Easter is approaching

As Easter is approaching, I was reminded of some of the easter eggs we have embedded in the search on our site. As products get added, we have a sense of humor and add in a few silly terms. So, we're going to have an easter egg hunt right here on my blog. I'll give a couple of examples to start things out.

Red R2 Unit
another example

These are, of course, just silly searches that we figured would amuse people if they stumbled across them. There are plenty of other examples, but it'll take some creativity on your part to uncover them. Go ahead and see what you can locate, then leave a comment here with your findings. We have one that has been identified as the grand prize winner, which is an all expense paid trip to... Matt tells me that's not in the budget, so I guess it'll be some colorful "Easter-Eggish" ToolBarn.com Stress Balls. Just make sure you're using a registered account (free to set up through blogger.com) and have an IM contact in your profile if you want to be eligible.

Go ahead and get started with the form below:

Oh, and contest runs until the end of April, 2006 and is open to all legal US residents, blah blah blah, yada yada yada. Since the prize isn't worth 1000's of dollars, we'll mail them wherever you like addressed to whomever you like, even Fido. Just make sure you use a registered account so we can track who the winner is, which will be first one to find our "specially selected" easter egg. Good luck and happy searching.

20A vs 15A Outlets

For most contractors, especially electrical contractors, the difference is a known. But for most home users, they don't even realize there is a difference. I was recently reminded of this as we were moving buildings and we started some cleaning up. We were using a Festool Dust Extractor as a vacuum (yes, that's a fancy name for a vacuum) and it didn't work in the outlet I originally wanted to use. So, for those that don't know how to tell the difference, here it is.


On the left, we have a 15A outlet. I did my very best ASCII art (keeping with the Geek theme, it seemed appropriate). On the right, we have a 20A outlet. The horizontal line should have really been touching the vertical line, but that's basically what you're looking for. A 20A plug has one horizontal and one vertical prong along with the round grounding plug. Older houses typically have 15A outlets and very few if any 20A. Newer construction should have 20A much more readily available.

Most wiring will handle the 20A just fine, but since it isn't always the case you'll want to have a certified electrician check it before you replace an outlet with a higher rated receptacle. But, if you get a tool that requires a 20 amp circuit, now you'll know what to look for.

Edited to reflect 15 and 20 instead of 10 and 15. Thanks for the heads up, Mike.

Anti-Vibration Shortcut

In January, I talked about Makita's Anti-Vibration Technology for demolition hammers. They had done a swell job and I commend them for it. Now, Bosch has a promotion coming up for their Anti-Vibration solution. I don't think of it as Anti-Vibration technology, but rather as more of a shortcut.

Free Anti-Vibration Gloves by Mail

That's right. Bosch isn't improving the tool they build at all. Instead, they're giving a mail-in certificate for a pair of padded gloves. As Matt called it, in 4 - 6 weeks you'll be enjoying a slightly more comfortable demolition experience. I don't think that'll quite meet the European standards coming up saying that the tools themselves need to reduce vibration. Ok, so this won't meet those guidelines at all.

A Real Shame

I think it's a real shame that Bosch hasn't addressed the tool itself yet, but instead is going to give people gloves. The vibrations from demolition hammers can cause some serious health problems through prolonged use, so ignoring the issue won't make it go away. What if I forget to wear those gloves? What if I find them to be too hot during the summer? What if a neighbor borrows the tool and doesn't have AV gloves? I really hope they come out with something decent down the road, because this isn't even as good as smoke and mirrors. This is way too transparent.

Closed for moving 3/23/2006 - 3/26/2006

I won't be posting the rest of this week as we move buildings. The one we currently occupy has served it's purpose, but we've just flat outgrown it and are bordered by other buildings on two sides, railroad tracks to the North, and a cliff to the east. The new one has a 6 acre lot with 4 of it available for additional growth as we need it. We'll also be along a busy street instead of tucked away in a corner, which should help our walk-in traffic substantially.

As you can see, we're not moving all that far. We're moving from 6620 F St to 7820 L St. It's only 1.07 miles between buildings according to my GPS. (Sorry for the sloppy drawing... I don't have PhotoShop at home and I'm not totally used to Gimp yet.)

