revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Former B-i-L was on one of his road trips, which involve stopping at damn near every junk/thrift store he sees... At one of them he found a Simonsen cantilever toolbox, which are very sort after. His first thought was "I can probably trade this to Rick"
I offered $40, but he knew these boxes sell for $100-$125 on Ebay etc.
He asked "Do you know what this is??"
Me: Of course I do, I have three of them
B-i-L: I'd rather trade for a vise.

I traded him a 4.5in Columbian, which will likely collapse his workbench... & which cost me $15 about 18 years ago.
He's happy with the trade, I'm happy with the trade.
And now this is mine:





Already removed the Sharpie scrawl with acetone:

and yes, I removed the dent on the side towards the bottom, plus vacc'd it out. Next step is a piece of 3/16 plywood for the bottom of the box (inside) & maybe sacrifice a thin yoga mat to line the trays & go on the plywood.

does this count as a tool.... maybe...

^^^ Colonic irrigation tool?

P/S Pump pulley puller kit.

New plunge saw and tracks from Powertoolworld who currently have 10% off site wide

Been on the fence about this one for a while cos although I do put plasterboard up, it's not my main job and sometimes it's not the best idea to be too good at something I don't like doing.
Thing is, although I don't like the job I kind of want to get it out the way faster so...
Festool Dry Wall Cordless (DWC 4500) collated feed gun.

I've not got it yet and sure as hell didn't pay full new price cos I'm not THAT bothered about owning one.
Written review here.
https://www.protoolreviews.com/festool- ... screw-gun/
Promotional blurb from this live wire here...

I've never put plasterboard up - and probably never will.




But I still want one of those.

I've been home alone & unsupervised for a week & haven't bought any tools....This is most unusual.

oh wait, I did buy a new gun holster, does that count?

Count Steer wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 5:47 pm I've never put plasterboard up - and probably never will.
But I still want one of those.

You can buy one that looks like an M16

Count Steer wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 5:47 pm I've never put plasterboard up - and probably never will.




But I still want one of those.

Yer not missing much, its a bloody awful job and we only get it when its the niggly pain in the arse jobs the dry liners can't make price on.
The current job is a large barn conversion with oak trusses and purlins in the way.
It'll look smart when its finished but it's a right faff.

I normally detest barn conversions with a passion cos they're expensive, drafty, moist shitholes but this ones well framed, really well insulated and should by the time we've finished be quite airtight.
It'll still be bloody expensive though. For one of them skint farmers.

demographic wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 7:24 pm Yer not missing much, its a bloody awful job

Yup, I've done it on & off as needed for decades. Got a mate here who employs a squad of 6 Mexicans, they can do in a day what it takes a homeowner a month to do. Ya blink & they've already moved on to the next house. They'll do a 200sq ft room in minutes, not hours. Ya show up at the job at noon to see how they're getting on & discover they already went home. It's scary how damn fast they are. They get paid by the sq ft & they all drive new full size trucks... but when they show up for work all 6 are crammed into a beat to shit 40yo Chevy pick up.

Best tool I ever bought to help with plaster boarding ceilings was a board lifter, no more struggling to lift an 8 x 4 sheet into place and trying to either prop it or hold in place whilst trying to screw it in place.

I bought it off Facebook marketplace and I reckon I won’t lose a penny when I come to sell it.

ZRX61 wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 9:28 pm Yup, I've done it on & off as needed for decades. Got a mate here who employs a squad of 6 Mexicans, they can do in a day what it takes a homeowner a month to do. Ya blink & they've already moved on to the next house. They'll do a 200sq ft room in minutes, not hours. Ya show up at the job at noon to see how they're getting on & discover they already went home. It's scary how damn fast they are. They get paid by the sq ft & they all drive new full size trucks... but when they show up for work all 6 are crammed into a beat to shit 40yo Chevy pick up.

Aye, there's good money to be made on the big jobs with large areas but honestly I just don't really like the work.
We tend to do the faff jobs they avoid like the plague but that gets us a foot in the door on the second fix on those same jobs that are often a bit more interesting than normal housebashing.
The guys doing it all the time are all over the UK, in digs and having their vans broken into every few years. I can't be fucked with that.

Silly Car wrote: Sun May 25, 2025 9:16 am Best tool I ever bought to help with plaster boarding ceilings was a board lifter, no more struggling to lift an 8 x 4 sheet into place and trying to either prop it or hold in place whilst trying to screw it in place.

I bought it off Facebook marketplace and I reckon I won’t lose a penny when I come to sell it.

Handy bits of kit for ceilings you can reach off a set of steps or off a joiners sawstool (not that we ever do that, no siree, no way. Sawstools are just for cutting on, honest guv)
Not so good where we are doing high ceilings where we need an alloy tower scaffold as the board lift and alloy tower need the same area of floorspace.

Handy for most normal ceilings though.

Not bought but given. Got this battery nail gun yesterday and its as new. Just had a little play with it and it works really well. Cand find a battery adapter though so will have to go but a couple of higher amp ones but well chuffed.

https://tools4trade.co.uk/collections/e ... ry-charger

demographic wrote: Sun May 25, 2025 11:01 am Aye, there's good money to be made on the big jobs with large areas but honestly I just don't really like the work.
We tend to do the faff jobs they avoid like the plague but that gets us a foot in the door on the second fix on those same jobs that are often a bit more interesting than normal housebashing.
The guys doing it all the time are all over the UK, in digs and having their vans broken into every few years. I can't be fucked with that.

Here they just steal the vehicle & then sell off the tools at the weekend swap meets. We have 1 acre place in town that offers secure parking for food trucks, There must be 40-50 of them all parked there. I think a similar place for contractors to park their work vehicles overnight could be an earner, but then you've created a target rich environment for the perps.

ZRX61 wrote: Sun May 25, 2025 3:33 pm Here they just steal the vehicle & then sell off the tools at the weekend swap meets. We have 1 acre place in town that offers secure parking for food trucks, There must be 40-50 of them all parked there. I think a similar place for contractors to park their work vehicles overnight could be an earner, but then you've created a target rich environment for the perps.

It's not hard for the thieves to work out that a shopfitting company van outside a Travel lodge, or Ibis hotel is worth a look at.
Personally I've spent years getting my tools, don't leave them on site and keep a low profile with a non signwritten van and have zero interest in working all over the UK so some gonk can flog em to buy a bag of smack.

Even if Travel Lodges and so on had a more secure parking area it would help but currently there's enough work in my area so I don't need to chase it.

I've done it and might again, but as long as I have the choice I'll avoid it.

With just one day to go until I'm supervised again, I managed to find some spiffy pliers for electrical connectors on vehicles. However, they won't be here until next week..
They grip the connector & push the tab doodad down at the same time.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/135788679359?_ ... p_homepage

New pliers showed up & promptly got a bit of fettling to improve the finish...

Before:







After a fettle with the fiber deburring wheel on a bench grinder:

Nice big timing wheel and lots of bits for the JAPton arrived today.



The main bearing liner is tucked away safely in the bottom of the freezer.