Lawn/Garden
August 6, 2010
Worx GT 24-Volt Trimmer - Review
If you read the site, you know that we've recently had some big problems with a variety of string trimmers. The end result is that we're now cutting a good part of the tall grass out in the field by hand (for the rest, we got our pal with a field mower to stop by). So that's all fine and dandy, but what about the little stuff that grows around the well head and the flower beds? Since it's assumed that Mrs. Tool Snob would not be thrilled to see a scythe slashing away at the grass around her heirloom roses, we need another option. Thankfully, Worx recently sent us one of their new 24-volt trimmers to try out. We were hoping that it would solve our problem. So for the past few months we've been spending some QT with the tool and we've come to our conclusions.
Continue reading: "Worx GT 24-Volt Trimmer - Review"
August 4, 2010
How to Sharpen Lawn Mower Blades
We're well into the mowing season now and it's likely that you've heard the wonderful, 'mower blade meets rock' noise a few times. You might have also heard, 'mower blade meets tree root,' or even our favorite, 'mower blade meets random piece of metal that we think our son brought out to the lawn.'
Regardless of the specifics, our guess is that your blades need sharpening. Your options are (in increasing order of ruggedness) to 1) buy a new blade 2) bring your beat up blade to the hardware store and have them sharpen it or 3) sharpen it yourself.
If you've never sharpened a mower blade before, it's not too difficult and when it's all said and done it gives you that nice glow of self-sufficiency.
If you're interested, here are a couple videos that seem like a good place to start...
This guy just uses a bench grinder:
And this one is slightly more involved:
If this is all very discouraging, there is a nice selection of mower blades over at Amazon.
June 15, 2010
Derby and Ball Scythe - Review
With the field out by the apple tree starting to get a bit overgrown and with FOTS (Father of Tool Snob) informing us that we'd better get to doing something about it before it goes to seed (he's in the know on this sort of thing), we decided we'd fire up a string trimmer to deal with the tall grass.
The long, overgrown grass (complete with thick weeds) seemed to be a good match for the heavy duty 4-stroke LEHR string Trimmer (we have the Craftsman branded one, but it's the same tool). After about ten minutes of relentless starter-cord pulling, we had nothing. So we pulled some more, and then some more after that. This coming from a tool that touts: no winterization and an easy start-up every time. We began to see that unique shade of white rage that accompanies uncooperative lawn machinery. We tried the 2-stroke trimmer that we have and that one was no better. No starting, no nothing. We went back to the LEHR and got another ten minutes of anger.
We were actually in the process of putting the trimmer in the log splitter when we recalled that the house came with an old scythe tucked in the back of the shed. After a few satisfying kicks to the trimmer, we went and dug it up also locating our box of sharpening stones.
After a pass with the angle grinder and a fine tune with the stones, the scythe was pretty damn sharp (a slip with the sharpening stone almost took a finger off, giving us a nice way to test SallyeAnder's claim that their hand soap works on bloodstains). Never having used a scythe before, but having once gotten a lesson from FOTS, we headed out to the field.
A few things to note about the remainder of the morning...
1. The scythe worked great. It's nice rhythmic work that quickly puts you smack dab in your 'happy place.' With no annoying trimmer motor or uncomfortable earplugs, we were relaxed and somewhat hypnotized by the satisfying swishing noise made by the cutting. The neighbors were probably pleased as well to not hear the high-pitched, 10lb mosquito whining of the trimmer motor.
2. We lasted about an hour, but after that we were toast. It's exhausting work. It's sort of like using a post-hole digger in that it seems to rely on muscles that you didn't know you even had. Our technique was OK, but not that great. We're going to have to work on it next time.
3. And there will be a next time. The trimmer would have been much less effort with the only energy burned being done by moving the shaft around. But the scythe gave us the whole package; we not only got a workout, but were engaged with the process, tweaking a grip, shifting our weight, trying to figure out the best way to work the tool. Above everything, we simply enjoyed ourselves. With no motor, we were able to hear the birds and the wind and all those other little noises that you miss in the muted cone of semi-silence that earplugs provide. The scythe was also able to handle some weeds that the trimmers would have likely had some problems with.
Needless to say, there was no stopping to load another string on the trimmer, no re-gassing, and no engine troubles. The only engine was us (with a pathetically small gas tank, by the way).
4. We also got to thinking about the time when people would spend entire days, no weeks, doing this work. It was one of those, 'we're a nation of sissies' moment, and while we were gasping for air around minute 55, we were in awe of the men who cut hay by hand.
5. If you've got a similar situation going on and there's a part of your property that gets overgrown and you only want to hack it down once or twice a year, we recommend getting a scythe and giving it a go. At the very least, it will give you a deep appreciation of your rural grandfathers. And probably a sore muscle or two.
