Quote :

"any decent name brand handheld circular saw will do. don't get a cordless. don't fool with gimmicky lasers and such."

agreed on not getting a cordless. Any saw that you want to make reliable, precise cuts with should be corded. you're just losing too much power between drawing current from the battery and transferring it from the motor to the blade.

I bought a $49 skil corded saw. It gets the job done, but the blade that came with it was trash, so I spent another $30 on a decent blade. After using it on several projects, I'd have spent a bit more and gotten something in the $100-$150 range. The motor is fine for cutting plywood, 2x4's etc. cutting mdf shelving for a closet was awful. the motor kept slowing down, and the blade would get hot, charring the shelves a bit.

2/18/2014 9:13:41 AM

Same problem here, got a super deal on the downstairs stuff but they didn't have enough in stock to do the entire house or any of the special pieces for the stairs. The bottom landing, stairs, top landing, and most of the upstairs will have to be something different. Might go with regular oak since the downstairs stuff is darker (acacia veneer over bamboo, we didn't want regular laminate because I've seen too much of it get ruined), but it'll probably be whatever we can find a good enough deal on and buy another pallet's worth.

2/18/2014 9:15:09 AM

If you have a lot of projects planned, look on craigslist for a used miter saw. You can get a nice fold up table for them, and we have one that has enough reach we even used it to cut down boards when we installed flooring before we got the table saw (we did have to rip it from both sides). It's well worth the extra money you will spend over a handheld saw and when folded up it doesn't take up that much room. It also has parts that slide out of the ends of the table if you want to cut really long boards.

We'll be selling ours in 5 or 6 years when we finally finish working on the house. Until then it's going to be used a lot for baseboard, crown molding, and who knows what else.

2/18/2014 9:22:00 AM

49th post blah blah blah

put together some stalls for composting and a rough screening system. chickenwire sucks.

2/18/2014 9:24:15 AM

Quote :

"chickenwire sucks."

Indeed. I used it to wrap the bottom of the fence around my garden for rabbit-proofing. It's a fucking pain to work with. Especially when you're running a 30' stretch of it.

2/18/2014 9:42:22 AM

^^nice. Chickenwire does suck though. Helped my dad install some of that when they had some goats for awhile.

As far as flooring, we will end up having different floors upstairs and down too most likely. We splurged slightly on some gorgeous 6" Birch planks on the downstairs but I don't think I could justify the cost upstairs as well (we don't expect to get much out of them downstairs but we love them so we put them in for ourselves more than any resale anticipation). So we are currently debating what we will do with the flooring on the stairs and upstairs. The carpeting is getting worn out and we just dislike carpeting to begin with.

My main concern then are the stairs (which are currently carpeted still along with the upstairs) and how to best blend them if we go with different flooring material upstairs and downstairs. If we do go with more hardwood or possibly even a laminate "hardwood" upstairs, I have considered keeping the stairs carpeted but replacing it with a very nice, low-pile carpeting. Something almost like a contemporary commercial carpeting. It would create a buffer between the different floors and our dog does better on carpeted stairways anyway.

[Edited on February 18, 2014 at 9:45 AM. Reason : ]

2/18/2014 9:45:39 AM

^^^I like that.

2/18/2014 9:53:55 AM

I left the carpet on the stairs, it is in good shape and with dogs and hopefully a baby in the future we like the traction that the carpet on the stairs gives us. The only other carpet in the house is the master bedroom.

2/18/2014 9:54:00 AM

+1 on miter saw. If you're going to be using it a lot make sure you get a reputable brand. Got a DeWalt 12" miter saw for Christmas and love it. It doesn't have the sliding arm, because it was at least double the cost of the 12" and I doubt I would need the sliding arm too much.

How difficult it is to refinish hardwood floors? I pulled up some the transitions between the bedrooms and the hallway in my house and confirmed my suspicion that the previous owner put plywood+peel and stick over the existing hardwoods. I want to pull all of that up and refinish all of the hardwoods in the house. I figured it would be quite a long project, so I thought I would do it in phases. Refinish the spare bedroom and office one weekend (The bedrooms and office don't have the peel and stick in them) and follow up with the master bedroom, hallway, kitchen and dining room on a different weekend.

2/18/2014 9:57:03 AM

Thanks. Not sure if it's noticeable, but the rough screen and its frame are two separate pieces and both removeable, so I can place the screen over any of the bins/dump screenings in another bin. In all, it took me about 1.5 days, mainly due to the chicken wire.

