Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

I have a couple old hand planers I bought at auction years ago. Yeah, never used them. I think only pioneers and lumberjacks can use them properly.

@NEStalgia - I don’t remember what the voltage was, I’m not sure I took note. You’ve got me frantically googling now though, doing all the research I didn’t think I would do. I’m becoming paralyzed with choice. I really need a chainsaw too. I’ve been borrowing my dad’s for years now when I lose a tree. I thought this would be easy.

@bimmy-lee what brand and type? Stanley's? I love hand tools and use them exclusively but I'm not feeling it for this cutting board project. I wanted to make them for my dad for Father's Day but that is so not happening now

All this tool talk reminds me I’ve gotta change the oil in my riding mower this weekend. And probably grease the joints. And power wash the deck. Now I can’t stop thinking of all the things!!
I need to scare up my edger attachment for my ol troybilt weeder too. And trim the rose bushes.

Now I don’t wanna do nuthin 🤬

@bimmy-lee For chainsaws, if you don't want gas, you definitely want 40v (or 60v...heavy though.) My chainsaw is Greenworks (read Chinese imports, but was the first 40v system readily available) and is quite decent (if not physically as rugged as the DeWalt stuff.) The DeWalt stuff would be notably better, now that I've got the 40v pole equipment. There are 18v Chainsaws too, and they're ok as long as you're not bucking a 60 year old red oak...... Ask me how I know.

@Ryu_Niiyama - Well, I think they were made by the carpenter who used them. They’re primitive as can be, super worn, and there’s nothing on them to identify them; and it seems like there never was. One is huge and seems like it could plane a standing oak tree.

The other is small, definitely for finishing. Knowing a little about old stuff, I’d say they’re from the 20s or 30s, but wouldn’t be shocked if they are much older. The blade is worn down, they don’t cut anymore, and I’m not sure there’s a way to change the blade. Whoever used them had Popeye forearms. I’d love to start woodworking. I don’t have the tools, so I just buy old stuff and refurbish or refinish.

@NEStalgia - I want a pole cutter too! There’s a hickory branch touching my house and roof. I’m way too scared to take down standing trees. I’ve had to pay to have that done. But I kind of like cutting them up after they fall. I only cut down small trees with loppers. I try to clear out all volunteer ash a couple times a summer so that I don’t have to eventually pay for them to be cut down when the inevitable ash bore infestation occurs.

Please, please do elaborate on your red oak experience. The terror of getting a saw stuck midway through, or getting a felled tree hung up in other trees is precisely why I’m too afraid to take them down myself.

@bimmy-lee Yeah it depends on the size of the tree. I love trees so I prefer not taking them down. But you call in a company and they want to bring a crane in the yard for like $3,000 and I'm thinking A) that can't be good for utilities, B) It won't fit! C) How did you people do this same job 50 years ago? This thing was a monster tree though....we have real trees here. Good old 80ft 3-4ft wide trunks.....monsters. Cutting that one up reduced the chain to a polish. You could lick the chain safely it was so smooth and worn. Granted by the end I was hitting dirt much too often, which is really what dulled it, but still. It fell on its own....no way I'd have felled something of that size myself on purpose. You need to REALLY know what you're doing before touching that - we're talking logging industry sized stuff. . Even the pros won't touch that without cranes. One pro I had evaluate it after I refuted the crane and pointed out there's no way to even get it in the yard without cutting other trees down finally looked and said "well, it'll probably fall in the clearing anyway on its own"....so I went with that. And it did. A decade later. It did get hung up on another tree on the way down, and took a few sizable limbs off it, as well, but didn't get totally hung up on it. I still worry about potential to have diseased other trees. There's another red oak that sometimes seems iffy that was near it....every spring I squint to make sure it's budding......

I had to do half-cuts with the chainsaw - it had gas equivalent power, but only as an 18" bar and the trunk was about 4ft at it's thickest. Anything beyond that you're into pricing for pro shops using them all day every day.

I forgot to mention that the batteries did deplete VERY fast for that job....I bought 3 or them or so and I'd cycle through them all in about 30-40 minutes, try to fast charge them all, then continue another round. There was waiting involved for them to cool. I'm pretty sure the tool wasn't really meant for doing an entire logging job, and I didn't have the extended batteries In that sense gas would be more practical, though you'd be refilling a lot there, too. And the exhaustion and rage could lead to......incidents.....

@1UP_MARIO The only word I edited out of that picture was "hand", so it's still relatively easy to find, if you save my picture, and then drag and drop it into Google's image search.

Here, I've saved you the trouble:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intensive-Crack-Hand-Cream-Treatment...
I'd go for this one, though. I know some people with tasking jobs that swear by it:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/OKeeffes%C2%AE-Working-Hands-Value-S...
And besides, the choice is simple, seeing as the first option is currently unavailable...
But if you'd still prefer the other one, you could simply try to find it elsewhere. I can't imagine it only being sold on Amazon, so some drug store, apothecary or specialty store might also have it.

@bimmy-lee Commodore C64? Surely you meant Commodore Amiga...

On a side note: Day-umm... I stay away for a day and I've seemed to miss an entire internet storm concerning my favorite weird-but-okay person...

Guess I now know what @Tyranexx feels like, on a regular basis...

@Matthew010

Here, let me fix that for you...

