Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[johnnylight]

Buying the Dremel from HomeDepot is a good idea -we get to try the tool out for 15 or 30 days put it to the test, like you said it's easy to buy replacement parts for the Dremel (homedepot) $99.00 seems the way to go.

I check HF site they have replacement blades available for there version, also may be at a better price than the rest.
HF always keeps you thinking should I take chance is this one a keeper or a throw away.
hopefully the fein drops in price due to competition.

if it wasn't for that tile/brick (item # 95385 for $199) saw doing so well I wouldn't consider HF.

[shvl73]

Originally Posted by IslandTractor

Nope. Just Fall River and Warwick so far.

I didn't even know those were there. I gotta check the store locator more often.

[patrick_g]

Originally Posted by ArTrvlr

Thanks, I think I got it now. I assume the sheet metal shown held on with drywall screws is to keep the sheet of whatever from sliding off the frame?
Thanks for the drawing, jp

JP, Right you are, the sheet metal "fingers" are to hold the sheet goods until you rotate the load closer to the horizontal where the 60/40 weight distribution keeps the load rotated correctly. The 4x8 ft sheets of fiber cement are heavy and floppy and it is way easier to drag them upright on edge to the lift thingy than to try to pick up and place on a horizontal surface like saw horses, the lift thingy in horizontal position or whatever.

Once you have the sheet lifted and it has automatically aligned with the joists while lifting it you can adjust the position of the sheet a little so the turned up portion of the "fingers" are not in the space between the new sheet to be attached and a previously attached sheet.

Of course I could have bought or rented a dry wall lift but not so cheaply and easily as making the accessory out of 2x4's and screws which you get back when you take it apart.

Now, regarding the FEIN tool It is available at Amazon and several other places for $209 whereas it is listed at $400 on Fein's site.

I don't know enough about the Fein to want one and know even less about how well the HF version works. HF does have an element of a gamble about it and their tools are virtually never is as robust as a GOOD robust tool like Milwaukee.

Regarding the buy American crowd... Just how do you do that? I was doing a little organizing in my shop today and noted an invoice for some parts shipped to me for free from Delta to fix a drill press that had an engineering/manufacturing defect. There was COOL (Country Of Origin Labeling) for all the parts listed on the invoice. All were listed as made in China. If all the parts it is made of come from China just were do you suppose the drill press is made? Silly me, I thought Delta was Hecho in Los Estados Unidas. No es verdad!

Pat

[Egon]

[QUOTE lift thingy ][/quote]

Thingy may get upset by terminology associated with this statement!!

[gyrogeerloose]

Originally Posted by patrick_g

Just curious, how long does it typically take after flooding a basin before the salt is removed?

We harvest each pond annually but the process is a little more complex than just filling a pond and waiting for the water to evaporate. Because there's a lot more than just salt (that is, sodium chloride) dissolved in sea water, the water is moved from pond to pond throughout the entire process as the brine reaches certain concentrations. That way, things like gypsum and calcium chloride precipitate out in a specific pond before the water moves into the salt ponds. After most of the sodium chloride is deposited, what's left in moved into a final holding pond where it's sold as aqueous magnesium chloride, which is used as a dust control agent.

The interesting thing about the process is that, except for mechanization that's occurred since the Industrial Revolution, it has been pretty much unchanged for over 1000 years.

If you (or anyone reading this post) are interested in seeing some photos I've taken of the place, send me your e-mail address via private message and I'll send you a pass to my Flickr site. I can't make it totally public because the management doesn't want it.

[patrick_g]

Gyro, Thanks for the offer, I'll PM you. Thanks for the explanation, it was interesting.

Another interesting, but newer, industry working renewable resources out of San Diego is Kelco. I have often watched their "mowing machine" cruising along the kelp beds along the west side of Point Loma. I was actually on board the kelp cutter vessel along side at their pier. It was interesting but not something I'd like to repeat due to the smell. There is collateral harvest of crabs which were living in the kelp. The seagulls flock to the boat to get the crabs and the whole assemblage stinks to high heaven.

Oh well, the algin produced by Kelco ends up in toothpaste, wiener skins, ice cream and oodles of other things I use/eat.

You mention that there are lots of different constituents in sea water but you didn't mention GOLD.

Seawater is variously measured as having gold in it ranging from 5 to 50 ppt (Parts Per Trillion)(Lucas 1985), with the average concentration at about 13 ppt. The gold is in a very dilute solution but is in the tons per cubic mile.

There is about 13.9 trillion pounds of seawater in a cubic nautical mile so roughly 1807 lbs of gold. I think I recall reading as a child in an encyclopedia that there was a ton of gold per cubic mile (statute) so that is rough agreement with the later data. The problem is how can you economically extract it.

Pat

[patrick_g]

Originally Posted by Egon

[QUOTE lift thingy ]

Thingy may get upset by terminology associated with this statement!![/quote]

Thingy is way too smart to be confused by my use of thingy vice Thingy. What with names being proper nouns and capitalized and the clear context of the usage I suspect he had no difficulty whatsoever understanding my usage.

PM me if you need it broken down further.

Pat

[Egon]

[QUOTEThere is about 13.9 trillion pounds of seawater in a cubic nautical mile so roughly 1807 lbs of gold. I think I recall reading as a child in an encyclopedia that there was a ton of gold per cubic mile (statute) so that is rough agreement with the later data. The problem is how can you economically extract it.
][/quote]

And there will be many other very usefully elements present will there not?

Pat, you are on the cusp of harvesting sea water dissolved/suspended minerals and creating a solution to Global Warming!!

Large evaporative pans should provide cooling and you get left with the elements left behind. Pump salt water into areas below sea level and of high ambient temperature and the process begins.

Or journey to places like Taoudenni. where the results lie awaiting!

[Rowdius]

Originally Posted by Egon

Large evaporative pans should provide cooling and you get left with the elements left behind. Pump salt water into areas below sea level and of high ambient temperature and the process begins.

So, you're saying we need a new pipeline project to pump a shallow layer of the pacific ocean into Death Valley, right?

[gyrogeerloose]

Originally Posted by patrick_g

Another interesting, but newer, industry working renewable resources out of San Diego is Kelco.

Coincidentally, Kelco buys bulk salt from us, usually about 13 tons a week or so. That makes them a smallish customer.

You mention that there are lots of different constituents in sea water but you didn't mention GOLD.

Interesting idea. The gold would be suspended in the water rather than dissolved in it the way salt is so I imagine that it would deposit itself on the bottoms of the ponds. I'd be curious to know where in the process this happened.