[This isn’t meant to be an ad, it’s a reminder for myself. Ignore this post at will. No pressure. I mean it.]
[Also, don’t fret. Winter vignettes will return soon.]
I never post an Amazon link to “a thing you might want to buy” unless I’ve personally bought and/or tested it (or an identical item). (Occasionally I’ll discuss an experimental idea I’m considering, but I’m always clear if I’m not fully informed.)
Also, I’m a cheap bastard. I expect every little purchase to be awesome. Being the kind of guy who’ll suffer a long time before I’ll buy a “luxury” and an almost unAmerican anti-consumer nutcase who’ll research an $8 purchase more than some people ponder buying a new car leads me to discover a few things I want to share.
On the other hand I’m easily distracted.
The upshot is that I often buy something I like but by the time I get around to blogging about it the details are forgotten. As a memory aid (and not a crappy subliminal ad!) I’m putting links to some items of interest here. No particular order. My idea is that whenever I get to blogging about it I’ll cut and paste from this post.
Don’t feel obligated to buy anything. If you’re tapped out, I get it. It’s been a long cold hard winter and I’m going to emerge from it as poor as a church-mouse. If it’s happening to you too… you have my sympathies. Also, I don’t want this place to get overly “salesman-like”. That’s why most of my blog is pure text.
Then again, if you buy anything from any link on my blog (regardless of if it’s the item I linked to) I get a tuppence and a pat on the head from Amazon. I will never turn down free money.
Ignore or read as you wish. Probably all this stuff will get discussed in detail sometime in the future anyway.
That Stanley end plane is AWESOME!!! I inherited one from my Grandpa when he retired from carpentry (God rest his soul). He bought it sometime after he got out of the Navy in 45 and used it forever. I use it often because it’s a great plane and it reminds me of him. I’m lucky that my grandpa took the time to teach me stuff. Important folk wisdom too, like “a man chases a woman till she traps him”
Mine is a fairly recent acquisition. A few years ago I went to a “traditional” woodworking class on a lark. I had a weekend to kill and was thinking I’d just play around with primitive screw-head stuff that couldn’t possibly be as accurate as the rip fence on a big power-tool. Boy was I wrong!
They introduced me to the glory and joy of a good plane and I’m a believer. I had a total change of heart. You can shave off half a gnat’s ass with a plane and all I’d known was ripping shit to bits with powered circular saw teeth. What a different level of control the plan brings! Having seen the light I bought my Stanley plane soon after the class. It’s amazing what they can do.
“Brass Bullet Sharpener” Why, yes, I do desire to sharpen my bul, wait. Oh, nevermind. Seriously, it took me a second.
You realize we can all now create a personality profile of you based on the stuff in the ad, er, sidebar…
Springboard for discussion: Ticks suck. Permethrin rocks. Anyone have actual data on the use of the cheaper-than-Sawyer-by-many-magnitudes stuff used by horse folks? The equine vet section of Farm and Fleet has these big gallon jugs of what appears to be permethrin that looks like it oughta work for us that sometime visit tick country and wish to avoid Lyme disease.
My dog dislikes the OPSEC violation but I’ve got cabin fever and I’m feeling lazy.
As for the brass sharpener, it turns out to be super huge win. It’s an official “thing of awesomeness”. I keep meaning to blog about it.
It solved a pet peeve I have about marking wood. I like to be very precise with pencil marks. I measure as accurate as I can see and then if the saw or chisel misses a bit hopefully I’m likely still in good shape. Aim small, miss small!
Yet everyone is always marking wood & plywood with a dull pencil. That’s OK for some stuff (framing construction, rafters, stuff like that) but not others. I especially loathe construction pencils which are thick and crayon like. How the hell is the cut going to be ideal for a tight corner on a visible thing if you made an 1/8″ thick line like a gorilla clutching a thick stick? Considering inaccuracy with your tools, natural variation of wood, and all life’s other factors, doing nice work is definitely an art. The odds are against you when you’re a novice. Starting with a big dumb scratch mark is taking a sloppy move right out of the gate. Why cludge the first step of a process?
My alternative to those horrible construction pencils are regular #2 pencils… same old thing everyone has been using for like a century. They’re so cheap they’re almost free. I used a kid’s pencil sharpener and kept complaining that modern pencils suck and had shitty lead that broke a lot. On a lark I bought a “pretentious yuppie sharpener”. I didn’t expect much but it made everything better. Lo and behold the pencils are fine. They sharpen like a laser beam. It’s the cheap sharpeners that suck. Who knew? Now I can mark lines to the nearest 1/32″ with my weaponized dagger-like pencil tips of perfection… at least until my eyes cross. (Whether I can cut as accurate as I mark is a different matter. It’s still an art.)
So the brass thing is a super cool discovery! It’s a silly little gadget but it massively increases my pleasure in a job. I didn’t expect that. Now you know too.
