Holiday Gift Guide Part Two| Hour 2

everybody Home with Dean and right now. On Instagram and Facebook, you can find our House Whisper Holiday Gift Guide. Also, you can follow a link over to our little corner of the KFI website find the gift Guide there. It's a downloadable PDF and all of the links are active or interactive so that they will take you right to the places where we sourced some of these tools and gear. So but you can follow along, just follow along, find

us on social media, follow us there as well. All right, we're going to get back to the gift guide in a bit. Butts top of the hour, which means time to go to the phones. I want to talk to Greg. Hey, Greg, welcome home, Hidin.

solution to this. So is there some premieer exterminator in Orange County that offers some effective non tent treatment.

in their approach to every single problem. Now will they ten sure if if they have to, But they are a company that understands that tentting is the nuclear option that you only go to when all else has failed or things have gone too far for too long. They use all sorts of methodologies, everything from a bark extract to to deter termites in the first place, to a citrus oils to in one of the things they do

which I absolutely love. Our heat treatments. They can spot heat treat, they can laser heat treat all sorts of areas. There are so many options. I'm glad you just even raise the question, Greg. There are so many options when it comes to pest control that are incredibly effective and have nothing to do with the nasty gas based chemicals that are soaking the house. And this is a company that is at the very tip of that spear when

it comes to it. They cover all of southern California and so they're all over oc and we'll be happy to help you figure it all out, very very customized and reasonable in their approach, and I think you will be very very happy. And that's how you should approach this situation, because there's no sense in tenting a house just because you found some evidence of termites in one location. Okay, unless you've completely had the house, you know, chewed up and eaten from top to bottom, and you find all

these kinds of things everywhere. Tinting is not the option. Tentting is not where you should go. You should just go with a localized effective treatment.

Is it one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty degrees interior that they hold it something like yeah, anyway, and so instead of having to, you know, to bag up all the food and and move out for three or four days, and you know, this whole kind of thing a heat treatment on a house, because what happens is at a certain temperature level, the colonies just die. They just die. And so it's as an effective as a killer as any of the gases are intenting. You

can treat an entire house this way. All you have to remove or protect or things that could melt at that temperature. Otherwise you do nothing and guess what. They start at like eight in the morning and they're done by five that night and you're in your house the same day. Okay, so you just out for a day. Yeah, and you're not even spending the night anywhere else and there's no residue of any It was just heat. So yeah, there are some really really effective ways to do it.

And Eco is a great company here in southern California. I hope you're listening ecoll it because you know, we should talk it up in twenty twenty five. But yeah, honestly, my honest assessment, it's a fantastic company. Give them a shot.

extent the place. Okay, Well yeah, okay, how about a little bit of creativity and effectiveness right where the problem is happening. Because the chances of you having a full house infestation GREG are actually very low, they're very low.

we're doing our holiday gift guide. We're gonna come back to the phones in a bit because right now, you know what, we don't have any calls on the board. I get it, I so get It's just a lazy Sunday morning. You're just listening. It's great. Great, back to the gift guide and we'll head back to the phones in a little bit. Where did I leave ovidency pliers coping? Oh? Okay, an inflator now, this is a priceier gift. Okay, a battery powered inflator. Now, this is not just a replacement

for the bicycle pump. They really are far more effective and serious tools than that. But yeah, it can be used for everything from you know, sports equipment, to bicycle tires to automobile tires and everything in between. This is a relatively new or I should say newer kind of horizon of a tool or category of tool that all of the major power tool manufacturers have embraced and have

their own version of and I should say this. I'm going to use this as a jumping off point for this little speech because I've said it before and it's worth repeating. If you've never heard me say before that, you know you'll notice that there's a lot of Milwaukee tools on the gift guide here. Okay, that's simply because I am a Milwaukee tool kind of guy. But I said earlier, I don't own exclusively Milwaukee tool not even

close do I own exclusively Milwaukee tools. But there's a certain wisdom, a utilitarian wisdom to finding a major line of power tools, and if at all possible, buying within that family. And the main reason is this, especially in terms of corded I mean, I'm sorry, cordless okay, corded power tools. I don't care what you do, okay, because you plug those in. But the power supply for battery powered tools are interchangeable if you're buying tools in the

