Workforce 98" Straight Edge.

I must admit that I can not find this thing on Home Depot's website, so I can't post a link or picture. It is a straight edge designed to allow you to rip things like plywood with a circular saw. The kit comes with 2 49" aluminum straight edges, a screw plate for joining them together, and two small c-clamps to secure the assembly to your work piece. It cost about $20.

After opening up the kit I was not very excited. The two aluminum extrusions are OK as individual pieces. I attached them together with the screw plate, and the assembly was not straight at all. I adjusted it and got it as straight as I could.

The little c-clamps are nearly worthless. They tear up the aluminum surface of the extrusions when you tighten them down, and are barely big enough to be of any use.

After fighting with this thing for about 10 minutes I got it attached to my plywood and made a pass. The middle of the assembly bends easily inward if you put any pressure up against it. I managed to rip two sheets of plywood down with this kit, but it wasn't real accurate.

Overall this is something I would never buy again. I feel like I threw $20 at a bum in a liquor store parking lot. This thing is a total piece of crap.

I will keep the two aluminum extrusions, as they might serve a purpose some day. The rest of it is going in a trash can.

I rank this thing a solid 1.5 out of 10.

Looks Like Obama Has It

BHO wrapped up the Democratic nomination for the President of the United States last night.

This is a historical moment, whether we like Barry or not. He is the first black man to ever win such a nomination. The funny thing about this is that it kind of squashes the notions of his former pastor a bit. America has just selected a black man to potentially lead our country. That doesn't sound like something a racist AmeriKKKa would do.

Many people have said that Barry is only in the position he is because he is black. I don't think that is totally true. It is definitely a large factor. He is also a great motivational speaker. When he is spewing rhetoric, he does it with style, and warmth. He is a very empathetic character.

I am proud that we have come so far as to be able to select a black man for a major party nominee for the most important job in the country. Unfortunately we could not have selected much worse of a person to actually do the job. A BHO presidency would be a disaster for this country and the world. We must do what we can to prevent him from winning. This means that however unsavory he is, McCain must be our man.

Makita LCT200W Compact Lithium 2 Pc Set

This was the first purchase in my new tool collection.



Makita's latest lithium ion battery is a wonderful generation step forward from the old NiCad batteries most are familiar with. They weigh less, recharge in minutes, and don't start to die after 10 minutes of use once they are six months old. They actually have a chip inside them that communicates with the charger to prevent memory problems. This is the heart of these tools. I would recommend that if you are interested in really investing in this tool family that you save up a little more and get one of the bigger packages that include the reciprocating saw or the circular trim saw. You may also want to look at the bigger batteries and/or the hammer drill kit. More on the batteries later.

At any rate, I can not say enough good things about this kit. It comes with a driver/drill and a wonderful impact driver. The kit also includes two batteries, Makita's outstanding charger, and a great soft case that contains it all.

Let's start with the driver/drill. Anyone that has used a decent cordless drill will be right at home once they start using this one. It has all the standard features. This drill is very well balanced, and is just a joy to use. It has good hand feel. The hand operated chuck is a good one. This chuck has some sort of positive locking mechanism. You can feel some slight clicks when you tighten a bit down in it. If you do it correctly, it offers a very good grip. The torque clutch works well. It is easy to quickly adjust the unit for the proper amount of torque if you are using it to drive screws for example. The drill also has two speeds and a good amount of torque. Overall this is without a doubt the best cordless drill I have ever used. It is not a top of the line drill however. If you are looking for that Makita has a better one. If you are looking for a good package deal though, it is a very good choice. I only use it to drill holes since I have the impact driver.

The other tool included in the kit is the impact driver. I bought the kit for the drill, as it was just $50 more for the impact driver and the extra battery. Extra batteries were $60, so it was obviously to good a deal to pass up.

The impact driver is completely awesome. I used it to drive probably 300 screws last weekend, and it works flawlessly. The impact action keeps the bit from caming out of the screw, and make driving 3 1/2" screws without pilot holes a trivial task. Anyone can drive screws with this driver. It is very light, compact, and well balanced. It is plenty powerful as well. It will drive a screw completely through a pressure treated 2x6 if you let it.

