Expert Advice
Maxwell: Three last-minute gifts sure to please DIYers
December 17, 2010
Steve Maxwell
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
I find choosing Christmas gifts to be the hardest part of the season, and the fewer interests I share with the people I’m shopping for, the more difficult it is. Here are a few shop-tested ideas for the handy people on your holiday gift list.
Block planes are small hand tools designed to smoothen and shape furniture projects and other woodwork. They’re also useful for renovations and home improvement tasks, but there’s a problem. Most block planes on the market are junk. The don’t slice wood like they’re supposed to because they’re not manufactured to fine enough tolerances, and this gives all planes a bad name.
I’ve used block planes regularly for more than 25 years, and though some are pretty good, the Canadian-made Veritas DX60 is way better than anything else I’ve tried. Besides being the most beautiful to look at, it simply works like it should. At $185, this certainly isn’t the cheapest one going. In fact, the HST you’ll pay on this one is as much as the sticker price on the kind of bottom-drawer models that give hand planes a bad name. If you’re a woodworker you probably already know the value of paying up for good tools. If you’re not, rest assured that this tool will be appreciated.
Wrenches let you tighten and loosen nuts and bolts of all kinds, and that’s essential for dealing with mechanical issues around your home, vehicles and yard equipment. A good wrench collection, coupled with a little effort, will save you money for a lifetime, as I know from experience.
The Craftsman wrench set I got for Christmas in 1985 still works as well today as ever, though not just any set will deliver this kind of performance. Pay a little extra for wrenches that offer the kind of lifetime warranty that’s actually useful in the real world. That wrench-type person on your gift list will also appreciate wrenches in both metric and imperial sizes. Despite what we’re told, Canada’s only partially a metric country.
One excellent set that fits all these criteria is the Stanley FatMax collection. It’s sold at Canadian Tire, product number 58-9267-6, and includes 140 different wrenches, sockets, Allen keys and driver bits. If something ever does break, call 1-800-263-6292 to make a claim on the lifetime warranty. I tried this myself and found that I got a real person after just a couple of menu choices. The attendant explained that tool owners simply call Stanley and they’ll ship out a replacement socket or wrench based on the honour system. There’s no need to return the broken tool for examination. You can also bring broken tools from the 58-9267-6 collection into any Canadian Tire store and Stanley will automatically ship out a replacement to your home.
Also, and it may seem like a small thing, but this set comes with a case that has latches fastened with actual pivoting hinges. I know this is important because cheaper latches that hinge on thin pieces of bendy plastic break after a few years use.
Every home can use a cordless drill, but many models are bigger and heavier than the average homeowner needs.
The Black & Decker LDX112 is a compact drill weighing in at just over 1 kilogram (including the battery) and I’m particularly impressed with the way it combines power and overall build quality with the very low $60 price tag. I’ve never seen a super-cheap drill perform as well as this one. Powered by one of the new breeds of 12-volt lithium-ion batteries, this drill holds a charge for up to a year of storage — something that older style tools powered by nicad batteries can’t match.
The LDX112 also has built-in electronic protection that stops enthusiastic users from over-taxing the drill. Driving 3-inch-long deck screws, for instance, sometimes causes the power to the motor to cut out as a protective measure until the trigger is released then pressed again. Deck screws 2 ½-inch long and shorter, however, are driven perfectly because they’re within the capacity of the tool. The only thing that would make the LDX112 better would be a second battery, but you really can’t expect that for a $60 last minute Christmas gift.
Steve Maxwell is Canada’s award-winning home improvement expert, and technical editor of Canadian Home Workshop magazine. Check out his newly-launched website at www.stevemaxwell.ca