/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1648221
I don’t even care that so many people are useless. It makes it more impressive and valuable when people see you can spin a wrench. Makes for an easy quick buck or a good way to get a first date.

>>1648247
>Is it safe?
I JUST WANT SOME SMOKES!

>>1648516
Well he is sort of onto something. Cell phone manufacturers don’t really aim for battery longevity when designing the things. They want the longest battery charge life and fastest charging, which means charging it at a higher than optimal current, and topping it off to the very top.

>>1648440
But I think an easy and realistic solution to help would be like anon said charging before it hits 20%, and using a slower charger like 500mA. That will definitely help make it last longer compared to the 2.4A+ cell phone chargers.

>>1648322
>>1648300
I heard that about Menards, the owners are complete cocksuckers and some of that trickles down to the stores.

I heard Home Depot trains employees the best but doesn’t do enough to keep them, and Lowe’s treats employees the best but doesn’t train for shit, so the career path is to start at Home Depot and then take a promotion at Lowe’s. The Lowe’s I’m at weekly for work seems to have pretty good consistency with employees, I actually see the same faces for more than 3 months, and that is exceptional for retail (especially in the area I live in).

Overall the big box hardware stores seem to be some of the best if you’re willing to be a slave to retail. The drug stores and dollar stores are the worst. Club stores are good, big name grocery stores are decent if you get in the right department, walmart is garbage but it can’t be difficult to make it up the chain within a couple years.

>tfw the Walgreens district manager tried to give me a business card a few months ago and I politely declined
Walgreens, CVS, Dollar General, and lots of corporate gas stations are just terrible unless you get the busiest store in the district or you get into corporate management and out of the stores. Wawa store manager I know is talking about going to work for McLane driving trucks because sleeping in a truck is better than dealing with that place.

>>1648440
I’m retarded so I will probably cause damage, but what about putting a buck converter inline and stepping it down from 5V to like 4.0?

>>1648219
That pack looks awful tight.

They have been releasing new higher demand power tool battery packs with a higher capacity and more output. The packs are physically larger because some are using bigger cells, while others are using good 18650s and spacing them out so there is more airflow between them. They can charge and discharge these packs faster and harder compared to a 10 or 15 cell pack where the cells are stacked together real tight like your pic.

>>1647938
>>1647939
>over anon’s head

>>1648096
See >>1648195

But most companies also somewhat regularly check and adjust counts on items as they’re pricing or doing resets.

>>1648155
They bought them out and then expanded it like crazy. They built like half a dozen new stores in my immediate area, often it was brand new construction and not just taking over an existing retail space. A year after they all opened they had their going out of business sale.

>>1647830
Walmart has fucked up my orders every single time I tried to do store pickup for something in stock. I’m pretty sure it’s because of all the nogs stealing and the lazy Haitians working there don’t give a fuck about inventory. Also I’m guessing some of the times they had the item in stock but lazy nogs working there couldn’t find it immediately so they gave up and put “out of stock”.

Problem is Walmart is super annoying trying to cancel the order. A couple months back I ordered a printer and a pack of paper for the girl from the store closest to her. They tell me the printer is out of stock and they’re ordering it but the paper is ready. So I had to “request cancellation” and the printer gets cancelled the next day but the paper is sitting there for days ready for pickup, and the charge for the entire thing was still on my card until maybe 5 days later I told her to pick up the paper while she was at the store anyway. As soon as they told me the printer was out of stock the first day, I ordered one from based Target instead and got a better deal on a nicer one that they had in stock and ready in like an hour. When Walmart does have the item in stock, they take like half a day to get your order together, and I think after 6pm they tell you to pick it up at noon the next day.

The one time Home Depot didn’t have something that was supposed to be in stock, they kicked out my whole order within an hour and I was able to order it all from the next closest store. That was at maybe 8pm too, they work quick with their online orders.

>>1648003
House brands like that use all different OE’s. Craftsman was the same when it was Sears. Ratchets were made by one company, screwdrivers another, pliers from a third company.

>>1648017
Isn’t the Tool Shop-Masterforce thing like the Husky-HDX at Home Depot? HDX is the cheap Chinesium, Husky is the stuff with a warranty.

I had these Masterforce tools for a bit from my dad. Didn’t use the right angle driver much but the drill met all my expectations. TBQHWY, they felt a bit cheaper than my newer brushless Ridgid, maybe like better Ryobi or Porter Cable, somewhere in that heavy duty homeowner tier or light duty professional. I read somewhere that early Masterforce was made by Makita, but I think Hitachi sounds more believable and I couldn’t find much in common comparing them to Makita. I was watching the prices to see if I could scoop a sawzall and another battery for a good deal but the best was like 11% rebate or 20% off clearance on old models and you might be better off getting a name brand at those prices.

I think those tools are in Jamaica now.

>>1647954
Mine. Has a drain hole so the condensation doesn’t pool up on the workbench. Put 4 screws in the bottom as feet so I hang two over the edge to keep it in the proper place, and the other two give it a very slight slope for drainage.

And then I was curious what the smallest spade bit (1/4”) would do in an impact driver and it managed to split the thing along the grain so I glued it back together with Gorilla Glue.

>>1647780
See >>1647818

Drink it all before the event. Them when you’re stumbling in as a drunk high school kid and the dean confronts you, proceed to vomit all over here like a kid in my class did.

>>1647792
Lowe’s (mobile at least) is mediocre compared to the other big brands. Orchard Hardware was awful. Menard’s didn’t seem much worse than Lowe’s. Home Depot was by far the best.