The charger is great. It charges the batteries in 15 minutes and is computer controlled. It works very well.

The soft case is excellent as well. It holds both tools, the charger, and a couple of boxes of bits easily. It also has a padded shoulder carry strap that makes it easy to carry the kit around.

Now for the only negative. The battery life is not the greatest in this kit. The batteries it comes with are 1.5 Ah batteries. Makita also sells 3 Ah batteries. They will of course last a lot longer on a single charge. If you use both batteries at the same time you will have some down time. The impact driver goes through the charge on one of these smaller batteries pretty quick. So if you like this kit I would recommend buying an extra battery.

Amazon is the place to buy this. I bought it at Home Depot for $279. Amazon sells it for $200 or so. You can also get extra batteries for a better price at Amazon.

I will buy more products in this line for Makita.

I rank this kit 8.5 out of 10, and 9.5 out of 10 at the Amazon price point.

Tools

I love tools. What man doesn't? My interest in woodworking has been accelerating over the last year, and necessity has caused some purchases recently to head in that direction.

Between the racks I am building for my fireworks, and the new porch we built at our lake house, they have gotten a bit of a work out.

This will be yet another topic for this blog. Tool reviews! Undoubtedly they will always be grossly behind my actual purchases, but that will give me time to actually use them. This post will serve as an index for my tool reviews.

My tool purchases run on the expensive side most of the time. I try my hardest not to buy junk. At the same time I won't waste money on things that I don't think are necessary or useful. Of course expensive to one guy might be paying more than $30 for a corded drill, while for someone else $200 might be considered expensive.

Usually my thought process is to look for the sweet spot. I want to get the most bang for my buck. There are several factors I look at when purchasing any item that is of significant cost.

• Quality - Is this item a piece of crap? Will it be usable for a very long time? How long do I need it to last?


• 2. Features - Does it do everything I want it to? If not, does it do enough? If it does more, will I ever use those features?


• 3. Cost - I am looking for good value of course, but you can get great value sometimes, and still not be able to afford something.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my tool reviews.

Tool Reviews

• Makita LCT200W Compact Lithium 2 Pc Set


• Workforce 98" Straight Edge

Blog Update

I am hoping to finally getting around to updating my "Guns I Have" section soon. I need to get decent pics of the guns that are already profiled, and add articles and pictures for the ones that are not. There will likely be little progress before July, but one can hope.

Now that the horrifyingly long Presidential primary season is almost over, I plan to start commenting on the upcoming election fairly soon as well. While I can't really stand McCain, I will be voting for him against either Obama or Clinton for a myriad of reasons. More on that later.

Edit: Here is a taste from last year about Obama's socialist gun grabbing ways.

Obama is a Total Gun Grabber

I have been on one of my blog sabaticals for several months. For some reason this is an ebb and flow thing for me.

Fireworks Racks

Independence Day is steadily approaching, and I am busier than a two peckered goat trying to get ready for it! :)

My big project for this year is creating racks of guns to shoot artillery shells with. Anyone who is familiar with consumer fireworks shells knows they usually come with one gun to shoot the 6-12 shells that come in a box. For years this was enough for me. We would have a few boxes to shoot, and would light them one at a time.

Last year, I ordered my first wholesale fireworks. I bought a case of shells. There was 144 shells in this case, and I knew that lighting them one at a time would get old pretty quick. Combining a few of the guns that came in the case allowed me to fuse and light four at a time. This was pretty neat, but I knew that more could be done this year.

This year's order included about 800 shells, so I decided to build racks to shoot them out of.

The racks are made of wood, and the guns are HDPE(High Denstity Polyethelene) pipe. HDPE is the ideal material to use for shooting these shells. It is tough, fairly cheap, and not dangerous in a catostraphic failure. Materials such as PVC are not suitable. If a shell explodes inside a PVC gun, the PVC will break apart and create very dangerous pieces of flying shrapnel. HDPE will burst open in this scenario, but it will not create shrapnel.

Each of the tubes is cut to 12" and plugged with a 1.5" thick wooden plug. The plug is hammered into one end of the tube, and stapled through the sidewall of the tube into the plug with 1.5" long staples.

