This was my collection of Apartment Tools. Everything I ever needed to hang a picture, or put together a bookshelf lives in this canvas bag.
My dad always taught me to use the proper tool for the job for the best results, and since I’ve been living in an apartment for the last 20 years, I didn’t always have the equipment I needed. Â Sure, over time I managed to collect a nice collection of smaller hand-tools. Â I have all the stuff needed to properly hang and level a picture on the wall, put together an Ikea Bookcase, Â or change a flat tire on a bicycle, but not much else.
I’d always promised myself that when I bought a house, the first thing I’d do is buy a table saw, and thanks to Craigslist, I can cross that of my list.  As I’ve been working on the little honey-do projects around the house I’ve been collecting quite a bit of stuff – some extra drip irrigation tubing, boxes of screws and nails, extra electrical outlets, and cover plates, and of course a small assortment of tools needed to do all the jobs.  All this stuff has been accumulating on an extra table I stuck in the garage.  So to clean things  up I thought it was time to build a simple workbench, and place to store all the stuff.
This is not my usual way of working. But if you don't have proper storage, and you begin to tackle projects around the house, this will happen to you 
As I was working through my first project, building a cabinet, I realized I needed a few extra things.  My Dad’s garage, the one I’d used as a kid, had all the stuff I could ever need for any project I ever tried.  You see, when I was a boy, he owned a hardware store, and was (and still is) a tool junkie.  And It rubbed off a little on me too I guess.  And if you are reading this, you probably have a small case of  the tool infection, too (there is no cure).
Sadly, my Father-in-law also has this disease, and for the holidays this year, he gave me a gift card to Home Deopt.
So since I needed a few things to get my project done, and this little piece of plastic with money on it arrived in the mail, I hot-tailed it to my closest Home Depot to spend the money that was now burning a hole in my pocket. Â Of course there were some things I wanted (like a complete set of 36v cordless tools), but the more pressing matter was to get the things I needed to finish my first project. Â So I headed down the tool aisle, and picked out these three things:
Variable Speed, Adjustable blade Angle, Tool-less blate changing, awesome safety yellow color
8 in, 2 outer blades, 3 chipper blades, shims, 12-tooth, 1/4 -13/16 adustable width, resharpenable, installed in my Table Saw
1/4 sheet, built in dust canister
Thanks, Scott! Â Now I can do the job right!
Cool tools! Thanks for visiting my blog! Happy Holidays!
I own the pad sander above; there’s an adaptor available somewhere that allows direct dust collection on the 4″ model. I’ve abused this little pad sander for years, loaded with 50grit. I’ve got the larger random orbital for finer work. I’m certain you’ll be happy with this purchase. Unfortunately, quality dado blades are expensive; likely most of that $250 you dropped. You can router your way around it but nothing beats the flat cut of a sharp dado.
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