As someone who has rehabbed a lot of old houses over the years, I’ve seen lots of scary electrical “fixes” performed by clueless handymen and homeowners. Some of the perpetrators may even have survived! Even on homes that haven’t been butchered too badly, there’s frequently a need to add outlets or circuits. Sometimes this is for convenience, so you can run the five-gallon frothing Frappuccino maker simultaneously with the pasta maker and the color-changing mood lighting. Other times it’s for more mundane reasons, like meeting code requirements. Whatever the reason, being able to quickly verify that the power is OFF for the circuit you want to work on can be a huge time saver. Using a non-contact voltage tester (NCVT) is an easy way to make sure you really DID power down the right circuit. Klein makes a variety of NCVTs, including some multi-purpose models. They sent one of their latest models our way, so we could see how it measures up. Join us for a full-contact look at the Klein NCVT-6 with built-in laser distance measure. Read More
Safety
Rockler Small Piece Holder – Keeping Fingers Safe At The Router Table
If you’re one of those people who prefer not to sustain serious injury, you may be familiar with a little thing called “safety”. We woodworkers encounter many “opportunities” for bodily injury. The router table is one such hazard: approach with respect and caution. Our friends in blue sent a Rockler small piece holder our way to review. It’s a safer way to rout small, parallel-edged parts without dipping your digits into a carbide toothed shark pit. The Rockler small piece holder is a measure of finger safety worth getting your hands on. Read More