The rack's frame consists of 2x3 lumber. The two end pieces are fastened to the bottom rail with 3" screws. The 2x3 is the perfect width for the HDPE tubes. The bottom side supports of the rack are OSB, and are stapled to the 2x3 frame. These pieces are used to strengthen the frame, hold the tubes in the rack, and supply a place to fasten the spacers in the bottom of the rack. Additionally the OSB will give way in the case of a gun failuer. Only the portion around the exploding gun will break off, leaving the rest of the support intact, and the rest of the guns pointed up.

The top side supports are 3/4" plywood. In between each gun is a piece of 1x2 stock. These are used as spacers. The spacers should allow any released gases from a failed gun to dissipate without harming the guns around it. The spacers also provide a lot of support to the top and bottom rails.

The racks are very solid, and have been designed to keep all the tubes pointed up in case of a failure. That is the most important aspect of the design of these racks in my opinion. Having a rack that fails to accomplish this could be disasterous to say the least. Imagine 8 or so guns pointed every direction with lit shells in them. That could get ugly quick.

So, I should end up with about 20 of these. Four of five of them will be joined together with plywood end pieces. This will make them self-supporting, and allow me to fuse quite a few shells together.

Here are a few pics I took of one of the racks.

Ungrateful Twits

Story

So the Berkeley city council doesn't like the Marines, and has encouraged the stinky patchouli-drenched dykes of Code Pink to protest the recruiting office. They have also given them a free parking pass and a noise permit so they can protest ad naseum.

Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.

That's the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

This is shameful and should not be tolerated. Personally I think the National Guard should be sent in, and the council be arrested for interfering with government business. They should herd up all those gross Pink Coder hags and throw them in prison as well.

An employee of a nearby business who asked not to be identified said Wednesday the elderly Code Pink protesters are aggressive, take up parking spaces, block the sidewalk with their yoga moves, smoke in the doorways, and are noisy.

How completely typical of the baby boomer Communistas. Loud mouthed, rude, inconsiderate jackals of the worst sort.

No federal money should ever be spent in Berkeleyistan again.

The Next Best Thing

What attracts us to guns?

There are many aspects to collecting and shooting guns that are very enjoyable. You have the fine craftsmanship in well made arms to admire, the intellectual aspect involved in reloading, the thrill of finding that special rare firearm, the camaraderie you share with fellow gun owners, the knowledge that you can protect yourself and your family if need be, the history of firearms, the pride of improving your skills, and countless other aspects of our hobby that makes it so fulfilling. We see guns as more than tools. They are objects of affection for many of us.

I feel the most primal aspects of guns are the most appealing to us. They make fire, light, and loud noise. This is the biggest attraction for me. I love the feel of the controlled chaos that firing a gun represents. The power contained in these wonderful little packages we call ammo, is manipulated and put to work for us. We control this large force. There is something very attractive about that.

Now, the next best thing to this rush of firing of a gun is lighting fireworks. I love it, and have loved it since I was probably 7 years old. It is the same thrill for me really. My Dad would give me a coffee can full of Black Cat firecrackers to play with. I could spend hours blowing up stuff with them. I was the scourge of the ant mounds that were anywhere near my area of operations. Coke cans cringed at the thought of me finding them. They would be subjected to repeated lit explosive charges being shoved into their mouths if I found them. I had ways of dealing with these insurgent aluminum fiends!

This addiction, I mean pastime, was engrained in me from that young age. Independence Day is my second favorite holiday, after Christmas. I love the 4th of July so much, that I start thinking about it in the winter. The rocket's red glare has a very different meaning to me than what Mr. Key wrote about. :)

I love shooting fireworks on the 4th. I have done it my entire life, and have spent small fortunes on these mystical creations. Last year I discovered wholesale fireworks. For anyone that spends a decent amount of money on fireworks, let's say $300 or more, this is the way to go. You get deep discounts. Really good discounts. You can, for example, get an entire case of firecrackers for less than $50. The case would contain 16,000 crackers. Other typical examples are the popular artillery shell assortments. A premium assortment at a fireworks stand can cost upwards of $150. You can get six of them in a case for less than that wholesale.

