BAILEY LINE LIFE EP.9: New Jigsaw, New Nailer & Burning Steel Wool

In this week’s video episode . . .

• see why fine steel wool is a definite fire hazard in your shop and home
• watch a late-model 16 gauge cordless finishing nailer in action
• see a really great little cordless jigsaw that I’ve been testing

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Robert: 00:00 The bright yellow and black of a DeWalt sponsored Christmas in late January.

Steve: 00:06 Well, yes, we got another couple of DeWalt tools to look at here. These are new tools, but they’re kind of evolutionary tools in a way. One of the advantages of having looked at tools for so many years is that I can remember when previous versions of things have come out. This is not the first time DeWalt has had a 16 gauge hose-less nailer. Back about 15 years ago they came out with one. I tried it then. I actually have the press release from that tool and I was comparing the two. This certainly looks a lot snazzier and it’s an improvement, too. Let’s take a look and see how it works.

Robert: 00:53 What kind of battery does it take?

Steve: 00:55 Well, that’s the interesting thing. This particular kit, this is the DCM662D1 so it comes with the tool, charger, and a fairly small battery. It’s 16 gauge. The thing is, the DeWalt line now, a tool like this can use a 20 volt battery. See, there’s one in here. See, state of charge. It’s about half charged or so. I mean, it can use something like this. But their 60 volt batteries also fit, too. I mean, this thing would work forever with a battery like that. The proof’s in the pudding. Let me get a piece of wood out and I’ll show you how this thing works. That’s what happens. That’s the motor spinning up and it’s going to shoot if I pull the trigger, but I don’t want to shoot it in my bench, so let me get a scrap piece of wood here.

Robert: 01:57 Well, this will be a true test. That’s solid cherry there.

Steve: 01:58 Yes, it is solid cherry. It’s hardwood, 16 gauge. You can use that for trim. There is such a thing as an 18 gauge nailer. The big difference is … The biggest difference isn’t in the fact that the 16 gauge is a larger diameter nail, but you can get them in two and a half inches long. Whereas the 18 gauge only top out at two inches long. It’s a bit more flexible, some more options here. But let’s just see how it works. That’s good clean performance. One thing I noticed right off here is they’ve got a very nice plastic tip, because this is for trim work and so this has to be gentle and rounded, otherwise you’re going to be marking up your trim when you use it. This comes off and on the back there’s some more spares as well. That’s handy. Another handy thing, we don’t often see this in nailers is that it’s very easy to see where the nail is shooting out from. I mean, that’s quite visible. There’s nothing there to obscure your vision of where that nail’s going to land and that’s a good thing. Let’s just see, you can actually see it quite clearly. Whoop, look at that.

Robert: 03:18 We’ve got an issue there.

Steve: 03:26 Well, it hit the other nail. That’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? This machine does single fire and bump fire as well.

Robert: 03:36 Are you going to demonstrate some bump fire for us?

Steve: 03:39 Yeah, I’ll demonstrate some bump fire. It’s on bump fire mode, which means that you can just hit it down and it’ll keep on nailing. Let’s see. These didn’t quite go all the way down. I can make a . . .

Robert: 03:58 Some depth adjustment may be needed.

Steve: 04:00 Yeah. Well, there is depth adjustment possible here on the side, too. I don’t have a lot of … Any hours to speak on this tool, so I don’t know how well it’s going to last, but certainly from a design point of view it seems quite serviceable. It’s got an easy way of clearing jams.

Robert: 04:25 The real question is, could you retract the collar and shoot nails into the air at bad guys like in those action movies?

Steve: 04:32 Yes, I think so. Should we do that?

Robert: 04:34 That’s cool. You could play the part of some contractor who’s avenging his lost family.

Steve: 04:42 This is like Clint Eastwood as contractor kind of person, right?

Robert: 05:03 Yeah. [crosstalk 00:05:04] “Get off my job site.” You actually did it. Yet another box to open.

Steve: 05:09 Afraid so. It’s another evolutionary tool. This is a [inaudible 00:05:13] cordless jigsaw and it too is related to a jigsaw that I tried out back in 2004, I think. Still got the press release from that. What impressed me about the former version is still a design feature here on this version and that’s that you can cut flush right up to an adjoining surface. Now, that takes a special blade. I don’t happen to have one right now but it’s sort of a triangular blade where the teeth come out flush with the front of the shoe and the shoe is open. The shoe is the farthest part of the tool, so nothing else is going to hit before the shoe. You can cut right up into corners with something like this, so that’s a nice feature. This is one of the smallest jigsaws that I’ve used in hand and it’s just compact. It’s light. I like it a lot actually. It’s got two kinds of variable speed.

Steve: 06:24 That’s the variable speed on the slowest setting on the dial and then you’ve got some pull with the trigger as well. If you wanted to cut some thick steel with a hacksaw blade, then that’s the speed you want to go at. You can go up to top speed, but then if you wanted to cut quickly in wood you crank up the overall speed dial. Now, you’ve still got variable speed control, but the speed range is different. Let’s see. This is a heavy-duty saw, so it doesn’t have any trouble cutting through some fairly … This is two inch cherry here. No problem.

Robert: 07:18 What do you have there?

Steve: 07:20 Well, I have some quadruple zero steel wool. This is great stuff for rubbing down final finishes. You may have some in your workshop. I just want to alert you to a danger that you might not realize. It could save your workshop or house from burning down sometime. But this stuff is really flammable. Who would’ve thought that steel could burn? But it certainly can. It’s not the oil burning off the steel, though that probably helps it to burn. It’s just the fact that the filaments are so very thin. Let me just show you what I mean. When it gets burning, it’s really hot. I’m not even using a flame here. I’m just using this flint and steel. Let’s see what happens here. Look at how it just keeps on going and it’s super hot too. It’s actually fairly hard to stamp it out.

Robert: 08:16 It looks like CGI or something.

Steve: 08:18 Yeah. Well, it’s not. That’s the steel wool actually burning. I mean, I’m feeling a good amount of heat here off the top just with my hand. If this were ever to catch fire it can ignite a lot of other things. Look at how it’s burning inside now too. When the outside is burned it just kind of works on the inside.

Robert: 08:41 Just keeps going.

Robert: 08:42 Just keeps on going.

Robert: 08:43 I’m risking life and limb here. Quite pretty.

Steve: 08:54 It is beautiful, yeah. Fire’s a great thing as long as it’s contained. Thanks for joining me again this week. Be sure to subscribe, like, hit the notification’s bell, and then visit me on my website and sign up for my newsletter. It’s in the description box. Lots of great stuff coming out every Saturday morning.