I threw this in "tech" because power tools are similar to tech gadgets. If ya dig 'em, you generally want the latest and coolest ones you can get. And it's tough to get more Dad than DIY with power tools.

What got me thinking about this is a post over at Make Magazine regarding this mobile workshop. It is amazing. I aspire to create something similar in a garage someday. My OWN playdeck if you will. (I admit, I'm having a pretty good time on TheBoy's... and yea, I still need to update that thread with the 2.0 build from this Summer.)



A related thread is here, regarding teaching your kid the basics of tools.

So what's your favorite tool in the workshop? How are you sharing your workshop with your family?

Ahh, tools, the beating heart of the male primate. What hopeless fools our opposable thumbs have made us. Good topic Nik.

I've got a mish-mash of power tools that I've picked up over the past ten years. Almost all of them were purchased to accomplish a specific project, and so the collection slowly grew.

I've got a drill, orbital sander, two reciprocal saws (a one handed cordless, and a two handed corded), a jigsaw, and a knock-off Dremel tool. I've also got a lawnmower and a weed trimmer, do those count as power tools? The brands range from Craftsman and Dewalt to the lowliest of all brands, Harbor Freight.

The reciprocal saws have found their best use in pruning. We have seven fruit trees in the yard and we take them pretty seriously. Also, at the back of the property, is a 70 foot long laurel hedge which the previous property owners didn't maintain at all. So the laurel "trees" are over 30 feet tall in some cases. I've been slowly hacking away at them over the past two years; I'd love to turn this into a proper hedge some day. (I could get this job done in a long weekend if I rented a chainsaw and a woodchipper but I just haven't wanted to put in that level of time and money into it, so far. We don't have a truck so I'd have to rent a truck just to get the woodchipper home...).

The weed trimmer and one-handed reciprocal saw are C3 Craftsman and they are pretty great. Between parenting and my career I don't have a lot of spare time, and I love being able to quickly grab the cordless tool, do the minimum amount of yard cleanup to make the property look good, and then put it away. The extra 15-20 minutes it takes to wrangle extension cords would put me off of most yard work.

When we bought the house two years ago I wanted to "get handy" (I'm a software engineer by trade and I don't have a lot of blue collar hand skills), so through our local community college I've taken a few courses like woodworking, electrical, plumbing. I've found that I like woodworking just for its own sake, and I've signed up for another class in the fall. I'm thinking of turning it into a hobby if I can find the time to put into it. The biggest carpentry project I've taken on so far is installing balusters for the staircase in our garage. I borrowed a Craftsman radial arm saw from a neighbor, and in conjunction with my sander and drill (I used deck screws for the project), got the job done over several long sessions. Here are the before and after pics:


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Those are doug fir 2x2s. The total cost of the project was about $25. The balusters are sanded nice and smooth, and my son uses them to steady himself while he walks up and down the stairs. (He puts one hand on the balusters, and we hold his other hand). I was pretty happy with how it turned out, considering it was my one of my first carpentry projects as a homeowner. (I made some measuring mistakes along the way, and several 2x2s ended up as firewood).

One tool I'd really like to get is a radial arm saw, or at least a miter saw, of my own; but they're expensive and there's not a lot of room in our garage, so I haven't done that yet.

Geez I haven't posted something this long since elimination communication.

-- Roger

PS - my favorite woodworking site is woodgears.ca - 90% of it is completely beyond my skill range but the guy who writes for the site is just so good at what he does. I like watching the videos just for entertainment's sake, even if I couldn't take on projects of that complexity.