If you're the kind of tool user who demands versatility but doesn't want to lug around a lot of weight, this Makita combo package might just warrant a smile. Makita's lightweight 9.6-volt cordless drill/driver was one of the first cordless drills on the market, and it has been the classic cordless tool for a generation of carpenters. The latest manifestation of this old favorite features an upgraded NiMH battery that rates 2.2 amp hrs. The battery removes and replaces easily, but, thanks to the snap-tight closure system on the bottom of the handle, it's less likely than ever to fall out accidentally. The circular saw makes a great portable cutter for tile, random trim work, and one-by stock. While this is the wrong saw for two-by material, it holds up admirably for light applications. The accompanying flashlight adjusts to several angles and provides a bright beam for finishing up your day. --Justin Paul ... Read more

Features

• 122 in./lbs. of torque
• Compact, lightweight saw
• Saw bevels up to 45 degrees
• Kit box included
• One-year limited warranty

Asin: B0000302SH
Subjects:  1. (Maketa)    2. Combo Packs    3. Makita    4. (Mikita)    5. (V)    6. (Volt)    7. Cordless Tools   

Black & Decker VP750VersaPak 3.6-Volt PivotDriver Cordless Two-Position Screwdriver
by Black & Decker
Average Customer Review:
Tools & Hardware
list price: $39.99 -- our price: $29.99
(price subject to change: see help)
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Editorial Review

The Black & Decker PivotDriver two-position screwdriver is great either in the workshop or to have around home for projects that require quite a bit of screwdriving. This tool is super easy to use and locks in two positions--in-line or pistol-grip--for installing cabinet hardware or tightening screws, say, under a counter or in any other hard-to-reach place where you'd bang your knuckles with an ordinary screwdriver. Toggling between forward and reverse is easy with the rocker switch, while the automatic spindle lock allows you to manually start screws or finish them without stripping or overtightening. The narrow nosepiece also gives you added reach when installing hardware in tight spots.

The PivotDriver runs off the VersaPak battery system, which is interchangeable with all Black & Decker VersaPak products. The battery is easy to remove--just press the button near the bottom of the screwdriver. The 1.2 amp, 3.6-volt battery produces enough torque and run time for any basic household project. --Dori Anvinson ... Read more

Features

• Two-year home use warranty
• Handle locks in two positions: inline grip and pistol grip
• Rocker switch with forward and reverse
• Automatic spindle lock for greater control when starting and finishing screws
• Interchangeable battery system, works with all VersaPak products

Reviews (21)

A LIFESAVER!
You'll find a million uses for this cordless screwdriver which will save you hours of frustration putting up miniblinds (which is what I bought it for!), assembling furniture or just making repairs. Its low price for the amount of use it will get just makes it all the more valuable. This is a must-have for every house, car and boat. Also makes a great gift! This little gadget saved my sanity when I moved into my new home and had tons of curtain rods and blinds to install, as well as assembling my waterbed. Highly recommend!

A skeptic no more
At first I was reluctant to purchase a cordless screwdriver; I already owned a perfectly fine cordless drill which had served admirably as a driver for many years.When I finally broke down and bought the Black & Decker PivotDriver (for reasons I cannot explain), I was quite pleasantly surprised by how beautifully it worked, and by how much better suited it was to driving screws than my drill ever was.It quickly became one of my favorite tools.

I am unlikely to ever again use my cordless drill as a driver, and here is why: First, the PivotDriver is much lighter and smaller, making it effortless to hold and maneuver.Second, its handle can be locked into two different positions, unlike most drills, which have a fixed pistol-grip configuration.It's great being able to switch between the two positions instantly, as one or the other is frequently more comfortable or offers greater maneuverability. Third, the spindle automatically locks when the button is released, turning it into a conventional screw driver.This is useful for really tough screws, or those that require a gentle touch.Finally, both forward and reverse are conveniently located on the "trigger", which makes a lot of sense for a screw driver (but not for a drill).