The picture to the right was taken a while ago while the building was being re-assembled. There were literally iron beams and a foundation left when we were done pulling stuff off that we weren't going to re-use.

Consequently, this move means if you place an order after about noon on Wednesday the 22nd of March, the earliest it'll be processed is next Monday. We intend to be fully open and ready for business at the new location then. Our phones will not be answered Thursday through Sunday, nor will emails (unless we're way ahead of schedule, which the snow storm we had has pretty much ruled out.) With any luck, everything will be back to "Normal" next week with very few glitches along the way.

Wish us luck, and thanks to all of our customers for making this move not only possible, but necessary.
Brian, Matt and the rest of the ToolBarn.com staff.

Twist-Lok - An interesting twist on a rapid load setup.

I got a call today from Lynn Bauman, Inventor of the Twist-Lok. He had read some of my blog and said he and his engineers agreed with a lot of what I had said, especially about the Dual Drill. First off, it was neat that he gave me a call after reading some of my posts and I thank him for the recognition (and a topic to write about). Secondly, his product actually looks cool. (Clicking the picture below will open a much clearer version.)

Twist-Lok Strengths

As I see it, the Twist-Lok has several strengths. I'll list a few below.

1) It works with any bit. You don't need to buy those funny "Rapid-Load" style bits.

2) No inline gears, which means that the power of your drill is passed through to the bits (unlike the Dual Drill.)

3) Quick. You don't even need to pull a bit out to change from drilling to screwdriving.

4) Long, narrow nose. At first glance, it seemed awkward. After thinking about where screws normally get installed, a chuck is in the way a lot of times so that long nose would actually be helpful.

5) Inexpensive. Notice I didn't say cheap. ;-) It's not as inexpensive as a rapid-load kit, but it is still very reasonable.

Twist-Lok Concerns

There are a few things which still concern me about this setup, but nothing like that other one I wrote about. (I know, I need to quit referencing it.)

1) Trueness of drive. If I put that long screwdriving shaft on the end of my drill and pull the trigger, how much wobble will there be at the bit?

2) Length of bit. Ok, so that's not normally an issue when driving drywall screws, which is what most pilot holes are likely for. But they did show a lag bolt on a deck being installed, which will take a much larger bit and those are usually longer.

3) Materials. Sure, driving most screws won't be something you've got to worry about twisting the shaft with, but being hollow and that length makes me wonder what it's made out of that can take some abuse.

The True Test

The true test for me will be when we get them in. Yes, our branch manager was interested in carrying them. (Hint: Lynn, get me some info.) As an industrial supplier, we're positioned to have them evaluated on some heavy-duty jobs in a very short amount of time. Once we have a few of these in use, I'll report back with how people like them. Until then, you'll just have to wonder and do some research yourself.

Air Tool Maintenance - Oil, Filters and Thread Tape

Air tools are pretty simple, right? Plug in an air hose to a compressor on one end, turn the compressor on and hook your air tool up to the other end of the hose. Or is it that simple? Being more of a cordless and electric power tool guy myself, I had to do some asking around to get the answer to that. So now that I have the answers, I'll share those with you.

Air Tool Oil

Most people know that cars need an oil change every 3,000 miles. I'd also say that most people don't change their oil quite that often. But most of us understand that the pistons generate a lot of friction inside of a car motor, and the rings wear out faster without proper lubrication. So what's that have to do with air tools? A lot.

Inside of an air tool, there are pistons and rings as well. The rings aren't metal like they are in a car motor - instead they're rubber o-rings. But the piston itself still needs some lubrication. It is essential that the metal to metal surfaces get something slippery between them so that they don't generate excessive heat and friction, which would cause premature wear.

Oiling an air tool is pretty simple. Before you use it, just add a couple of drops of air tool oil to the tool through the air fitting. For tools that get used once every now and then, just once before using it for the day is good enough. If it is a tool getting heavy use, it would be a good idea to add a few drops a few times through the day.

