Sash Clamp - T bar Or Not?

I was once told that as a carpenter I'll never have enough clamps and nothing could be truer! 

Every job I do at the minute I seem to be using every clamp I have. Or to be more accurate, every clamp I like. I have a large selection built up over 20 years and it's a right hodgepodge and there's a few clamps in there I don't like to use unless I have to.

Changing Brushes

An aspect that customers never see is the care and maintenance of my tools and the day to day running costs to keep all these tools working. 

The impact driver is an essential part of a modern carpenters tool kit

 My impact driver is an example of this. This week I've had to purchase two new batteries (coming in at over £50) and replace the brushes to keep it working.

Brushes worn out from lots of use!

The old worn brush on the left and what it should look like on the right

New brushes in place - no down time at a customers house now!

The constant maintenance, sharpening, repairing and updating kit takes lots of time and costs a lot of money every year. A modern and efficient carpenter has to have far more kit than any other trade in the building industry.

New Kit - Festool Plunge Saw TS55REQ

As stated many time on this blog, I'm somewhat of a tool snob.

I spend everyday working with my tools and I like to use the best.

I've been looking at buying a new circular saw for sometime now and I wanted one that would follow a guide rail for straight cuts when I'm building built-in units out of MDF or ply.

 I kept looking at all the different ones on the market and although I'm normally a Makita man I decided it was time to move up to the next level and buy a brand I've wanted to try for ages - Festool.
Anyone I've ever spoke to about these tools raves about them so I thought I'd suffer the cost and try it.


New saw - not for normal site work

I decide to go all out and bought the saw complete with two guide rails and the auto start midi extractor, which will be great on things like my mitre saw and sander as well as the circular saw.

 

Hopefully these tools will be a bit of an investment. The extractor should mean I breath in less dust during the day and make it easier to clean up when I'm working in someones house. The circular saw should make building things like fitted cupboards and wardrobes easier, faster and more accurate.

I'm looking forward to putting these through their paces! Anyone else have any experience using Festool kit?

Lead Tools

I stumbled across this trio of tools the other day.
Lead beating tools I made back in 2005.

Homemade lead working tools

I made these so I could work on fitting lead roll mops to a flat roof on an old property we were working on in the Teme Valley.

Somehow buying these tools didn't enter my head. Instead I found some beech I had in my store and knocked them up in a night so they were ready for the next day. The bossing mallet was a little big (I only had a picture to go on) but it was still useful to "pull" the lead round corners, whereas the chasing chisel was great to get the lead tight into corners and edges - the ferule is a bit of 28m copper pipe to save the end from splitting.

How To Make A Thermalite Saw

Brick layers are always trying to nab carpenters old saws to cut Thermalite block with. I've managed to make the bricklayer on site a little happier by making the saw cut a little better for them. I know it works as they asked me to alter another saw for them yesterday!

Saw Set

All you need is an old panel saw and a saw set.

Adjust the saw set so it's altering the teeth of the saw to the maximum (in this case it's to 4 teeth per inch) and work your way along the saw, setting every other tooth. When you've finished one way turn the saw around and set all the teeth you missed out. The saw set is basically pushing over each tooth making the kerf wider and therefore the cut more aggressive.

The Set in clamping mode

The "tooth" that pushes over the teeth on the saw giving it's "set"

A much more aggressive saw

Doing this isn't as good as buying a proper Thermalite saw but it is much cheaper and it works pretty well. It makes the cut much more aggressive and faster as well as clearing out the waste better, stopping the saw from binding which can be a problem when using an old wood saw. I also used it on cutting kingspan and it cut much faster than a normal saw would.

Any Thoughts On Security?

Yesterday I learnt that someone my brother works with had their tools stolen. Although I know this is a common occurrence, it really bothers me. How could someone remove the means by which this guy supports his young family and pays his mortgage?

Useful padlock

Apparently they took the lot, and it got me thinking about my tools and how dependant I am on them to earn my living. As well as this I also learnt today that a building firm I sometimes work for had their yard and offices broken into with computers and tools stolen.

Thinking "It'll never happen to me" is the wrong way to look at the problem, so is "if they want to get in, they'll get in" that people often quote when you talk about the subject.

When you're at work in a city or town you have to accept there's a risk. When I was working in Birmingham I even got into the habit of putting a magnetic "Window Cleaning" sign on the back of the van, figuring that a thief was much less likely to want to break into a window cleaners van containing a bucket and sponge, than a carpenters with tools. Unfortunately that doesn't look very professional so could only be used when I was parked in "dodgy" areas.

What tips and ideas have other people got for keeping their tools safe and secure either on site or at home. I'll be keen to read any ideas people have got.