Support your local tool store?

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks for adding the link to the stand Lawrence the stand is most impressive and obviously not thrown together in an afternoon; you must have felt immensely proud to see it finished?

I'd like to air dry oak Lawrence and perhaps this would be the way to go given we live on the valley side so there is always a breeze; stickered with a top covering should be sufficient after all this is how Robert Thompson's (The mouseman) dry their oak.

http://www.robertthompsons.co.uk/

One year plus one year per inch of thickness is the standard air drying time I believe?

Thanks Gary and Colin for your thoughts on the Dremel. I'm amazed Colin that in the links you kindly supplied the Dremel is so cheap? At the recent Rufforth meeting a stall was selling new Dremel's at £50 and I heard the stallholder saying this was a much reduced price so next time I visit Rufforth I'll be nosy and have a closer look.

From your comments though I think I'll leave the Dremel alone because I tend to kill underpowered small tools and I don't have the need to do such fine work; I've seen Dremel's advertised many times so thought perhaps having one would be handy.

I bought a detail sander (the one with the small triangular sanding pads) from Aldi over a year ago and have only used it once. The sander is powerful enough but I found the diameter of the body too big for comfortable grip and it felt very clumsy; it's possible if I used it more I could get used to using it but this was my first impression and it remains in its box under the bench. It only cost around £13 so actually is a good tool for the low price. It will be interesting to compare this Aldi sander against the Fein?

Aldi sell some decent items at rock bottom prices; the work trousers as recommended by Gary are outstanding value and I now wear a pair every day; they are cut generously so are not tight fitting and they are very comfortable with lots of pockets. I've seen electric chainsaws and compressors at Aldi all at very keen prices. If I see one of their multi tools I might even buy one for use in the garage for rough work as they are cheap enough?

Just as you are letting go of most of your DIY Gary I'm gearing up for more DIY; living here I simply can't get away from DIY unless I get Roy Rogers in which I'll only ever do the day I can no longer lift a tool. Whatever you decide to spend your time on Gary good luck because you were my inspiration to take up restoring vintage radios.

Kind regards, Col.