@NEStalgia @HobbitGamer Considering E3 is about to take off, you'd expect people to go wild with the latest rumors, but instead, there's a hell of a lot of talk about weed whackers and such in here, or are those metaphors for something else?

I don't really want to bring up the topic of trains again, but I do feel like the hype train is gaining traction, and that we're going to have a really nice E3. Especially if you're not a Nintendo-only gamer...

@bimmy-lee I had a 16” gas chainsaw that threw a chain halfway threw the trunk. Had to get the axe for the rest

@ThanosReXXX We're talking chainsaws. Think of it as a prelude to #BethesdaE3.

Pre-E3 rumors in non-hardware years aren't fun, it's mostly leaks that spoil the surprise. Better to talk about rotary hammerdrills and tune out the internet until Sunday

Hardware years are fun for pre-hype because we can argue specs, features, history, and trends. Software years you either get spoilers that kill the buzz, or wait to be surprised in real-time I'm half-avoiding the main page until Tuesday afternoon.

@HobbitGamer That's no joking matter! I got an email a year AFTER my oak fun that my saw had a recall that it could throw chains. I'm like...wait, a year AFTER I wear down a chain with like 30 hours of cutting you tell me the thing could have accidentally limbed me without even erring?

@NEStalgia Well, as long as that front page doesn't mention OBE1's video about Nintendo's supposed leaked E3 presentation, I think you're safe...

Eww, Tree cutting. My parent's house is surrounded on 3 sides by trees including a HUGE pine tree in front of my old bedroom (I used to go sit in the den when we had bad hurricanes. I was convinced that was how I was going die.) Tree is still standing with no issues...of course. If trees can laugh, that one had a few chuckles at me.

As for the other trees around the house my dad used to let the horses knock em down. They strip the bark to snack on and then back scratch on the tree trunks... Pop goes in with a chainsaw later to clean up what was left...free firewood for the winter. (I don't miss chopping wood)

@bimmy-lee Oh I love homemade planes. I have one that I've made myself. Just a bench plane but it cuts like butter. Granted I'm using a Ron Hock iron so that is part of it. (I'm getting WAY better at sharpening without a honing guide) I bought some Japanese irons (way cheaper than buying a plane) but I've not had the time to build new planes with them. Still working through a box of chisels that I am refurbishing. Although I got one very nice paring chisel out of it that I love. Perhaps in a few years I'll crank out the cash for a really nice Japanese chisel set, but right now I feel that you have to be worthy of the tools, so these old hand me downs given new life work well for me. I do think once I get a house though that I will at least buy a small electric planer. Maaaaaybe a mini lathe because I like to make pens. Otherwise, I hope to remain mostly hand tools. I love that I can wood work anywhere. (mostly I mean I'm not the jerk sawing at 3am...although I do layouts at that time if I can't sleep) Although I'm getting a little creeped out by my saw collection. up to 12 hand saws now. Once I get my student loans licked ...its going to be bad. I'm trying not to be a collector though so only buying what I use...but it is still gonna be bad.

@ThanosReXXX lol. I do use working hands. It’s actually available and easy to find locally here in most boots store (pharmacy) and supermarkets. Thanks 👍🏻

@1UP_MARIO Well, always happy to lend a fellow N-Lifer a hand...

No worries, I'll leave myself out.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks! I didn't think it needed resizing, but it turns out it did!

@1UP_MARIO o’Keefe’s? That stuff is great for me. The skin on my thumb and sides of my index fingers, where you hold all the pens and screwdrivers gets dry after hand work

I still cannot sleep.
It's 2.40 am here.
I'm listening to Aladdin OST by Naomi Scott right now.
And i still speechless here.

@NEStalgia - I’ve been lucky to only have to pay for four ash to come down so far. There’s a white oak too close to the house though, and I think it’s into the foundation. I have friends in low places and can usually get it done cheaper than it might otherwise be. Still very expensive though. The red oak sounds like it was a lot of hard work. Cutting up trees is exhausting. At this point, I’ve missed my window to get my weed eater. I’ll finish up my research and get something tomorrow morning. I’ll let you know what I decide, but now I’m leaning electric.

@ThanosReXXX - Well, someone tried a drive by on our friend using fightin words earlier, and it couldn’t go unchecked. Instead of apologizing, they deleted the comments, so now it looks like I was having a minor argument with the boogey man. It was silly.

Good catch, yes, I meant Amiga. I was rather proud of my “Den of the Dutch Destroyer” suggestion for a chit chat thread Smash arena.

@HobbitGamer - Pure terror. You survive the chain, and then you’re left hacking at a tree without reeeeeally knowing which way it’s going at that point. It’s probably falling the way you think, but now there’s variables. Glad it worked out for you.

@Ryu_Niiyama - What a cool hobby! I like anything handmade. Anything. Do you take custom orders? I need two impossibly small end tables for each side of my bed. I’m with you on earning the tools as well. I’ve had my eye on an expensive pair of concave pruners from Japan for years, and I just can’t pull the trigger because my skill level doesn’t warrant such fine instruments yet.

....every time i pop in this thread, there’s some sort of construction talk going on. are we all just construction workers who happen to be secret nintendo enthusiasts?

@HobbitGamer yeah that’s the best one Id recommend. My hands get so rough people think I’m a builder