Filtered Air Fitting

Most air tools don't require a filter, and most don't include one, but it is such a good idea that Coilhose Pneumatics came out with that we're recommending them for everyone. A few manufacturers, such as Milwaukee nailers and Max Tools, are including filters on the tools themselves. For everyone else, adding a filtered air fitting can keep dust and debris out of the piston chamber.

Again, automobiles use air filters to keep dirt and rocks out of the combustion chamber and away from the moving pistons. Air tools have a similar piston setup, so keeping dirt and debris out of the chamber of an air tool is just as important. Air compressors include filters for the incoming air, but some dirt will still make its way through and into the hose. For under $10, these filters are an inexpensive insurance policy for a long too life.

Once you install one, you just need to remove the hose every so often to let the pressure inside the tool release and blow out the filter. They don't need to be replaced every 10,000 nails or so many miles of shingles. The fitting will keep working just fine if you allow it to get blown out every few uses. Of course, most air tools get disconnected fairly often anyway so it shouldn't ever be something you'll need to think about.

Teflon Thread Sealing Tape

Not really maintenance, but still a necessary item is teflon tape. Taping your air fittings seals the threads, which prevents leaks and makes your compressor run less frequently. Less frequent running will lead to longer life, but it also means there is less of a chance that it'll pull more dirt in to blow into your air tool.

The tape seems simple enough, but applying it properly is really an art form. We got a good chuckle at our Milwaukee rep when he first brought in their pneumatics. He hadn't ever applied tape before, so it sure didn't come out looking pretty like the picture to the right. I'm sure he'll figure it out soon enough, but until then Matt has some photo evidence of his first attempt. To his credit, he did come to us to learn about air tools instead of trying to figure them out himself.

Basically, all you really need to do is get 2 - 3 full clockwise wraps around the threads. Clockwise makes it so that as you screw the fitting in it doesn't come off, the 2 - 3 wraps gets just enough thickness so it'll properly seal without being so thick that it won't fully screw in.

But wait - There's more!

There is a bit more to maintaining an air tool, such as o-rings, cleaning, driver blades and jam clearing. But the basics above are the only ones that really apply equally to every air tool. If you've got questions on a specific tool, leave a comment or send an email and I'll either reply directly or do an entirely new post (giving a link, of course).

Stupid commercial: Craftsman Tools

Has anyone else seen the commercials that are shown during Nascar races for Craftsman Tools? They have other sporting events showing and then something goes horribly wrong. One that really sticks out to me right now is the bowling commercial where the ball return starts shooting balls at all the spectators. It's funny... but what's the message?

Official Tools of Nascar

So the slogan they're using is Official Tools of Nascar, not Bowling. I think they're saying that they're not the official tools of bowling, so it must not have been their tools that made the problem. But the message I get is somehow different. Of course, I always have a unique outlook on things, so tell me if this makes sense.

Don't use Craftsman for anything but Nascar

Since it's a Craftsman commercial, and they don't show another brand of tools causing the problem, the only logical conclusion to me is that the maintenance man trying to hide was using Craftsman tools. Since they're not sponsoring bowling, their tools don't work there quite obviously. That's got to be it, right?

Buy quality tools

Remember, if you're going to be doing something other than working on a Nascar vehicle, you're going to need to buy quality hand tools that aren't from Craftsman. I'll make the recommendation for Stanley Tools, which is the line of hand tools we will be bringing in very soon. Yes... I know I'm the power tool geek, but I can mention hand tools sometimes, right?

Hickory Router Bits Have Been Added

Disclaimer: I'm sorry if anyone doesn't like how sales oriented this post is, but when I see a deal like this I want to make sure that my blog readers know about it.

Doug got all the Hickory kits added that I mentioned yesterday. There are kits ranging from $4.99 to $29.99. They're selling pretty quick, so grab 'em while you still can.

Note: Links will quit working when we sell out, as we can't guarantee that more are available. Just click and see what comes up.

