December 1, 2024 • 32 mins
Dean recommends a solution to a caller with their issue of termites eating at their home.
Dean talks about inflatable options as gifts. Dean is concerned about using a regular hammer when using it – opts to use the electric hammer version instead. Dean enjoys a Craig track, to help mount any circular saw, which creates a perfect grip to cut up any material. Dean talks about a table saw, and how it's a very dangerous accessory. Plus, Dean continues to talk about saw tools and teases safety gear and how too much safety can become more dangerous.
Dean talks about inflatable options as gifts. Dean is concerned about using a regular hammer when using it – opts to use the electric hammer version instead. Dean enjoys a Craig track, to help mount any circular saw, which creates a perfect grip to cut up any material. Dean talks about a table saw, and how it's a very dangerous accessory. Plus, Dean continues to talk about saw tools and teases safety gear and how too much safety can become more dangerous.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Dean
Sharp the House Whisper with you live every Saturday and
Sunday morning. And you know what, You can also follow
us on social media. We only do the good kind
of social media, the uplifting, informative, inspiring kind. You can
(00:25):
find us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x and whatever else
is out there in social media world. Same handle for
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
(00:45):
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,
(01:07):
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.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Good morning, we're habbing some uninvited house guests for the holidays.
We found we found termites in our art workroom because
they're leaving droppings out of a little tiny hole in
the wall. So they've been chewing their way right through
the dry wall to the small little hole and leaving
(01:41):
a pile of droppings on top of a bookcase. So
we have three cats and we prefer a non tent
solution to this. So is there some premieer exterminator in
Orange County that offers some effective non tent treatment.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes, there is, Yes there is, and not currently a
sponsor of the show, although we're begging them to be.
But I will give you this recommendation. I think you
should call E Cola, Okay, e c O l A.
Or you can think of it as an Eco l A.
(02:20):
Just fantastic, fantastic pest control company, very caring, very individualized
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
(02:41):
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
(03:04):
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
(03:28):
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
(03:49):
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.
(04:12):
Tentting is not where you should go. You should just
go with a localized effective treatment.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Are these effective, these oils or heat or.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Whatever incredibly effective? Incredibly effective? I still am surprised that
not more people have, for instance, even if it was
a whole house problem. By the way, Greg, I still
want to hear from the folks that eat ecola that
that we can avoid the tinting, because even okay, so
(04:42):
as an alternative to tenting, I'm just gonna kind of
tout this one technology. Heat technology is superheating the house
up to I'm trying to remember what temperature it is.
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
(05:05):
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
(05:26):
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,
(05:49):
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,
(06:09):
my honest assessment, it's a fantastic company. Give them a shot.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It sounds good. Our big concern is I'm a photographer
and my wife is an artist, and so we're concerned
about any damage to photographs, artwork, pints, drawings, paintings, you know,
in that particular room.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, yeah, I get it. I get it. And the
gas process not a good thing. You just you never
know how it interacts with things. So again, the heat treatment,
just because I'm talking about it, I don't even know
if that's the right one for you, guys. But the
point is you want to deal with a pest control
company that has a an arsenal of options, a full
(06:52):
toolbox of options, not somebody who just says, well, we
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.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well, thank you for that reassurance, and we'll get a call,
we'll see what they have to say.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Awesome, and then give me a call back and let
me know how it goes. I appreciate the question and
the call. That's why we take calls, you know, because
everybody who's listening gets to you know, kind of the
what do they say, A rising tide lifts all boats.
Everybody's like, okay, that's how we should deal with it exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Thanks for joining us on the program on this gorgeous,
gorgeous Sunday morning, the first of December twenty twenty four
here in southern California. I hope it is lovely everywhere
or where you are specifically. I hope you've got as
much of a gorgeous day to enjoy, although I'm sure
(08:03):
the temperature might be a little different. We're in the
low seventies here today. Pretty impressive, very impressive. That's why
you live in southern California. That's what I'm saying. All Right,
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
(08:25):
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
(08:46):
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
(09:09):
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
(09:30):
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
(09:50):
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
(10:16):
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
(10:38):
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
(11:00):
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
(11:20):
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,
(11:42):
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.
(12:04):
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,
(12:25):
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
(12:49):
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
(13:09):
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
(13:31):
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.
(13:53):
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
(14:17):
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
(14:38):
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
(15:01):
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
(15:21):
should own.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Your Home Dean Sharp, the house Whisper, Thanks for joining
us on the program. We are right in the middle
of our twenty twenty four house Whisper Holiday Gift Guide.
You can follow along. If you go to Instagram or
Facebook Home with Dean, you will find the gift guide
right there waiting for you, with photos of everything that
(15:52):
I'm talking about and the places and the prices that
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
(16:14):
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
(16:37):
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
(16:59):
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
(17:21):
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
(17:42):
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
(18:05):
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
(18:27):
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.
(18:48):
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
(19:08):
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
(19:29):
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
(19:49):
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
(20:10):
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.
(20:32):
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
(20:52):
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
(21:15):
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
(21:39):
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
(22:01):
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
(22:27):
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
(22:48):
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
(23:09):
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
(23:32):
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
(23:54):
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
(24:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Welcome to the show, Welcome home, Thanks for being here,
Thanks for tolerating non professional talk radio. So glad that
you're here. We are going through our holiday gift guide today,
taking ourselves too seriously. But these are seriously good gifts.
