question asking them to do something on any subject.. send one to every member of congress and do that for a couple weeks..
        those jokers don’t work..even now they aren’t in dc.. the string pullers have them stroking their meat at home or some luxury resort..
        anyone that has ever been to the beltway knows that place is insane.. 25 thousand letters a day to every member of congress would create over a thousand jobs and shut the city down.. what several truckloads to each member.. if it takes two Texas farm boys a couple hours to unload a truck it would take twenty federal employees a whole day to unload one.. then look at the federal holidays..it wouldn’t matter who pays them what..they would fly back instantly to take care of it.. that would be the voice of the citizens talking..it would be news world wide..and create thousands of jobs.. no threats no destruction no raping and pillaging a simple letter asking your representatives to deal with a situation.
        I asked a member of congress a question..he sent me a fifty pound box of scrap and none of it pertaining to the question I asked.. he didn’t have a foggy clue..

        • “write a letter.. legal size envelope or larger.. simple question asking them to do something on any subject.. send one to every member of congress and do that for a couple weeks..”

          Lessee, the stamp is 73¢, the envelope is 4¢ and the paper is a penny.

          So, 78¢ x 537 (435 reps, 100 senators, Prez and VP) is $418.86 per day. Sent every day for two weeks would cost 5864.04.

          Not gonna happen…

      • amen to that one..
        heck a huge AMEN
        like it says.. in the Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, these ten rules are a set of ethical and religious directives that are part of the Hebrew Bible in proper conduct. All religious sects have their set of rules that are given.. the rest of that crap is man’s intervention of what they wish for their communities to fit their personal desires..that’s why when you read the bible..(as long as you don’t play pick a verse) you will see thousands of direct contradictions to what we have been taught.

  5. “DeWalt, Black and Decker, Skil, or Craftsman. Pick one that has every tool God put on earth. Or, your shop will become like mine with one charger each, and that means more electrical than you can shake a stick at.”

    Yeah, about that. Be sure you buy ALL of the tools you might eventually need of one brand at the same time. I bought a Craftsman drill and an impact driver about 10 years ago. Still work great. Now I want a battery operated 4.5″ angle grinder with the same type battery as the other tools. Nope! Craftsman has changed their battery design, so the ones I have cannot be used with a new tool and vice versa. So now I’ll have yet another style of battery and charger to keep up with, along with my Echo electric chainsaw and the Black and Decker weed trimmer.

    • batteries are like light bulbs. it’s impossible to only have one type of lighbulb in your house. I tried as I bought new fans, new light fixtures, and redid bathroom lighting. it just can’t be done.

    • There’s a business model waiting for someone with the skills to suss out the sense leads on various tools and batteries and make effective converters from one to another. There are adapters on Ebay, but most simply carry power without effective sense/balance connections. Such a device may require active logic to provide the proper inputs to the tool or battery.

    • Amazon and Temu both sell adapters. You can use your DeWalt battery on a Makita, or your B&D battery on a Greenworks. Search “tool battery adapter…”

      • The adapters I don’t see are from Bauer batteries to pretty much anything else. Also, a cool one would be from two(or four) Bauer 20V batteries to Atlas 40V and 80V tools. Often returned higher voltage tools get sold off cheaply because nobody has the right batteries and nobody is going to buy them and a charger.

        I’ve looked at the Amazon selection. I’ll check out Temu.

        • Bear in-mind I don’t know if they are regulated. I’ve just noticed them. My stuff is Makita (18v) and Greenworks (48v) so I don’t see myself adapting one for the other…

    • luv the newer 20 V DeWalt chainsaw and pole saw. Property in Belize never looked so “tight” and well groomed. Locals marvel at the quietness of the saws, and ability to power thru everything the jungle throws at it – heavy “biopressure” in tropics..nothing stops growing&moving, including the insects.
      On that note – the heavy rains from trop storm Sarah. Just gotten back to beach, from moutain pine ridge/Cayo – dont want to get stuck in moutain river valleys when heavy rains are forecast..see Ashville, NC. .forgot to tell wife about fireants nesting around trash box/cage where we keep garbage cans.
      Also failed to mention they tend to float on surface of pooled up water. So If ins you step into said water with flipflops on…weel, did I mention the better half is allergic to fireants toxin., who knu?