RBK1030

This is like the kit that I bought yesterday, but in a 1/4" shank variety and for just $29.99. It includes 24 router bits. Bits include the following:

3/8" keyhole
1/4", 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4" straight
90° 1/2" V-groove
1/2" dovetail
3/32" classical
1/2" and 5/8" core box
1/2" flush trim with bearing
1/2", 3/8", 1/4" and 1/8" roundover with bearing
1" rabbeting with bearing
5/32" roman ogee with bearing
1/4" and 3/8" cove with bearing
1/4" ovolo
1/2" hinge mortizing
45° 1-1/4" chamfer with bearing
1/4" panel pilot (1/2" panel pilot in 1/2" shank set)
3/16" half round

The set I purchased was the RBK1031, which is 1/2" shank bits. Selection is the same, other than the panel pilot bit.

RBK1029

This kit is the little brother of the set above. 12 of the most common pieces with a 1/4" shank for $11.99. Sounds like a bargain to me. If I were going to buy a smaller kit (saving money or if we were out of the larger kits), this one would be my choice. There are some less expensive ones below, but at $1 per bit, these are useful and hard to pass up.


RBK1025

This 5 piece kit for only $6.99 doesn't have a case, but it has some nifty little bits for just a few dollars. My wife is a fan of the keyhole bits, as I mentioned in this post a while back. It's a fun little kit for a few bucks, which is perfect for the title of "Starter Router Bit Set". Who knows... maybe I'll need to have some of those wrapped up to give out for father's day this year.

RBK1026

This 6 piece kit for just $6.99 includes a case and has 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" straight bits with 1/4" shank. They're great for rabbeting, grooving, dadoing and making joints for drawers, boxes, and picture frames. At this price, maybe the father's day gifts will have one of these wrapped up as well.

FBS1016

This is the set of forstner bits I bought yesterday. It includes 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", 3/4", 7/8", 1", 1-1/8", 1-1/4", 1-3/8", 1-1/2", 1-5/8", 1-7/8", 2" and 2-1/8" bits in a carry case for just $24.99. Not bad for 16 bits at all. Matt even bought a set of these today. I think he was jealous.

FBS1007

This is the bargain of the lot. At just $4.99 for a 7 piece kit with a carry case, that's a steal. It includes 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", 3/4", 7/8" and 1" bits. If none of the others tempted you, then surely the price on this one alone has you thinking of how many sets you're buying for gifts.

Hurry!

I'm not kidding. Some of these will be gone tomorrow morning already. Others will take a few days. But when we run out, we probably can't get more. Porter Cable is dumping the "Hickory" name and will be branding their bits as Porter Cable, so we were able to get these prices only on a limited quantity. The replacements will cost much more when these are gone.

Coming Soon - Limited Quantities

Be on the watch this week for some bits from "Hickory Woodworking". They'll show up on our New Additions page, right after they hit the RSS feed. But what's so special about them?

Amazing Value!

Yes, I said amazing. I picked up one each of the larger kits today. I'll add pictures once Doug gets them for us, but I'll describe these larger kits right now.

16 piece Forstner Bit Set (FBS-1016)

This kit has sizes from 1/4" through 2-1/8" in 1/8" increments. These are industrial quality bits for use in hand drills or drill presses for making flat bottomed holes, recessing counterboard screws, creating decorative edges, making pocket holes, or even large pilot holes. It comes in a carrying case with a large window on the front and should be priced right around $30.

24 piece Carbide Master Router Bit Set (RBK1031)

This 24 piece router bit kit includes many of the most common bits in a carry case with a window again. I bought the 1/2" shank variety, but it is also available in 1/4" shank. Either way, there are the following bits:

3/8" keyhole
1/4", 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4" straight
90° 1/2" V-groove
1/2" dovetail
3/32" classical
1/2" and 5/8" core box
1/2" flush trim with bearing
1/2", 3/8", 1/4" and 1/8" roundover with bearing
1" rabbeting with bearing
5/32" roman ogee with bearing
1/4" and 3/8" cove with bearing
1/4" ovolo
1/2" hinge mortizing
45° 1-1/4" chamfer with bearing
1/2" panel pilot (1/4" panel pilot in 1/4" shank set)
3/16" half round

Once again, an amazing value that will be priced around $30 as well.

