Buying tools? Consider this ebay store

[rumatt]

Hardware Sales Inc (http://stores.ebay.com/Hardware-Sales-Inc)

I decided to buy some nail guns, but the amount of use they get will be very light, so I took a gamble and bought refurbished Porter Cable and Dewalt units from the cheapest place I could find on the web using froogle. It was the store above.

It turned out that one of the guns (the Dewalt 15 gauge) was defective, and the trigger would stick every once in a while.

I called up Hardware Sales, and I was amazed. First, they are willing to pay shipping both ways on the replacement gun, so it won't cost me a penny. Second, they will ship the new as soon as I mail them a fedex tracking number on the return. They're not even going to wait to receive it. And finally, I didn't want the same gun again, so they're let me buy a different one and they will cover the shipping. I just pay the difference in price for the gun itself.

This is better treatment than you get when you buy from a big, established place with higher prices. I didn't expect it from an bargain-basement ebay store. :thumbup:

Now, whether I like the idea of buying refurbished is another story. This sticky trigger may have been why the gun was returned in the first place.

.

[Rob]

Thanks Matt. All of my Dewalt batteries died within two weeks of each other. My cordless tools are useless at the moment. I have been trying to decide whether to buy new batteries (figuring you need two at $80 each) or just put the money towards tools with the new Lithium Ion batteries.

But lots of Dewalt's competition is making Li batteries that fit their old 18 volt tools. Will Dewalt do that to after the "gotta have it" market is exhausted?

But then! We are moving and I really need those tools to be working. Well, at least the drill. So . . .

I am not sure what a "factory reconditioned" battery is, but at half price with your report of customer service and the two year warranty, I am going to give them a shot.

No comments out of you, Lup. I still don't like dragging cords around. :p

[rumatt]

I am not sure what a "factory reconditioned" battery is, but at half price with your report of customer service and the two year warranty, I am going to give them a shot.

Reconditioned means it was returned as an open box item, so it can't be sold as new. It is inspected by the factory, and fixed if necessary (if it was returned because it was defective). But sometimes they were completely unused items that were returned for whatever reason. The real concern is the intermittent problem that is not caught in the inspection. How much time can they possibly spend inspecting them?

I might be slightly hesitant on a reconditioned battery, only because the first few charges are important in terms of the long term health of a battery. I don't know if this is still true, but at one point you were supposed to completely cycle them a few times (without every going to totally dead).

But if it's cheap enough, the screw it. You gotta live on the edge sometimes. ;)

And I also decided that if I'm going to buy new batteries, I might as well get them as part of a cool new tool that comes with them included. :D

[Rob]

Hey, we are buying a house! I have to pinch pennies for awhile, so half price batteries, and just the batteries please, are a good idea. (Ignore the fact that I almost coughed up 6 bills for a lithuim ion set). Unfortunately, I did see they have an 18V jigsaw on that website for under $150. I imagine that will be making it's way into my garage very soon.

[ff]

the fact that I almost coughed up 6 bills for a lithuim ion set). I imagine that will be making it's way into my garage very soon.

Everytime I consider buying a jigsaw, I fail to come up with a good, legitimate reason to go through with the purchase. I guess that I just don't do enough woodworking.

[Rob]

I am about to build a shelf to put the stereo components on in the new family room. The house comes with a huge hole in the wall for the TV that is plenty big to jsut add a shelf and stack the components.

I intend to trace a decorative pattern on the 8' board that will be the front stay of the shelf. I could try and rough cut that 8 foot board on the band saw, trying to continuously change the angle at the blade while fumbling with 8 feet of inertia and complications. Or . . . I could get a jig saw out, clamp the board to the work bench, and be done in 15 minutes without have to start over 3 times. (that's why you don't cut it to size before you add the decorative edge, btw. You might need to start over).

that one reason is enough to make me get it. I with I had a decent jig saw all the time. And the 18 volt dewalt tools work as well as any other real tool for my purposes. But I also plan to build some cabinets for the garage. Very handy for that kind of use.

[bren]

What makes someone (non-carpenter) decide to buy some nail guns? :dunno:

[ff]

Or . . . I could get a jig saw out, clamp the board to the work bench, and be done in 15 minutes without have to start over 3 times. (that's why you don't cut it to size before you add the decorative edge, btw. You might need to start over).
Norm Abram can do it... why can't you? :rolleyes: ;) :D

What makes someone (non-carpenter) decide to buy some nail guns? :dunno:
Because they're the best thing to happen to wood since the invention of... wood. And they're cool. The more the better. I can't imagine going back to hammer and nails.

[rumatt]

What makes someone (non-carpenter) decide to buy some nail guns? :dunno:

they're cool. The more the better.


:eeps:

[ff]

:eeps:

That's my boy!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

[lip277]

Thanks for the link. I am still letting the dust settle on what I've got in my shop but will probably be in the market for some odds and ends (tool-wise) soon.

:)

[rumatt]

Two more random comments:

1) If you buy multiple items, they ship them together and give a bit of a break on shipping. But you need to pay for all together, not one at a time.

2) They're not necessarily always the cheapest place on the web. It seems to depend on the item. ToolKing.com and coastaltool.com are cheaper on some items, but higher on others. It seems to be a pricing strategy to have some items very cheap, while others not discounted

[Rob]

What makes someone (non-carpenter) decide to buy some nail guns? :dunno:

Duh. The small nails you use to hold trim in place while the glue sets fit in one size gun while the heavy nails used for hanging things and stuff fit in another. There is a CH 3 gun kit at Costco that I keep thinking about getting . . . but I just don't nail that much. I always end up deciding screws are a better choice.

