College Football Recap for Thanksgiving Weekend

Just South of North gives some good coverage of the post turkey day college football games.

I'm glad there were no mention of Washington teams this time. Yikes.

Drill Accessory Case Comparison - Stanley, Dewalt, Milwaukee, and Other

Drill bit accessories are essential to anyone who owns a drill. They commonly include all sorts of drill bits, screw bits, and nut drivers. It's very convenient to grab your drill, an accessory case or two, and get started on a project. I personally own a few such accessory cases, and I'm going to compare them. However, it isn't my goal to focus on the contents, instead I'm going to focus on something almost equally important, the case itself.

These accessory kits make great holiday gifts for your handyman / handywoman, but it's important to consider the cases in addition to the contents. For more gift ideas, check HERE and HERE.


I've found that there is a wide range of quality in the cases, and it doesn't always correlate with price or brand. Let's start with this no-name brand of drill bits. This came as a "free bonus" with a sawblade wall clock. It was on a good sale and I needed the clock, so why not? It's always good to have an extra set of drill bits, even if they are only good for spacers.

Pros:
The quality of the case shell is decent for the most part. The latch looks cheap, but seems to function decently enough. Well, that's about it for the pros...

Cons:
The hinge is made of flexible plastic and looks like it could wear out. The biggest problem is how the bits are held in and how closely they're spaced. Basically, they are way too close together to grab and they are held in waaay too tight. You would need to be a bodybuilder with baby carrot fingers to get these out. I think it would be easy to bend the smaller ones, or even snap them off completely, when removing or replacing them.

Verdict:
This case is basically useless. As soon as I need them, I'm going to take all the bits out and toss the case.


Here's an interesting one. Dewalt is know for high-quality tools, but they are a bit pricey. Sure, you get what you pay for, but there shouldn't be that many problems with it, right?

Pros:
The case shell is very durable and the latch works great. I'm not sure if they meant for it, but most of the cases I've seen seem to be somewhat modular. If you had a few similar Dewalt cases, you could probably interchange some of the components. See the bit holders in the picture above? Those can be removed and switched around. It's possible to make a custom case based upon your specific needs. That's a very smart move on their part. The individual pieces are easily removed, but...

Cons:
The pieces are very difficult to get back into their holders! It's possible that it needs to be "broken in" with use, but it seems like they could have had a much better system.

Verdict:
It's a annoying to mess with trying to get the pieces back in after you use them, but overall, it's a good case.


I love this Milwaukee set. It's in about the mid level price range, but I'm very happy with it. It wasn't until I got this set that I really started noticing the cases as well as the contents.

Pros:
The shell is very sturdy. It has rubber along the edges, possibly for added protection, but it doesn't really seem necessary. The latch is a little loose, but works fine. The thing I like best is that it's extremely easy to remove and replace the bits. It's a very simple concept, but not every manufacturer understands it. Perhaps the case is a little big for its contents, but it makes it really easy to quickly grab what you need, use it, and put it back where it belongs.

Cons:
I can find no problems with this case besides the gimmicky rubber armor and slightly loose latch. It's pretty bread and butter. It would be nice to have some innovative features.

Verdict:
A great case. This should be the baseline for all drill accessory cases.

Stanley has been in the homeowner market for many years. A lot of other companies, like Dewalt, have branded themselves as tools for professionals. I have mixed feelings about Stanley. On one hand, they are working to catch up to the "professional" companies, but on the other hand, they still make things like this...

Pros:
There are some great features in this case, but they aren't executed that well. On the left side, those two rows of bits flip up for easy removal, but it feels cheap. On the right side, those three rows of small bits are removable, which is a very nice feature. But again, it feels cheap.

Cons:
The shell is horrible. It's a hard plastic outer shell with a flimsy plastic interior. Imagine it like a box of chocolates. You know the cheap plastic mold that the chocolates fit in? That's what like the inside of this case is like. The plastic practically crinkles when you touch it. The latch works, but it will quickly wear out. The individual modules are barely held into their spaces. I'm afraid to get this case near an open flame for fear of it disintegrating.

Verdict:
This is a horrible case, but the contents are great! I know I said I wouldn't judge on contents, but we've seen that good contents don't necessarily mean a good case (cough, Dewalt, cough), and this goes to show that a crappy case doesn't necessarily mean bad contents. If they took the flip-up idea and the removable row of bits, and put those in a better case, they would really have something.