Limited Quantities

Quantities are limited on these bits. They'll be sold on a first come, first served basis. If you can't wait for Doug to add them to our site, you can always call in and buy them ahead of time. There will be some other sets available as well, but I don't have those in front of me at home tonight. I just have the ones I purchased in front of me right now. Again, watch the RSS feed or the New Additions page if you'd like to see the rest of the sets that will become available. They should be online tomorrow (3/14/06) or Wednesday at the latest. Being a reader of my blog, you just happen to get to know about things before we start selling them.

Filtered Air Fitting

In our new product feed (you have that RSS feed set up, right?) I noticed something cool today. Ok, so Matt noticed it first, but I'm writing about it before he gets a chance. It's just an air fitting, but it has the unique aspect of having a filter which gets installed at the tool.

FilterPlug with Blow Back Filter

The FilterPlug incorporates the features typically found in an in-line filter directly into the pneumatic plug. The design gives true at-the-tool filtration and reduces the possibility of contamination. That has the effect of reducing wear and extending tool life, which I can certainly say is a good thing. Best of all, this compact unit protects your tools while adding almost no weight or bulk.

Not Always Necessary

This filtered fitting won't always be necessary. For example, most of the Max nailers have internal filtration. Many of the new Milwaukee pneumatics have them built in as well. Then there are disposable air tools from the big box stores, which tend to just get abused anyway. But the air tools I have could certainly use this little addition.

It may not always be necessary, but for under $10 it seems like cheap insurance to make sure the internals of my pneumatic tools don't get damaged.

Request for feedback

I spent much of today working on the results pages for our internal search engine on ToolBarn.com to make the results easier to look at and pick out the right one. Now, I'm looking for some feedback from you, our valued site visitor.

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Example 1: Search for dewalt 18v drill

The above image is our old search results. You can see that only the product had an image, the rest were just textual listings like google would show. Below, we added thumbnails to many of the different pages, allowing you to see which pages are brand specific rather easily. Any "Category" level page has a thumbnail of the page that is linked to. Does that help you as much as it helped me to pick out the results I wanted?

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Example 2 : Search for 2610321608

Above is the old results. Again, just textual for most of the results. Below has the thumbnail of what the schematic pages look like. Does this help at all?

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Ok, so now that you've seen some of the additions I made (this is a lot of thumbnails to generate, by the way), what suggestions do you have to make our search results easier to spot what you're looking for? Most sites don't give their visitors the opportunity to give input like this, so this is your chance to make a difference. Crazy ideas accepted as well as really good ones. Just leave a comment or email me and I'll do what I can to include all the good ones on our site.

Cordless Nailer Technologies

I was doing some searching today on Google and noticed something very interesting about the way people name products online. Items which we call Gas Charged Framing Nailers have been called Cordless Framing Nailers by many of our competitors. This brings up the question, what is a true Cordless Nailer and what isn't, and what technologies in "Cordless Nailing" actually work?

Gas Charged Impulse Nailers

Gas charged nailers, while not having a cord, aren't normally considered a "cordless" item. Even though Paslode calls them cordless on their own website, they aren't run entirely by a battery. In fact, the battery only acts to create a small spark to ignite a gas charge and drive the nail.

I used one of these when doing some framing at our last house during a bathroom remodel, and it worked fairly well. Since I didn't have access to an air compressor at the time, this really simplified things. This type of gun isn't recommended for extended use, but it works good enough when you're in a pinch.

The consumables are Paslode rechargeable batteries, gas charges (fuel cells), and the nails themselves. Regular maintanence also requires the Paslode degreaser / cleaner for impulse tools (see note in next paragraph).

Paslode isn't the only one making gas charged nailers. Hitachi has a gas charged nailer as well. It's very similar, but green. They have a cleaning document outlining the 30 steps to cleaning a gas charged nailer, which really illustrates why you don't want to use these for your everyday nailing needs.

Porter Cable also made one that they called the "Bammer". I assume that the "BAM" part was in reference to the small explosion from the gas charge.