I am also impressed by the amount of torque delivered by this small device.It can handle some really difficult screws.I recently installed about a dozen metal braces in my house (part of seismic retrofitting), each one requiring between 8 and 20 screws in some rather hard and difficult-to-reach wood.The PivotDriver made it almost trivial.Go ahead, ask me if I'm a fan of cordless screw drivers.

The PivotDriver uses a "VersaPak" 3.6 Volt rechargeable battery; the driver comes with a charger and one such battery.The battery that is included is silver, but you should know that it also comes in a gold version.The gold batteries are *much* better than the silver ones; they hold a charge longer and pack a little extra punch.(Love that torque!)These batteries (both silver and gold) can also be used in numerous other cordless tools offered by both Black & Decker and Sears (aka Craftsman).They are very light-weight and easy to pop in and out.They take up to six hours to charge, however.

At the risk of sounding sexist, allow me to offer some advice to the ladies.If you're looking for a great practical gift for hubby, look no further.It's true; for some mysterious reason guys really do love cordless screw drivers, and this one is a beaut.To really impress him, after he's opened it and thanked you profusely, casually say "I almost got you the ______ version, but I thought you would appreciate having at least 25 foot-pounds of torque."He'll see you in a whole new light.(You can fill in the blankwith any other brand name.)

Few things these days seem to be truly well designed, durable, and inexpensive.This little gem is all three.Enjoy.

Great electric screwdriver
The key to buying Black and Decker products (including this product and the dustbuster), is to make sure that your product uses the versa packs batteries.Versa Pack batteries make it easy to replace the batteries when they die.

This is a great screwdriver and has versa pack.What more need I say? ... Read more

Asin: B0000302VI
Subjects:  1. Black & Decker    2. (Black and Decker)    3. Cordless Tools    4. (Volt)    5. (V)    6. In-Line Screwdrivers   

Vise-Grip 428GS4-piece Locking Pliers Tool Set
by IRWIN
Average Customer Review:
Tools & Hardware
list price: $49.99 -- our price: $47.49
(price subject to change: see help)
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Features

• Full lifetime warranty
• Made of high grade alloy steels
• Adjusting screw gives exacting pressure
• Guarded release helps keep work fast and safe
• Irwin tool kit bag

Reviews (1)

good tool
a good tool no workshop should be without it free's up your hands good tool. ... Read more

Asin: B00004SBCH
Sales Rank: 17276
Subjects:  1. Hand Tools    2. Pliers    3. Locking-Jaw Pliers   

Olympia Industrial 50-930 10-Piece Industrial File Set
by Olympia Industrial
Average Customer Review:
Tools & Hardware

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Reviews (2)

Disgruntled in New York
The files themselves in this set are perfectly fine and probablyservicable for light household or handyman use.The handles, however, area complete and utter joke.They can't be firmly attached to the files, andcouldn't possibly be used to hold the files for any kind of work. Fisher-Price has more useful tools.

good versatility
this set is very versatile. i also liked the variety of of the files that came with it. ... Read more

Asin: B00002N7Y3
Sales Rank: 16528
Subjects:  1. Hand Tools   

Coleman Cable 01687 25' 300 Volt, 12/3 Gauge Heavy Duty Polar Solar Extension Cord
by Coleman Cable
Average Customer Review:
Tools & Hardware
list price: $20.00 -- our price: $16.99
(price subject to change: see help)
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Features

• 15 amp
• 300 volt HD polar solar cord
• 25 feet
• 12/3 gauge
• 125 v rating

Reviews (3)

Holds up to outdoor use in Winter
I use these cables (100' and 25')for outdoor work: pressure washer, electric saws, and electric snow blower.They are tough and stay flexible in cold weather.What more could you ask?