      A week later welts and discomfort have gone down a little – put Wife has ordered “nukes” from the property manager .
      Lil red fkrsl will be obliterated later this week, and I mean obliterated.

      Leave no trace ? F-that, bite my better half and find out what hell is all about.

  7. As, a roofer in one of my earlier incantations, I will tell you its all about ROI at this point. The investment in tools may not pay off if it is used once or twice…but to counter that my 55 year old speed square and me can dry one i rather well. And the skill comes in handy in hurricane ally.

    pro tip…a couple of rolls of self adhesive roofing under-layment in the shed is a life saver

    • Often it’s cheaper to bite the bullet and buy the tool. I bought a Harbor Fright porta-power equivalent to change tracks on a track loader. I’ve only used it for that one job(so far), but it easily paid for itself vs having to hire the job out. That job could not reasonably be done without it.

      The real problem is where to put all the extra tools where I can find them again!

      • Put a list on a nearby string and pad with a pen attached and an alphabeticalized and cross alphabeticalized tool list with a categorization of where each tool calls home, as you get older you’ll need to compartmentalize everything in a alphabetical order but your list will give multiple names for the compartmentalized item, keep it the paper pad that is organized on your computer so that when categories and compartments change all you do is print out a new pad list, and you’ll never have to worry about finding those tools again because they’re anywhere from A to z -1 2 3,
        Think like you’re a miniature Amazon warehouse, unless you’re like me and don’t put the tools back then you have to run around the house a couple times looking outside for everything and then you have to go inside and look for everything oh it’s a nightmare. Lol ,,now what did I do with that cell phone

    • “pro tip…a couple of rolls of self adhesive roofing underlayment in the shed is a life saver”

      Excellent tip!

  8. Tool-slut: it’s worse than a disease … it’s a sickness. I’m busting at the seams with > 3 “shops” on the property, each with their own tool sets. Duplication? Yep. But, having to drive to the pole barn workshop for this or that encourages side-tracks aplenty and … we wuz trying to get something done.

    E2 lives (9) hours away so I have been handing off everything I have too many of. He certainly has a good start on tool empire North but, it’s a standard Dad gig to buy more. The funnest part is handing off a brace and bit while ‘splaining it belonged to his Great Grandpa (so some still stuff is > 100 years old).

    On moving to the lake I merged my tool set with my Dad’s in the barn. Then I moved the must save hits from a 22,000 sf manufacturing facility (fam. screw machine shop) into the barn. I probably should ask for a (large type bold font) labeling kit from Santa.

    Barn build-out: I despise not being able to see what I’m doing. We have two banks of (4) standard LED floods but they are mounted 15′ above the pad. Over time I have added, guess it’s eight?, LED 4’ tubes into designated shop stations (general, metal working, wood working, insulated shop).

    What do I want for Christmas? Nothing really. We are off to visit E2 and wife in MinnesOta this year. It’s a first. Spending two weeks away from the nest. That hasn’t happened in my adult life. Think our max. sailing charter was a 10-day with a day on each end to decompress / recompress. Two weeks … in MN :-O

    Though not a great time to do long drives here-to-there E2 and my DIL sprouted E3 and, well, he’s a dandy. (Big) Little fella just turned 1/2 and I haven’t seen him since he was 5 weeks out of the womb.

    All I want for Christmas is E3 on my knee. And dark beer.
    ATL: another gray day for hunters. Damp-Chill.
    Write when done shopping …

    Egor

    ps – wordslinger: take time off. Enjoy your guest!

    • Dear Mrts. Egor, mother of E2, etc.

      He wants WHAT for Christmas?

      A *** LABELING MACHINE ***

      See https://amzn.to/3CH7vI9 for ideas. Don’t chintz out. See, Egor worships you. Least you can do is get him two (I’d suggest a label maker AND a Brother or Dyno tape type). And many Refill Tapes. Why, just think! You will know how he organizes his shop when all is said and done. E2 will know what boxes to raid, too….trust me on this! He will get more things off the Mrs E To-Do list faster.