Cordless Nailers with On-Board Compressors

A couple of years ago, Porter Cable had a unique idea. They built a small air compressor, strapped it onto a pneumatic nailer and ran the whole thing off of a 12V battery. The idea was pretty cool, but it didn't end up working all that well for extended periods.

From what I have read in forums, it appears that there were some issues with seals in the compressor and the tool itself. All that I know for certain at this time is they don't make it any longer. It happened to be somewhere around the time where DeWALT aquired Porter Cable, so many in the industry wrote it off as DeWALT wanting to promote their cordless nailers and not that there were service issues with this model. Regardless the cause, it was a cool idea at the time that isn't currently in production.

Clockwork Spring Mechanism

Senco decided to make their attempt at a cordless nailer much more memorable. (Insert whirring noise followed by a clunk here.) We have sold these in the past, but the time between nails (greater than 2 seconds) makes for a poor user experience. The design is fine, it actually drives the nails ok, but the time savings using a nail gun should be substantial and with these it just isn't.

The concept is cool and I happen to like it a lot. However, winding a spring for a couple of seconds before firing a nail makes it rather difficult to drive that nail exactly where you want it. The odds of moving the nailer go up the longer you have to wait, so quick firing is a very good thing. After listing this as a failure, I'll move on to what we at ToolBarn.com consider to be a good design.

Nail Pitching Machine

When DeWALT decided to enter the cordless nailer market, there were a few chuckles. With the prior failures, the general thinking was that they would also fail. However, the DeWALT cordless nailers have turned out to be amazing in comparison.

Their cordless nailers are designed with a flywheel engine, creating a “readiness to fire” that allows the tool to work as fast as the end user – firing up to 4-5 nails per second. If you've ever been to a batting cage with a pitching machine, their nailers work essentially the same way. This design provides the user with a cordless finish nailer solution that no other manufacturer has been able to deliver in the past. Quite honestly, there are a lot of jobs I'd rather use one of these than have a hose in the way.

At this time, they're all finish nailers. One is angled, the rest are straight. It seems that the emergence of Li-Ion has sort of put new cordless tools on hold, so it'll be interesting to see what they come out with once their "Nirvana" line is released. I'd think that a framing nailer and perhaps even a roofing nailer should be possible with 36 volts to play with, but the heads on the nails will cause problems with this design.

Limited Use - For Now

For now, it appears that cordless finish nailers are the only good solution for regular use. As battery technology gets better and tool manufacturers get more innovative, I'd expect to see more cordless nailers available. The nailers themselves have been slowly getting better and batteries are taking a huge step forward this year, so it should be just a matter of time before someone hits the nail on the head and gives us a full line of cordless nail guns to play with.

Cordless tool battery stability

Cordless tools batteries are simple, right? Well, Matt didn't think so when he was researching this article on cordless tool batteries. There is a lot of information there, but one thing he didn't really address was stability. His article was already pretty long, so that got left out in the interest of getting it published in the first place.

Basics of battery ratings

Cordless tool batteries are measured in Volts and Amp Hours. Volts is the amount of juice at any given moment, while Amp Hours gives reference to how long the battery can last when doing a job. That's about a simple as I can make it. Ok, one more try using a water pipe as a metaphor. Volts is the speed of the flow of the water, Amps is the diameter of the pipe that can be filled, and Amp Hours is the length of time that this flow can be maintained.

What is battery stability?

Since batteries end up having chemistry tied to them, and nobody that isn't wearing a funny white coat really wants to read about chemical reactions, I'll try to keep this more of a high level overview instead of really in-depth.

What it essentially boils down to is that stability is a measure of how many charges the battery can take before a cell goes bad. Based on the chemical makeup of the battery, this can vary quite a bit. This is also where the newer technologies really shine.

Ni-Cad (Nickel-Cadmium)

This is really one of the oldest battery technologies. The chemical makeup is Nickel and Cadmium, which ends up having the worst symptoms from voltage depression. I won't go into the details about voltage depression - you can read it at the provided link if you are interested. What I will say is that the chemical makeup of Ni-Cad means you see the least amount of time between failures in most cases.

