At Home In The Woods

[mikefromnh]

Part of the reason for no cordless tools is battery life and cost. Free batteries for life, no strings attached?

I just bought the ridgid 12 volt impact and driver set. Cheaper if you buy online. I even got 25% off on thanksgiving day!

My m12 milwaukee batteries stopped working after 6 months after the two year warranty ran out. $40 a piece to replace so I went with the ridgid

R9004N 12 Volt Drill/Impact Online Combo-R9004N at The Home Depot

The warranty is for 3 years UNLESS you register for the FREE Lifetime warranty, batteries included.

Power Tool Warranty - RIDGID Professional Tools

 

[jinman]

I've really had good luck with my Hitachi Reconditioned Tools from Reconditioned Sales. They have changed their name to Big Sky Tool Co and I get something on sale from them in an email notice weekly. I don't mind their emails because I've bought four different things from them and they all are excellent tools. Be careful and make sure your new power tools are Li-Ion powered. Lithium-Ion batteries are great for long tool use. I have one 3.0 Ah battery pack and several 1.5 Ah. It seems the 3.0 lasts forever, and 18 VDC provides plenty of torque. Right now, Big Sky has a Li-Ion combo kit with: drill-driver, impact driver, flashlight, charger, and case on sale for $146. I don't know of a better deal anywhere. Their reconditioned tools look and work just like new.:thumbsup:

 

[Obed]

Today my wife broke our 5/32 masonry bit trying to attach studs to the concrete wall for the next set of shelves. So I stopped by the hardware store on my way home and picked up a couple of drill bits. Tomorrow I will continue work on the shelves.

 

[Obed]

My wife attached one 2x4 to the concrete wall yesterday before her masonry bit broke. Today I continued where she left off. I attached the two remaining 2x4s to the wall. I have to say I was a bit apprehensive about screwing the 2x4s to the poured concrete wall. I've never done it. I remember the subs mentioning using Tapcon screws when we built the house. So we bought some and using them was actually pretty easy. Using a new masonry bit, I set the drill on hammer and had no problem drilling the holes and screwing the boards to the concrete. We put pressure treated spacers between the 2x4s and the concrete to keep the untreated wood off the concrete.

The shelves we are building now are more complicated than the first set of shelves. These shelves are in a corner whereas the other shelves were on a straight wakk. I admit I scratched my head for a while getting a plan together for how to build the frame for the shelves. I eventually put down a plan on paper. I cut the frame boards for the first shelf. I then laid them all out on the floor to make sure all the measurements worked right. On board was 1/4 too short so I modified my drawing accordingly. I then started cutting boards. I labeled each board A, B, C, D, E, F as I cut them to simplify assembling them.

 

[Obed]

We've had a warm spell so we haven't burned a fire in the fireplace the past few days. However, it's getting colder again so we started a fire tonight. I'm sitting by the fire now as I type this message. There's no substitute for a nice warm fire. To top it off, I'm eating some cookies and drinking eggnog. Life is good!

 

[tony Cecil]

We've had a warm spell so we haven't burned a fire in the fireplace the past few days. However, it's getting colder again so we started a fire tonight. I'm sitting by the fire now as I type this message. There's no substitute for a nice warm fire. To top it off, I'm eating some cookies and drinking eggnog. Life is good!

That is sure a nice way to feel....Merry Christmas to you and your family, and I look forward to the fires myself, although most will be outdoors burning `windfalls` etc...Tony

 

[Obed]

I'm still trying to work out what works best regarding our process for cutting, stacking, and burning wood. I've been mixing species of wood in my pallets. However, the mixture is not working so well. The percentage of non-oak wood on my pallets is too high. I'm finding that once the fire is going well, I only want to put oak or hickory in the fireplace. However, my pallets contain about 1/3 oak or hickory, 1/3 poplar or maple, and 1/3 pine. I'm now considering putting pine on a pallet by itself and just using it to start fires.



In addition, originally I split the wood into pieces that were too large in diameter. Then I went to the opposite extreme and made the logs to skinny without enough large logs for stoking the fire at night.

Overall, I'm finding that I like oak best. It splits well and burns a long time. I also like the way hickory burns; if I put a large hickory log on the fire before going to bed, I know I will have a hot fireplace in the morning. However, I don't care for the way hickory splits. It's very stringy; I have to pull the log pieces apart. In contrast, the oak pieces just fall apart when I split them. We have some ashe that we bought last season. I don't care for ashe at all. It's hard to split and burns up like pine.

 

[Coyote machine]

FWIW, most "masonry bits" are NOT suited to hammer drills. The Ace bit you purchased is slightly better than most basic NON-hammer drill bits. It was only recently I found that 'commonly labeled' masonry bits are not designed to stand the impact of a hammer drill. So, my point is, if you plan to do concrete drilling get a set of hammer drill bits from Bosch or another manufacturer. They are available at H. Depot and elsewhere, and they are slightly more expensive, BUT they are designed for hammer drills and can stand up to the impact without putting you, the user in harm's way from shattering, flying concrete fragments, etc.*
Below is a link to one set of the bits I use for hammer drilling masonry/concrete:
BOSCH SDS-PLUS ROTARY - SPECIALTY BITS

* From your favorite 'safety trooper', CM

 

[Obed]

FWIW, most "masonry bits" are NOT suited to hammer drills. The Ace bit you purchased is slightly better than most basic NON-hammer drill bits. It was only recently I found that 'commonly labeled' masonry bits are not designed to stand the impact of a hammer drill. So, my point is, if you plan to do concrete drilling get a set of hammer drill bits from Bosch or another manufacturer. They are available at H. Depot and elsewhere, and they are slightly more expensive, BUT they are designed for hammer drills and can stand up to the impact without putting you, the user in harm's way from shattering, flying concrete fragments, etc.*
Below is a link to one set of the bits I use for hammer drilling masonry/concrete:
BOSCH SDS-PLUS ROTARY - SPECIALTY BITS

* From your favorite 'safety trooper', CM

I'm a little confused.

The drill bit package says "For use with rotary or hammer drills ... For drilling brick, cinder block, and cement ... Special carbide tip withstands hammer drill impact". See the picture below that was included in my post.

Obed

 

[Coyote machine]

Yes, I saw the pic, and I read all the details on the package before posting- BUT, read carefully it says the carbide tip is for the rotary or hammer drill use- it leaves out the crucial missing piece that is not hammer drill or rotary drill specific- the SHANK of the bit! That IS the piece that will fragment and fly when the bit fails.
Check out the bits I linked to: they are specifically designed to withstand the rigors of hammer and rotary hammer drills.
Like most things there are grades of quality, and for the most part Ace sells quality parts, and as I stated it is slightly better than a standard masonry bit, (but not as good as a bit engineered for the specific use of hammer and rotary hammer drills). That's exactly why the first masonry bit broke, they are only designed to be used with conventional, NON-rotary, NON-hammer drills.
Hope this clears up the confusion....
Please note: here is an article explaining better than I can the advantages and proper use of a hammer/rotary drill and the proper/SDS bits I recommended. Pay particular attention to the end paragraph on bit/drill use 'tips'.
http://www.confast.com/articles/sds-carbide-tipped-drill-bit.aspx