Essential Tools Part 2 | Hour 1

brow design concepts. We're just talking about tools. And the particular list that I'm handing to you this weekend is what I call a reactive tool set. And what that means is this is not a set of tools designed around a project that you're going to start to build, because that will determine the project, will determine the tools necessary to get that done. You know, whatever kind of saw you need, or this or that or the other thing.

You know, this set of tools is your basic, essential homeowner tool set that you react to things going wrong with right, your reactive set of tools. It's the tools that are there when something breaks, when something gets loose, when something starts squeaking, when something gets wobbly, you know, you know what I'm talking about, that kind of stuff. That's the essential tools that we're talking about today. And

of course we will also take your calls. I'm gonna give you the number right now because Richie is standing by and the phone lines are opened up. The number to reach me about anything you want to talk about today, anything at all, design, construction, DIY tools or otherwise, anything at all, whatever's got you scratching your head about your house.

The number to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean A three three the numeral two ask Dean A three three to ask Dean what are we serving up for you today?

All right, let's introduce our awesome team Elmer is on the board.

It's hilarious because it's not how I feel.

in a bucket or two. And if you are wondering why would I put my tools in a bucket, then you need to watch yesterday's episode a yesterday's show, find it on the podcast, and you can find the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, the new and improved iHeartRadio app, where you should be putting my show as a preset for you right there to get to me all the time, anywhere, anytime.

Or you can find our podcast wherever your favorite podcasts are found Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever, wherever youwhere we are. Yesterday's show was part one. This is part two, so you're only going to hear some of the tools today and the rest were yesterday. Okay, let's die back into the oh oh oh, by the way, because I keep my promises here hang on Producer Richie's resolutions for the New Year. More travel this year Belgium, Amsterdam and Switzerland.

Is that all going to be one trip? That could that actually could all be one trip? But or you just divide it up, just say, hey, I'm going three times, but that's a night. We have friends, very very dear friends who lived in Amsterdam for years and years and years decades that and we would go visit them. Off in. Amsterdam is a cool town and it's also an insane place for New Year's Oh my gosh, insane.

There's a couple exceptions here, especially when it comes to plumbing stuff like pipe wrenches, but wrenches are usually typically categorized as tools that are designed to fit squarely around objects that are meant to be twisted and turned, like the heads of bolts and nuts and bolts and that

kind of stuff. Does that make sense? In other words, if there is a fastener device like a nut or a bolt, or even a screw head at times that has a blocked head or a nut attached to it, then there is a wrench that's made that slides over that blocked head and turns it efficiently. That's, by definition kind of what a wrench is. Wrenches don't have teeth typically, again with the exception of the pipe wrench and a couple of things like it, but wrenches usually don't have teeth.

They don't leave scratches behind when they turn a thing. They have flat sides because they're designed specifically and fit specifically for the thing that they're turning. Applier appliers a little wilder, it's a little bit more free flowing. Pliers are for typically for items that do not have these pre set, pre designed surfaces made for turning or extraction or so on and so forth. So first on your

list for today, at least Needle nose pliers. Needlenose pliers are typically what you know for a lot of fine wire work, like electrical work, needle nose that sort of. I mean, you know what a needle those pliers is, right, It comes down to a very fine point. Allows you to hold things like a wire in a very cramped situation. It allows you to manipulate things in Do they have teeth. They don't really have teeth, well, I guess they do.

Technically they have teeth, but they're more like ridges just for good grab, for good hold and then Needlenose pliers typically will have a wire cutting section right back near the actual hinge, back at the backside of its jaw, and some of them come with wires stripping attachments too, and some are combos, right, but a good pair of needle nose pliers in your toolbox is a must. Also. Second set of pliers slip joint pliers. I've never heard

that term before, Dean, What does slip joint pliers? Well, just clear all thoughts of pliers from your mind, and then just imagine what pops into your head when I

say pliers. They've got kind of a they're sort of medium sized, they're not needle nose, they're straight what you imagine as the typical set of pliers, like the pliers that you see illustrated when the word pliers is mentioned, that is technically a slip joint plyer, because instead of having a fixed joint or hinge that cannot be moved, you've all done this, You open it up and you find out that it can, that it can slide sideways slightly, and that makes the jaws slightly larger to handle a

larger diameter thing. That's the slip joint, and that's a slip joint plier. Okay, typical pliers. Probably strangely enough, if I was selling plyers, this is probably the last pair I would sell you. And and I just find in my own life that slip joint pliers, which is ironically the kind of the iconic plier, is the set of pliers I use the least. I hardly ever reach for slip joint plers, but you know what, everyone's in a blue moon and they're not expensive, so I say have

them in your toolbox as well. All right, now, we need to move on to the set of pliers that I use, probably more often than way more often than any pliers, channel locking pliers, and a derivation of channel locking pliers, which is critical to keeping your house looking nice. We need to talk about that, but we will on the other side of the news.

that kind of stuff. Also, we're coming up top of the hour, we're going to be going to the phones, and I want to let you know the phone lines are wide open right now. So if you want to jump into the queue and you've got a question something's got you scratching your head about your home, give me a call eight three to three two. Ask Dean eight three to three the numeral two. Ask Dean. That's coming up in just a bit. All right, back to the list.