Next up is to start moving my pile-o-shit into the bins. I'm still debating on whether or not to add something to the front to help keep spillage to a minimum and be better able to use the full height of the bins (4'). For now, I think I'll just leave it as is until spillage becomes an issue.

2/18/2014 1:20:41 PM

i wouldn't get a miter saw unless i already had a handheld circular saw

2/18/2014 2:19:05 PM

I think we have a handheld, but honestly we never use it. This is the one we have. It's a 10" but it slides really far.

http://www.amazon.com/Makita-LS1013FL-10-Inch-Compound-Fluorescent/dp/B000GJTDJO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

We will need to buy baseboard for the whole downstairs soon. The stuff that was there had been painted the wrong way more than once and would have been oddly short without repositioning it after tiling, so we decided it was easier to replace than try to patch all the holes and reuse it. Has anyone used the stuff that's MDF at the bottom and wood at the top? Seems to be all they use anymore in newer homes, but I've never worked with it.

2/18/2014 3:34:22 PM

i'm with NRR

A circular saw can do anything a miter saw or table saw can do, although it may be much easier with a miter saw or table saw depending on what you're doing.

If you're cutting a bunch of trim, molding, etc., you're going to have a miserable time without a miter saw.

If you're ripping a bunch of drawer sides that are the same length, a table saw is going to be a lifesaver. you clamp your jig down, and you make a bunch of the same cuts without re-aligning each time.

For one-off cuts or making cuts in places where stationary saws aren't feasible, circular saws are the most versatile.

2/19/2014 11:43:23 AM

Don't use MDF baseboards in a basement, if/when you have moisture issues the MDF will suck up the water. Use real wood or even plastic.

2/19/2014 6:34:40 PM

This is the main floor of a house with a crawlspace, but I've never been a fan of MDF. However, it's a lot of feet of baseboard and gets expensive quick going with anything more than the plain short one.

2/19/2014 9:38:57 PM

Re-did the closet of our spare bedroom. the bedroom had been used as my daughter's playroom, but now it's going to be a nursery. Started with the closet. next is renovating the room itself.

3/25/2014 6:09:39 PM

^^^^

3/25/2014 7:07:43 PM

built a vertical lumber storage bin & safety stop. wanted to hang this, but the weight concerned me and elevating it would cause me issues with sticks longer than 8', so I just left it on the floor. lowered the safety stop to 6' since I had a bunch of 6' scraps

4/7/2014 11:04:39 AM

^I like, need to do something on a smaller scale for scrap metal storage in my basement.

4/7/2014 4:16:59 PM

About a week ago my HVAC unit went on the blink. The blower ran constantly (even when turned off at the thermostat). I had to flip the breaker to get it to shut off, and it was just blowing cold air no heat. Knowing how much a HVAC guy would have charged me just to look at it, I decided to do some research. I figured out it was the limit switch, which I found online for $25. It took me about 20 minutes to replace, and the majority of that time was spent removing the overkill amount of screws on the front casing. Works like a charm now, and probably easily saved me $250.

4/9/2014 11:02:48 AM

^Shit like that usually calls for a celebratory 12-pack! GG.

4/9/2014 2:07:38 PM

Ramp I built for my shed. Wasn't exactly straightforward as I wanted to go around & above a lip in the doorway of the shed. and it was all scraps from my fence construction (fence wasn't DIY)




metal shed kit I got for a steal. was a PITA to assemble. the floor framing was straight DIY though. And cost more than the shed kit



[Edited on April 17, 2014 at 3:58 PM. Reason : tww needs to autosize pictures]

[Edited on April 17, 2014 at 3:58 PM. Reason : .]

4/17/2014 3:56:48 PM

My ramp is very similar. Just realized I didn't post my finished shed project. This was done back in 2012.

4/17/2014 4:46:35 PM

damn.. scotie 1upped me on the shed.

4/18/2014 1:37:58 PM

i am shedless and envy both your sheds

4/18/2014 2:56:44 PM

not DIY because i'm going to pay someone to do it, but i'm trying to get some ballpark numbers on building a 2 bay detached garage/workshop. want to store the boat on one side and park my truck on the other when i don't have something in there to work on.

4/18/2014 8:59:21 PM

I can't take credit for the shed though. That was me helping my Dad build me a shed. He's pretty awesome.

4/18/2014 9:50:51 PM

Run some electricity to that bitch.

4/19/2014 11:51:49 AM

[Edited on April 19, 2014 at 1:11 PM. Reason : nvrmind]

4/19/2014 12:58:27 PM

^^It has power with its own subpanel. It was just done after those pics. It also has flood lights on the outside.

