Tools of the…..
Trade, of course! More specifically, having the right tool to get the job done. Over the last few years, we’ve accumulated quite the collection of tools here in Pulpland. This coincides directly with becoming a homeowner (which, if you are, needs no explanation). That said, I should note that I had spent a major portion of my life living in small apartments in New York City, where the need for tools is relatively low. A multi-tip screwdriver, hammer, drill and bits, and a pair of channel locks (plus duct tape, in case you need to MacGyver something) pretty much gets you through all urgent needs. Then came the house thing, where you now have room to amass tools and to take on the many projects that await you, being that it is your house and you can pretty much do anything you want with it (apartments not being yours and landlords tend to get a little touchy about major renovations, plus you don’t own it so why bother wasting money)! Off to Home Depot you go and the process begins, generally dependent on what project you are doing at the time and what materials you are working with. Over time and many projects, you start to notice that your collection has grown and grown and then comes the need for more storage space which creates a new project, aka, add another work bench/table, install a few more tool hanging racks, get a few storage bins, etc, etc, until you eventually realize that you just went and bought something that you already have, but it was stored in a place that you had forgotten and just happened to stumble upon it as you were actually looking for something else! Oh well, good to have spares I suppose.
One of the first things I purchased were the Dewalt 20 volt battery powered tool line as they had just recently came out (yes, this was a few years ago) and the best anyone else had was an 18 volt battery. Figured 20V to be better than 18V so what the hey, go with the 20. No disappointment there, they worked like a charm so first came the drill followed by another one (to have an extra battery and two drills available so didn’t have to constantly change from drill bits to screwdriver bits). With that solid plan of thought in place and thinking three batteries would be better than two (then think 4 better than 3, 5 better than 4, you get the drift) proceeded to acquire the impact drill, the right angle drill, the circular saw, the right angle grinder, the oscillating tool, the reciprocating saw (sawz’all) and just for kicks, the weed wacker! And I am sure I have probably forgotten one or two more. Anyway, battery powered tools are a fantastic thing to have and give you the ability to not be tied to a power source (other than the battery chargers) so able to use anywhere and for this, I am extremely grateful.
That said and going back to original statement “having the right tool to get the job done”, I present to you the Pulp Patio (leveling) Project. As we have discussed the past couple of weeks, the project began with removal of a large Ginkgo tree smack dab in the middle of the patio and the cause of the patio disruption and complete unevenness of what I am guessing was once quite the beautiful sight. As mentioned, we had the tree removal and stump grinding team out here who did a fantastic job, however, with a large tree there is an extensive root system that evolves from it and it just wasn’t prudent to have the team here forever tracking down each root one at a time, especially since the large grinding tool they use tends to make quite the mess and it gets really hard to actually see anything as you become buried in little pieces of tree. So, time to uncover the remainder using conventional means (the shovel) as we had identified our high an low points. As it turned out, there were still some substantially sized roots still in place (I am talking up to 6 inches thick and often stacked on top of each other). In the past, I had always used my battery powered reciprocating (sawz’all) for removing roots when doing walkways or installing pavers, but those never seemed to be any bigger than an inch or two and came out with relative ease. Say hello to the 6 inch root and the battery powered saw had met its match! Despite having multiple charged batteries, new saw blades, etc, it just was not happening. Off to HD again and this time to pick up an electric (corded) powered reciprocating saw. Went with the Makita as it was on sale and I wasn’t sure if this was going to do the trick or not. Hello game changer, not only did it make mince meat out of those large roots, I never even had to change blades. It just ripped those things to shreds. Right tool to get the job done, thank you electricity!
Posted some new pics and project updates on the New Pulp and Pulp Improvements pages, check them out when you can. See you next week!