Conclusion:
Don't take it for granted that expensive or name-brand kits will have good cases. Many times, cases are just as important as their contents. If you're looking at two products with similar contents, consider the cases. Three of my four cases have almost all the same contents, but I know which one I'm going to grab 90% of the time because of the ease of use.

Review: Swiss Tech Utili-key (Utilikey)

The Swiss Tech Utili-key is one useful tool. Or should I say, six useful tools. Here is their official website with more information.

Anyway, if you're looking for a good stocking stuffer for the holidays, I would definitely recommend the Utilikey. I received one last X-Mas and it's been on my key ring ever since. I'm not the kind of guy that carries around a pocket knife with him, so the knife feature comes in handy from time to time. It's actually pretty sharp and not awkward to use.

Here is the Utilikey pictured next to a typical car key. As you can see, it's about the same size. I like to keep my keyring pretty light and this definitely doesn't clutter it up. It really does just feel like another normal key.

Here it is partially opened. I'm surprised at how well it's made. You can't tell from the picture, but it actually locks itself into place when it's either fully opened or closed. There is no chance that it will open in your pocket and fall off (or stab you in the leg).

It's about 5" long fully opened. It is about the size of a ballpoint pen.

As you can see, it has about a two inch knife (semi-serrated), a bottle opener, both a phillips and a slothead screwdriver, and apparently, a micro eyeglasses screwdriver. I've gotten the most use out of the knife and the bottle opener, but the screwdrivers did come in handy a few times.

If I didn't already have one of these, it would definitely be on my wish list.

The Utilikey runs about $10-15 and I think it's a great gift. Keys are something people almost always have with them. It's easy to lose track of a multi-tool or pocket knife.

I have but one gripe about it. To use the bottle opener, it has to be fully opened. This results in you putting a lot of leverage on a skinny little piece of metal with one very sharp end. I've had a few close calls with it slipping off the bottle while trying to pop the cap off. It gets especially tricky after opening a few bottles in relative quick succession, if you know what I mean. Besides that minor issue, I have no problems with it at all.

In addition to its usefulness, it's just plain cool, isn't it?

Can WD-40 Fix / Clean It?

I'm going to start a new, ongoing, set of posts about one of the handyman's best friends - WD-40.

Did you know WD-40 has its own fan club? Did you know that there are over 2000 uses for WD-40?

A wise man once said, "if it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40." Truly words of wisdom. I'm going to start looking for places to use WD-40 around the house to see just how many uses I can find for it.

Use #1 - Cleaning sticky glue from carpet.
We had a major spider problem when I moved into this house, so I bought some sticky spider traps. They work great. They are about the size of a postcard and have very sticky glue on one side. You just lay them down and wait for the spiders to get stuck on them.

One day I tried cutting one of the traps into strips to tape together to make one long trap. I stuck it across the bottom of my door so that the spiders would have to hit it when they snuck under the door. Well, of course I ended up stepping on it later that day. I got it stuck to my carpet, and the sticky residue is still there months later.

Here's the before image. It lost a lot of its stickiness as it got dirty, but it definitely is not coming off that carpet easily. Armed with an old toothbrush and a can of WD-40, I attacked the spot.

After letting it soak in for a few moments and giving it a little elbow grease with the toothbrush, the stain is mostly gone! Looks like WD-40 did the trick.

Effectiveness: 10/10. This couldn't have been easier or more effective.

LED Flashlight Roundup

A good flashlight is essential to any handyman. It is one tool that isn't used all the time, but when you need it, you really need it. I've accumulated five flashlights over the years. Four of the five are the LED type. LEDs are 'light-emitting diodes.' They are great for two reasons. First, the 'bulbs' practically last forever. Chances are, your LEDs will never need replacing. Secondly, they use much less battery power compared to conventional flashlights, so they last a lot longer.

Here are my five flashlights. From left to right, they are:
Streamlight 7 LED. 4 AA batteries.
Rayz 30 LED. 3 D batteries.
Rayz 1 non-LED. 2 AA batteries.
Rayz 9 LED. 3 AAA batteries.
Rayz 1 LED. 1 watch battery.

To compare these flashlights, I set my camera up on a tripod in my basement. With the room lights out, I used each flashlight as the sole light source for each of the following pictures. The camera exposure was the same each time, and no flash was used. The pictures speak for themselves.

Streamlight 7 LED. 4 AA batteries. $20 a few years ago - This is my oldest flashlight, and one of the best. I've crawled around many pitch black ceiling spaces as a cable tech with this flashlight and it's never failed me. Well worth the investment.

