Gifts for the handyman in your life

[jmowreader]

The fake thread motivated me.

Ladies, you probably have a handyman in your life and if you're like 75% of women and 72% of men you are as comfortable in a hardware store as he is in the housewares department. So without further ado...

1. A 1/4" drive ratchet
Every man has 1/4" drive sockets. Most guys try using them on 3/8" drive sockets with an adapter. And most guys routinely twist the heads off bolts this way. A 1/4" drive ratchet is short enough you can't do that.

2. Spray Can Six Pack
Just get a six-pack of beer, take the bottles out and put cans of WD-40, PB Blaster, white lithium grease, Windex,and two other spray products of your choice in it.

3. Huge bag of mechanics rags
Much appreciated because no one ever has enough.

4. The beers from idea 2, above.

5. Rolls of colored duct tape
Most guys like duct tape. It comes in colors othet than silver now.

6. Motivation kit
Every so often you just can't get things to go in, so a five-piece motivation kit containing an Estwing 20-ounce framers hammer, a 3-pound engineers hammer, a dead blow hammer, a ball peen hammer and a rubber mallet will be highly appreciated.

[HopeHoops]

1. Good list. I ESPECIALLY like #4.

[Suich]

2. I love all the new colors of duct tape!

Wish they had thought of it years ago!

[DryHump]

3. Butt crack filler

[Ron Obvious]

4. Let me read that again...

I swear I read that as "Gifts for the Hangman in your Life".

Oh well, I suppose I have to keep looking for gift ideas for him.

[Wounded Bear]

6. Well, he needs tools to build the scaffold....

Right?

[HipChick]

5. I think this is a bit sexist

There are handy woman too..

My toolbox would rival some men's...in fact, have them slobbering..

I have bright pink duct tape..

[GoneOffShore]

9. See my post about gaffer tape.

[jmowreader]

14. I said "handyman" for a reason

Men with handy women in their lives either know their way around a hardware store, or know other guys who do.

Christmas gift list for handy women:

1. Table saw. Guys, don't fuck around here and give the love of your life the $89.95 Chinese Special. If you have 220v power in her shop, get her a Powermatic 2000; if you only have 110, go with the Powermatic 64a.

2. Drill press. The bigger the better. Every handy woman would LOVE to find a 20-inch drill press in place of the tree come Christmas morning.

3. Parts to make a steam bending kiln. The soft, sinuous curves of classical French furniture were formed by steaming the wood for an hour per inch then clamping it to a mold.

4. Deuce and a half. I can't think of a better rig to make runs to the lumberyard in than an old Army-surplus M35A2 2-1/2 ton truck.

5. Arc welder. If the love of your life's fancy runs more to metalworking than to woodworking, a nice little welder like a Miller Shopmate 250 will put a twinkle in her eye.

6. Gift card for the Snap-On Tools truck.

7. Good saw blades. Forrest Woodworkers are excellent, and some of the high-end Freuds are fine.

[Victor_c3]

20. Skip the powermatic and get something bigger like the Sawstop table saw

I you haven't seen the demonstration video, check out sawstop.com. The saw detects when your finger touches the blade (via electric conductivity) and stops the blade in a fraction of a second - leaving you with both your finger intact and a little scratch. I've seen it in action at demonstration at a woodworking store I frequent. If you want a top of the line $4,000+ table saw, show your wife the demonstration video.

Or, if you feel like spending $30,000+, I'd get a Felder CF741 combination machine. Everyone could use a 16" jointer/planer, a shaper instead of that weak router table, and a sliding table saw that'll easily support a full sheet of plywood. I've been to the Felder showroom in New Castle, DE and their equipment is absolutely beautiful.

[jmowreader]

21. Not a big fan of the Sawstop

The "stop" assembly depends on a part no other saw uses; if SawStop goes out of business your saw is scrap metal the instant someone triggers it.

The flipside is, if I had employees that is the saw I would get - insurance would be cheaper and no fingerless workers. But for my own purposes I'd prefer a Powermatic 2000 with 5hp motor and 54" table.

[crunch60]

16. Love my new wet saw and my new mini bolt cutter....a lady that loves to play

in cement , repaired stucco and built stuff. lol

[Wounded Bear]

7. When all else fails, use a bigger hammer....

6. Motivation kit
Every so often you just can't get things to go in, so a five-piece motivation kit containing an Estwing 20-ounce framers hammer, a 3-pound engineers hammer, a dead blow hammer, a ball peen hammer and a rubber mallet will be highly appreciated.

[GoneOffShore]

8. Gaffer tape, goes along with the duct tape, but doesn't leave a mark.

And it comes in multiple colors.

For the handy person in everyone's life.

[Kali]

10. mile o' baling wire

probably last most folks a lifetime

I need a new one, it will be my third since they stopped baling hay with it.

[riderinthestorm]

11. Baling twine's my fix of last resort.

"Oh look! That board just got kicked in half!" "Tie it up with baling twine".

Latch broke. Tie it with baling twine.

Need to string the tomatoes up. Twine.

Need to hang an emergency light - twine.

Dog leash? Twine.

"Rope" halter (and lead) for the escaped filly? Twine

Yeah, I gotta lot of twine. Duct tape's got nothing on baling twine on a working livestock operation.

[Kali]

12. duct tape doesn't work in the sun and the cows think it is delicious

but it is good for indoors and repairing work clothes on the fly

I keep a few balls of baling twine in the truck for emergency halters, but in general I hate the stuff (cows also like to eat twine) and let's face it, if they would just use blue or white I would be happier, but freaking yellow and orange??? ick: P

[riderinthestorm]

13. I had a load of hay just come in with a kind of weird seafoam green twine

which isn't nearly as attractive in real time as it sounds online. I've had some "natural" fibers twine that isn't dyed so its "soft" - well as soft as that shit gets. A pocketful of the undyed twine travels around with me daily. My place isn't nearly as big as yours so the trucks usually stay parked and we operate on foot or golf cart .

Really, I completely agree. The colors are usually really bad.

I've got this theory, that women should be in on the "design" for some of these ag products. We could make them MUCH more user-friendly.

My sister got a kidney/liver transplant in Feb (doing fine thankyaverymuch) and the hospital gowns! Gah! There's another area for serious improvement although this is probably MFM's area of expertise. They need to have uplifting logos! Either on the ass or shoulder or pocket. "Keep on truckin' " or "Smile!" with a smiley face. "Laughter is the best medicine!"

The gowns themselves are completely depressing.

[Kali]

17. wow glad she is doing well

that is amazing.

you are right, seafoam sounds OK but I can imagine

hospital gowns - ugh

I had a procedure done a year ago (or was it two???) and they had these disposable things complete with cardboard grommets like on a vacuum cleaner bag - and they were for attaching a personal heater! I didn't need anything like that but it was wierd. Kind of like a paper space suit for the hospital.

[jmowreader]

15. Have you tried rebar tie wire?

Comes on a fairly good size roll, works very well.

[Kali]

18. too small of gauge for me

the husband is a masonry contractor and he likes it, but I think it rusts through too fast

[Major Nikon]

19. Whiskey