      • I’m going to make sure the Missus sees this plea. Or, just trust to Santa. BTW, like as not, I’ll just start walkin’ round with a sooper size Sharpie in my pocket. But not this day! Padawan is due heat ‘o the day and we are taking my race mast to the barn then rolling, bagging and hanging my race sail. Then … a local dark beer (Kalamazoo Stout) while the young fella deals with neighbors leaves (before they become my leaves). Stay warm all! E [tool-slut apprentice grade]

      • Or a handheld printer that prints on anything (no, I don’t have a link, but a search on handheld printer should be fruitful…)

      • Hank:

        I’m not sure they get more snow than we do but, it’s certainly colder. On the Holiday we enter phase 2 of snow season. In the Burbs of MinnesOta it will be single digits (7F forecast). I’ll take the snow!

        Late last week when phase 1 blew through Great Lake Michigan saved us. The real winter looped down the west shore whitening Chicago and allowed us just a coverlet. Often we get Lake Effect and that’s when we see serious white (>2″/hour).

        Last year we wondered why decorate since it was just for the two of us. This year we won’t even be here. I’ll rig the exterior LED floods and call it done.

        HoHoHo,
        E

    • (“Duplication? Yep. But, having to drive to the pole barn workshop for this or that encourages side-tracks aplenty “)

      I hear you on that one..lol lol..
      if you have kids.. heck one child asked me if I have shop work lights ..absolutely..but the one asking me borrowed all of them and never made it home..
      my mini me has a real nice tool set..he is anql about getting his tools back lol lol..took him into ACE and the vlerk started laughing..he’s just like you are lol lol

    • Standing seam maybe. With the screw down type the screws need to be checked and tightened every ten years or sooner. Might as well go with the ash fault shingles. Which is what I did.

      My relatives all have metal roofs. They are up there every few years checking the screws for leaks. The worst was a standing seam roof that was improperly installed at a friend’s place. We had to go up ourselves and just replace an entire porch roof after the one year warranty expired.

      We never figured out what was wrong, but the roofers installed it over the old ash fault shingles. My friend and I simply ripped everything off and replaced a section of plywood that was rotten and applied caulking. Then we covered the edges with Grace Ice and Water Shield. After that we put down the wood strapping and new standing seam roofing. We had to rent the cutting tool and wasted a few sheets and hours with bad cuts until we got it right.

      Hasn’t leaked since!

      • There is an aluminum tape with heavy, sticky underside for sealing metal roofs. I cut small squares and applied it over my metal roof screws. Seals ’em tight with a waterproof cover, and they don’t come loose again. PITA to get them all, but again, once and done. It’s the 100-year roof… in a tropical environment that boasts 150 inches of rain a year… between roasting tropic sun sessions.

      • got loose metal roof screws,, remove screw put rtv silicone caulking in the hole, reinstall,,, done.
        got bolts or nuts that vibrate loose, rtv silicone, stops the vibration and is removable when needed to be

    • we did that more than a couple years ago.. a friend was putting up the turbine fan ..and he said yup in ten years or so you will need to get the roof redone..
      we talked and since I am not getting younger we decided to do it..the steel roofing and materials.. 2500.00 got it done.. last year the kids had a much smaller roof done and they got a bud for materials.. it was give times what I paid for materials..

    • (““The Nail Gun Massacre” – Trailer (1985)”)

      lol lol lol.. working in a cabinet shop.. well process was final staples you put the cabinet on a squaring table … doing it fast I would take my knee and while holding the top knock the bottom in to sqare snap snap snap done…
      anyway six pretty young ladies were assigned to me to show them how it’s done.
      Showing off to the young women I was flipping the cabinet cases up lightning speed.. and stapled my nut sack to my leg…lol lol lol a two inch quartet crown staple. lol lol the girls of course started laughing..
      years later one of the ladies and I were on the safety committee…the lady started to laugh and when the boss asked what was so funny..she looked at me and said remember when you stapled your nuts to your leg..
      the boss said you should have reported that..yeah sure you betcha.. a pig pink injury report on the builtin board..no way.
      safety first don’t show off ..
      it is essentially a gun..

        • OTFLMAO…

          yeah it was not fun either..my leg hurt and the sack..I make sure to tell all the kids to be careful with tools..
          not to mention embarrassing.. lol
          the girls were fun and made the embarrassing situation more of a lighthearted incident..

        • Ya my sack left me years ago, a very sad day indeed.