Rayz 30 LED. 3 D batteries. On sale for $10 along with the next - This gives the Streamlight a run for its money, but then again, compare the sizes. This is a big flashlight. It's like the Mag Lights that security guards and cops beat people with. Except this one is light weight and made of aluminum. Probably not very good for beating up crooks with. Honestly, I expected better.

Rayz 1 non-LED. 2 AA batteries. $10 and came with the previous - Quite a big difference compared to the other LED flashlights. It's nice that the beam is focused, but there sure isn't much light ouput.

Rayz 9 LED. 3 AAA batteries. On sale for $6 along with the next - This is a solid flashlight. It's small, but puts out a lot of light. It came packaged with the keychain flashlight below for only $6 on sale! I bought one and tried it out at home not expecting too much. I was so impressed that I went back the next day and got another one for my car.

Rayz 1 LED. 1 watch battery. On sale for $6 with the previous - As you can see (or rather, can't see), this keychain flashlight is best used as a keychain flashlight.

I'd say that the Streamlight barely edges out the big 30 LED and the smaller 9 LED Rayz flashlights. Not quite as good of a deal, but it's held up over the years.

At any rate, LED flashlights are now very common. If you have one of those old cheap plastic flashlights lying around, you know, the kind where you can actually see it get dimmer as you use it, I'd suggest that you invest in a new LED type. The next time the power goes out or you need to look for something in a dark place, you'll appreciate a good flashlight.

Happy Thanksgiving

Remember, it's us or them.

Oh yeah, that turkey fryer you have, that's a bad idea. Don't burn your house down.

How-to: Replacing a Clothes Washer

A washer and dryer. These are two essential items for any college house. I mean, how are you otherwise going to wash your clothes? Take them to a laundromat? Hah, I don't think so. You'll wind up going quadruple-duty on that Star Wars shirt you got when you were 12, skimping out on an undershirt with dress shirts (who are you, Magnum PI?), and worst of all, eventually stealing your roommates socks. After all, they are always the first to run out. Let's not even start on underwear.

Up until yesterday, we had a washer that only kind of worked. It washed everything just fine, except it didn't move itself through the different cycles. So basically, you had to manually change the setting from wash, to rinse, to spin, etc, every 10 min or so. That sure was a pain.

So we got the washer and dryer from our old house and hauled it over (the new people that moved in were going to buy it but didn't pay up, so we repoed it). Here is how to go about replacing a washer:

First of all, unplug / disconnect everything. It's usually just a power cord (do that first), a hot and cold water connection, and a drain tube. You'll probably spill some water, but don't worry about it.

Next, muscle that sucker out of there. This will probably be the hardest part. Washers are a lot heavier than dryers. It's definitely a two person job. We had to haul it down some steps too. It would be awesome to have a hand truck for this part.

Notice the drain pipe on the bottom-left. That usually just pulls right out of another pipe in the wall with no problem.

Whao! What is that nastiness on the bottom of the wall?

Looks like we could have some water damage. Let's take a closer look...

Do I even want to take a closer look?



Yep, water damage. I would say that this picture actually does do it justice. That's just nasty. See that pipe right in the center with the "residue" on it? That's the drain for the two toilets in the house. I'll leave it at that.

But seriously, it's not *that* gross. The toilet drain wasn't leaking. All that mess is from a leaking water pipe. That will be another blog sometime, but for now, I'm going to hide all of this with the replacement washer. If I can move it...

New and old washers side by side. Not shown: my hernia.

Ironically, the new washer is the exact same model as the old one. Two of my three roommates probably won't even realize I replaced it and will figure it magically replaced itself.

All that's left to do now is reconnect everything. Make sure you get the hot and cold connections right. It's probably a good idea to try to get it somewhat level, too If it's really out of whack, it could get damaged by spinning off center. Now, after all this work, will you get the old one out of there?

DIY Shower Curtain

Here's a little background. I live in a basement. I have my own bathroom. It is gross (to be fair, it was gross before I moved in). I have a tiny cubicle of a shower that's about 3 feet square. It has no shower door.

Within a few days of moving in, I realized some sort of containment system for the water spraying everywhere would be nice. So what I did was cut upon a nice big trash bag and hang it from a bar that goes across the opening where a door would be. This worked fine but it doesn't do anything to help the grossness of the bathroom, granted, it does keep most of the water contained in the shower.

Well tonight I decided I would class things up a bit.
Needed are a tape measure, an utility knife, a large piece of plastic (this is important. I used the plastic bag that came with a new mattress) and if you're really classy, some magnets to hold your new "door" closed. Oh, you'll need a hot-melt glue gun, also.