They really really are for the maker, the doer, the crafter,
(25:11):
the hobbyist, the di wire in your life. You know
who I'm talking about, and these are some fantastic gift
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
(25:34):
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
(25:54):
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
(26:20):
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,
(26:43):
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
(27:04):
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.
(27:27):
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?
(27:49):
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
(28:09):
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
(28:32):
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
(28:55):
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
(29:17):
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
(29:39):
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
(30:02):
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
(30:26):
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
(30:51):
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
(31:13):
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
(31:34):
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
(31:57):
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
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Dean
Sharp the House Whisper with you live every Saturday and
Sunday morning. And you know what, You can also follow
us on social media. We only do the good kind
of social media, the uplifting, informative, inspiring kind. You can
(00:25):
find us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x and whatever else
is out there in social media world. Same handle for
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
(00:45):
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,
(01:07):
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.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Good morning, we're habbing some uninvited house guests for the holidays.
We found we found termites in our art workroom because
they're leaving droppings out of a little tiny hole in
the wall. So they've been chewing their way right through
the dry wall to the small little hole and leaving
(01:41):
a pile of droppings on top of a bookcase. So
we have three cats and we prefer a non tent
solution to this. So is there some premieer exterminator in
Orange County that offers some effective non tent treatment.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes, there is, Yes there is, and not currently a
sponsor of the show, although we're begging them to be.
But I will give you this recommendation. I think you
should call E Cola, Okay, e c O l A.
Or you can think of it as an Eco l A.
(02:20):
Just fantastic, fantastic pest control company, very caring, very individualized
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
(02:41):
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
(03:04):
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
(03:28):
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
(03:49):
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.
(04:12):
Tentting is not where you should go. You should just
go with a localized effective treatment.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Are these effective, these oils or heat or.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Whatever incredibly effective? Incredibly effective? I still am surprised that
not more people have, for instance, even if it was
a whole house problem. By the way, Greg, I still
want to hear from the folks that eat ecola that
that we can avoid the tinting, because even okay, so
(04:42):
as an alternative to tenting, I'm just gonna kind of
tout this one technology. Heat technology is superheating the house
up to I'm trying to remember what temperature it is.
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
(05:05):
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
(05:26):
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,
(05:49):
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,
(06:09):
my honest assessment, it's a fantastic company. Give them a shot.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It sounds good. Our big concern is I'm a photographer
and my wife is an artist, and so we're concerned
about any damage to photographs, artwork, pints, drawings, paintings, you know,
in that particular room.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, yeah, I get it. I get it. And the
gas process not a good thing. You just you never
know how it interacts with things. So again, the heat treatment,
just because I'm talking about it, I don't even know
if that's the right one for you, guys. But the
point is you want to deal with a pest control
company that has a an arsenal of options, a full
(06:52):
toolbox of options, not somebody who just says, well, we
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.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well, thank you for that reassurance, and we'll get a call,
we'll see what they have to say.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Awesome, and then give me a call back and let
me know how it goes. I appreciate the question and
the call. That's why we take calls, you know, because
everybody who's listening gets to you know, kind of the
what do they say, A rising tide lifts all boats.
Everybody's like, okay, that's how we should deal with it exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Thanks for joining us on the program on this gorgeous,
gorgeous Sunday morning, the first of December twenty twenty four
here in southern California. I hope it is lovely everywhere
or where you are specifically. I hope you've got as
much of a gorgeous day to enjoy, although I'm sure
(08:03):
the temperature might be a little different. We're in the
low seventies here today. Pretty impressive, very impressive. That's why
you live in southern California. That's what I'm saying. All Right,
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
(08:25):
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
(08:46):
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
(09:09):
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
(09:30):
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
(09:50):
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
(10:16):
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
(10:38):
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
(11:00):
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
(11:20):
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,
(11:42):
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.
(12:04):
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,
(12:25):
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
(12:49):
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
(13:09):
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
(13:31):
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.
(13:53):
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
(14:17):
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
(14:38):
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
(15:01):
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
(15:21):
should own.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Your Home Dean Sharp, the house Whisper, Thanks for joining
us on the program. We are right in the middle
of our twenty twenty four house Whisper Holiday Gift Guide.
You can follow along. If you go to Instagram or
Facebook Home with Dean, you will find the gift guide
right there waiting for you, with photos of everything that
(15:52):
I'm talking about and the places and the prices that
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
(16:14):
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
(16:37):
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
(16:59):
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
(17:21):
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
(17:42):
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
(18:05):
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
(18:27):
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.
(18:48):
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
(19:08):
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
(19:29):
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
(19:49):
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
(20:10):
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.
(20:32):
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
(20:52):
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
(21:15):
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
(21:39):
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
(22:01):
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
(22:27):
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
(22:48):
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
(23:09):
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
(23:32):
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
(23:54):
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
(24:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Welcome to the show, Welcome home, Thanks for being here,
Thanks for tolerating non professional talk radio. So glad that
you're here. We are going through our holiday gift guide today,
taking ourselves too seriously. But these are seriously good gifts.
They really really are for the maker, the doer, the crafter,
(25:11):
the hobbyist, the di wire in your life. You know
who I'm talking about, and these are some fantastic gift
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
(25:34):
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
(25:54):
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
(26:20):
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,
(26:43):
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
(27:04):
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.
(27:27):
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?
(27:49):
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
(28:09):
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
(28:32):
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
(28:55):
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
(29:17):
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
(29:39):
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
(30:02):
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
(30:26):
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
(30:51):
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
(31:13):
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
(31:34):
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
(31:57):
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
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