Sears is nearly unusable on mobile. You need the app, but then they have good prices and fast store pickup (if you can get past the “marketplace” bullshit and find products they actually sell). Advance Auto is like my favorite of all the websites I use because I’m always ordering online for store pickup, and Advance has the best “In Stock” status deal where you can easily pull up the 10 closest stores and see which ones carry that. HD is pretty good with this too because you can choose “Closest Store” or “Nearby Stores” so you can see stock from the nearest 5 stores at a time, not just one.

>>1644962
Fucking AT&T won’t let me use my unlimited data phone as a hotspot. I can only use it on my 10GB/mo phone.

>>1647697
Another reason is the Mike Rowe thing. High school administrators would rather see the graduates get a worthless 4-year LAS degree than become a tradie making 6 figures by the time they turn 30. I had shop class in junior high school, so like 2001-2003, and by the time I was graduating high school in 2008, my HS had gotten rid of every elective besides art classes. In their eyes, the only acceptable place for a 19 year old was at a 4 year university.

>>1647691
>half off
But Sears also has ridiculously high pricing when the stuff isn’t on sale. I take advantage of that FreeCash stuff too, but sometimes you don’t want to wait 7 months to get your cash back and would rather pay a more reasonable original price at another store.

It’s nice when they have $10-$15 freecash on $20-$30 plus another $10 cash back. I’ll go grab a $40 item for $10 when those pop up.

>>1647662
I have been saying that too. The tools are a steal right now, but I don’t have much faith in that brand because Lowe’s has been getting rid of all the blue in their tool section and replacing it with red Craftsman. I’m sure they will carry the batteries for some years, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they already shelved Kobalt production and they’re slowly selling off the remaining stock of power tools.

And Sears has been switching over to the newer stuff. Their newer socket sets are coming with the SB&D ratchets I think, it’s a 45T with a round handle, not the old raised panel 36T. The old C3 power tools are getting sold off and Sears is bringing in the new red SB&D. I think they’re selling off the old stock like Lowe’s with Kobalt. The thing that pisses me off with Sears is that they’re still selling the old C3 tools for the same price, no clearance pricing and the brand new SB&D Craftsman might be cheaper.

>>1646952
>>1647648
>Vise-Grip Kleins
Goddammit

And nobody uses Vise-Grip vise grips because Lowe’s is the only major one who sells Irwins these days. I think Advance Auto actually sells some Irwin stuff too but it’s stupid overpriced. I like my Irwin stuff though, everything I have bought from them has been real solid and far better than cheap chinesium without being overpriced like the Klein kleins.

>>1646952
>Vise-Grip Channellocks

>>1647407
>Ryobi or DeWalt
The other brands are good too. Ryobi is the homeowner-DIY tier brand. Porter Cable and Craftsman are both about the same level. There is a difference between cheap brushed Ryobi and newer brushless. Other brands are the same, the $99 brushed DeWalt drill kit will be shit compared to the XR hammer drill that costs $150+ for the bare tool.

DeWalt, Milwaukee, Bosch, Makita are all more of contractor brands. They all have extensive 18V product lineups, moreso than many of the weekend warrior tier brands mentioned before.

Ridgid and Kobalt would probably fall in between those other brands. They are more than you need as a homeowner and they will stand up on a jobsite, but probably not the best choice for a carpenter who runs his power tools 60hrs a week. Both have some great sales but a limited lineup when compared to some others. They have what you need, but they don’t offer those tools that you didn’t realize you needed like the Makita coffee maker or Milwaukee grease gun.

I would take a look at Ryobi if I were you. Wait for the sales and get a good setup. A brushless Ryobi 18V drill will give you years of service and they are consistent with their batteries so you won’t have to change everything in 5-10 years because of a new battery size. Of the DIY brands, Ryobi had the best lineup by far, that’s why I got the GF’s dad a Ryobi sawzall and a couple good batteries. They make almost every power tool you would expect and need, plus they have extras like the tire inflator, soldering iron, and rotary tool that most brands don’t offer for their 18V lineup, and it’s much more affordable to add a new Ryobi bare tool to your existing collection of One+ batteries and chargers compared to DeWalt or Milwaukee where you would have to pay $150 for something you might need twice a year.

Did it deserve the swift death?

>tfw OSH was the goddamn Trader Joe’s of hardware stores
It had absolutely nothing you need, but tons of crap that your wife might like. I think I went there maybe half a dozen times in the year between building the brand new store and subsequently shutting it down, and all but one time I had to go to Ace-Home-Depot-Lowe’s immediately after to get the item I went for. I don’t understand how the place was 5x the size of the Ace across the street but had less home improvement stuff within its walls. The one time I went there and actually spent money was the one time I wanted a goofy hand painted Mexican flower pot for my mom.

>>1647317
I kinda miss that place. I only have Home Depot and Lowe’s around here (well there is Ace and a bunch of Harbor Freights). Sears is pretty much dead now, Orchard Hardware came, it sucked, and it left. My dad would always go to Menards because Homie Depot was for Mexicans and Lowe’s was for housewives.

Fuck, I also had a Sears Hardware store for a few years. That was when Sears was going strong and Craftsman was US-Made and Lowe’s had yet to move into the Midwest. That was a great store because it was literally 4 blocks from the house I grew up in and it was like the hardware department of a Sears store combined with a Lowe’s. They had a lumber and garden area outside and everything. I got my first tool chest from that place.

>>1647384
Charger output is 19V...

>>1647355
That was what I would want. I can Roundup the current handful, but it’s annoying when a bunch of new ones pop up every week.