Rarely have I had tool failures, but this week has been an exception. Monday night I had a Dremel rotary tool die an ignoble death. Monday afternoon I went by Lowe’s to pick up some cut off wheels and saw the new quick change kits and picked one up for a little more than $20.  Monday night I chucked in my new cut off wheel system and started cutting an aluminum rail from a storm door. The tool didn’t like it one bit, as it began to bog down, I would back off the pressure.  The tool kept catching in the previously cut space and after about three times there was a puff of smoke and the Dirge played for the tool.  Tuesday I went back to Lowe’s and picked up some new motor brushes from Lowe’s for  around $3. Read More…

Installing ceramic or porcelain tile should not be an intimidating project and with the right tools you can get professional results.  My first tile installations were many years ago and there was no internet and I didn’t have tile saws or lasers, but I was able to work around those issues. What I wasn’t able to overcome was my lack of knowledge. For many years at our first cabin on the lake, the area in front of the fireplace was left as a concrete slab.  In my mind I had pictured romantic evenings in front of the fireplace, but that slab did not lend itself to the mental image I had.  So in a moment of industrious adolescence, Read More…