Sanders and jigsaws and drills! Oh My!

Teresa and I "inherited" Uncle Harry's living room furniture, and while most of it is beautiful and in pretty good shape, the chairs were in serious need of repair. Namely, the seats of the chairs. They seats were supported by what appeared to be some sort of sack-cloth, very old metal springs, and various other things (e.g. random pieces of wood, 1987 "Sailing World" magazines) because the cloth and metal springs had begun to give way. In addition, the padding for the chair seats, upon removal, felt more like fiberglass insulation than padding (my boogers are still very gross from breathing too much of it).

So I endeavored over the weekend to fix the problematic chair seats. In lieu of the metal springs and sack-cloth supports, I was going to cut a 1/4-inch-thick piece of MDF-board to size for each of the chair seats. In order to cut the MDF-board, I needed a new jigsaw. Grandpa Trinkley had given me a jigsaw, but the base had come detached, and I was as like to cut myself as I was the MDF-board. So Teresa and I took a trip to the Home Depot after Church on Sunday (we had a nice little Sunday planned) and picked up some supplies. I bought a Ryobi jigsaw, 5.5 amp, because it was $20 cheaper than anything else (all of which were either 5.5 amp or heavy-duty items), and its features were much better (laser-line site, base swivels 60-degrees, the blade rotates 45-degrees, and it had a great case!). With the new jigsaw, the job was easily accomplished in the afternoon and the chair seats are ready for Teresa to cover with new padding and fabric.

When I was putting away my new jigsaw, I looked at my power-tool collection and smiled. I finally feel that I have the tools for nearly any home-improvement job. But almost all are of different brands. However, after using Ryobi, DeWalt and Black & Decker products, I can happily say that so far each has performed the job I required from it, and I've not had a problem with any of them. Also, with the exception of the details sander, all have come with a case which helps with storage and preservation of each of my power tools. I can still see dad's pile of power tools on the basement shelves. Oh, and dad, just let me know if you need to borrow something.

Ryobi Jigsaw - extremely useful

Ryobi detail sander - not very useful, but only $20

Black & Decker cordless drill - the best tool I've got

Craftsman circular saw - I haven't gotten to use it yet, but am impatiently waiting

DeWalt power sander - power sanders rock!