Here's one at Amazon (looks like you have to buy the handle and blade separately). We also some on ebay, but if you start trolling barn sales, you'll probably have a good chance of finding one.
And a video on proper technique:
June 14, 2010
SallyeAnder Hogwash! Soap - Review
Because there are now so many tool blogs out there, we've decided to shift focus away from tools and towards things like soaps and facial scrubs. The first foray into this territory is SallyeAnder's Hogwash! Soap.
Actually the truth is that we were contacted by SallyeAnder, who thought that their multi-purpose soap would be a good match for all of you, our readers. Being the tool-using types, you're also probably the greasy, grimy, muddy pants types. If you've ever heard, "don't even think that shirt is going in the laundry with my blouse' then we can relate. You probably have a bar of Lava sitting on your basement slop sink.
And that's sort of where Hogwash! fits in. It's basically an all-natural Lava. It's made with an olive oil and soy base and doesn't have any artificial dyes. It has some cornmeal in it which gives it that pumice vibe, good for scrubbing glue off your fingers. It comes in a 6 oz. bar which is basically a 1-1/2" by 2-1/2" by 3" cube.
So on to the whole, 'does it work?' part of the review. Since our samples arrived from SallyeAnder over a month ago, we've been using Hogwash! on a daily basis and its size has hardly diminished at all. In fact the only wear is that the crisp edges of the brick are a little rounded over. This bar of soap is going to be around for a long, long time whether we like it or not.
And thankfully, we like it. We might even name it. It works great on everyday filth and SallyeAnder also claims that it works on grass stains and blood stains. We ended up testing both of these conditions (you'll have to wait until tomorrow's post to find out where the blood came from), and the soap does indeed work. Our stained rag was nice and clean in no time.
If you're concerned with the 'naturalness' of the products that you buy, it appears that all of the soaps that SallyeAnder makes are edible. We cut a small chunk off of our Hogwash! and gave it a go. It tasted terrible and it took about two hours before our mouth returned to normal, but if you're stranded on an island, at least it's something.
We also wanted to mention that SallyeAnder also sells a soap (and lotion) called No-Bite-Me which is a bug repellent in addition to a soap. We tried out a sample of this and it works great. There are also shave soaps and other similar things available. They're neat products with some really great packaging and we're happy that they took the initiative to introduce themselves to us. It's nice knowing that funky little companies like this are out there.
At SallyeAnder
May 27, 2010
Poulan Wild Thing 18" Chainsaw - Review
No one is ever going to mistake us for lumberjacks, but we're also not going to pass for city-dwellers either. Because of the wood stove and all the trees on the property, we need a half-way decent chainsaw. We happen to have gotten this Poulan a few years back as a gift from our old boss and we've been using it ever since despite the fact that it's purple and green and has the words 'Wild Thing' printed on the bar (which, thank the heavens, has finally rubbed off).
But aesthetics aside, it starts when we want it to and it cuts when we need it to. We neglect it most of the year and don't pay too much attention to properly winterizing it. From time to time, we have to fiddle with the idle, but that's not a bother. The only thing that's functionally wrong with it is that the pull cord got all tangled up once and in the process of fixing it, we lost a few revolutions of tension, so it hangs a bit loose. No big deal. It still starts.
We don't think a whole lot about the saw (like we said, we sort of neglect it), but what spurred this review was last weekend's project of making a patio/planting bed border out of railroad ties (have you ever tried picking up a railroad tie? Oh man, are they heavy). The front of the patio has a curve in it to follow the driveway, so we had to make a number of relatively precise cuts with the saw. Like all the other times, the saw started right up and acted just like a chainsaw should. It handled the railroad ties without a problem and other than a fine creosote dust on everything and a chain the needs sharpening, all is good in the world.
Seriously, the only problem we have with the saw is the whole "Wild Thing" thing. Had this not been a gift, we would have never purchased it ourselves based on that alone. We think it's just kinda lame. Sort of like the tool equivalent to having neon lights on the under-carriage of your car.
The Wild Thing costs about $150 and as long as you can handle the look of the thing, it's a great choice for someone looking for a reliable homeowner saw without a big price tag.
At Amazon
May 25, 2010
Craftsman 4-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Pruner - Review
It's springtime here in the northeast and that means there is some pruning to be done. With this being the first year in the new place, we've come to notice how completely tangled the little fruit trees in the front yard are. They sort of look like big, green, messy muppet heads. Thankfully, for us, late last year, Craftsman sent us a sample of their new 4-volt Cordless Pruner, so last week, we charged the little thing up and spent some quality time with it.
The pruner is about the size of a tube of caulking and its got jaws that are about 1-1/2" long. Operation of the tool is pretty simple; pull back the safety lock with your last two fingers and press the trigger with your middle finger. The jaws, once in motion, have a slow and steady action.
