Recent content by B.K.M

Those are some points worth considering. I think the overall appearance of the shop says more about professionalism than the badge on the toolbox, but a good and professional technician can certainly merit the best tools and boxes. If we were talking about the not-for-hire professional, the...

I work on servers in datacenters. They use the same kind of full-extension ball bearing slides in the rack cabinets. A loaded server might weigh 65 kilograms or about 143 pounds - more than most tool drawers. The rails (slides) are expensive, like DanglerB wrote, about $75, and the logic is...

The main difference between a gun safe and a toolbox is all the drawers and slides. I agree that the materials cost on the safe would be higher, but there is a significantly higher cost to manufacture all those drawers and slides with precision. Nevertheless, I would not argue that there is...

Any surfactant -- probably since you cleaned them the surface holds much more tension now. A thin film of dish soap would be powerful in reversing this. Beyond that, you would probably expect to reduce condensation by heating the lenses before you put them on and or ventilating the moisture...

I don't fully buy the argument that the expensive boxes handle weight better - or that it matters if they do. Probably because of heavier guage steel, box and channel features instead of just flat sheets and so on, they will be stiffer and hold weight better -- but how much weight can you put...

Supply and Demand. I should just leave it there, since that is pretty much the definitive answer to any pricing question. However, I will elaborate a little more. For the US brand boxes in question, there is a short supply of labor (compared to China, India, Kazakhstan), and the big...

Instead of WD-40, I like Camellia oil, but I don't buy it by the gallon -- in other words, it's just for precision tools and blades. It's ideal for any edge tool, knife, blade, chisel etc. I use it on plane blades, chisels, a marking knife and my straight shaving razor. I don't have any fine...

I use Office Depot clear plastic file boxes. They go for $10 on perpetual sale. Then I stack them on a chrome wire NSF shelving unit from Costco (4' wide 6' high x 18" deep) which I bought a bunch of for $73 each. I use them for all kinds of storage, including helmets. A shelving unit holds...

Oil is good, but since you're still having problems, you want to get the moisture to condense on something other than your tools. The silica gel really works better in a sealed container because it absorbs moisture. Because your container is essentially ventilated the gel won't help as much...

That's right. It's mostly TTI or BDK out there. BDK is Black and Decker, De Walt, Porter Cable and Delta. Besides them there are a few Japanese/Chinese like Hitachi, Kawasaki, Panasonic, Makita and the Europeans: Bosch, Hilti, Festool and people have mentioned Metabo which is in US and...

Rather than a MIG welder, a car starter is even more similar. 12V car starter motors draw hundreds of amps. It is true that transformers for 120V at these current levels are rather large -- certainly not just a wall wart. However, the battery in the cordless tool can act as a capacitor. For...

If you're just trying to put something up, you could go either way. But to build something with a little love, some craftsman-like touches, it sounds like you as well as most people are more capable with wood. I realize that there are some people who are good at steel fabrication on site, but...

Did you ever notice that no one serious makes a plug-in cordless drill? (kind of like the absence of plug in hybrids). Corded drills can do real work. If you've ever worked with a Bosch hammer drill, any Hilti, or a Milwaukee 1/2" corded drill you know that there's nothing like having a grid...

Whites. The only possible drawback is the weight which is part of the nature of boots themselves. My Whites are most comfortable if I'm doing a lot of standing, but if I'm doing a lot of walking, any work-style boots will feel like anchors after a while. Whites makes a shoe, but I have not...

I just bought a new cordless drill. It is by far the best one I have ever owned. The power is far better than the typical Lithium Ion batteries on the DeWalt and Milwaukee. Those more expensive batteries won't hold a charge after so many cycles and are always dead within a couple years. This...