Okay – here is a quick tip, not a full show.

Lawn Aerating

Fall and Spring are a great time to aerate your lawn. An aerator will break up hard compacted soil and allow water and nutrients to better reach the roots of your grass. We all know that, that’s not the quick tip. The tip has to do with when you rent an Aerator.

Lawn Aerating Problems

When you rent an aerator there is often the previous users bits of dirt and grass embedded in the plugs inside tines. Those plugs can contain weeds, weed seeds, other varieties of grass, etc. When you run the aerator over your lawn you essentially will plant whatever the previous user had in their lawn in your lawn. Not good.

Lawn Aerating Best Practice

Avoid spreading of weeds and take a moment to hose off the tines before you begin aerating your lawn.

In this video episode of The Handyguys we discuss some common tractor and mower maintenance for your John Deere.

We discuss changing oil, checking air filters, the location of spark plugs, grease points and fuel filters.

John Deere sells a Home maintenance kit specifically for your tractor. It contains most of the items you will want for DIY maintenance of your tractor. One thing the kit does NOT contain is a grease gun and grease. This Grease Gun from Amazon is similar to the one used by The Handyguys in the video and works nicely. .

John Deere has provided The Handyguys the products used in this evaluation. However, the opinions of The Handyguys are entirely our own and we have not been paid to make positive comments.

In this video The Handyguys demonstrate the potential dangers of a nail gun’s power by taking it to a gun range and shooting a target at about 25 yards.

Please do not try this at home, or anywhere, ever.

It took a bit of practice, some fenagling with the right combination of nail guns, pressure settings, trajectory, choice of nails and other factors but we made the shot! Yeah, we were at the range for a while.

The target is a ‘clay pigeon’ held in front of a paper target with some thumbtacks. The backboard of the target was made of deteriorated strand board which enabled the flying nail to easily penetrate from 25 yards. We will not tell you what pressures we used. We wont tell you how we tricked out the nail gun to fire through the air.

For those of you looking at the video closely you may wonder about the black mark on the paper target after the hit. That was just black dust from the breaking clay target.

This isn’t a typical Handyguys TV video. We did this for fun. Please do not try to reproduce our results. We took many safety precautions including eye and ear protection and used a private facility set up for target practice.

We would LOVE your comments or feedback on this. Pass it around to your friends.

Thanks for watching!

The Handygys discuss three topics on this audio podcast – what tools are used to cut metal, are CFLs safe in kids rooms and are water saving flush valves a good investment.

Cutting metal

From time to time homeowners need to cut metal. What do you use to cut metal? Paul grills Brian on what tools he would use.

It will depend on several factors such as:

• What the metal is
• Quality of the cut
• How quickly you need to cut
• How easily you need the cut

Some possible tools are:

• Hacksaws
• Angle grinder
• Cutting torch
• Cut-off saw
• Jigsaw
• Reciprocating saws
• Snips
• bolt cutters
• Rebar cutters
• pipe cutters

CFLs in a kids room

CFLs in a kids room? What is the issue? Handyguy Paul has several young kids and is concerned that if a lamp gets knoced over he will have to deal with mercury contained inside a typical CFL bulb is the bulb breaks. Is this a valid concern? What are people doing? Is LED a viable option? Are there mercury free CFL bulbs? Rugged CFL bulbs?

Water Saving flush valves

Handyguy Brian came across a discussion regarding “water saving fill valves” for your toilet. The principle is they do a half flush (.8 gallons of water) when you do not have solids and a normal 1.6 gallon flush when you need it. In areas where water is scarce this is important, if you have a well that runs dry its extremely important to conserve every drop. The question is – Do these devices make sense for people who are in areas of the country where there are not water restrictions, there are not scarcity issues, and water is plentiful? If you are on your own well then no. How about those that pay for “city water”?

Doing the math

A toilet like this one doesn't use ANY water!

If you pay for water and, like we said, you are in an area where water isn’t scarce, these devices do not make sense. Here is why:

These fill valves cost about $25

The average cost of city water in the US is $1.50 per 1000 gallons or $0.0015 per gallon

That equates to an average cost per flush in the US of $0.0024

If you round the numbers that is about four flushes for one penny or $0.0096

If half the flushes required a full flush and half could use a half flush and the toilet is used 10 times per day you would save half a penny a day!

The savings would be about $2.19 per year. You would need to use the product for 11 years before you can see a return on investment (ROI).

Okay – we rounded the numbers and made some assumptions but the point is the same. If you don’t live in an area where you don’t have water restrictions or shortages you do not need a product like this.

