What DIY equipment have you bought lately?

[MikeG]

Well if I did oak framing for a living a 185mm depth of cut would by a godsend. I guess I'd be looking to buy second hand, though, and you'd probably need to be built like Popeye to lift it.

 

[slowmotion]

Eleven quid's worth of fun.

Possibly.

 

[slowmotion]

The ones where they clamp under load are better.

It's going to be clamped everywhere, believe me. Seeing the cabinet almost pitching off the slings turned my tripes to water....

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I've just come out of a technology demo centre where I spotted this -

View attachment 405107

Now that's a man toy!

I’ve got Makita’s 2nd biggest circular saw which does a 100mm cut. When I bought it I was doing some green oak and was deliberating about getting the biggest one. The salesman wasn’t convinced I was up to it but was impressed by my Viking courage and appearance to match. But sadly he was certain I would need to be more Obelisk than Asterix to handle one of those. I went with the smaller one. I have used it a lot on new sleepers for dozens of raised beds for clients. Very nice they are too.

It is still a beast but much safer than small ones as you need two hands to navigate it and it has a soft start. I have a mate whose dad has chopped off two fingers with a little saw. In two separate incidents. Twit.

 

[MontyVeda]

When I looked at that earlier in the week I couldn't figure out how pins that far apart could possibly centre on the stock, but I totally get it now. Saves the complexity of needing an adjustment. The expense of commercial jigs before you can actually do much is what put me off a router, but that is really quite clever

The router is incredibly versatile without jigs... all it really needs is a fence to run against. Buy a guide bush for under a tenner, you can do so much more. It's by far the most used power tool i have... don't let the cost of commercial jigs put you off because you probably won't need them.

[edit] ...you don't need a 'big' router either. Mine's a weeny 550w which for occasional DIY is perfect.

 

[Profpointy]

The router is incredibly versatile without jigs... all it really needs is a fence to run against. Buy a guide bush for under a tenner, you can do so much more. It's by far the most used power tool i have... don't let the cost of commercial jigs put you off because you probably won't need them.

[edit] ...you don't need a 'big' router either. Mine's a weeny 550w which for occasional DIY is perfect.

Thanks - that's useful pragmatic info from a real person so to speak - rather than "routers are marvelous" or whatever from a router book. Already have some Festool guid rails for my saw so router would work with them.

That said, I can dados with the track saw quite easily, so still not quite sure if I'd get enough use from the router. Mm, maybe re-read my books a bit

 

[MontyVeda]

Thanks - that's useful pragmatic info from a real person so to speak - rather than "routers are marvelous" or whatever from a router book. Already have some Festool guid rails for my saw so router would work with them.

That said, I can dados with the track saw quite easily, so still not quite sure if I'd get enough use from the router. Mm, maybe re-read my books a bit

I find the books can be quite overwhelming and over-complicate things. Some of the jigs I've seen for cutting mortises are over engineered to the Nth degree, take ages to make, minutes to mount and are not at all versatile... mounting the pins directly into the base works perfectly for anything from an inch to four inch wide. ...and don't ask about the 'easy set' dovetail jig, there's nothing easy about it!

 

[raleighnut]

I find the books can be quite overwhelming and over-complicate things. Some of the jigs I've seen for cutting mortises are over engineered to the Nth degree, take ages to make, minutes to mount and are not at all versatile... mounting the pins directly into the base works perfectly for anything from an inch to four inch wide. ...and don't ask about the 'easy set' dovetail jig, there's nothing easy about it!

Yep these are much easier to 'set'

 

[wonderloaf]

The corner of a credit card also works pretty well....

Can't see how the hard plastic of the card seals against the surfaces ... for £1.99 I'm sticking to this option (no pun intended).

 

[swee'pea99]

Never had a heat gun before. Boy it works good! Easy peasy, and stripped a window frame in about 20 minutes.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

A dirty great drill bit -

To put up a CCTV camera

 

[Profpointy]

A dirty great drill bit -

View attachment 406106

To put up a CCTV camera

View attachment 406107

'kinell - how big a bolt does it need ? It's hardly a cinemascope Arriflex is it ?

 

[Profpointy]

I've just come out of a technology demo centre where I spotted this -

View attachment 405107

Now that's a man toy!

One of my work colleagues mentioned he'd bought a bandsaw over the weekend. I had this image of a small or medium sized thing for making dolls' houses and what not. Turned out it was a thing driven off a tractor pto to turn tree trunks into planks. He nearly cut his arm off with it on another occasion when he accidentally nudged the power feed lever - it just grazed the back of his arm and he got away with it, but on his own in the forest that would not have ended well

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

'kinell - how big a bolt does it need ? It's hardly a cinemascope Arriflex is it ?

That's for the hole through the wall for the cabling.

 

[dodgy]

I'm looking for a workbench for my garage, probably wooden. say 5 or 6 ft wide. Any recommendations?