Great Heavy Duty Cord
This cord is a must for heavy duty, high amp, power tool users. I bought this cord to go with my new PorterCable 15 amp saw because of its #12 gauge size. I wanted a cord that would ensure a proper power supply and low voltage drop to protect my tools from burnout. It certainly is handy and rugged to boot. The bright yellow exterior stands up to rough use and is easy to see on jobsites. I like the lighted plug end; it lets you know when the wire is hot and can be seen in the dark. Thanks, Amazon !

necessary item
Light weight , but rated well enough to do the job for most power tools. a must in your shop. An improvement would be a multi outlet end so that more than one tool might be plugged in at the same time ... Read more

Asin: B0000225BO
Sales Rank: 1251
Subjects:  1. Electrical    2. Extension Cords    3. (Extention Chords)    4. Power Supplies   

The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair: 2000 Color How-To Photos (Black & Decker Home Improvement Library)
by Creative Publishing International
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 August, 1999)
list price: $34.95
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Editorial Review

Got a problem with grout? Open The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair (to page 98) and watch your tiling worries dissolve before the simple beauty of photography. Black & Decker has anticipated your every question and problem with interior, exterior, and home systems repairs, and detailed the solutions in just over 500 pages. In no other human endeavor is a visual guide so important as home repair (well, maybe brain surgery), so this is a crucial aid to the handyperson. Easy-to-find sections on floors, insulation, roofing, chimneys, water heaters, wall switches, air conditioning, and much more are well-designed, brilliantly illustrated, and carefully outlined with step-by-step instructions from masters. The photos in particular are extremely valuable, offering many different views (sometimes even exploded) of the operation in question, and always showing just enough to communicate without overwhelming the reader with too much detail. These alone would be worth the price of the book, but the written explanations and instructions are also very helpful, offering tools, materials lists, and hints that wouldn't occur to the amateur. The book finishes with a maintenance schedule to help you keep repairs from becoming serious, and the end papers have conversion charts and tables that you'll use time and again. If you can't have Norm the master carpenter over to help you fix your old house, The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair is the next best thing. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (31)

overall introduction~ with alot of pictures... kept simple.
hi I just got this book after seeing the reviews making it look super important to my beginning home repair knowledge. Its ok, all pictures which are great to explore, very thick and theres so much covered in this, but I am a woman who knows nothing about home repair stuff and this only gives me a taste of what I need to know. Like I said the pictures are great, an example is I need a new roof and I cant pay anyone to put it on and have any money left to do the one thosand things left I need done on this house. I bought a 250 year old house this summer in need of pretty much everything! I mean everything! so manye if your house is in need of much less then mine this is the one for you to keep things going around home. My guess its its good for that kind of thing. Maybe even a woman on her own who only needs a basic understanding of how a house works. Theres your heating systems and pretty much all the inner workings of a house here and its all explained so that even I got it with those neat pictures. But in order to actually DO the roof ( I will have help but I must totally grasp the complete understanding myself to assist in the repair of it) I wil have to get a book with much more information on newer roof supplies and diff types of issues I will be facing.. Its just too basic to begin something like roof work.. without further reading.
The painting section is pretty good, I liked all the discriptions of brushes and paints and tecniques and things pretty detailed I thought except I already read in depth elsewhere and KNOW now theres far more to painting a wall then what this book told me. see now I know I can use all sorts of interesting paints like milk paints and glazes and male totally cool designer walls when if i only read this book about painting my walls Id end up with plain colored walls like everyone else. just basic..I thought this book made home repair seem interesting. easy to grasp. thats a good point. Information I am told, Is power so three stars is how I felt. I thibk a person would use this at some point or refer to it for sure. or loan it out maybe even alot. I could say this might be a good basic book to BUILD your home repair libary with. And maybe even if youre home is new this might be the only repair book you need. The sections are just all too short for me to totally understand all my options on my house. I am redoing the bathroom and I need as an example a total understanding of ALL my options. who really wants just a plain bathroom? theres all that tile I can lay in tons of patterns and designs and such I can add a homemade sauna and use a home built glass shower with glass cubesor whatever and this book only touches on how to fix my plumbing not what to do should I try to understand relocating the whole bath in the other side of the house and installing a antique bath tub and trying to figure out if the 250 floor needs rebuilding or not to hold it etc. It did help me understand how my house stands up and what beam to look out for but I will need tons more books in each subject before I even outline and start on anything. I would tho buy this as a gift for a housewarming for someone maybe getting thier first house. good choice for that.