Ni-MH (Nickel Metal Hydride)

This is a slightly newer technology, but it still has voltage depression issues. Although the symptoms aren't typically as quick to develop as Ni-Cad, they do exist and still have to be dealt with. But here's the big secret - The higher the Amp Hour rating of the battery, the less stable the chemistry of the battery. Let me repeat that in different language - Longer life per charge (higher Ah rating) means fewer charge cycles before a cell goes bad.

Li-Ion (Lithium Ion)

For power tools, this is the newest technology. This is similar to what cell phones have been using for years, but with much larger cells to give a cordless tool some actual run-time. For example, my cell phone has a 3.7V 1000 mAh battery. The smaller ones on cordless tools right now are 18V with 3000 mAh (3 Ah). That's quite a difference. But what about stability?

When talking about stability in a lithium battery, we're talking about the different chemical makeups. This is different than the concerns with Ni-Cad or Ni-MH batteries. Basically, when the manufacturers were originally attempting to make Li-Ion for power tools, there were many explosions because of chemical instability before anyone got it right.

That's not a big problem any more, but we still see people searching for V28 explosions at times. I don't know if they want video or are just doing research to make sure that they're safe, but either way it sounds like someone heard about some old problems.

Chem Is Try

The fun thing I remember about chemistry from my days at UNL is that Chem Is Try. Nothing ever comes out perfect the first time, and conditions can contribute to unseen problems. This is not only true in skydiving (as the bumper sticker to the right points out), but also in chemistry.

Milwaukee spent over 7 years on R&D for their V28 series of tools. Makita didn't want to spend that long, so they decided to use Sony Li-Ion cells which were being used in other high-demand applications (digital cameras, camcorders, etc.) already. But the point is, the battery chemistry used by these manufacturers has been tested for quite some time now to make sure that the batteries don't go boom. A few of those could cripple their reputation, and in this industry reputation is a powerful ally or an even stronger adversary.

Skilsaw Rebates - $20 from Skil on some great saws

What's even better than getting a great saw at a great price? How about $20 back by mail? From March 2nd to May 31 (2006, of course), Skil is sending $20 back for every HD77M and HD77 you decide to buy, with no limits on the quantity listed on the rebate form. That's an awesome deal if you're looking for a Skilsaw!

What makes this a good Skilsaw for a beginner?

If you've ever worked with any sort of a circular saw, you know that handle placement can be a big deal. If you're not used to a circular saw at all, having the blade on the left side instead of the right allows a right handed person to see the cut without leaning over the saw. By placing the handle behind the tool, Skil has also managed to create a saw that you're pushing through the material instead of guiding from the top. By moving the handle out of the way, you can see more of the material you're cutting and less of the back of your hand. The results tend to be straighter cuts. Beginner and tradesmen alike can appreciate that.

What makes this a good Skilsaw for a contractor?

Skil uses a "Worm Drive" to create a drive mechanism that not only has more power, but also has a longer life than standard "spur" gears. The "Worm" style has more teeth constantly in contact, which creates very little play in the mechanism and a smoother, more consistent spinning motion for the blade. By having gear reduction, the torque is also greatly increased without requiring a much more expensive motor. Less play in the gearing leads to less wear. The end result of using a worm drive is a much more solid gearing mechanism creating a more powerful, longer lasting saw - great for any contractor. If you depend on your saw to make a living, you'll appreciate the accuracy and the longer duty cycle.

Which one should I get?

Between the HD77M and HD77, there isn't all that much difference. Basically, the only difference is that the "M" means Magnesium, which is a stronger metal that is also lighter weight. For a homeowner looking for a quality saw, either would be fine. For a contractor that is going to be using it quite often, the lighter saw and stronger housing will be very appreciated.

Want to play and learn more?

We have an online demo of the HD77M available if you'd like to play with it a bit. You can magnify the saw, spin it to see all sides and learn about all of the features that make it a great saw. Just visit the HD77M Skilsaw page and click on the "Product Demo" button just above the picture. It's vendor supplied, so there isn't a whole lot of explanation of the features, but it's still a fun toy. Enjoy.