I was talking about pliers again. The difference between wrenches and pliers, FYI, is that a wrench and no, they don't all look the same. They can look wildly different. A wrench is a tool that has a configuration on it that's designed to spin or turn or tighten or loosen a fastener of sorts an object that is also designed for that tool. Okay, so, for instance, the head of a bolt or a nut has flat surfaces on it, specifically so that the flat sides of a wrench can

slide onto it and turn it efficiently. But it doesn't even have to be an open two prong thing. Yesterday on the list we talked about Allen wrenches or hex wrenches or torques wrenches which actually go inside the top of a screw or a bolt. Those are wrenches too. Why because the top of the screw or the top of the bolt has a recess in it that is hexagonal and designed to have that hex inserted into it. Therefore it is a wrench. Plyers are a bit more

wild west. Pliers are devices that you use your actual hand to squeeze to create tension onto, and they usually have teeth of some sort so that they can grab onto unconventional surfaces, round surfaces, for instance. And of course there's always exceptions to this rule, like the pipe wrench, which is a wrench that goes on round surfaces. But as a general rule, that's what pliers are all about.

And I left you after talking about needle nose and slip joint plyers to the pliers that I probably grab more often than any other. Why. I couldn't tell you, just the fact that I think these are great pliers and they just they so get the job done. And those are channel locking pliers. But Tina is flagging me down here, and it's really getting distracting. You're distracting enough. Just sitting there. Beatina's fagging me down because I obviously forgot something. What okay what?

your grip to manipulate. They have their own jaws and or you know, a method of locking itself into the fastener that it's designed to turn, and then all you do is pull the handle, all right. You don't have to actually squeeze at the same time. Pliers you gotta squeeze them in order to grab onto to make them grab onto a thing. And so that's part of what makes a plier applier. Okay, channel locking pliers kind of bridges the gap, and that's probably why they're so useful.

Number One, they're long. They tend to be about twelve plus inches long. And number two, because it has a number of chainals in it, they can open up pretty dang wide and get really small at the same time, so they have a wide range of usefulness. They've got teeth.

But the nature of the offset head of a pair of channel locking plyers, and if again, if check out the video, if you don't understand what I'm talking about, or just look it up online, but the offset head of channel locking plyers means that you get that your channel selected close to the size of the thing, and that channel also helps you get a good grip on a thing, so you don't have to squeeze them as hard. In fact, once you've locked onto a thing, you just

sort of maintain mild tension. And they do the rest of the work like a wrench, So they're kind of half a wrench half plyers, and as a result, they just do a lot of things good. They work like a pipe wrench, they work like a mechanics wrench. They are just they're all over the place, and they're probably my biggest go to. However, here's the thing. There's a second set of channel locking pliers that I want you to have in your toolbox. You know. Let me back up.

I just heard myself say a second set. Let me say this. When it comes to wrenches and pliers, I think it's a great idea to have two of the exact same kind, two sets of channel locking pliers and two sets of, like when we get to it, adjustable end wrenches. Why because quite often these things get used for plumbing and or sensitive items, you know, that are

kind of stuck way out. And I've seen more homeowners break more pipes or rip open more plumbing hoses because they put a wrench on a thing and they start to spin it, and they don't realize that the pipe itself is getting too much torque on it. Okay, so the best way in this I didn't want to make today a show about technique, but I will tell you this.

The best way to ever use a wrench or a set of pliers when you're trying to turn something off something sensitive like plumbing, is to set the one wrench on the thing that you're trying to turn and spin off and set the other wrench just behind it, opposing it on the pipe. Okay, so that the one wrench supports the pipe, the other wrench supports the nut or the valve or whatever it is you're trying to spin off, so you don't do bigger damage than you expected to.

So there's your tip of the day, opposing wrenches and pliers. Okay. But here's the thing. You don't always have to do that. And here's an example of when you don't. And here's an example of when you need to use a pair of plyers, but you don't use the pair of pliers that I just described. That is typical homeowner maintenance. Your sink faucet, the faucet at the kitchen sink has at

the very end of it an aerator. Okay. That aerator is that last little half inch guy with a little screen inside, and it's got a little mechanism where it drops air into the water and it helps just aerate and make a better stream of water. But over time, a sediment from inside the plumbing supply, I mean the city supply of water can build up and you find reduced flow out of your kitchen faucet, and especially after

plumbing work has been done in the house. That's a typical time when sediment actually gets into the water lines and ends up boom, being flushed right to the tip of the faucet. So one of the typical things is, oh, you know what we're gonna change. You know, we'll clean out the aerator. They're made to be removed and cleaned. Okay. Now, ideally an aerator is on there, just finger type, and you could get your two fingers in there and open it up. But if it hasn't been moved in months

or years, I guarantee you it's finger tight anymore. All right, it's all it's kind of gunked up and stuck. And so your first temptation is, well, okay, do you use a wrench? No, because there's no flat sides to it on most aerators. Something actually do. But if there's nothing flat, if there's no flat surfaces on the aerator, then you got to use pliers. And guess what, pliers have teeth.

