My dad’s old toolboxes have served us well, providing a home for our tools for over 30 years.  But they’re a bit rusty and some of the drawers have a funky smell, so I’ve been in the market for some new tool chests.  I’ve been prowling craigslist, but the only ones appearing for the last year has been low-end junk or unbelievably expensive Snap-on/Matco boxes (I understand that they’re extremely well-made, but when people tell me they originally paid $8-12,000 for a tool box, I just have to shake my head).  Also, all the tool chests I found had a small number of deep drawers, with my hand tools collection I really need lots of shallow drawers.

Just a word of advice:  Never buy a tool chest without checking it out in person.  Several retailers had boxes that looked nice on the website and had great specs, but just felt cheap when I got my hands on them.  In particular, Northern Tools has a line of Homak PRO boxes that looked great but felt a bit flimsy.  They also have their Homak H2PRO line, which are much sturdier and feel great, but they only have a few large drawers.

I had been very interested in some 41″ Craftsman boxes.  They were on sale at a 50% discount before Christmas, but I just never had a chance to get down there and check them out.  After Christmas, the pre-Christmast 50%-off sale price went away and was replaced by an after-Christmas 30% sale.  That was just enough to push them out of my price range, so I continued my search.

Then, last week, someone on WoodNet mentioned that Sears was having a blowout sale on Kreg screws.  A great deal, many of the screws were 75% off!  I added a few boxes to my cart and started checking out.

Then I noticed that my total was over $1500, so I took a closer look.  It turns out I had never removed the tool chests from my cart back in December.  And they now had the 50% sale price again!  Checking back at the product page, it still showed the 30%-off price but if you added them to the cart you got the discount.  Not wanting to question a good thing, I hurriedly checked out and got my new tools chests for just $750 each.

(Just FYI, I checked back a few hours later and this secret sale no longer worked)

I’m in the process of assembling them, you can see one set all together with the base of the other being unboxed.  A more detailed review will follow, but so far I’m quite pleased.  Especially since I “accidentally” saved over $600.

Titanium TIG welding electrodes need to be ground to a point to work properly.  However, grinding will always leave small bits of material in the stone and using these wheels for the titanium will contaminate the electrode and affect the quality of your weld.  So you really need to dedicate a special wheel just for titanium.  In my case, I didn’t want to do wheel swaps, so I was looking out for an inexpensive grinder that I could keep a titanium-only wheel on.

I tried a couple cheap grinders, but they were just so cheap/junky I couldn’t stand it.  So I started keeping an eye out for a used, higher-quality grinder.  Last weekend at a yard sale, I came across a Northern Tools 8″ 3/4HP grinder with a nice cast-iron stand.  Both items were still brand-new in sealed boxes.  The grinder normally costs $80 and the stand $70, so getting both for only $10 was a major delight.

However, after assembling and trying out the grinder and stand, it’s a mixed bag.  The stand is quite nice, very sturdy and well-made.  It would definitely be worth the normal $70 it costs.  The grinder, however, ranks right up there as one of the worst tools I’ve ever used.  You can see my review for more details.

I’ve been scoring some good stuff lately on Craigslist.  The real key is keeping a constant eye out, since good deals go quickly.

I decided a couple days ago that I needed a bigger stepladder, the largest one I have is 8′ and it’s just not enough, especially since my house has 15′ ceilings in some parts (I live in fear of the day the bulbs blow in the part with 24′ ceilings).

Looking at Lowes, I was astounded at the price of stepladders.  Even a cheap everyday 6′ model is $60.  I wanted a 12-16′ model, which start at $275 and go as high as $600!  Sorry, but I don’t want one that badly, I didn’t want to spend more than $125 or so.

So, I started scanning craigslist.  Some deals appeared to be out there, but all the inexpensive stepladders turned out to be extension ladders instead.  But one person was advertising a 12′ stepladder for only $50.  There was no picture, so I figured for sure that it was a cheap extension ladder but I emailed for a photo anyway.  It turned out to be a 12′ Werner fiberglass stepladder in almost-new condition, which would have cost me almost $300.   It was almost an hour drive away, but well worth it.

My HP printer claimed to be out of toner on one of its four cartridges.  However, when I checked the supply level in my Mac’s printer control, it said the carts were all about 75% full

It turns out that HP printers use a page counter, not the actual level of the toner, to tell you when they’re “empty”.  Using the printer’s control panel, under “System setup” – “Paper setup” – “Print quality” – “Replace supplies” I changed  the setting from “Stop at out” to “Override out”.  The printer started flashing “Replace supplies override in use” on the LCD display and printed even though it was supposedly out of toner.

This really struck me as ethically questionable.  Obviously the printer is perfectly capable of knowing how full the cartridges really are since it’s reporting that fact to the computer.

That was six months ago.  The printer continues printing away even though three of it’s four toner cartridges are supposedly empty.  The Mac printer control continues to tell the truth, though, as it shows all four cartridges still around 60-70% full.

Now I’m really irked at the number of 80% full toner cartridges I’ve probably thrown away over the years.

OK, after cleaning off the motor plate a little more, it turns out that the motor on the Northfield bandsaw is only 2hp, not 3.  Still, a heck of a bargain.

I’ve been wanting a bigger bandsaw for a while now and boy did I find one.  I picked up this 1959 Northfield 27″ bandsaw for a mere $300.  It has a 3-phase 3hp direct-drive motor.  What’s cool is that Northfield sells virtually the same identical bandsaw today, the new price is over $11,000!  I plan to add a variable-frequency drive so I can get variable speed for cutting metal as well as wood.

It was kinda neat, it came out of a private hanger where it was being used to maintain the personal jet of one of the NFL owners.

First of all, Happy New Year!

Final numbers for 2011: 63,272 visitors viewed 128,439 pages.  That’s a 160% increase in visitors and 155% increase in page views over 2010!  Thank you for visiting and noticing my little corner of the web.

Goal for 2012?  How about let’s shoot for 100,000 visitors and 200,000 page views?

Some listings on craigslist this morning.  A guy wants $150 for a Harbor Freight sandblasting cabinet that I can get brand-new for $168.  A woman wants $200 for a 15-year-old 1.5HP Taiwanese motor, worth maybe $75 at most.  Another guy has a 1980′s Craftsman radial arm saw for $900 (he’d be lucky to get $100).  All these are listed as “firm” or “not negotiable”.

Well, that’s the last time I try the “automated” upgrade of WordPress.  It totally botched the process, making the admin/author tools completely useless.  Two hours later, I’ve managed to undo the damage.

A guy on craigslist was advertising a “high-end” Lyon tool box.  The pictures weren’t great, but he said it was in good shape, all the ball-bearing slides were smooth, etc.  At $150, it would have been a pretty good deal.

Well, after a 45-minute drive, I walk into his garage and see that he actually has a low-end box.  The slides are not ball-bearing at all.  Basically, this box might have cost $150 brand-new.  I didn’t even make him an offer, the only way I’d take it would be if it was free.