Chalk the Line

Paslode issues fuel cell recall

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:47:03 GMT

Paslode has determined that a small percentage of tall red fuel cells designed for use in Paslode cordless framing nailers can leak fuel when the metering valve is attached to the fuel cell, which can result in a potential fire hazard. The fuel cells are identified as part #816000 and the framing nailers are identified as part #900420. According to a press release on the company’s Web site, “The fuel cells in question may compromise the safe and effective operation of Paslode cordless framing nailers. . .”

The company is recalling all tall red fuel cells with the following date codes:

Best use before: 09 AUG 2009 10 AUG 2009 11 AUG 2009
Manufactured: 11 FEB 2008 12 FEB 2008 13 FEB 2008

For more information, visit Paslode’s Web site.

Speaking of Joe the plumber

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:24:59 GMT

Posted by: Jean Paul Vellotti

When I settled down to watch the final debate of this presidential race, I never expected in the opening salvo I would hear a sob-story about Joe Wurzelbacher, the now famous plumber from Toledo, Ohio.

And I certainly didn’t expect to hear over-and-over, “Joe the plumber this, and Joe the plumber that.” You’d think both candidates spent hours with this man since they knew so much about him.

Here’s why I have no sympathy. First, Joe was asking about taxation over $250,000. Sounds about right for a plumber. When was the last time a plumber gave you a bill and your reaction was, “Wow, that’s so much less than I expected.”

If you don’t think plumbers charge way too much, how about this: One day a man returned home from work early. In the driveway was a plumber’s truck. He said to himself, “Please, let it be an affair.”

Or this: A plumber gave a surgeon a bill for $450. The surgeon said, “This is outrageous. I don’t make that much in an hour,” to which the plumber replied, “Neither did I when I was a surgeon.”

On a somewhat more serious note, some years ago I wrote a series of those little books you can buy for a dollar at supermarket checkouts. One of them was called, “How to Talk to Your Plumber.” Since I grew up in the trades, I presented a way for homeowners and tradesmen to communicate with each other in a clear and respectful manner. The book sold out and was widely reprinted.

When I wrote it, I specifically thought about the way I was sometimes treated by affluent homeowners who thought I was nothing more than their servant.

It felt something like the hollow and insincere way Obama and McCain addressed Joe the plumber during the debate.

John and Barack, you don’t know how to talk to Joe the plumber. I do, and so do all the other tradesmen who work with him every day.

Energy Star Kids

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:47:36 GMT

Posted by: Chris Hoelck, senior copy/production editor at Fine Homebuilding

This week, my eighth-grader is going back to elementary school.

For her silver-award project for Girl Scouts, Claire is returning to her grade school to get them rolling with a recycling program. You’re never too old to start thinking green or to get into the habit of recycling paper, metal, plastic, and glass, but it seems that one of the most efficient ways to instill such good habits is to start them while you’re young.

I am glad to see that the folks at the Department of Energy are thinking along those same lines. While I was doing some fact-checking for an upcoming article about home-energy audits, I discovered Energy Star Kids. This site has tabs that pop up with screens inviting kids to learn about energy and ways that they can help to conserve it, energy-related terms, and facts about energy usage.

Energy Star Kids also has a section for parents and educators to find ways to help children interpret and use the information on the site.

I know that Energy Star Kids is a bit of a side road for Claire’s overall project, but I hope she can find a way to work this Web site into her presentations. I also hope that Energy Star Kids reinforces one lesson that hasn’t quite sunk in yet: to remember to turn off the light when she leaves a room.

Tool Reviews: Help us help you

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:46:26 GMT

Posted by: Justin Fink

I didn’t invent tool reviews, but I was put in charge of them here at Fine Homebuilding and I like to think they were originally intended to give readers what they couldn’t get elsewhere. Let me explain.

If we rewind 15 or 20 years to the time when your local lumberyard carried Makita circular saws and Hitachi nail guns, the only time you saw Milwaukee circular saws and Bostitch nail guns was when your buddy brought them to the job site from two towns over. That’s where we came in.

We would pull together 12 tool models, run the tools through their paces, tell you what you need to know, and show you photos of the interesting features. We would tell you where the tools shone and where they fell short, give you the street price and pertinent specs of each model, and tell you where to find the one you want to buy. In short, we did all the legwork for you.

But now it’s 2008, and whether we like it or not, things have changed.

Now you can go to The Home Depot or Lowe’s and play with 10 brands of power tools in the same aisle. You can see if the Milwaukee is heavier than the Porter-Cable, which grip is more comfortable, and which one comes with a case. You can log onto the Internet and do a Google search for “hammer” and get 108 million results in 0.14 seconds (I checked). You can bring up a manufacturer’s Web site, read the specs of a tool, rotate it 360°, zoom in and out, and probably watch a video of it in use.

What about independent opinions on the tools? No problem. You can read blogs, join discussions in free online forums, or see homemade videos on YouTube.com. (Editor's Note: You could even, gasp, visit FineHomebuilding.com's Tool Guide.)

You can browse Amazon.com and not only read user reviews, sort results by price, and look at 10 competitive brands, but you also can buy the tool you want and have it shipped to your doorstep in time for that cabinet job you have coming up tomorrow afternoon. Upset that your go-to tool maker replaced your favorite router model? No sweat. Just log onto eBay.com and buy the old version from somebody’s virtual garage sale.

So where do tool reviews fit in nowadays? It’s a good question, and one that I’ve been wrestling with for the last few months. Do readers still want a chart that lists the specs of each 18v screw gun, or does the ease of finding that information online make it a waste of space on our pages?

Do people want to read five pages of information on the six miter saws that we tested, or do they just want us to tell them which one we liked best so that they can move on to learning a trick for installing crown molding? If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video worth? Is more generalized information on how to choose the right tools a better use of space? Should we focus on maintenance, cool aftermarket accessories, real-world safety, and proper methods of setting up and using the tools? Should we stop rounding up tools by category and instead expand the "Tools & Materials" department to include a wide variety of new releases?

I don’t think there is an easy or obvious answer to these questions. But I think it’s safe to say that the times are changing and tool reviews may need to change, too.

Please post a comment with your suggestions.