And as soon as you grab the thing and you spin it off and you're feeling so good about yourself, you look down and you realize those teeth have dug into the sensitive finish and scratched the heck out of it? How do we avoid that? All right, I'll tell you.

you live, and whether you own or not. By the way, these are the kinds of tools that save you money from having to call a pro in in an emergency. These are the kinds of tools that, even if you have to call a pro in, if you've got them on hand, you can shut down a leak, You can shut down a problem before it damages other things. This

is just the essential tools. And guess what they all fit into a five gallon bucket with a tool organizer, essentially, and so they are well worth you having, whether you rent or own, whether you live in an apartment or a condo or a cottage or a castle. It's all here for you. So that's where we're going today. Now I should say this number one like we said the last.

Before the last break, Tina reached into the archives on YouTube and found She's like, you know, I think you did a tool video a few years back, so she found a younger version of me having this conversation and showing you, you know, essential tools. Now the list isn't exactly the same. I've bad it a couple of things, but it's up on our social media right now. You

should go check it out. And if you've got somebody in your life who needs to have all this condensed down into a less than two minute format, then boom, there it is waiting for you can share it, follow us while you're there. It's on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok x, we're all over the place home with Dean. Go check out the video, and you know, give us a shout

out while you're there. So that's that. And the other thing that I want to let you know, unrelated to my tool list is right after the next break, I would like to go to the phones. But guess what we're in one of those situations where this happens once in a blue moon, there are no calls on the and so if you've ever been holding back and thinking, gosh, I would love to chance to uh talk to Dean about something with the house. But you know what, never

get through it. Well as of right now. See there's one call right now. Boom. See I say this and somebody realizes, now's my shot. So guess what, now's your shot. We've got low traffic on the call board right now, and you know what, if no calls come through, that's fine. I got plenty of stuff to talk about, but I would love to take some calls starting right after the next break. The number to reach me eight three three two.

Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two peep, ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean anything you want to talk about. You don't have to talk to me about tools, anything, design, construction, architecture, landscape, DIY stuff, anything at all. Whatever's got you scratch in your head about your house eight three three two ask Dean. We'll see, we'll see where it goes. The calls the board right

now is completely clear, totally up to you. All right back to the list, where was I oh, I had you sitting on the edge of your seat, didn't I right? Because I said, there's a kind of plier out there to take care of things like, for instance, taking an aeriator off your faucet that without scratching it up. And see, that's the thing. So I'm gonna clarify a couple of things. Yes, there are many aerators that if you take the time,

you may not notice it at first. But if you take the time and look at it, that round aerator which is where the water comes out of your faucet that you need to clean out every once in a while, that aerator may in fact have two flat surfaces on it. Now they're going to be very very hidden away because they didn't want to set it up to make it look like it was a nut or you know, sitting at the end of your your faucet. But if you look carefully, there may be two flat sides opposing each other.

That's the case, then you can just slide the smooth surfaces of a wrench very carefully over those two flat surfaces and remove the aerator without doing any damage to the sensitive finish of the aerator. If there are not If it is a completely round aerator. You know, I can be able to use a wrench there. You're going to use a pair of plyers. But like I said right before the break, plyers have teeth and teeth they're

gonna get it done. They're going to dig in and get that aerator off, but they're also going to permanently leave teeth marks on the aerator and you're going to mess it up and scratch its surface, as many of you have, and you're living with scratched up aerators from that old experience. How do we get around it? Well, we reach for a set of channel locking pliers, but not the ones that I was just describing. We reach for a set of channel locking pliers that are intentionally

made to be drum roll please. Soft grip pliers. Yes, there is such a thing, and yes you will find them at your local big box or hardware store. Soft grip channel locking pliers are essentially just a pair of channel locking pliers that have over them over both sides of their jaws, the upper and lower jaw, a rubberized or plasticized thick coating or a slide on that renders the teeth unreachable and so as a result, you can use your soft grip pliers to grab onto and this

is exactly what they're made for. Soft grip is made precisely for what I just described in order to grab onto something and be able to turn it or spin it or tighten it or whatever without messing up the finish. There you go, soft grip channel locking plyers. I've got one more set of pliers to discuss with you, vice grip pliers very quickly. Everybody should have a pair of vice gript pliers in their toolbox. Yes, they're weird looking. A lot of people are like, I have no idea

how to use them. Vice gript pliers. They've got a little screw on one side of the handle and a little release tab on the other. That's because they're locking pliers. They act like a vice. What you do is you put them around the object and you start to squeeze it down. If you can't close it completely, you adjust the screw until you can just with a little pressure close them and you hear them snap into place. Those things are now more secure without you having to use

your hand power to squeeze them. Then. I mean, they're as secure as a wrench in most situations and The little tab is for unlocking it and releasing it as you go. So there you go. Those are the pliers that should be inside your toolbox. And when we come back to the subject, we're going to turn a direction and talk about a whole another set of tools. And guess what I ask for Now we have a board with nine plus calls sitting on them, which we will go to right after the news. You are Home with

Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI. This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app