Did my first repair thanks to this book!
I'm reading the other reviews here, so I thought I'd weigh in, hoping it will help the prospective buyer.This book is about as good as it gets for do-it-yourself home repair.Lots of home repairs are far easier than you think, and just take time and maybe some new tools.Even with the cost of new tools, it will often be cheaper than calling a professional.Yes--there are really complicated repairs I would leave to a professional, but this book helps with the simple things that you just need basic instruction on.

Case in point--my toilet was leaking from the base.I have never installed a toilet or taken one apart.I had no clue why it was leaking.I turned to the leaky toilet page and saw that there is something called the "closet" where the toilet connects to the floor and there is a wax seal that may have leaked.A plumber could cost $50-$100 just to come out and look at the toilet.Maybe more for his labor.

I went to Home Depot and bought a new wax seal for $3.50, and a mini-shop vac for $40 (new tool--yay!).Turned off the water valve, flushed the toilet, used the shop-vac to suck out the residual water, disconnected the water line, removed the 2 bolts connecting the tank to the bowl and removed the tank, removed the 2 bolts connecting the bowl to the floor and removed the bowl.Scrape off the old wax, put on the new wax, bolt bowl to floor, bolt tank to bowl, reconnect water.Yes--I may have figured this out on my own, but one is always hesitant to go in to a job not knowing what to expect.This book holds your hand a bit and has great photos.Now, if I had removed the toilet and found the closet flange overly corroded, I may have called a plumber.But I fixed the whole thing for $43.50, an hour of time, and I got a new shop-vac!

If you don't know a screwdriver from a hammer, then no book in the world, including this one, will help you.But if you have basic tool knowledge and a bit of courage, this book is the perfect and only companion you need.And when all else fails, you can always call a professional to fix it up.Armed with lingo from this book, you will be able to describe the problem better and perhaps avoid being ripped off as well.

CLEAR AND SIMPLE!HIGHLY RECOMMEND,,,
An excellent "do it yourself" "PICTURE" book which is quite fitting for the home improvment newbie. Everything from "A" to "Z" is practically covered. Also receommended are the Black and Decker specific projects books, i.e. wiring, plumbing, baths, carpentry, etc... ... Read more

Isbn: 0865737533
Subjects:  1. Amateurs' manuals    2. Dwellings    3. Home Improvement / Construction    4. Maintenance and repair    5. Personal & Practical Guides    6. Reference    7. Repair   

Virgin Homeowner, The : The Essential Guide to Owning, Maintaining, and Surviving Your Home
by Penguin (Non-Classics)
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 March, 1999)
list price: $16.00 -- our price: $10.88
(price subject to change: see help)
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Editorial Review

Janice Papolos describes her own first-home experience this way: "Part of the problem was that I had a mystified awe of the house. I swear there were times when I viewed it as more intelligent and powerful than we were....There was a time or two in which I felt the house was being downright vindictive."

Ranked as "Most Useful to Homeowners" by The Wall Street Journal, Papolos's humorous and helpful book is the definitive guide for the first-time homeowner. Few experiences in life are more intimidating and complicated than one's first home purchase, especially when the new homeowner is perhaps a bit inexperienced with home repair and maintenance, as many (if not most) are.Starting with the basics of what you need to know to make sense of the initial, prepurchase home inspection, Papolos heads right into the "Inner Mysteries"--the plumbing and electrical systems--then on to heating and cooling, septic systems, insects and other pests, security concerns and measures, proper ventilation, child-proofing, and much, much more, topping it all off with an annual calendar of seasonal maintenance, advice on paint colors, and a thorough index for easy reference.

