Went with my son yesterday to go looking for his Xmas tree. Went to Costco and saw a 12' tree. He wanted to go see what Lowes had so off we go (less than amile away). They had the exact same tree for $100 more so he decided to go back to Costco.
But before we left Lowes we went to go look at tools. I saw a MM300 mortiser on their clearance table (in an un-opened box) with a tag saying regular price $199 - now $90 so I bought it. It will work for me until I can get the one that I really want.
Only problem is, after I got it home and assembled it, I tried it out. 1/2" chisel in some scrap poplar and the barrel pin that attaches the handle to the machine crumbled. Shit!
Yeah, I had to replace the one in my Delta with the shank of an old worn out drill bit that was the same size as the hole. This was the only thing that could handle the shear forces trying to mortise 1/2 material - I was doing KD Cherry however, Poplar is pretty soft...
What are you doing buying Christmas trees now for? It's not even Thanksgiving.
In my family, we'd put the tree up on Christmas Eve and take it down New Year's Day. Now we don't even do that... just spread around a few poinsettia plants. The Christmas tree became too much like work.
Which is why you put it up early. It takes two weeks to get the stupid thing together and decorated and the Christmas village lights wired onto the power distribution bus and all the lights on the fireplace and the windows and the roof and the chimney and all the inflatible yard things and the blow molds and the plywood cutouts and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and the....
By the time you're done getting it all up, it's February. That's starting in November.
If you can't relate, be thankful you aren't married to SWMBO. :)
I was getting ready to toss the box and in the styrofoam packing I saw a small piece of that pin so it was broken upon shipment. For the time being, I have a 1/4" pegboard hook wired in place. It is working for now but it still isn't quite large enough. I hadn't thought about a drill bit but I will have to look through my broken bit box. :-)
Spent a week at the Delta repair shop. I cut a slew of 3/8" mortises after that, but haven't chucked up the 1/2" again. It's an OK mortiser for $100...
Been there -- a not-too-terrible solution is to get 2'x8' sections of garden lattice (wood or plastic) and build a fence around the tree. The wood stuff will bend to about a 8-10' radius. Paint it if you want but "natchural" wood doesn't look too bad and it will keep the crawlers at bay. When placed in an arc it's pretty stable against cruisers too. In any event it's much much better than pulling a fallen tree with broken glass ornaments off the kid.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.