Now this is not going to save you money. The effect of cheap fireworks, lets you do what you have always wanted to do. Put on a giant show! It is kind of like reloading. Freeloaders don't save money on ammo, because they generally shoot a lot more than the poor guy buying his stuff at the gun store. The discount on pyrotechnics is much vaster than ammunition however. Seasonal stands sell their explosive wares for a tremendous markup usually. You can' blame them really. In Texas, for example, they are only open three weeks a year.

I am already planning my shoot for this year, and am hoping to place my first order this month. I can already smell the powder burning!

Time for Some Trout

I am going to be a ripe old 32 this Friday, and the lovely wife and I have decided to spend the weekend at our cabin on Possum Kingdom lake. I plan to fart around with all my tackle and respool my rods for spring. The boat also needs a little preventative maintanence and such. It should be a nice leasurely weekend away from town. The TPWD releases trout into several rivers and ponds every winter, and they just happened to release several thousand last week below the dam of the lake.

Hopefully there are still some there. It sure would be fun to catch a few with the wife on our ultralight equipment. These guys are generally very small, a 14" fish would be a monster, but they put up a nice fight on a very light rod with 2# test line. I have not really fished much in the last two years, but I am very much looking forward to this year, and hope to get quite a few weekends in at the lake.

Back in the Saddle

Well my vacation is now over and I am back at work. My first day was yesterday. This two day week is the perfect slide back into the every day grind I needed. While I enjoyed my vacation and the holiday's immensely, I was ready to get back by the time it was over.

My lovely wife blessed me with much firearm goodness for Christmas. I could not have asked for more, and probably deserved much less.

The first wonderful firearm she gave me is a beautiful Ruger Vaquero Montado in the tried and true .45 Long Colt caliber. This is a very handy gun. It was made by Ruger for the mounted shooting games that have become so popular recently. The gun has several unique features that make it perfect for this activity. It has a short 3" barrel, along with a lowered Bisleyesque hammer. The gun is wonderfully polished stainless steel, and has Ruger's standard black hard rubber grips. I plan to replace them at some point with some custom elk horn grips or some such.

The second firearm I opened Christmas morning was a very nice surprise that my dear wife picked out on her own. She scored well. She purchased a 6.5" stainless Blackhawk in .357 Magnum. What a lovely gun. It is a huge revolver, but it balances nicely, and shoots very nicely. I love it. I put two boxes through the tube at the range last weekend and it shot all the rounds into about a 4" area at 15 yards when I did my part. I am new to single action revolvers so I suspect that these results will of course improve with practice. I need to adjust the sights on it just a bit to the left and down. The revolver tamed the recoil from the standard .357 cartridges I was shooting very well.

Finally my favorite present was opened next. It is such a beautiful gun. She found me a Marlin 1894CB Limited in again, .45 Long Colt. Wow, just wow. What a pretty lever action. I have yet to shoot this one, but am going to try to sneak in some range time in the next week or two with it. The octagon barrel, skinny forearm, and all the other "Cowboy" touches make it such a winner. It points exceedingly well, and the sight picture is just awesome. I am so looking forward to shooting it.

I plan to get a longer barreled Vaquero and a SxS coach gun in the future to round out my "cowboy" guns. I figure the Montado will be an excellent weak side gun, and my wonderful little .32 H&R Single Six is the perfect old school CCW piece. Wow, I can totally see getting sucked into the CAS thing. I love these old style guns, and just know playing dress up as some kind of Old West character would be so cool. It looks like an awesome past time.

The last, and possibly most useful gunny gift the wife bought me was a RCBS reloading kit. She also purchased die sets for both .45 ACP, and .32 H&R Magnum. It will be a couple of months before I get it set up and rolling, but expect plenty of posts on the subject as I get it set up. I have a lot to learn. While the basic process is understood, the details are still a bit fuzzy.

In closing, I am so thankful for the blessings God has given me. My wonderful new bride and I had a great first Christmas together. The gifts were of course wonderful, but the real treasure is the love I have and receive for and from her. A good wife is a rare treasure, and I am so blessed to have one.

Oh yeah, I will be posting some more detailed blog entries on each of the new additions fairly soon.