The trick is that you need the oil hot before you put the eggs in, and you need a decent metal spatula to remove the egg. Eggs in aluminum pans are the worst. In the iron skillet they are wonderfully pretty.

Because a Mac is not a computer, it’s an appliance. If you don’t want to buy in fully to their ecosystem you’re always going to be inconvenienced. A PC, however, doesn’t care how you use it, and you get a lot more power for a lot less money.

Plus Apple is probably the most unethical company in the world: slave labor,…

You need to install a screen to catch the debris before it gets in your barrel. Just like your water heater, you need to flush it out every now and then. As for the pressure, there are different types of pumps you can purchase. Some you have to plug into an outlet while others have a solar powered battery.

Spend less than a hundred bucks or so and get a utility pump.

This was great to read on SEVERAL fronts.

I know right! But another time. Wavelets FTW!

Well, might as well get the big one out of the way first....

Ebay is actually a pretty good place for tools in general - a lot of people buy tools, use them a few times, then don’t need them anymore and sell them. Just make sure to check prices against stores like Amazon and remember to take into account shipping.

I used to work for a staffing agency. Good people, good company, but I was too far from IT - just not my cup of tea. Anyway, most of their clients did not want their names used in advertisements. These were all Fortune 500 companies with gold plated credit ratings.

That’s awesome! I was recently unemployed, and my dad and I built a Paraguayan harp. I’d never used a bandsaw before that, but I got a lot of practice. My dad calls me Bandsaw Annie, now.

Estate Sales can be great for finding old tools for cheap prices. You can usually find them online (http://www.estatesales.net/) and pick out the sales that look to have the tools you’re interested in. You’ll have to put in the work (usually) to clean them up and calibrate them correctly, but vintage hand tools are…

That is the way my dad is. Now he doesn’t have much in terms of old hand tools. Mostly newer power tools. This is the first time he has ever had a full on shop and not just a corner of the garage.

It’s a bit more work, but you can do simple dados and rabbits with just a circular saw, a chisel (and a mallet), and clamps to hold guides in place.

I would recommend seeing if someone you know has a woodshop. For me, it’s my dad. He’s built up quite a collection of tools over the years.

Woodworking with hand tool is one of the areas of life where sweat equity pays off rather well. Finding and restoring old hand tools has become a hobby of mine as of late and every time I’m amazed at how you can turn a rusted out Stanley hand plane into a well working tool that’ll last. Lumber Jocks has a good rundown…

If you have any old man relatives, ask them. My favorite hand tools came from raiding my Grandpa’s basement. Other than that, garage sales.

Get them used. Garage sales, Kijiji and the like are very helpful. Power tools are easier to get that way but you can find hand tools as well and the price is often very good because they just want rid of them. It’s not like electronics where things go obsolete. The hand tools you need have existed for well over a…

Antique stores. They will often have chisels, planes, and saws. Sometimes for ridiculously high prices, sometimes not.

Scour yard sales, Craigslist, eBay. If you are going on a tight budget, be flexible with what you want and patient with how soon you get it. Over time you’ll put together a nice group of tools and will have saved a lot of cash as opposed to buying new all at once. Plus, there is something nice about used hand planes…

I hate this so, so much. I’m not an engineer, but do technical type work (metrology). Around here, all of the technical type jobs are advertised through head hunters/staffing agencies. 1) I don’t want to work for a staffing agency, I want to work for the company I’m doing the work for. There is no way to tell which is…