squall_line
Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2021
- Messages
- 2,921
I figured it would be worth introducing myself now that I've offered my "peanut gallery" comments in a few threads.
Long time lurker, finally an account owner/poster.
I'm a computer jockey who occasionally dabbles in woodworking projects, but my brother really got that talent and drive, not me. Mostly just a homeowner/handyman user who likes tools that just work and don't cause more problems than they solve.
My first Festool purchase, strangely, was a CT-Mini because I had some lead paint cleanup work that I needed to do, and kept coming across Festool as a quiet, high-quality HEPA dust collector. We have an Acme Tool in town, so I went, looked, paid, and took it home. I purchased the Installer Cleaning Kit (Sys5, 36mm hose, metal tubes, and various cleaning attachments) pretty shortly after that. I then spent a week on a cheap, rickety baker's-rack style double-height scaffold literally vacuuming loose paint off of my bungalow.
I grabbed a RO-90 thinking that I would use that to strip the rest of the paint down to the wood before painting the house that summer (4" reveal wood siding). Then I met a girl (and, well, I lack follow-through on projects, generally speaking [unsure]), so 2 summers later we were married and living in her house, so we finally paid someone to finish the job and paint my house. I'm still not sure if I've used the RO-90 yet, to be honest.
I picked up a RO-150 on clearance in 2018 and used it to refinish a stairwell landing when I was prepping that same house to sell; I was almost to the point of doing the entire kitchen floor with it, but decided against that.
I also have a RTSC-400 - Set that I grabbed from Recon back in 2019. I think I've powered it up to make sure it works, but never ended up using it for the project I intended to use it for. I think that the lack of reasonable packages of abrasives has hindered my use as much as my lack of projects to use them on (Granat 25-packs would likely be the sweet spot for my usage, but apparently not for Festool packaged sales).
I recently picked up the hand block sander with dust collection along with a 22mm (fine, 21.5) hose and a 10-pack of abrasives to use while I'm finishing off a set of bookshelves made from reclaimed built-ins out of an old law office. I'm hoping the set will fit in a new Sys-M 137 (I read that it won't fit in a Sys-1, WILL fit in a Sys-2, but the new M137 and M187 straddle the old Sys-2 size, so I went low); that's on backorder, so it'll be a while before I find out for sure. Regardless, I've used the hand block more than almost any of my other Festool tools so far other than the CT-mini itself, which I use all the time for cleanup work because of its portability.
During that bookshelf build, I've been using a 7 1/4" Milwaukee corded circular saw along with some generic 55-inch metal straight edges to cut the 1x11's to length and rip 4'x4' 3/16" hardboard for back panels.
I've also had a Ryobi 10" single miter saw (in Bosch blue) for almost 20 years, first used to chop down landscape timbers to build a retaining wall and at one point even used for oak crown molding for kitchen cabinets (a project I will likely never repeat unless the life of a loved one is directly threatened or I'm given a compound to use).
This spring in our current house we're planning to build raised garden beds, but the chop saw is barely adequate for 90-degree 2x6 cuts, so now I have an HK 55 on the way from a recent Recon. I'm hoping that it will replace my circular saw and miter saw for building a bunch of simple boxes out of 2x6 lumber (likely with an FSK 420, I already know not to try to use a 45-degree tilt to get through 2-by lumber) and possibly grab an FS track or two for breaking down any sheet goods I need to break down in the future.
I also have a bunch of different sized systainers on the way (mostly Minis, but also a new Organizer M-89) to see which ones will fit some of my other random tools, screws, nails, etc and help organize and clean up the basement, which my wife tells me is sorely over-due.
Currently looking for a new drill to replace my tired old Craftsman C3 19.2V NiCd drill before I start that garden bed project, and as much as I love the idea of the T18-Easy (and the feel), I will probably end up with a Makita so that I can buy into their "family" that also has blowers and trimmers and similar homeowner-type stuff.