We used the pruners for a number of operations in and around the house. It was far too bulky for our little bonsai, but it worked out fine for just about everything else. According to Craftsman, the pruner can cut branches up to 1/2". We found this to be true, but the 1/2" mark doesn't seem to come from lack of strength as much as it does the limitations created by the jaw size. The little tool had no problem with any and all 1/2" branches we threw at it and it seemed like it could cut larger branches, it just can't get its mouth around them. The cuts that it makes are nice and clean with no ragged edges.
Craftsman says that once the internal battery is fully juiced, it can make approximately 500 cuts. There was no way we were going to sit there and count cuts like some kind of forestry Rain Man, but we can say that during the time we used it, we never had to charge it up in the middle of a day, and we guess that the 500 mark is probably on target. Put it this way, unless you're really going at it, you'll get a day's worth of pruning in on a charge.
We were actually a little surprised that we liked this little tool so much. What we realized was that because you're not putting the effort into making the cut, you can increase your precision quite a bit. The size is a benefit as well. We were able to get into some spots that would have been difficult with traditional pruners (we no longer needed the room to open the handles).
We almost had a problem with the trigger (but didn't). Like we said before, you have to pull back a safety lock with two fingers and then pull the trigger with a third. While some sort of safety lock is absolutely necessary with this item (it wouldn't even pause going through a finger), we first thought this design was a bit awkward and that it might not be an easy set of motions for someone with aged, possibly arthritic hands (just the person we initially thought this tool would be perfect for), but once we spent a while with the tool, we came to see that the motion is, in fact, very subtle and easy to perform. We started out wondering why Craftsman didn't opt for some sort of thumb safety lock, and ended up very impressed with their engineering.
Overall, it's a nice item and if you're a gardener, particularly one who is losing some hand strength (or has none to begin with), you would probably appreciate the Craftsman Pruner.
The Pruner is $50 at Sears
April 16, 2010
Consumer Reports Home and Garden Issue
The latest issue of Consumer Reports delves into some home and garden items that you all might be interested in now that spring is almost here. Among other things, the magazine has rankings of the latest string trimmers and mowers and tractors.
The relevant articles are posted up online but without a password you can get the intro, but not the actual product ratings. Still, if you're in the market for one of these items, even the intros are quite helpful
Unfortunately, the tractor article doesn't rank the 1947 8N Ford Tractor, like the one we're currently tinkering around with out in the shed (pictured). Because it's an essential character in the tractor pantheon, and far outdistances any tractor made since, we'll rank it for you:
Noise: Unbelievable. Deafening.
Exhaust: Smokes like a forest fire.
Power: Can do anything.
Badass quotient: Think Al Pacino in Scarface.
Check out the overview of the Consumer Reports Home and Garden issue here.
April 7, 2010
April 2, 2010
Peavey Shingle Froe
This one is for the real mountain men out there. Not the, "look at me, I just unclogged my sink drain" DIYers, but the hardcore, "I built my house with no power tools" crowd. The shingle froe is an old colonial tool used for, among other things, making shingles. The sharp edge of the blade (the long side that faces away from the handle) gets pounded into a log, and then the handle gets leveraged down to pop off a sheet of wood. The tool can also be used in some woodworking situations, but we prefer to think of it as a Grizzly Adams item.
This particular one has got the Peavey name (American made) so it's got to be high quality. If you've ever used a Peavey log roller, you know what we're talking about.
Here's a video of a guy making shingles.
$50 at Amazon and Highland Woodworking
November 4, 2009
Craftsman Blower Attachment for the String Trimmer - Review
We've got this great Toro electric leaf blower and before we bought it we did all the right research and truly agonized over the purchase. We finally decided on the make and model we wanted and went to the local HD to pick it up. At our last house, it was a charm. With the yard hugging the house so closely we could get most everything with a 50' extension cord and when necessary, break out the dreaded 100' (*shudder*). Now, at the new place, everything is different. Our front yard is practically an orchard and threading between the trees with the cord (attached to the lone exterior outlet on the wrong side of the house), while do-able, is impractical and tedious. Thankfully, the folks at Craftsman were nice enough to let us test out their blower attachments for the string trimmer. Could this little guy deliver adequate power to get the job done?
So how is it? Honestly, it's pretty nice. It blows at a peak speed of about 150 mph so it's not the full-throated blowing madness of our electric blower which operates at around 230 mph, but it does work and it's certainly better than raking (which occurs at about 2 mph). The length of the attachment places the blower unit at just the right height, making it easy to get the air under the leaves and the convenience of not having an entirely separate tool for the task is a real space saver in the garage. We should also note that there are gas and electric blowers that operate in the 150-200mph range, so don't think that the Craftsman is a step down from the other methods.