same family. Not not everyone, because there are different sizes of batteries. But the point is I always look when I'm needing a power tool, I always look to Milwaukee first, because I have a lot of battery powered Milwaukee Tools, and it means that I can just buy the tool alone and I don't have to quite often rebuy the battery. And if you're getting somebody started on their power tool journey as a gift giver this holiday season, you should

take that into consideration. And you should also take in consideration if you're planning on getting them a power tool, if they've already embraced a family of powered of battery powered power tools. Okay, because if they already have, then try to buy within that family so that we don't have to keep buying new batteries for everything, because that

gets unwieldy. Right. I've got Bosh batteries charging over here, and I've got Dwalt batteries charging over there, and Milwaukee batteries charging over there, you know, because those batteries, you know, they don't interact with other brands. So if at all possible, buy within that particular family. So that's why Milwaukee Tools

are showing up in the gift Guide. But I want to make it really clear, the most important part of the Gift Guide is to spark these ideas, okay for you, not necessarily to drive you directly to one specific products. So the idea of a cordless inflator so so valuable. And I'm about to describe the Milwaukee But what I'm about to say applies to Yes, I'm mean answer that question. Does Dwald have an inflator, Yes they do. Does Makida

have an infla, Yes they do. How about Bosh? Yeah, all the major power tool manufacturers have their own version of this, so you could buy within that family of tools. Okay, it's a pearl of wisdom, the Milwaukee inflator. How awesome

is it? It's pretty dang awesome. Whenever I'm working on one of our bicycles and repairing a tire or just doing whatever, or maybe it's been a couple three weeks since we've ridden, and I pull out the bikes and I just want to make sure everything is topped off just right, that the tires are fully inflated, because even a good tire can go down over time because air

moves through those membranes. Then you know, I grab the inflator and all you have to do is you look on the side of the tire, you like, what's the recommended pso eighty PSI, and you start up the inflator, Pop the battery in and power it on. You set the screen to eighty PSI and you press go, and it's simply it's a pressure gauge. It reads the tire pressure. It inflates to exactly the psi that you have set it to, and then it stops. And it's just that easy.

It's brilliant. They save time. They're so dang convenient. Milwaukee has two different sizes. The one in the gift guide is the larger, beefier one. The only difference between the two is time. Okay, so this is a let's see here. This is one hundred and forty one dollar inflator, cordless inflator. The difference is time, meaning how fast it inflates, which on a bicycle and a basketball or a football is negligible. If that's all you're doing, then you know by the smaller,

less expensive inflator. But if car tires are going to be a part of this as well, and you wanted to get it done fast, then there you go. And this is not the kind of inflator that I'm recommending that you keep in the trunk of the car, right because not necessarily going to help you out if you get a blowout or a bad leak somewhere that creates

a flat. But the point is if you are just changing tire pressure because the season has changed, because the average ambient temperature outside has changed, all that kind of stuff, this enabled you to do just that. It's a super creative gift. Most people beam when they see it because they're like, oh my gosh, this is so awesome, and it's so easy to use, and they're built really well. Because this is not some as seen on TV thing. These are inflating machines that are designed by every major

manufacturer of handheld power tools. There you go, the Milwaukee battery powered inflator or whatever family of inflator your particular loved one has already a bunch of power tools for and save the batteries. Okay, when we come back, let's talk about something that was a little pricey. Let's go back into the twenty dollars or less category and talk about a hammerless tool that I think every single homeowner should own.

you can find them at. You go to the KFI website, our little corner of the KFI website, the Dean Sharp page, and you will find the gift guide downloadable there and on that version the links are actually live and interactive, so you can just click on the link and get to the source of where we sourced these. You can find them many many places, but if you want a little help sourcing them directly, you can do it that either way. Just follow along with me as we go

through bits and pieces. I'd probably not could get to everything today, but I'm trying to cover as many as i can. All Right, here's a great little you call it a gift stocking stuffer, however it falls with you in this category. The name of this is literally the company is Hammerless Tool. Okay, and I've talked about these before. These are brilliant. These are you know, for lack of

a better term, nail sets or taps. Okay, a nail set is usually just a long piece of steel that you put against something the head of a nail, to set it down below the surface of the wood or whatever is you're nailing it into. You hit it with a hammer, and for a lot of people that can be a tricky kind of a thing. And when these came out at first, I was like, hmm, I wonder