It's kind of like asking why you would want a gas powered lawn trimmer. Are you a guy or what? :lol:

[lip277]

I have a brad nailer of my own and I borrow a framing nailer from the "Mustang guy" when I need to. Hehe - I've had his nailer for about a year now.

:)

That's the real best way to get a tool.
Borrow.

:) :) :)

[bren]

Duh. The small nails you use to hold trim in place while the glue sets fit in one size gun while the heavy nails used for hanging things and stuff fit in another. There is a CH 3 gun kit at Costco that I keep thinking about getting . . . but I just don't nail that much. I always end up deciding screws are a better choice.

It's kind of like asking why you would want a gas powered lawn trimmer. Are you a guy or what? :lol:

[lupinsea]

No comments out of you, Lup. I still don't like dragging cords around.

:D

Batteries - Seriously, though. If you are in need of new batteries try off-brand. When I was looking up the cost of 18v batteries for the DeWalt I noticed a number of aftermarket 3rd party manufactured batteries. I don't know how well they work but at 1/2 the cost of DeWalt batteries I'd be willing to give one or two a try.

Tool Website - As far as tool places on the web go, I had good results with toolking.com (http://toolking.com/). Shipping was cheap and the price was right with their flat rate $8 shipping.

Using Froogle.com was helpful, too.

Nailguns - Nailguns are awesome if your working on big enough projects. I have two, a Bosch framing nail gun and a finish nail gun. Oh, and a 60 gal. Craftsman Pro air compressor that I need to unbolt and move to my house. They can REALLY speed up a construction project. Hopefully I can employ them this summer in repairing the spooky shed in our back yard. But for most small projects around the house I use torx head screws.

Saws - The jigsaw sounds like it will be really helpful for your project, RWG. I've enjoyed using my Porter Cable (corded) jigsaw for some of the small projects I've done. That what I used to build my car ramps. However, if you're going to build some cabinets for your garage get a circular saw. The cutting accuracy and precision are significantly better than than a jig saw. The circular saw coupled with a 100" aluminum cutting guide was all I used to built my own garage cabinets. Never having built cabinets before the results were pretty good:

http://homepage.mac.com/jgreening/.cv/jgreening/Sites/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2007-01-11%2015.45.55%20-0800/Image-8CD4A164A1CC11DB.jpg-thumb_140_105.jpg (http://homepage.mac.com/jgreening/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2007-01-11%2015.45.55%20-0800/Image-8CD4A164A1CC11DB.jpg)
clicky

With a circular saw the edges of the cut are much straighter and much cleaner! And I found they were much more square than the cuts I made with the jig saw. There was something about the jigsaw blade that made it wander a bit even while cutting against a speed square.

Incidentally, I don't have a hand held circular saw right now. I'm sort of in the market in the next couple months. I think I settled on the DeWalt 378G. It's sort of a worm gear drive saw which is stronger than direct drive saws. Egonomics are good and it should be durable enough to last me 20 years.





BTW, I recently got this: Porter Cable - Self Leveling Dual-Plane Rotary Laser (http://toolking.com/productinfo.aspx?productid=2837)! Man, talk about f0cking cool! Self levels in 3 seconds and is accurate to 1/8" +/- per 100 ft. Comes ith RF remot control and throws a laser out in both X and Y axis. I tried it out and it beats the shitty little $24 Craftsman laser my wife had. Wow, price jumped up. I bought mine 10 days ago for $430.

[Rob]

$430!! That thing better be visible in direct sunlight.

I will use the table saw for the majority of the cuts for the cabinets. It's just . . . more accurate and easier.

I didn't know after market batteries were available. I definately would have tried some. I ordered the "reconditioned" batteries from Matt's link. We will see what happens. I have also already scanned the reciepts for the warranty.

I am hoping that eventually Dewalt will make 18V lithium ion batteries available for it's already existing 18V tools like its competitors are doing. Or some after market company will.

[Rob]

And then there are these guys:

http://www.voltmanbatteries.com/

I might try them for my dead ones. Better than throwing them away.

[lupinsea]

$430!! That thing better be visible in direct sunlight.

It is. And in brightly lit rooms, too. :D

To enhance the beam brightness you can set the laser to oscillate back and forth in 6 different beam lengths. The beam can then be moved in a 360 deg arc to where your working or the laser can be set to simply spin round and round (at 3 different speeds) throwing a line out all around.

It also has up to a 300 ft radius range (600 ft diameter) with the laser detector built into the RF remot control. The remote lets you control all functions on the base laser, too. And the vertical Y-axis laser can be used to throw down a chalk line on the ground that won't get covered up or scrubbed away as you work. This is going to be helpful in a month or two when I go to lay down a slate floor in the kitchen and dining room.

I figure that between the ease of use and the number of projects I want to get to around the house having something like this would be a definite worthwhile investment for the long haul. One of the first 2 or 3 projects I plan on using it for is to make a topographical survey of my property for future remodel schematic design.

Turns out my mom's contractor used the same model when building her house. He did an amazing job getting everything nice and level, starting with the foundation.

http://homepage.mac.com/jgreening/.cv/jgreening/Sites/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2006-07-25%2014.00.42%20-0700/Image-E87061801C1F11DB.jpg-thumb_140_105.jpg (http://homepage.mac.com/jgreening/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2006-07-25%2014.00.42%20-0700/Image-E87061801C1F11DB.jpg)
clicky