4/19/2014 8:29:33 PM

Updated the master closet a few weeks back

Before






After

4/21/2014 4:15:12 PM

congrats! Looks great. We just did something very similar but don't have the pictures for it. However I will say I wish we did it sooner - it is so much more functional.

We had one row of that open-wire shelving all the way around. We ripped it down and put up 2 rows of hanging storage down the sides and then a cubby storage system along the back wall (for sweaters, pants, tshirts, etc.).

4/21/2014 4:18:14 PM

Made a built-in desk for my son in a little nook off our bonus room. Turned out better than I was expecting, considering this was my first "from scratch" wood working project.





http://brentroad.com/photos/00532317.jpg

http://brentroad.com/photos/00532316.jpg

http://brentroad.com/photos/00532318.jpg

4/24/2014 4:41:45 PM

^Neat

4/24/2014 4:51:02 PM

^^ awesome. Did you end up just leaving the carpet underneath?

[Edited on April 26, 2014 at 7:35 PM. Reason : ]

4/26/2014 7:34:54 PM

I did. Had to use a few shims to keep it level but didn't want to deal with pulling the carpet up

4/27/2014 10:05:31 PM

I think I would have hung everything off the walls

[Edited on April 28, 2014 at 10:59 AM. Reason : .]

4/28/2014 10:58:35 AM

Anyone have recommendations for wood sealer? Got 700' of fence to seal (gotta figure up the area, I know).

One of the guys building the fence swore by some stain/sealer, but I can't recall it. It was something like nobel or nobell or novell (no + b or v + ell)

4/29/2014 10:43:20 AM

I ended up going with Flood from Lowes.

It's not advertised as a "sealer", but all the reviews say it does a great job of repelling water. And you cant beat the damn price. I had to get 12 gallons to do both sides of my fence...~250ish feet if I remember correctly. They sell it in 5 gallon buckets for a slight discount as well.

I actually havent applied it yet. Will be putting it on this weekend if it doesnt rain too damn much and dries out for a few days

http://www.lowes.com/pd_124666-71-FLD420-01_0__?productId=3374326


[Edited on April 29, 2014 at 2:38 PM. Reason : .]

4/29/2014 2:36:30 PM

bought some new pillows for my couch

4/29/2014 4:20:38 PM

My $25, ~4.5 hour adirondack chair project:

5/14/2014 8:16:04 AM

I got rid of a little stand alone bar I had and moved the booze to a nearby table and with the bar gone I was able to slide my couch back a foot further

6/6/2014 9:27:04 AM

Made this workbench for a fellow TWWer. I think it turned out quite well.

6/6/2014 9:39:10 AM

How thick is that wood on top, and what did that run you?

I'm looking to build a TV stand, and want a thick wood top like that.

6/6/2014 7:56:13 PM

kinda looks like doubled-up plywood

i used a solid core hospital door for my workbench top

6/6/2014 10:14:51 PM

^yep, it's a stack of 2 layers of 3/4" cabinet grade plywood. I cut them to roughly the same size, screwed the two pieces together, then ran them through the table saw so the edges were perfect.

You could use it for a TV stand, but you'd want to trim the faces so you're not looking at the plywood cross-section.

If you're near an IKEA, they have reasonable prices on all kinds of countertops which you could cut down, including butcher block.

6/9/2014 8:33:48 AM

where do you guys get your high quality lumber for interior/furniture/etc. projects?

7/14/2014 1:36:36 PM

Installed 750 sq.ft. of laminate flooring. We picked floors that are A-4 rated, which is light commercial use. We installed it in the entry, dining room, living room, and kitchen.
The floor was 1.99 and the vapor barrier was .25 /foot. We also bought 180ft of 1/4round.
I spent about $35 on tools that I didn't already own (a floor scraper to get the glue off the slab, and a tab tool for pulling the wood together).

My wife starting to cut the carpet up:


We cut it into ~4x4 squares so we could take it out easier:


Laying out the barrier:


A few rows done, about 20% of the project:


Living room done:


And All put back together:
Entry hall:

Dining room:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

7/14/2014 3:44:44 PM

that looks really nice! I can't believe you guys did all that yourself - what a project to undertake

7/14/2014 5:31:18 PM

Start to finish was about 30 total hours.
We split it over two weekends, doing one room at a time to minimize furniture disruptions.

This is my 4th time doing wood floors, but this was the largest area so far. My past experiences have all been single rooms. This was the first time doing laminate though, as previously I had done solid and engineered products.

7/14/2014 7:32:09 PM