The goal is to remove the intimidation for the homeowner, and at the very least, permit him or her to talk knowledgeably with home-repair professionals, as necessary, without coming across like an idiot. This is a great reference book for any new homeowner, and probably would open the eyes of many longtime homeowners, as well. --Mark A. Hetts ... Read more

Reviews (26)

Is this a novel?
This book contains very few pictures. Basically it's for novel-lovers, not for handy-man. I noticed most good ratings for this book are from women ...

Buy this before you buy your home.
For the non-mechanically inclined girly-girl who has always lived in an apartment - this one's for you. A fast read will give you the knowledge to prepare yourself for the unknown which could have been known. It will keep you from looking like a complete nut in front of the house-savvy. It will help you feel confident when there's an emergency. It doesn't tell you how to FIX the toilet, but you can know where the water shut off valve is. If you didn't know that houses have water shut off valves (um, I didn't), then you really should buy the book.

Not very helpful at all
My husband and I recently bought our first home, so I ordered this book in the hopes that it would give us helpful details on how to maintain it, make minor repairs, and accurately troubleshoot.I am very, very, VERY disappointed in the book.While it gives decent descriptions of the various aspects of your home, such as heating and cooling systems, it does no more than that.I thought I was getting something more in-depth than just descriptions.For instance, how do I MAINTAIN my air conditioner properly?I've heard that you should hose down the outside unit every so often, for example - yet there's nothing about that in the book.I don't feel any more educated about my home and how to keep it safe and well-maintained than before I got this book.This was almost a complete waste of money and I don't recommend it. ... Read more

Isbn: 0140274766
Subjects:  1. Buying and selling    2. Cleaning & Caretaking - General    3. Do-It-Yourself    4. General    5. Home Improvement / Construction    6. Home ownership    7. House & Home    8. Houses    9. Maintenance and repair    10. Repair    11. House & Home / General   

Home Improvement for Dummies
by For Dummies
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (23 March, 1998)
list price: $19.99 -- our price: $13.99
(price subject to change: see help)
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Editorial Review

This is a great general fix-it book for the do-it-yourselfer. The authors have packed a lot of helpful information into this comprehensive guide to home improvements, from winterizing windows to unclogging stopped drains, painting, repairing furniture, installing flooring, weather-stripping doors and windows, making basic plumbing and electrical repairs and improvements, and completing indoor and outdoor projects. Like all the books in the Dummies series, special icons highlight "Great Gadgets," tools and specialty devices to make projects go faster; "Safety First," with tips on potential dangers and how to avoid them; and "Remember," indicating special points to remember during projects. Well organized and indexed for easy reference, the book is filled with hundreds of helpful diagrams and illustrations. This is a great gift book for the new homeowner or anyone off to a new house or apartment for the first time. Even if you have no tools and little experience, you'll find which tools you must have for any project. By simply following the straightforward instructions, this book will have you looking like a pro in no time. --Mark A. Hetts ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Home Improvement for Dummies
My recommendation would be to not buy this book. Unless you mostly want to read about how to hire a contractor. There are a few books out there much better for the weekend do it yourselfer then this.

A good primer
Having just entered into home-owning (versus apartment-dwelling) I'veembarked on a crash course in home improvement.So far, this book has beena good resource, especially in terms of =illustrating= what I'm supposed todo.I need the visual cues to understand how part A is supposed to fitinto part B and so on.This is one book I think I will be referring tooften. ... Read more

Isbn: 0764550055
Subjects:  1. Amateurs' manuals    2. Do-It-Yourself    3. Do-It-Yourself - General    4. Dwellings    5. Home Improvement / Construction    6. Home Maintenance And Repair    7. House & Home    8. Interior decoration    9. Maintenance and repair    10. Remodeling    11. Remodeling & Renovation - General    12. Repair    13. Home furnishing & decoration    14. House & Home / General    15. House maintenance