Power Tools

I put a 1/4 sheet pad sander on my Christmas list thinking that with the old Milwaukee repaired, If I got a new little sander I'd be golden in the sanding department. I got a nice DeWalt so I was going to toss out the little Makita with the broken wire in the cord. Just couldn't bring myself to do it, however. I went ahead and repaired it. As you can see from the photo, you have to dig pretty deep to be able to remove the cord. It was a pretty easy fix once it was apart. Only about five minutes to put it all back together but since it's at least thirty years old, one of the bearings will probably go out the first time I use it. I'll keep it down the basement so if I need a little sanding I'll save myself a trip out to the shop.

The Missus got me one of these Switchdrivers for Christmas. I saw an ad on TV for this thing and thought it was a pretty clever idea. Instead of swapping out drill and screwdriver bits all the time, just flip twist the head around. It came with two 20 volt lithium-ion batteries and uses 1/4" hex drills and drivers. I should of had one of these when I was putting up the new barn a few years back. It would have come in real handy since I screwed most everything together to make sure it would never come down again. I got a recall notice on my cheap Harbor Freight cordless. I'll do like the sander and keep the replacement drill down the basement for household chores.

Spent a couple of hours working in the shop yesterday on some odds and ends like the sander. Put the battery charger on the tractor to make sure it's up to snuff, brought some firewood in and made sure I had everything in place for an emergency power outage. Freezing rain and big winds are in the forecast. A few years back a similar storm knocked power out for four days. We did OK but were running out of water. I think I'm prepared for just damn near anything short of a nuclear attack now. I still need a transfer switch to hook up the generator but I can rig something up in a pinch if I need to. No reason not to do it properly for convenience and safety sake, though.

I've still got a couple more weeks of vacation left. Planning on working on things at a nice leisurely pace. Just make sure I get a little something done every day and start planning for the new year.