          I cried, I pleaded..”come back sack”, but sack was having none of it..” no I am offended by you and Ure underwear”

          So snip, snip, zap, zap.. cauterized and ready 2 start shooting again..Blanks.

          Ready to shoot again after convalescing for 24 hr with bags of frozen vegetables..we are talking All Pain & No Moar “Gain” – at which time my neighbor thought would good time for me watch video Harvey Kietel in the “Bad Lieutenant ” …fckr!

          -https://youtu.be/oFvGeMDW7bw?

  11. Since the move I am still having to dig through crates to find the tool needed for the chore at hand. I finally had to call “hold in place” until I can get the shop back to sort of organized.
    When packing to move a friend down the road had a bunch of his fruit crates, roughly 4X4 plywood open top crates he was going to torch when the rains returned. I was able to get 6 salvageable ones and loaded most of the tools and supplies. All held up to arrival with the exception of 1 that fell apart just as I was setting it down. The loader hydraulics lurched a little. The stationary tools and the rollaways loaded as is wrapped in that f#$%ing plastic that is a pain to undo.
    My beautiful wife took a break from organizing her house and came out yesterday to help unpack mostly because she has a growing to-do list for me but not much was completed. The distraction of her wearing those tight jeans and t shirt bending over and picking a tool out of the crate then asking with that look “what’s this for?” made it hard, ahem, to stay on task. I finally told her that I love her forever and we should take the afternoon off. Still giving me “the look” she smiled and said OK. Besides, it was my birthday.
    My 2 sons are here today to help me so maybe some of the work will get done.
    Stay safe. 73

  13. Rant? A little help from Elon…

    My son is deployed for 9 months in the middle east. He texted me through his iPhone attached to a StarLink account. A Godsend in communication from a hostile environment. He is looking for a care package of non perishable food. Me and the General (she outranks me), are going to the grocery store to fill a postal box.

    So I asked, why do you need food?

    The army requires each soldier to pay $5 cash for every meal they eat. Naturally I ask how do you get the cash? Finance people fly in once per month, and allow an advance on their paycheck, then given the cash. And no food is for sale on Sundays!

    Very sad that illegal’s get billions in benefits while our soldiers are deployed for 9 months in mid east hot spots, and have to pay cash for meals while living in tents.

    The DoD needs major reform… yep, get some Major’s and Colonel’s into the upper command structure, and get rid of the too many Generals that have made things worse for the soldiers!

    • I had to read your post twice to recover from shaking my head so hard on the first read. Soldiers have to pay for their own meals in combat zones and illegal migrants line up at the buffet table in 4 star American hotels for free meals and accommodation? I presume a left wing crazy would read this and say the problem is that migrants aren’t getting room service.

      Sheesh

    • I never heard of such a thing when I was in the Army back in the early to mid 70’s. Sounds like it won’t help with reenlistment numbers at all.

    • WHAT?! Deployed troops don’t even get FED by the military?? What happened to the mess hall? C-rations? How in the flaming HELL does the military expect troops to perform if they don’t FEED THEM??! “An Army moves on it’s stomach” was once gospel.
      Freaking unbelievable. Is that disclosed to potential enlistees?

    • $5.00 cash for every meal? Financiers flown in?

      CAN YOU PLEASE GET THIS INFORMATION OUT THERE???

      ANY ‘X’ ERS, FACEBOOKERS, INSTAGRAMERS, TIC TOCKERS, CHURCH EMAILS, WORK EMAILS, ETC., PUT IT ON OUT THERE!!!

      Remember, if WW3 is coming, it’s coming for your DAUGHTERS and your SONS.

  14. re: In Starm’s Shadow
    feat: St. George & the Dragon

    Folks,

    Two silver reals for your thoughts? Okay, how about a two-bits George Washington Eagle then? Sunday is a wonderful day on which to tool up the fog machines for our story collections. It seems that in 2009 the Kyiv Landscape Initiative constructed a wooden hedgehog statue at an intersection in the centre of Kyiv. The tourist attraction is apparently a magnet for East Europeans indoctrinated by the 1975 Soviet animated child cartoon, “Hedgehog in the Fog”.

