Broke a promise to myself.... i.e. "Cheap tools"

[John Pollman]

Hi folks,

A few years ago I made a promise to myself to quit buying CHEAP tools. But today I broke it. I'm currently replacing ALL of the flooring in a pretty good sized home. Some of you may have seen my post about the jig I made for cutting laminate flooring. That worked welll but now I've got to put base shoe everywhere. I do have a DW708 which is sweet but again it's just too darn big for small work. I went in search of a small miter saw for cutting base shoe and stuff like that. I went to the HF web site and clicked on their "Clearance" link. There were several pages there but on the third click there it was.... An 8-1/4" miter saw by Chicago Electric. Now I know that this is a "throw away" type tool but it was marked down from $89.99 to $39.99. The nice thing about it is that it's small and light. I can have it right there where I'm working and it'll make the job of installing all that shoe molding much quicker and easier. I really wanted to use it tomorrow so I didn't want to wait a week to order and ship one. I called customer service to see if that was an internet only sale or if I could get one for that price in the store. She said that all I had to do was print the page from the web site and take it to the store and they'd honor the price. Now I've got a new HF store that just opened about 20 minutes from me so I headed over there. The ones they had in stock there were in fact $89.99 but I just showed them the printout and they adjusted the price. Too cool ! Believe me I fully understand what I bought here and don't expect it to last for years but for occasional light use just cutting small moldings and such I'm sure I'll get $40 worth of use out of it.

So if you've got a HF store near you check the web site FIRST before you head over there. If you see a special on the web site just print out the page and they'll honor the web price at the store.

Just a heads up.

John

[Jeff Sudmeier]

John as a shopper at HF I have never purchased anything there w/o a web print out.

That said, I still try to avoid the place

[Per Swenson]

John,

Just trying to be helpful here.

For shoe moldings and small quarter rounds,

I find this tool to be a must have. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=17911 ,

1/2 way down the page.

Once you are on the ground with your nailer, stock and shears,

there is no reason to get up until the job is done.

Available from Lee Valley. Mitre shears.

Per

[Marc Ward]

I just bought a brand new 3/8 variable speed hammer drill at Northern Tool for $10.00. I am pretty happy about that. 6 month warrantee. Hard to beat when you need holes in concrete.

[Michael Ballent]

Per, do you need the hands of a lumber jack to use that tool? I would think that after a few squeezes your hand would begin to feel the work out

[Per Swenson]

Michael,

Not at all, they are easy.

And they are SHARP!

My across the street neighbor runs a carpet business,

when he laid eyes on 'em, he bought 6 pairs and 6 replacement

blades. It seems they work well for tackless and quarter round.

The object is to stay down and make money, economy of movement.

Per.

[John Pollman]

Thanks Per, those look too cool ! I'll have to check into them.

John

[Bill Fields]

Stan--

Don't let anyone rain on your parade. Some (NOT all) of the HF stuff is just fine--at 1/3rd the price.

I got the 12" SCMS/laser for $170 and it is great for an amateur like me.

Thanks for the tip about printing out the web-page and bringing it to the store. As Stan on South Park says "I think I learned something today!"

As for pros like Per, well, I'm getting one of those shears.

(BTW, Per, thansk for the tip on the Ridgid MSUV mobile base. That attached to the HF SCMS is the most borrowed toll in my neighborhood.)

Bill