Buying guides and reviews
Buying Guides
There is a moment in almost every home shop when a cut-off wheel stops being enough. You are trimming a piece of 1/4 inch plate for a trailer bracket, the wheel is walking off the…
Buying Guides
Our top pick is the Evolution S355CPSL 14-inch metal cutting chop saw — a 15 amp dry-cut saw with a tungsten carbide-tipped blade that leaves steel burr-free, cool enough to handle…
Buying Guides
A run of upper cabinets is only ever as good as the line behind it. Hanging cabinets needs three things at once: a level reference that runs the full width of the wall, a plumb ref…
Buying Guides
If you have ever watched a stud finder light up every inch of a wall and then drill into nothing but lath, you already know the problem. On plaster over lath, the strips of wood ba…
Buying Guides
A good multimeter for home use is a CAT III 600V, auto-ranging digital model with a backlit display and fused inputs. Those three details decide far more than any brand argument. B…
Buying Guides
Firewood is ready to burn when it reads between 15% and 20% moisture content. Anything wetter smoulders, smokes up the room, lays creosote in your flue and delivers a fraction of t…
Buying Guides
Thermal imaging is the fastest way to find what a visual inspection cannot see: missing insulation, air leakage at envelope penetrations, thermal bridging around windows, water int…
Buying Guides
The best safety glasses for woodworking combine ANSI Z87.1 impact protection with anti-fog coatings and a tight seal to block fine sawdust. That one sentence covers the standard, t…
Buying Guides
Spray paint puts two completely different hazards in the air at once, and a disposable dust mask only handles one of them. The paint mist and pigment are particles, which a mechani…
Buying Guides
Tile work is done from the knees. Cutting, setting, grouting, and cleaning all happen on hard subfloor and freshly finished surfaces, and a pad that slides down your leg halfway th…