    As the story goes, a hedgehog befriends a bear cub and they drink tea while talking about stars. Hedgehog brings raspberry jam on one visit to see the bear cub. He is scared by an eagle-owl while becoming lost in forest fog and losing his jam jar. Following a mysterious encounter with a white horse, Hedgehog is rescued from a river by a fish while a dog returns the lost jam. (I don’t know if it’s a French poodle.) Hedgehog finds bear cub. They drink tea and talk about the white horse.

    Meanwhile The Bank of Russia website proudly announced last month’s release of it’s latest 25 rouble (US25 cent) coin featuring a Hedgehog in the Fog likeness. Russian msm notes that the coin “carries deep meaning”.

    Speaking of stars, British msm pictured the gleaming Rolls Royce steed of King Charles III depositing His Majesty at the threshold of the Royal Albert Hall on Friday evening for the Royal Variety Performance. (The King’s loaner Tesla Model S was perhaps under charge.) Sir Elton John and his husband greeted the Monarch’s solo arrival against a velvet red backdrop as the Queen Consort remained at the Palace under doctor’s orders. A television-presenter-by-day event hostess attired in a Little Mermaid dress was well received by attending paparazzi.

    Evening performances included outtakes from “Oliver” as well as “The Devil Wears Prada”. ‘Nu-disco Queen’ Sophie Ellis-Bextor delivered her hit “Murder on the Dance Floor” dubbed as ‘new’ which dates from her 2001 album “Read My Lips”.

    Back to Texas tool tyme with DJ George in studio. Today’s lesson may include direction on tuning your chainsaw in the key of C.

  15. Windows 11 24H2 installed itself on my computer today. I looks about the same, but under the hood, the operating system was given a major overhaul. Apparently the kernal code was ported to a language called Rust. I can’t see much change. It does take a while to load.
    I looked at the Energy saver recommendations, and didn’t like any of it.
    I did clean up my disc a bit, and freed up some disc space.
    Everything seems to work.

  16. Don’t understand this tool thing. Now floating nicely about 200 yards offshore (and 4000nm south) on this fine craft we built.
    42′ x 14′ , finished from the bare shell, keel on, but nothing else. A hollow shell, rough primed outside, nothing inside. Had a small crate of Ryobi 18V (angle grinder, saber saw, 3/8″ drill, ‘skil’saw, router, vacuum, radio, flashlight, and six batteries and a charger). 13 months and a few thousand hours later, we launched (still unfinished inside and out, washing dishes in a bucket in the cockpit for four months). One 64 pc drill index, a Kirkland 175 pc mechanical tool box, a collection of small hand tools like saws, pliers, what not…. now every tool that finished our little floating home (minus the mini table saw that did so much while we worked on the dock) is on board, in the foc’sl with room to spare. And still plenty of room for us and two more if desired. Sleeps five, nice galley, shower, head, all you need in 20000 lbs. top speed on passage 13.7.
    Hard to understand why anyone needs a barn full of anything to make due, but living on dirt obviously encourages stacking of all kinds.
    Me and the missus (now 78 and 75) are looking forward to thousands more miles and many islands in our handy container. Definitely no extra tool slut space though (and the naval architect frowns on any added weight… he’s all about fast). Sail fast… live slow.
    Stiks

  17. (“My son regularly yells at me (“Dad you’re not stupid, so what the f are you doing on a ladder?“). At which point I tell him (let me quote a great writer here): “…you’ll be shocked at how few real (or competent) friends you have…” There are times doing it yourself IS the only option. (whew!)”)

    my kids do that as well..but.. their intentions are honorable.. but realistically they can’t.. they have a life of their own..and whether I like it or not their life issues will come first.
    take G2 .. how often is he truly around to deal with the issues you need done..he’s not probably working a few hundred miles away..
    that leaves you.. to deal with what’s happening..
    you can hire it done even there.. around here if you want a plumber to fix a small job..good luck.. it ain’t going to happen.. even electricians.. when I had the backup generator installed it took a year before he could get it fitted into his busy schedule..
    i only got a plumber because a kid graduating from plumbing school though before he took a job with a big firm he would do a few smaller jobs get his feet wet first..in two weeks he was two years backlogged..
    considering the hard times in my life..I can tell you everyone became a ghost.. everyone ran away..that leaves you to deal with it.. I keep thinking on going back to plumbing school just to fix the scrap here..
    air conditioning techs make as much as a surgeon..

