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Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



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   the wonders of an oscillating tool
Monday, January 30 2017
This morning before my workday, I drove out to Home Depot mostly to get lumber and hardware to reframe the wall around the window in Gretchen's library that is to become a pair of exterior doors. There will be a single new two by ten header plank, the kings will become jacks and I will need new kings. I'd forgotten that all the studs in the wall are two by sixes and bought two two by fours for kings. But of course I already had two two by sixes in my diverse on-hand household lumber supply.
After a workplace day largely spent working on a document for a plan to warm IP addresses, resumed working on the basement door project. I used the oscillating tool to cut a trench horizontally into the existing door header (which, buried in 5.5-inch-wide studs, is a full 2.5 inches from the surface). I would be running the electrical wire in this trench, safely far enough from the surface (both exterior and interior) to avoid the risk of puncture from all but the longest of fasteners. An oscillating tool makes some cuts that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. It would've been very difficult to cleanly notch the old king studs to accommodate the newer, longer header plank that will turn them into jacks. With the oscillating tool, I didn't even need to use a chisel. Even under the best of circumstances, the blade kind of burns its way through the wood, producing an uncomfortable amount of smoke. It also can get bound in the wood, sending all its energy into my arm. One final issue is that the locking nut holding the tool end to the oscillating shaft eventually backs off, and once the tool is loose on the shaft, the whole thing stops working and most be dealt with. (With a power drill, by contrast, when the chuck loosens and stops being able to turn the bit, one can usually just grab the chuck gently in one's hand, which will supply enough resistance to tighten it again; this even works with a keyless chuck.)


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