As always YMMV and it depends on your project. If you want to mark things to the nearest half inch with a bent nail because you’re building a loosy-goosey rafter instead of a watertight boat keel, that’s your pejorative.
As for Permetrhin, I haven’t checked the vet stuff. My guess is that it’s 100% the same thing. Kind of like off brand glyphosate and on brand Roundup are often chemically identical. I’d check to be sure of course. That said, I’ve been biting the bullet and paying for exorbitant Sawyer spray pump bottles. Also I make a point of not trying to be cheap with it. If I’m treating a pair of pants, by God I’m treating every square inch to the proper amount! Lyme disease sucks and I really don’t want to get it. BTW: I think any time you can treat clothes instead of human skin, that’s an excellent solution.
” Aim small, miss small!” I aim for Minute Of Kerf.
“pretentious yuppie sharpener” A) Huh. I may have to buy one when I win the lottery. B) That sounds like the beginning of An Adaptive Curmudgeon Story.
“nearest half inch with a bent nail” Uh, there’s another kind of nail? On a semi-related note, my father’s list of materials was always written in pencil on a torn-off flap of cardboard box. All the figgerin’ was done in his head. I miss him.
Lyme sux. An acquaintance went from National-level bike racer to semi-couch potato due to Lyme.
“Minute of kerf” is perfect. It’s now part of my vocabulary!
I’m interested in hearing about the generator. I’ve tried Honda’s version, which while good is very very expensive. I’m curious on your success with this model.
It’s almost the biggest success in history. It’s a perfect replacement for the Honda. However, Northern Tool can’t help but step on it’s own dick and I’ve had a small minor annoyance.
Mechanically the generator runs exactly perfectly. You couldn’t ask for better. It even looks nice. I’m pretty sure it’s 99.9% mechanically identical to the Honda. Runs smooth, not too loud, doesn’t screw up my electronics, runs forever on a sip of gas. Unless a Honda generator rotates your car’s tires and prepares your tax return too, how much better could it possibly be? There’s no getting around it, this particular Powerhorse generator is the ultimate knockoff. So nearly identical in almost every possible way that I can’t see the point of the far more expensive Honda.
Also, the Powerhorse was delivered to my door with no muss, no fuss. Did I mention it’s outlandishly cheaper than a Honda? Almost half price. The savings is huge. I can’t see how Honda (or anyone) can compete with convenient delivery of a virtually identical product at nearly half price. In some ways it’s pretty weird that double priced 2000 watt Hondas still exist.
Now for the bad, and it’s very minor but it does annoy me. One of the screws on the grill was loose and crossthreaded. It’s really minor; merely cosmetic and definitely nothing you’d notice unless you practically crawl all over the thing looking for flaws (which I did). But for $400+ how hard is it to properly insert all screws?
Also another screw that holds on the on/off/choke dial came loose and disappeared in the woods. I meant to replace it but the $0.10 machine screw I got at the hardware store didn’t fit. Being a procrastinator, I ignored it until the knob blew off while it was in the back of my truck. So now the knob has disappeared.
When I called Northern Tool I got super knowledgeable people who were awesome; they wanted to set me right and they know all about generators. Unfortunately, Northern Tool’s computer system just plain coughed a hairball on them. I had to make three independent rounds of phone calls to get a stupid plastic knob. (Note: that buying one would be no big deal, it’s just when I wanted it “free” on warranty that their software went all Gestapo/Amnesiac.)
In the end, Northern tool is replacing the part “free” on warranty and it should arrive soon. The replacements are in stock and cheap even without warranty: $1 for the m4x10 screw and $4.80 for the “knob fuel switch”.
So there you have it. Northern Tool performed a miracle shipping me something that’s identical to the Honda at nearly half off. And then, when they should have been taking a leisurely victory lap among customers throwing money at them, they hosed it on a $5 knob replacement. It’s like getting a brand new perfect Mercedes knockoff for the price of a Chevy, but at the last minute the dealer reaches over and keys the paint on the hood. I’ll never figure out Northern Tool.
Also, I’m being a little harsh on Northern Tool because generator. Replacing a $5 knob after saving $400+ at purchase on anything is absolutely a screaming deal. In any non-generator equipment it’s a miracle. (If Dodge could be that reliable with my Ram I’d fly to Detroit and thank them personally.) It’s just that for some people generators really have to work when you need ’em. Mine can’t help me in a power outage until I get that silly little knob. I’m certainly not peeved enough to drop five bills more to go from Powerhorse Blue to Honda Red but if it’s running a CPAP that keeps you alive or something; you might. Then again you could almost buy a Powerhorse and a spare for the cost of one Honda.
Oh yeah, I think it comes with a free parallel cable too (I’ve probably lost it by now). I think running dual 2000 watt generators in parallel would be awesome. I think Honda bleeds you a little on the cable? I have no idea why Honda charges for it.
I give it 4.9999 out of 5 stars.