    • “air conditioning techs make as much as a surgeon..”

      Sure they do and Pennsylvania Black Bears use live cottontail Rabbits to wipe their asses with upon completion of morning constitutional.

      Yep, every year several thousand of the top performing college students apply and compete for a entry ticket to top medical schools, and then repeat process 4 years later for spots in top residency programs, just to be heavily recruited upon graduating.

      My Kid recently completed the programs – choose best offer outta residency..Pediatrician making around 250k 1st year. His wife the surgeon will make at least 4 times that as a OBGYN surgeon when she graduates later this year from Ivy league med school.

      Yep – that must be some extremely competitive schools in the boonies for HVAC techs – Dam!

      • Manager: $68,286 per year, or $32.83 per hour
        Master HVAC license: $77,000 per year
        In Texas, the average salary for an HVAC technician is $54,765 per year. In Dallas, the average salary is $58,149 per year.
        But that’s a bit unfair: There’s also the time factor in life. Because HVAC people are working in 9 months, or less. there’s four + years of lost income on the doctoring side.
        PLUS most HVAC workers don’t have big college loans. Not on the scale of doctors.
        So while the Big Picture is good for docs, don’t count the HVAC crowd paupers.
        Oh, and barriers to entry? None for a master HVAC sort.
        Wanna try and ground level up a hospital in any specialty>? An d then talk to me about malpractice insurance.

        The cost of medical malpractice insurance for doctors in the United States varies widely, but the national average is between $5,000 and $20,000 annually. However, the cost can be much higher depending on the doctor’s specialty, location, and other factors:
        Specialty
        Surgeons typically pay between $30,000 and $50,000 per year, while other medical professionals pay between $4,000 and $12,000 per year. Obstetricians and gynecologists tend to pay the highest rates.
        Location
        Doctors in Texas pay below the national average, but doctors in Houston, El Paso, Brownsville, McAllen, and Laredo pay more. Doctors in New York pay about six times as much as doctors in California.
        Past claims history
        Insurance companies consider a doctor’s past claims history when setting their rates.

        • Wow..the kid living next door just got his journeymans… he makes way more than that..and the I’d in the little town close to us charged me 250.00 per hour plus mileage and parts to hook up the gas line.
          now a handyman .. one kid set up a handyman service.. he got 50.00 per hour..
          now that’s just crazy.. I live in the land of low wages for common labor yet professional labor is way more ..heck my grand daughter makes better than some of those as a professional just out of school..amazing

        • My wife’s and my malpractice insurance wasn’t nearly that much..
          a lot of the nurses don’t carry it..they said oh the facility provides it..yeah the insurance the facility has is theirs.. two young nurses working in a federal building under a hospital..followed the commands of the administrator instead of medical protocol.. it caused the person to die. the hospital and the federal facility tossed the two girls under the wheels of the bus.. they were the professionals in charge and instead of being g the professional listened to a glorified clerk typist.both I believe had To go to prison for a couple years. Both lost their license and I believe both was nailed for seven million lost everything ..
          where if they had had their own malpractice insurance they would have been covered.
          they still would have lost their career..they should have called for an ambulance then let the clerk typist refuse it.. but they didnt.. they teach everyone the S.T.P. rule.. stabilize and transport patient. let someone that makes the money make the million dollar decisions..
          a few years ago..o e of my guys was in respetory distress I took him in..the doctor asked..why did you bring him in.. excuse me doc. STP let the man making the money make the million dollar decisions..

        • There’s really no accessible table that compares per hour rate net of insurance, taxes, lost time(for schooling, residency, apprenticeship, etc), legal risk, etc. Making up such a table would be quite time consuming, even if you could get accurate info for input.

          I value free unstructured time. Money is a secondary consideration unless I actually have a reason to want to spend it. Free time is non-taxable(so far).

