Home Improvement Today?

When my dad and uncles still had the landscape business, I would go straight to the job sites after school and on weekends and used an older version of the Makita HM1500B demolition hammer to dig short runs of trenches through clay, hard pan, and caliche.

 

Anyone have an opinion on specific brands of expanding foam that are exceptionally long-lasting/waterproof?

 

I use Hilti

 

...finally the test fit, ...after a few adjustments, will start prepping for finish and paint!

 

Looks great

 

thanks oz-t!

 

Very nice! What kind of wood?

 

thank you!

...the mantel, frieze board, and corbels are tiger (curly) maple, ...the pilasters, and misc. pieces are yellow poplar, which will be painted white. the cross member directly beneath than mantel, and the visible gap, will be covered w/ some sort of trim ...stay tuned!

 

Looks good! Are you going to just poly it or stain of some sort?

 

thank you!

...the mantel, frieze board, and corbels are tiger maple, so i'll be finishing them, ...probably w/ one-to-two coats of Danish oil (w/ a rough sand in between to remove the finish from the "upper wood"), ..this should "pop" the figure if I do it right, ..then i'm debating a few top coats of either shellac or wipe on poly (I'm liking the wipe on poly)...

...the pilasters and misc. pieces are yellow poplar and are meant to be painted white, ...this is only stage 1 of the project... the 2nd stage will be essentially wrapping the square "columns" above the mantel, my plan is frame-n-panel for that, ..so I've got my work cut out for me

 

Nice work. A friend of mine has two places where theres some kind of insert but its pretty plain no mantel just old 70's brick work...I'm going to show him the pics of your mantel to give him some ideas. I am curious to see your final product!

 

it's been a great learning experience for me! i'll try to remember to take pics of the joinery/assembly prior to re-assembling after paint/finish... it's basically all "knock-down" using bolts and cross-dowel nuts, wood screws, and "locator" dowels affix all the components in key areas while allowing for possible seasonal "wood movement"... I simply "hang it" onto the wall using "z-clip" aluminum cleats...

 

I re-did one mantel where I lived two houses ago, it was just floating on two bricks the original owner had sticking out of the fireplace. Kinda weird but it just stayed on the bricks and no side pillars.

 

...yep, ...shouldn't have to be a load bearing structure, ..just hold a few candles, plates, etc.

...should be a great project to freshen up a brick surround, and make it "your own"!

 

my sawzall broke
im up shit creek

no proof of purchase = no warranty

repair is min $75, assuming internal parts are OK

considering purchasing new so i have a warranty as 75 is about 50-60% of retail for the saw i have.

mainly interested in knowing what contractors run


for the interested, the spindle sheered. qwiklock flew off, i could buy qwiklock and spindle but only know how and found videos to replace qwiklock. if i could myself it'd cost ~20-40 to fix myself (assuming internal are ok)

 

I have Makita ones and a DeWalt

 

which do you prefer to use of the two

 

I like my Makitas

 

corded/battery

 

I have both

My cordless one I use for pruning and pipework mostly

Real demo I use my corded