Removing the trimmer head and attaching the blower is a really easy process, just turn the tightening knob and press a little button and the trimmer is off. Installing the blower is as easy as sliding it on the shaft and clicking the button into place.
For speed's sake, the leaves we can reach with the electric, we'll probably still do that way, but the ones way out at the horizon line can be easily done with the trimmer attachment. So all said and done, we see this little guy benefiting both our situation as well as someone who has a pretty small yard with maybe only a couple trees and limited storage space. It's likely that you already have a string trimmer, but do you also have the space for a full-sized leaf blower?
The attachment fits any high quality trimmer. If you've never noticed before, string trimmers are essentially a hand-held PTO with the trimmer being just one of the attachments. In fact, Craftsman also has an Edger that we're reviewing as well. The blower attachment costs about $70 so it's definitely less than a regular blower, it also takes up a fraction of the space.
At Sears
October 19, 2009
String Trimmers Reviewed at Popular Mechanics
We recently reviewed three new string trimmers over at Popular Mechanics; the Worx cordless, the Craftsman Propane Trimmer (powered by Lehr), and a brand new Troy-Bilt 2-stroke. We compared the tools in a number of categories including noise level, ergonomics, and power.
Read the review here. We also took a closer look at the Craftsman Trimmer here.
We also helped out Timothy Dahl (of Charles and Hudson) with an article for Shelter Pop. That article is about buying tools and can be found here. We definitely recommend putting Charles and Hudson on your blog rotation and Shelter Pop looks like it has some cool stuff too.
August 31, 2009
Lehr Propane-Powered Eco Trimmer
A little bit ago, we reviewed the Craftsman Propane Trimmer and really liked it. The Craftsman tool states that it is 'Powered by Lehr," and a little research uncovered the fact that Lehr is a company that has found a way to power a 4-stroke engine with propane. Seeing the benefits of this, they put their technology in a string trimmer called the Eco Trimmer and they also licensed the know-how to Craftsman who released their own model (which, again, we reviewed here). From what we understand, the two trimmers are nearly identical, so if you're interested in getting an EcoTrimmer, check out our review of the Craftsman.
Like the Craftsman, the Lehr is available in both curved and straight shaft. Both cost about $200 which is a lot for a trimmer, but when you think about it the benefits may outweigh the initial down payment.
Learn more about Lehr at www.golehr.com
Curved Shaft Trimmer at Amazon
Straight Shaft Trimmer at Amazon
August 17, 2009
Craftsman 25cc Propane Trimmer Powered by Lehr - Review
Looking at things mathematically, our lawn might be one of the hardest in the world to mow. There are curved flower beds everywhere, terraced lawns, railroad tie retaining walls, granite retaining walls, and moss beds a plenty. There are also some horseshoe pits and some homemade benches that we made with a chainsaw a while back. Pretty much every possible obstacle to the easy-to-mow grid is out there somewhere. Since nothing is on a straight line and there's stuff everywhere, once we put the mower away, we're only half way done. It's now string trimmer time, or as we like to call it, "fight with the 2-stroke engine" time.
Craftsman is looking to put an end to some of this agony with their 25CC Propane Trimmer (powered by Lehr). It's exactly what it sounds like, a string trimmer that runs on propane as opposed to gas.
Continue reading: "Craftsman 25cc Propane Trimmer Powered by Lehr - Review"
August 5, 2009
Xtend & Climb Telescoping Ladder
While we were flipping through the latest Extreme How-To (a magazine that we love and would recommend to anyone), we noticed an ad for the Xtend & Climb Telescoping ladder. Having lived in some very cramped apartments, we're particularly sensitive to those of you with zero storage and thought that this product was worth a mention.
The Xtend & Climb is a compact ladder that is capable of extending, step by step, into a much larger ladder. Sort of like an extension ladder that starts at about 3' and can make it, depending on the model, up to 15-1/2'.
There are a number of different models that have different safety ratings and extend to varying heights. They do have job site ready models with a ANSI rating of 1A, which means that they can handle up to 300 lbs of your twinkie-eating ass.
This kind of ladder would be good for anyone from the apartment dweller to the homeowner to the traveling handy-man. With the kind of durability and storage capabilities that the Xtend & Climb has, it could be useful to actually anyone who is in the market for a ladder.
As far as price goes, it looks like a wash. The Xtend & Climb 780P, which is comparable to a standard 16' extension ladder sells at Amazon for $249.99. The Werner 16' Extension Ladder with the same safety rating goes $249.25, so unless you're really into penny pinching, it's the exact the same price.
Xtend & Climb Ladders at Amazon
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Megapro 13-in-1 Ratcheting Screwdriver - Review