Like most projects, it begins with some measurements. Note: you can see my old system here. It worked fine, but I suppose it was gross, and a little creepy.

This is the mess of a plastic bag that I had to work with. Cutting it was a pain. I'd suggest making rough cuts and then making it precise, or as precise as you care to make a DIY shower curtain...

Hot-melt glue guns are awesome. Sure, this one is a little small, but it works fine. Use a few drops of glue to tack together the plastic to make a sort of tube that you can slip through the bar across the opening. Well, assuming you have that. Of course, assuming that you are actually using this as a guide to make a DIY shower curtain. In which case, I hope you aren't. You should probably just go buy a shower curtain. But anyway, let's see how this ends.

Here it is. The picture isn't too great, but it's a DIY plastic shower curtain; what did you expect?

This took me maybe 10 minutes. If I gave it a good 12 minutes I'm sure it could be much better. I wasn't too precise on the cutting.

It is held shut by two little magnets glued to the curtain and the frame on either side.

I think it will work nicely. A black trash bag was so depressing. Maybe now I can take a shower and imagine that I'm not living in a basement. But hey, at least it's not my parents' basement, right?

Well, they would at least have a shower door, so I guess that's a toss up.

Winerack

I made this winerack for a coworker of mine.


It's made out of birch plywood with veneer edging. I added a nice Bombay mahogany stain to it. I think it turned out pretty well and she's happy with it. I'll be making another identical one for her soon.

I like making wineracks and I'd gladly make custom ones for people.

Check out my other blog, The Vino Newbie, for more information on this project.

The Carabinger Trend

What's with these carabinger things popping up everywhere? They started off with climbers, and now they're all over the place. I can walk around campus and practically every other person has a Nalgene bottle attached to their backpack or yuppie bag with one of these.

I got my first carabinger, seen here, at a conference. I'm a sucker for free stuff, so I grabbed one. Looks like a cool (questionable) keychain, right? Well I immediately tried out the compass - worthless. It doesn't work at all. North shows one way, then shake it around, and it will point in another direction.

It gets worse. Etched into the metal is this, "NOT FOR CLIMBING - CHINA." So I can't even climb with it? What if I was lost in the wilderness? After hours of wondering in circles due to the faulty compass, I finally find a cliff that I can rappel down to safety. I find a rope lying there, and I always have my trusty carabinger keychain for situations like this, but no, not for climbing. The cheap thing snaps and I fall to my death.

The one part that actually does what it's supposed to is the little keyring on the end of it. So at least if I fell 80 feet, the keys would probably all stay on the ring. I guess that would be convienent for the people that had to pick up my pieces.

Is this a Communist China plot to kill dumb Americans? Oddly enough, I'd say capitalism is to blame.

Do yourself a favor and invest in quality items, especially tools. This carabinger / compass keychain is cool in theory, but in reality, it's really only good for a keychain.

The Collegiate Handyman's X-Mas Wishlist

I'm sure I'll be editing this later, but here it goes.

My Christmas wishlist:

Robogrip pliers
These are awesome for, well, grabbing things. A good pair (or two) of pliers is essential for any handyman. I've used these before and I really like them. One nice feature is that you can use them with one hand. A lot of other similar pliers require a second hand to adjust the jaw size.





A 48" level
You usually don't need a level all that often, but when you need one, you really need one. Looking around my room, I can see a few things that I probably should have used a level on. Sure, I have a 12" level, but at least a 48" type is needed for anything larger than a picture frame.

Take special care with a good level. For one, they are pretty pricey, but more importantly, they are easy to damage. One good drop can ruin one. What good is a level that isn't level?




A chisel set
Chisels used to be a woodworker's best friend. A sharp chisel to a woodworker was like a sharp knife to a chef.

Chisels may be used less with powertools so common, but there are certainly times when a sharp chisel can do a really good job. Plus, a hammer and chisel can really vent some frustration.

A variety of sized comes in handy.

It's important to keep chisels sharp. When they are dull, you end up forcing things and that can get dangerous. Which leads me to the next item...

Sharpening blocks
A good set of sharpening blocks will pay for themselves after just a few uses. It's essential to have sharp knives and chisels.

Don't forget, these can just as easily sharpen your kitchen knives.

It really is safer to have sharp knives and chisels. This is a great investment.



Gift card
Of course, you can't go wrong with a gift card!

Yes, it's a little impersonal, but when the recipient is running through the store like they're on a shopping spree, it's all worth it.