Make sure you listen to the podcast for all the riveting discussion!

The Handyguys look at some subtle differences between two models of Sawzalls and discuss when you would want each.

Milwaukee Tools sent The Handyguys a press release describing two new Sawzalls. At first glance the specifications seemed the same.

The only difference is the “Stroke Length”. What is the benefit of a longer stroke? When would you prefer a shorter stroke? In this video The Handyguys actually do a test to see the differences in making a cut with each version. We were surprised at how noticeable the differences are!

The shorter 3/4” stroke length is ideal for better control in tight areas, while the longer 1-1/8”stroke length delivers more aggressive cuts for heavy demolition. Both saws do an awesome job cutting through wood embedded with nails (a common thing in demolition). See them in action, along with a much older Sawzall for comparison.

Our longtime fans may recall we did a similar “test” a while back where we compared a corded Milwaukee Sawzall to Makita Cordless reciprocating saw. We used an almost identical methodology in this video.

We hope you find this information useful when shopping for a reciprocation saw. Thanks for checking it out.

If you like the video go ahead and subscribe. If you have iTunes you can get our videos right on your computer the moment they are live. The RSS subscriptions are for a variety of readers and video players. And, of course, feel free to subscribe to our audio shows while you are at it.

Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation has provided The Handyguys the products used in this evaluation. However, the opinions of The Handyguys are entirely our own and we have not been paid to make positive comments.

Should the Handyguy consider “reconditioned” tools when making a purchase on the Handyguys Podcast store? The Handyguys talk about their experience with reconditioned tools and invite a listener the chime in on his recent purchase of a sweet Bosch compound miter saw through the Handyguys Amazon store.

There are many advantages to reconditioned, but before the Handyguys can detail their experience with the reconditioned market, they talk to Ryan from Grand Rapids about his Bosch tool purchase.

What exactly are reconditioned tools? There are probably some variations between manufacturers, but Porter-Cable explains their reconditioned tools:

Factory reconditioned occurs when a unit has come back to us. It could be for a myriad of reasons, i.e. could have been a demo tool at a show, a product that was returned within the first 90 days (per our, no questions asked, return policy), or it could have been damaged in shipment, or experienced a failure in some way shape or form. Regardless, the tools that do get returned to the National Disposition Center are refurbished, repaired, and retested. These tools are then backed by the same great warranty as if it were a new tool (however the user most likely purchased it at a 25%+ discount over the normal “new” retail price). If you look at the tool they are in new housings, and are in “new” working order, but instead of a yellow, or white and red box, they come in a cardboard “craft” box.

The Handyguys have purchased many reconditioned tools from Porter-Cable. They detail their experience and the pros and cons in this episode of the Handyguys podcast.

Oh…you may wonder if there are any downsides to purchasing reconditioned. Indeed, there is the problem of not knowing when a particular tool will become available as a reconditioned item in our store. They don’t make them that way. So check out the complete podcast and try out a reconditioned tool on your next purchase.

In this show The Handyguys discuss their top 10 starter tools and announce a contest to win this toolkit!

Win this tool kit!

What is included in a first time home buyers tool kit? Screwdrivers of course!  But what else? The Handyguys went shopping at True Value to assemble a quality starter set of essential tools for the typical home owner.

Our Kit Includes:

The Handyguys will take your questions via the phone at (818) 804-TOOL. Leave an email address if you want an immediate and direct response.

• Tool Bag
• Carpenter’s Pencil
• Speed Square, Orange
• Pliers Set
• Screwdriver Set
• Pry Bar
• 16-Ounce Claw Hammer
• Tape Measure
• Safety Glasses
• Hearing Protection
• Utility Knife

In the podcast we discuss our rationale for each of the tools and why we picked them. There are certainly other tools that could be added to this list, but this would make a great starter kit.

How to win this toolkit!

To win this toolkit you must Listen to the podcast for details. Essentially all you need to do it help us come up with a LEGITIMATE use for duct tape. Give us your duct tape idea by commenting on this show post. In this podcast, we discuss some not so legitimate uses of this ubiquitous tape. We want our listeners to provide us with some valid users of duct tape and we will award the tool kit our favorite suggestion.

The winner will be announced December 3rd, 2009. Suggestions after December 3rd are still welcome of course but you will not be in the running for the toolkit.  So leave a comment below and be sure to provide an email address so we can contact you if your duct tape suggestion is our winner.

An illegitimate use of duct tape!

Photo Submitted by DJ Goodfellow

Disclosure