Can't Wait to Smell the Sawdust.

This has nothing to do with beer or politics, but we here at ATK sometimes delve into hobbies and home improvement, and I cannot help but giggle like a school girl at my latest purchase - I new big-ass table saw capable of cutting darn near anything I can throw at it.

Don't let the store brand fool you, this is the same saw sold by several other brands, but Craftsman sells it for hundreds less.  I have rediscovered Sears and have been eyeballing this saw for a few years.  It went on sale this week, so I ordered one up.

Anyone want to help me get it to my basement?  It will arrive in pieces, but in total weighs close to 500 lbs, so takes two guys to move it.  I pay in beer - good beer.

Read more...

Bob's Best

This post has nothing to do with beer, politics, or Smitty's testicles, but I figured that ATK's 1.8 million readers might enjoy a forth topic of conversation.

I enjoyed reading Rickey Recommends, a list of a few of Rickey's favorite things over at Riding with Rickey, so I completely ripped off his idea and decided to come up with a little list of recommendations of my own. I am so shameless, I even ripped off the alliteration.

Here are five of the best things in life, new and old, that bring joy to my little world.

Old Tools
Old tools, including antique tools, are often way more useful than that laser-guided, carbon tipped, nutron-powered, wonder saw you have been eyeing at Home Depot. There are hand drills, planes, saws and other cutting tools built a hundred years ago that often out perform their modern, electric counterparts. They can often be found cheap at garage sales too.

My Dad gave me an old hand plane that was his Dad’s. My Dad remembers going into the store with my Grandfather to buy the Fulton, 3710 when he was a kid. I cleaned it up, sharpened it and have been using it as often as possible. While I am no pro at using it, it has gotten me out of a bind more than once, when power tools failed me.

I also have a forty-year-old, Senco pneumatic stapler. I picked it out of the trash, ordered a rebuild kit for it for $26 off the internet and now I have a great stapler that would cost $400 bucks new. It’s as dangerous as hell, because it was built without all the safety gear. You can shoot it rapid fire in mid-air without pulling back a safety. It also randomly shoots off a round whenever you hook it up to the air compressor, so its best pointed away from the important, lower regions whenever setting it up.

The Kitchen Aid Mixer
This list could’t just include just guy stuff. That said, the Kitchen Aid mixer is one of the manliest kitchen appliances ever. These things pull more amps than the average table saw. If you stuck your hand into it while it is kneading dough, it’ll twist your hand off at the wrist. It is also rebuildable. The contact points in the motor (brushes) can be replaced if the motor wears out and the professional models are still all cast aluminum and steel, so you know they will out last you.

I recommend buying one when you get one of those 20% off Bed, Bath and Beyond Coupons in the mail. It’ll save you 70 bucks or more.

Lie-Nielsen Planes and Saws
All of their hand planes and saws are made in America from designs centuries old. The planes start at $75 to over $500. The handsaws start at $125.

Yep, these are hand tools. They are as expensive as hell. But with this shit, you don’t need electricity and the tools are works of art in themselves. The planes can shaves wood so thin, it looks like paper. The finish on the wood is so smooth, it is ready for finish without sanding. The saws cut like lasers.

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks

The Chevy Small Block V-8.
"The V-8 is dead, the future as all hybrid cars"…Blah. Blah. blah.

Nothing matches the durability, compact size, light weight and performance of these engines, whose ancestors started rolling off a Flint, MI assembly line in 1955. These aren’t dinosaurs though. The modern Chevy V-8 gets the best mileage out of its applications and powers the one of the fastest, best handling cars in the world, the Corvette ZR-1. The Chevy small block is simple, has less moving parts, and is more cost-effective than the competition and now can run on ethanol.

Anything Made Out of Titanium
I have owned a whole bunch of bikes made of aluminum, carbon fiber, and steel. I like carbon a lot, but there is just something cool about a bare metal titanium bike, or other product for that matter. My bike is almost 12 years old and looks as good as new. Newer bikes still haven’t caught up to combination of characteristics that makes this thing cool. The material offers great shock absorption, light weight, its tough as hell, and as bare metal it doesn't corrode. It even has a cool, nickel-like grey color. Titanium is just an awesome material, as you have probably seen in golf club heads, hammers, bolts and more.

That's it. I have started my first post of "Bob's Best" things out there. I'd love to hear from the other contributors at ATK on their recommendations.

Read more...

Amateur Hour 2

Here is my little remodel job. I basically divided my basement into 4 areas. On each side of the central stairs will be a playroom and an office area. Behind the stairs is my workshop area.

Behind the new drywall in the background is our laundry/storage room.

Also, next to the laundry room, will be my brewery...

...OK, I made that last part up.

I need to start subcontracting some of this stuff to some suckers friends since I usually only get about 4 hours per week to work on it. I haven't decided what to do with the ceiling yet. Maybe Smitty has a plan on that.

Read more...

Amateur Hour

Construction officially began on the Smitty household basement today.
Months of cheap talk, foot-dragging and general cluelessness on interior design culminated in the start of construction.

It started exactly as it should have for a total amatuer...by unnecessarily cutting a board, hacking pieces of drywall off of the existing walls unnecessarily, and then realizing that the piece I cut unnecessarily...was too short. Good start.

The problem, I surmised, was that I had not had any beer yet. I retreived 2 Michigan Brewing Company Majestic Nut Brown Ales and 1 Sam Adams Brown Ale. You'll notice in the linke reviews that MBC's Brown beats Sammy A's. Awesome.

Beers in hand, the project suddenly became crystal clear. Despite the fact that the builder pre-piped and pre-drained for a bathroom, they put it in the worst spot they could think of. It necessitated building several little walls to the put up and around all the exposed HVAC, water and gas line piping. Monumental pain in the ass...but alomost fiished.

This evening, I was assisted by my Friendly Neighbor (very handy, very adept, I am very indebted), Mr. Smitty (my dad) and Brother Smitty. Brother Smitty went to school for furniture design, so this project was less than child's play. Mr. Smitty built his entire basement alone, so this was old hat. Friendly Neighbor used to do house framing for a living. And me? Clearly the least skilled of the four of us (but that isn't saying much...I am Bob Fucking Villa compared to some of our friends).

At any rate, the bathroom and small utility room have been studded-in.
Remaining is a closet and doorway for the what will be a playroom for the kids, behind the bar and family room we will have down there.

Next, we have a real electrician and a real plummer come in to move a few lights and add a few lights and plugs, and add all the plumming we need. Two things I absolutely won't mess with because of the chance I will kill myself or drown my family in a deluge is electrical and plumming.

From there, it's ceiling, drywall, paint and floor. Sounds simple...

Read more...