July 24, 2006
OK, I don’t know if the President or his retinue ever really stops off at Discount Fabrics USA on his way to and from his Old-Line-State retreat. But people do trek here from as far away as Ohio to get designer upholstery fabrics at less-than-wholesale prices.
This working warehouse (they still operate as wholesalers and exporters) was a best-kept secret of interior designers for years before opening to the public eight years ago. They now have a Web site, too, where you can order first-run bolts and remnants from major mills, furniture makers, and design houses—Schumacher, Scalamandre, Waverly, Brunschwig & Fils, Armani, Ralph Lauren, to name but a few—at even deeper discounts plus free shipping.
But for textile buffs, there’s nothing like perusing the looming bolts of fabric on site, dodging the forklift zipping around the pallets of cut velvets, chenilles, silks, toiles, ultrasuede, and damask. Discount Fabrics USA is also a great source for quilting materials, upholstery supplies for DIYers, and pillow forms. Just watch out for the forklift.
Discount Fabrics USA, 108 North Carroll Street, Thurmont, MD 21788; 301-271-2266; discountfabricsusa.com.
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July 20, 2006
Intrigued by an article in yesterday’s New York Times that described a robot capable of using a hammer and screwdriver to assemble a bookcase, I contacted the project’s director to learn the nuts and bolts of the operation. Will the machine swing an actual hammer or fire off nails pneumatically? Are we talking about some kind of drill/driving finger? Is my fear of robots justified?
Turns out the project has more DIY appeal that I had even hoped for. Apparently it’s easy to program a robot to assemble the shelf—they do, after all, build cars—but the Stanford team plans to design a machine that can learn to make the shelf with the same hammer and screwdriver you’d pull out of your toolbox. The goal, Dr. Ng says, is for the machine to “flip open a set of instructions, read them, and follow them to assemble a new bookshelf—even one that the robot hadn’t been specifically designed for.” The Times joked that it was an endeavor beyond the reach of most humans. I’m just hoping years of research aren’t compromised the first time the thing hits its thumb with the hammer.
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July 18, 2006
Shopping for ceiling fans can be one of those maddening experiences where you’re never quite sure if you’ve made the right decision. What size blade? How steep the pitch? Will it look hideous? What if it starts wobbling or creaking? If it goes too fast, will is spin off its axis and fly across the room? (Although extremely rare, this actually happened to me because the electrician neglected to use the right kind of fastener. Oops. Luckily, no one was decapitated and he owned up to the mistake and installed a new one for free.)
Fortunately, the answers to these questions and more can be found online at a store called Lamp Depot. It’s run by a guy named Steve Stillman, a.k.a. the Fan Man, who is quite passionate about ceiling fans, and he goes out of his way to enlighten people about what makes a great fan. I interviewed him a few years ago and have since ordered four fans from him and been extremely satisfied with the quality, price (“rock bottom!”), and customer service (fast, sometimes free shipping).
The Web site is a bit distracting, rather low HTML aesthetics, but he tells it like it is. One of his major rants is that when it comes to ceiling fans, it’s all about the motor, and you get what you pay for. He won’t even sell what he calls "promotional grade" fans ($19.99 - $99), which he thinks are junk. Basically, you can’t go wrong with a fan whose “pancake” motor he deems “Very Good Medium Grade” ($129 - $499), although if you’re willing to pay $180 - $2,000 for a fan, you can get a “stack” or “K55” motor, a coffee-can-shaped device that is "Performance Grade -- Best." Or as he likes to say, the "real" ceiling fans.
One of Stillman’s insider secrets is that just because a fan is made by a reputable manufacturer, that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t cause you grief. The reason: many companies offer fans across a range of price points and their lower-end models are sometimes not nearly the quality of their high-end ones. But he also compares copycat styles to help you figure out whether it’s worth it to spring for the one with the better motor. So far, I’ve stuck with his medium-priced pancakes, but I think I’ll spring for a pricier stack when we buy a fan for the master bedroom, which is where the Fan Man recommends putting the best fan in the house.
Lamp Depot, 9401 73rd Avenue N., Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN 55428; 888-332-6626; lampdepot.com
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July 13, 2006
Originally developed for the military, X-Treme tape’s usage specs exceed almost anything that you might encounter on the home front. Repairs can withstand wicked temperatures (from –60°F up to 500°F), corrosive materials such as acids or fuel…even radioactivity. Lucky for me, none of my repairs have been quite so extreme. So far, I’ve used it to add grip to a few of my favorite tools, to (temporarily) repair the torn jacket of an extension cord, and to stop a pinhole leak in the garden hose.
Although suitable for all sorts of repairs, the name is still somewhat deceiving. Just like duct tape isn't good on ducts (or ducks), this multi-purpose “tape” doesn’t have a sticky side. But don't call the language police just yet. Somehow, the adhesive-less silicone strip self-fuses to form a permanent non-conductive, air- and water-tight seal. To get the tape to adhere to itself, simply stretch and wrap. (The strip sticks quickly; in less than five minutes I was unable to unwrap my hammer handle. Still, as per the instructions, I waited 24 hours before turning on the hose I'd fixed.)
The results, so far, have been so good that I bought a few extra rolls for my car and toolbox. At $6 per individual 10-foot roll, the stuff isn’t cheap (though you can get 6 rolls for $28.50) at Duluth Trading Company, but considering what can go wrong with my 10-year old car and 100-year old house, it’s nice to have one more trick in a few toolboxes. A few inches might be enough to make it to the repair shop, or for the plumber to make it to my door.