  18. (“after we pencil out the economics (of buying a shitload of tools, then blowing the job, and having to pay the roofers anyway) We get to walk through what kind of Life you live, dream of living, and what the budget, and what a certain square footage out of the rain will allow.”)

    after being tossed under the wheels of the bus by an employer playing the stock market and several medical events..I couldn’t get a loan to buy a roll of toilet paper..
    I have been told several times I didn’t make enough to own a home ..Norway could I get a conventional home loan..the only way was at 18 to twenty percent interest short term balloon and only one banker.. he knew what I had been through when he was a young kid in school..the good thing is he set the short term loans up so I could pay them off early no penalties..and I could make partial payments.. so I split the loan payment in two and made an extra percentage..I got the list of how much went to interest and how much went to the loaned amount. an extra ten dollars a month was what three or four payments on principle.. splitting it in half I beat the interest.
    I had to build my home..it was the only way I could ever own a home..even now I would be screwed if I had to pay rent..

  19. I was in the 101st Airborne/Air Assault Div. during the Carter years, and the post-Viet Nam drawdown Army was every bit as screwed up as it is now, but without the pronouns. We had nothing to do as a Military Intelligence unit so they kept us in the field seven months a year. We had to buy our own food and haul it to the field in our jeep trailers as there were no stocks of field rations. We got so sick of waking up in our GP small tents heated by diesel drip-fed pot-bellied stoves, that we found the wood/coal conversion kits and used hand saws and axes to cut and buck up standing dead hardwood to feed them. At least it gave us something productive to do. Once out of the field, there were no functioning vehicle wash racks on post so we had to take them just off post to coin-operated car washes. I found out later that a retired general officer from the division owned all the small businesses in that strip, including the car washes. The incompetence and conniving carry on forever.

    • Lol yeah the us government sent steel towed snow boots to Antarctica.. the guys couldn’t use them..the cold there would chop their toes off..so they had to buy their own. even in the seventies the military in the USA would hire a cooking crew..the cook on Andrews was knockout cook.. a chef from a top restaurant.. and he knew what he was doing ..
      they sent me a pair of them..dam warm here..my feet would sweat in them..

  20. Being a tool slut has its perks and its drawbacks…
    I always got a bid high middle low..if I could do it myself materials tools and hourly wage cheaper than either of the bids..then I read everything I could on it.. then invested in the tools materials. today I am getting older.. being mostly blind and having the reputation of being a clutz.. I hire it done..

  21. “…you’ll be shocked at how few real (or competent) friends you have…” There are times doing it yourself IS the only option.”

    Yeah, my quote is: “I have yet to find (or see) a job that will do itself.”

    Every time my kids nag me (or b!tch me out) for doing a job, they hear the above quote. My kids don’t live here, but they are all within driving distance. My eldest daughter is the “Can we do it tomorrow? It’s too {hot, cold, wet, dry, early, late, etc.} to do it today” type. She usually gets really bent when I ask for help, then do the job without her because “tomorrow” it will rain or snow, be 100 degrees or 10 below, or I will have an appointment three States away, or something. None of them seem to understand that the weather or an external circumstance determine when I do a job — almost never is the execution of a job or chore done at a time determined by my whim…

    • I have a couple of the I can’t right now but how about tomorrow kids myself..
      to get the furnace fixed I had to shame a plumbing company into doing it..it cost as much as a new system.
      I had been trying to get someone anyone..all the big companies would give you your on our list..or we are busy but in a couple days.. you can get them to come out and give an estimate..but if its something small job..your on the back burner.
      plumbers won’t go back to to small jobs until new construction slows down.
      new construction has a higher profit.. one of my grandsons is a construction engineer.. he told me they finish a new house every three days..
      once it slows down then prices will go down to..they have gone hungry first..

    • Nobody complains about me doing life threatening work on ladders or elsewhere, but often the job really requires two competent people and they’re simply not available. I want to install a highly curved(and expensive) back glass in a car and have things all prepped, but I don’t want to risk the glass getting imperfectly positioned and/or broken, since it’s an expensive piece. Even storing it is problematic! I could tow or trailer the car 100 miles each way to a glass shop and pay someone to do the job, but that seems excessive. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions!

  22. In an area with no permits required, the most expensive part of building a decent sized shop building is the concrete foundation and floor! That’s a tough one to do alone or even with two people if you’re talking multiple thousands of square feet. Writing that check ain’t cheap, and it needs to be done all at once. Does anyone know of a better alternative? There are only so many friends(if any) and their skillsets and priorities are their own.

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