SeeSnake Micro

This tool just needs to be filed under cool. It's the SeeSnake Micro from Ridgid. If you've ever seen the SciFi show "Ghost Hunters", they use the standard SeeSnake regularly to see into rooms they otherwise wouldn't venture in to. But for plumbers (the day job for the two founders of T.A.P.S.), the SeeSnake is essential in seeing what has caused the blockage in sewer pipes.

But now, Ridgid decided to make a portable version for inside walls. This is a perfect tool for electricians, network techs or even cable installers. It's lightweight and powered from 4 AA batteries, making it very versatile. The screen, at 2.5", is large enough to be useful while still being inexpensive enough to make this device very affordable.

What good is it with a 3' cable you may be asking yourself about now. Well, it's quite useful, because you can add extensions to it easy enough to get up to 30'. That seems like enough length to make it very useful for wiring to me. Adding 9 extensions makes the price quite a bit higher, but it's still much more reasonable than the full sized SeeSnake by quite a bit.

But it's not just about the length. The mirror, hook and magnet (all included) make the uses continue to grow. I'm thinking this could actually be very nice for running network and phone cables behind cubicle walls around our offices. With some imagination, there are a ton of uses.

I'm excited about the SeeSnake Micro. It looks like Ridgid has a real winner, and I can't wait to get my hands on one.

Reading Blueprints

I've never understood how to read blueprints. There are a bunch of lines, symbols, and unless you're in the know, it just seems like a bunch of junk on a piece of paper.

Well, if you're like me but actually want to know how to read a blueprint (I don't really care to right now), then DeWALT came out with a book for you. It's the Blueprint Reading Professional Reference.

In the 350 pages you'll see real-world blueprint reading examples, hundreds of charts, illustrations, formulas, laws, & symbols, and current materials which are up-to-date with industry standards.

They even realized where it was going to be kept, making the cover material flexible as well as water and oil resistant with a super-strong binding which allows the book to lay flat when open, and the large and easy-to-read text and illustrations make it useful at the jobsite while being the right size to easily fit into any pocket or toolbox.

I really didn't ever think about how much you need to know to read a blueprint, but I knew it was more than I wanted to memorize. The 350 pages pretty much cemented that opinion in my mind. If I ever have need of that, I'll be picking up the book from DeWALT.

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.

Cool remodeling product - Saw 'n Sand

The Saw 'n Sand from BH Innovations makes my list today as a cool remodeling product. As you can see from the image to the right, it's got a lot going on for just being a saw blade. But, it's not just a saw blade. It's a saw AND sand blade.

What does Saw 'n Sand really mean?
With a standard blade, you're going to need to do some sanding when you're done cutting. The edge of the board will have a pretty distinct texture, and you'll probably be able to tell what direction the board was cut. By contrast, when the Saw 'n Sand is used you end up with a much smoother finish, and you can't see any distinct cutting direction because it's smoother. Some finishing may still be necessary, but in most cases you won't need to do much if any.

Precision ground premium C4 micro carbide tipped blade
This is a bunch of geek talk to most people, so I'll try to break that down for the rest of the world. Precision ground isn't tough to understand - the carbide is ground under very precise conditions, using premium C4 carbide. C4 micro carbide tipped is more difficult to decipher the meaning and importance, though. C4 is a type of carbide (no, we're not talking plastic explosives here) that can be applied to the tips of the blade to make the teeth stay sharp longer. There are grades from C1 - C4, with hardness ratings of 1400 - 1660. Basically, C4 is the toughest carbide available. The micro part comes in when it's a small carbide particle, which makes it last longer yet. If you envision a bowl of large marshmallows vs a bowl of Rice Crispies, the smaller particle bowl will take much longer to empty when removed one at a time. So they're just saying that this is a long-lasting blade.

10" 60 tooth industrial polished blade
Again, 10 inches isn't difficult to understand. 60 tooth isn't too bad either, but the result is a bit less clear. Table saw blades normally are available in 24, 40, 60, 80, and 120 tooth models. There are also some specialty blades that have other numbers of teeth. The more teeth, the less each cut does and the smoother the result. This also makes the cutting slower, so 60 is a nice medium. But since we're also sanding, we're not as concerned with a high number of teeth to keep the finish smooth so much as having something that cuts reasonably quickly so we can sand it with the sides of the blade and be done.

This is an industrial grade blade, which means it can be sharpened, if necessary, down the road. Better materials are used so it doesn't wear out as quickly and is less likely to break, so the blade itself can last quite some time. Finally, it's polished so there is a nice smooth surface for your sticky back sandpaper to adhere to.

High quality aluminum oxide grit
This is simply saying that we've got a reasonable quality sanding disc on the sides of the blade. But simply sticking a piece of sandpaper on the side of the blade won't make it work very well. First off, that increases the thickness of the blade, and the edge of the sanding disc will be very vulnerable to being peeled off of the blade itself. Instead, this blade has a very specific convex surface (bowed out in the middle) and a recessed area just inside the cutting tooth area. This keeps the disc stuck to the blade while also keeping the thickness of the blade down a bit.

Great, but how well does it work?
Not having had the chance to use it myself, I decided to ask Chris. He had received some feedback from one of our customers on why he didn't think it was a good blade. The customer said he was only on his 3rd house when the sandpaper started to clog. Well, once he thought about it, it was great for two full houses worth of trim, and he didn't realize that there were replacement sanding discs available. His impression of the blade changed drastically once he learned about those, and he now thinks it's a great blade.

There are a couple of words of advice that I can also pass along from customer experience. Make sure your table saw has plenty of horsepower, because the extra friction of sanding can bog down an underpowered unit. If your table saw has any sort of an issue with harder woods, you probably don't want to use this blade. Also, best results occur when you have a slow, even feed of the material. Too fast doesn't allow the sanding to occur nearly well enough. But it is a cool blade that will last you quite a while and a real time saver for anyone doing a lot of trim work during construction or remodeling.

Cool remodeling product alert - Curved Shower Rod

As we're doing our bathroom remodel, I've been looking at cool products that would make the end results even more spectacular. We're upgrading to a granite counter with a built in sink (pink & white tile shall be banished forever), replaced the areas of the walls that we removed with greenboard (no more rotted standard drywall), installed a tub and enclosure that attachs directly to the studs (again, no more rotted drywall to worry about) and got a Posi-Temp shower faucet, but those are all just ho-hum type of items.

I wanted something more unusual, yet practical and not a focal point. I don't want to it look weird or make the house hard to sell because it's too unique, but I don't want everything to look like a "Been there, done that" either. I think I found a perfect example of what I'm looking for today.

Curved Shower Rod
Yep... it's a curved steel shower rod that I found through Vintage Tub & Bath. When I first saw it, I thought it was drooping or bent, which of course made me question what was wrong with it. But it's not. If you look at the drawing, you can see what it's really doing. By curving out from the center of the shower, there's actually room to move without having the curtain sticking to you all the time. Why aren't they all this way?

Any other products?
Are there any other cool bath products that I'm missing? They don't have to be something that gets noticed as "Wow, look at that". I would also consider function important. Share your best ideas with me. I may even have something to kick back your way in return.