X-Treme Tape, VYPAR Products, St. Louis, MO; 314-543-4131; vyparproducts.com
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July 11, 2006
When we rescreened our porch, my contractor gave me two choices for a door: Blah and Beyond Blah. Long story short, I found the perfect wooden screen door, complete with Victorian scrollwork and spindles, on the Net at Fretworks. The door arrived quickly, paint ready, complete with a door hanging kit. Makes me wish I had more doors to replace. Sometimes for fun I go on their site and click through different patterns for corbels, gable end trim, and spindle rails. Gingerbread plant hangers? What a great idea.
Fretworks International, 1623 Military Rd. #150, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-1745; 800-465-7598 toll free; fretworks.com.
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July 11, 2006
Halfway through the winter you remember, Oh, yeah, time to change the furnace filter! You head down to the basement and realize, Oh, yeah, you forgot to buy them last time you were at the hardware store. By the time you get around to this errand (in all your spare time), you're standing there gazing blankly at shelves crammed with every manner of filter—Polyester or fiberglass? Pleated, electrostatic, or activated carbon?—and you can't remember what size you need.
You would have been better off staying home and logging onto Filtera, a Texas-based enterprise where you can order a season's worth of furnace filters at a discount and only a buck shipping. The beauty part: you can sign up for monthly reminders to change the darned things.
Filtera, 12999 Murphy Road, Suite I-1, Stafford, Texas 77477; 888-933-0100; filtera.com.
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July 11, 2006
It seems like every time I go to cut something small on my table saw, I need to make a new push stick. Being a New Englander by adoption, it’s against my thrifty nature to actually spend money on a push stick, when a piece of scrap wood will do.
Some of this comes from watching Norm, who never wastes anything. I've never seen a guy finish the day with less scraps than Norm. He doesn't even waste words; on the TOH set, he's well known for getting his scenes done in the shortest number of takes. If Norm is doing a scene in the morning, lunch will be on time.
I aspire to Norm's level of Yankee thrift. But I had to think twice when I saw this new item from Rockler—a plastic push stick (so it won’t damage the blade if it comes in contact) with a magnet in the handle that keeps it on your saw, ready to go. The catalog lists it at $7.99 but you can get it from the website right now for just $4.99. Okay, uncle—that’s thrifty enough even for me.
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July 10, 2006
My current favorite tool is the Rocket jig, a pocket hole jig made by Kreg Tool Company. (On their website, Home Depot refers to it as the Rocket Pocket Hole System, which reminds me of a risqué Mae West joke.) This foolproof device clamps onto the edge of a board and allows you to drill perfectly angled holes from the face of the board into the edge.
It makes it easy to create super-strong butt joints for cabinet face frames. But I’m finding it has many other applications. For example, I’ve been building bookshelves in my new home office, and I’m using the pocket hole jig to secure the cases to the back wall. By drilling pocket holes through the top of the shelf (where you can’t see the hole), there’s no need to add complicated hardware or brackets. A couple of screws, and the bookshelf is anchored tight against the wall. I’ve also used the jig to attach blocking between studs, when you need a structural member on which to nail beadboard and other vertical paneling.
The best price I’ve found for the Rocket jig is on Amazon, where it costs $29.99. But if you go to the Home Depot website, you can get a full kit for $49.99; it comes with a jig, clamp and a special high-quality drill bit, plus a handful of the dedicated washer-head screws you need to use. And if you go to Rockler's site, you can buy nifty wooden plugs (in oak, maple, walnut or cherry) to fill the oblong holes.
What they don’t tell you until you buy it is that the jig works best with a corded drill, which provides a constant RPM. Who has one of those anymore? So I went out and bought a cheap Ryobi plug-in drill for about $30, also at Home Depot. (Those they stock in the store.) Then I “gave” the drill to my 14-year-old as a present, which of course I can “borrow” anytime I need to drill a pocket hole. Pretty sneaky, huh?
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July 2, 2006
Do you know what this wrench on the left is called? It's called the WideAzz. The WideAzz! Channellock, the bad boys of the wrench world, introduced their BigAzz pliers about ten years ago. Shortly after that, the vaguely suggestive NutBuster line appeared. But this new wrench just sounds, I don't know, nastier. I called the company and asked to hear a pronunciation, identifying the tool by its catalog entry, the HWC8. To hear them tell it, you're supposed to really buzz on the Z sound. Also, according to their marketing department, WideAzz was chosen after several other suggested "handles," including FatAzz, BadAzz, DumbAzz, and so on.
Now, I wouldn't be making Channellock the, er, butt of a joke if the WideAzz weren't an exceptionally good wrench. The jaws really are wide—8-inch handle wrenches, like this one, usually only have inch-wide jaws. The $25 WideAzz gives you an extra half-inch, accommodating more nuts and bolts in smaller spaces. Plus the adjustment is precise, the slim jaws firmly hold their setting, and the rubber grip is nice for heavy-torque turning.
But these names—I just don't get these names. Even with both jaws spread wide, the wrench resembling anything Azz-like is, well, a bit of a stretch. Am I missing something? Is there something subtly callipygian about wrenches and pliers? I know sex sells, but guys, this is too much booty.
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