how that well this works? And man, they're brilliant. It's a double ended nail set, one side very very small, the other a little bit larger for larger nails, and in between the two is an industrial strength spring that what you do. All you do is you put the head of this thing on the nail in question, pull

back the spring and let it go. And that little impact that the spring collapsing again creates is amazingly nine times out of ten plenty enough to beautifully set a nail without have to tap it or hit it with a hammer. They are so convenient that whenever I'm doing finished work, I always have one of these in my bags right on hand, because I'd rather use this than pull the hammer out and have you know, both hands tied up. It just there's just no reason to pull

the hammer out when you've got this little guy. I've got professional painters who use these constantly. I think Mario actually is the one who introduced me to it. He was using it one day. I'm like, Mario, what the heck is that? And then we had this long conversation about it, and he said he wouldn't do a job

without it. So, whether you're prepping something for paint or just some general finish work, these are brilliant eighteen dollars for this hammerless tool, big spring in between two nail sets. And you know what I love using these four is popping door hinges hinge pins out without getting here's where you know, And I'm okay, I've been doing this a long time. I have no issues worrying about getting a hammer out and using a nail set with a hammer. I've done it my entire life. I'm not worried about

my hand or materials. But when it comes to popping hingepins out to take a door on and off, I'm always concerned about the hammer there because it's so dang close to the edge of the trim and the casing and the door that it could scrape if you get it even slightly misaligned. And so to use one of these spring hammerless tools and not have to get a hammer anywhere near your door or your doorcasing. Yeah, that's that's the way to go. Eighteen bucks for this hammerless tool.

Sticking with the carpentry thing, this is a jump up in price. This is now an eighty nine or ninety dollars tool. But if you got somebody who's serious about doing finished carpentry work and the temptation is to, you know, get a get a circular saw out and make a beautiful clean cut, straight as an arrow across a large board or piece of plywood, something like that, then the way to do that is with what we call a

track saw. A track saw is a saw that is embedded in basically a rail that it cannot do anything but make a perfectly straight cut. Okay, so here's the thing. Track saws are amazing, They are fantastic. They do exactly what they promise to do. They also start at about five hundred dollars for a good track saw, a rail integrated tracksaw. That's not the one that I'm recommending for you. Okay, what I'm recommending for you as a gift to your loved one is not the saw, but a track that

is specifically designed. I think it's Craig Craig. I think this is a Craig track. It's specifically designed to mount the circular saw that you've already got, that they already own. It literally will mount just about any circular saw to this track, and then it converts your standard handheld freehand circular saw into a straight edge cutting machine. And what

does that cost? That cost eighty nine dollars? Okay, so yeah, that's not an inexpensive gift, but it's also not five hundred dollars, which is where real track saws that are a fully integrated start, because you're also paying for a second saw. And for the classic di wire who's not using a track saw every day as their profession, there's no need for them to spend five six, seven hundred dollars on a track saw that gets picked up maybe

once a year, if that right. But the track, the track itself that they can mount their regular saw to that is worth its weight in gold. So I think it's by Craig. You can find it again on the gift guide eighty nine dollars and it's a total winner, all right. The next thing we have to talk about is some accessories for a saw that your loved one

may already possess, and that is a table saw. If you've got somebody who likes working with wood and they own a table saw, okay, big old tablesaw, or even a portable tablesaw, here's what we need to know about a table saw. Table saws are statistically by far the most dangerous carpentry tool on planet Earth. They are strong, they are powerful. They have an open blade without a

cover that is spinning right at you. And the trick of a table saw is that you're using it to put a piece of wood and ride it along a rail and get a straight cut. And most people who use table saws get their hands way too close to that blade. Now there are saws out there should probably be a law to not manufacture a saw other than this.