I also apparently still don't know how to write short. [blink]
Hiya!
Long time lurker, finally an account owner/poster.
I'm a computer jockey who occasionally dabbles in woodworking projects, but my brother really got that talent and drive, not me. Mostly just a homeowner/handyman user who likes tools that just work and don't cause more problems than they solve.
My first Festool purchase, strangely, was a CT-Mini because I had some lead paint cleanup work that I needed to do, and kept coming across Festool as a quiet, high-quality HEPA dust collector. We have an Acme Tool in town, so I went, looked, paid, and took it home. I purchased the Installer Cleaning Kit (Sys5, 36mm hose, metal tubes, and various cleaning attachments) pretty shortly after that. I then spent a week on a cheap, rickety baker's-rack style double-height scaffold literally vacuuming loose paint off of my bungalow.
I grabbed a RO-90 thinking that I would use that to strip the rest of the paint down to the wood before painting the house that summer (4" reveal wood siding). Then I met a girl (and, well, I lack follow-through on projects, generally speaking [unsure]), so 2 summers later we were married and living in her house, so we finally paid someone to finish the job and paint my house. I'm still not sure if I've used the RO-90 yet, to be honest.
I picked up a RO-150 on clearance in 2018 and used it to refinish a stairwell landing when I was prepping that same house to sell; I was almost to the point of doing the entire kitchen floor with it, but decided against that.
I also have a RTSC-400 - Set that I grabbed from Recon back in 2019. I think I've powered it up to make sure it works, but never ended up using it for the project I intended to use it for. I think that the lack of reasonable packages of abrasives has hindered my use as much as my lack of projects to use them on (Granat 25-packs would likely be the sweet spot for my usage, but apparently not for Festool packaged sales).
I recently picked up the hand block sander with dust collection along with a 22mm (fine, 21.5) hose and a 10-pack of abrasives to use while I'm finishing off a set of bookshelves made from reclaimed built-ins out of an old law office. I'm hoping the set will fit in a new Sys-M 137 (I read that it won't fit in a Sys-1, WILL fit in a Sys-2, but the new M137 and M187 straddle the old Sys-2 size, so I went low); that's on backorder, so it'll be a while before I find out for sure. Regardless, I've used the hand block more than almost any of my other Festool tools so far other than the CT-mini itself, which I use all the time for cleanup work because of its portability.
During that bookshelf build, I've been using a 7 1/4" Milwaukee corded circular saw along with some generic 55-inch metal straight edges to cut the 1x11's to length and rip 4'x4' 3/16" hardboard for back panels.
I've also had a Ryobi 10" single miter saw (in Bosch blue) for almost 20 years, first used to chop down landscape timbers to build a retaining wall and at one point even used for oak crown molding for kitchen cabinets (a project I will likely never repeat unless the life of a loved one is directly threatened or I'm given a compound to use).
This spring in our current house we're planning to build raised garden beds, but the chop saw is barely adequate for 90-degree 2x6 cuts, so now I have an HK 55 on the way from a recent Recon. I'm hoping that it will replace my circular saw and miter saw for building a bunch of simple boxes out of 2x6 lumber (likely with an FSK 420, I already know not to try to use a 45-degree tilt to get through 2-by lumber) and possibly grab an FS track or two for breaking down any sheet goods I need to break down in the future.
I also have a bunch of different sized systainers on the way (mostly Minis, but also a new Organizer M-89) to see which ones will fit some of my other random tools, screws, nails, etc and help organize and clean up the basement, which my wife tells me is sorely over-due.
Currently looking for a new drill to replace my tired old Craftsman C3 19.2V NiCd drill before I start that garden bed project, and as much as I love the idea of the T18-Easy (and the feel), I will probably end up with a Makita so that I can buy into their "family" that also has blowers and trimmers and similar homeowner-type stuff.
I also apparently still don't know how to write short. [blink]
Hiya!