A sau stop makes a beautiful table saw with an electric circuitry sensor that if it comes into contact with anything that is related to the human body whatsoever, within a micro second, it stops and retracts the blade so that the most that will happen is the tiniest of nicks in the skin. What a brilliant idea. But these are expensive table saws. I mean they're pricey, pricey table sauce. I've had them on the gift before for that super

high end purchase. But this year, what I want you to focus on is a set of accessories for a table saw that promote safety, safety, safety, safety, including and not at the expense of brilliantly easy cuts. And to do that, we need to talk about what's called a featherboard and a pushblock. Okay, these are things that hold the wood in place so that you don't have to get your hands too close to the blade or your loved one. And we'll talk about that right on the other side.

ideas for them for this holiday season. So right before the break, I started this item on the gift Guide, very very important item for those who you know own a table saw. Now, table saws come in all shapes and sizes. These days, there are a little portable ones. That's the kind actually that I own. Why I have kind of a modified version. I have a good sized portable table saw in its own stand. There are little portable table saws you can just throw in the back

of a pickup truck. A lot of people though, because they never are going to take their table saws elsewhere to job sites and things like that. I'll have a full stationary shop saw at home, a larger, heavier cast iron steel table kind of table saw. Anyway, regardless of the saw that you're probably looking at a good ten

inch rotating circular saw blade, a high torque motor. The most dangerous tool, I mean invaluable tool, but the most dangerous tools statistically in any carpenter's arsenal, because in order to get those really straight cuts and keep that wood under control and make that beautiful rip cut, the temptation is to get your hands way too close to the blade. Oh, I don't even want to talk about it. It can happen to the best of us. Okay, it can happen to the best of us, and we just don't want

it to happen. So how do we avoid this? Now, every table saw worth its salt came with a pushbar, okay, a push stick that is probably made out of plastic against probably eighteen twenty four inches long. And that helps, okay, because it allows you to get back and push the wood through from a distance, but not a lot of control. And that's the problem. That's why people are tempted to

cheat because a push stick, the leverage is weird. It doesn't necessarily keep the board pushed up against the rail, it doesn't necessarily keep it from wandering off the blade. So push sticks are I mean, it's better than getting your fingers close to the blade. But as far as the quality of the cut, that's what is inviting us and tempting you to get your hands too close to

the blade. So in order to do that well, and in order to save a major surgery for the one that you love, then how about get them this for Christmas? This year get them a really good feather block, a feather board, and a pushblock. Featherboard and pushblock. Now a featherboard is is They come in all shapes and sizes, but they are some form of board that mounts in the rail groove on a table saw. There's a couple of grooves in the table itself. That's what we call

the miter groove. They mount there, They mount securely, and then they spin over a push against the wood with this. You know, they're called feather boards because they usually have small plastic or metal tabs that come out in a series and they're headed in one particular direction. They allow you to push the wood through in one direction, but they will lock it up if it wants to try and back out or kick back out. And they also help cushion and push the board against the rail so

that it makes a really smooth straight cut. They're critically brilliant tools and or I should say tool accessories. The one that I like the most these days, and like I said, they come in all shapes and size is I really like this featherboard that is on the gift guide because it's shaped kind of like a nautilus shell.

It's got a helical curve shape, and that means that it's very super easy to put it in the rail, lock it down, and spin it against the wood at any distance at all and it gets a lot of good contact. They're super super lightweight, super useful, and to accompany it. If the rail itself and that's the thing that you move left and right to hold the wood against. If the rail itself has a groove in it, then you can also buy a micro feather board to mount on the rail to hold the wood down to the

table at the same time. But barring that, you should also have a really good push block, not a stick, but a block that sits on top of the wood with a big handle. Your hand is totally clear and safe. Even if the wood collapse. Your hand is not getting near the blade. But this pushblock allows you to move the wood along, push it against the rail, move it over the blade even without any risk to you. And these are critical elements. Now together they're going to set

you back about fifty bucks. And believe me, fifty as opposed to a fifty thousand dollars reattach a digit surgery is well worth it. And you know nothing says I love you more than a piece of safety equipment for your favorite woodworker or di wire that doesn't get in their way. Not only does it make them more safe, but it actually makes the cuts better. And you know,

I could well here, I'll tell you this much. Safety is always a tricky wicket when it comes to construction because they're you know, I think of it in terms of athlete. You know what I'm gonna do, you know what, No, never mind, I'm gonna save this for the other side of the break, because I want to take a couple of minutes to talk to you about the balance between safety and effectiveness when it comes to doing construction projects,

because safety gear is really really important. Too much safety gear can actually get in your way and ironically or you know, counterintuitively make the job more difficult and even more dangerous. And so it's important to find the right bounce. We'll talk about it on the other side of the break. And also it's top of the hour, so we're going to go to the phones eight three three two Ask Dean eighty eight three three the numeral to ask Dean your home 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