notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-08, Larry Blanchard wrote:

problem with a vendor, but I do check out their ratings and reviews first.
I've found Amazon's ratings to be unreliable.

There are some fake/purchased reviews, and some real ones. If you sift
through, you might be able to sort them out. Two years ago TurboTax
(Intuit) had a laughable number of fake reviews.
I'm trying to steer clear of them, just on principle.



This after shopping on
Amazon fer yrs. I even used to have Prime. No more.

I bought a banjo stand based on over 100+ reviews that gave the item a
five star rating. I ordered it, based soley on its Amazon rating and it's
basically a piece of junk. The reviews had to be bogus.

nb

On 1/8/2017 2:07 PM, notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-08, Larry Blanchard wrote:

problem with a vendor, but I do check out their ratings and reviews first.

I've found Amazon's ratings to be unreliable. This after shopping on
Amazon fer yrs. I even used to have Prime. No more.

I bought a banjo stand based on over 100+ reviews that gave the item a
five star rating. I ordered it, based soley on its Amazon rating and it's
basically a piece of junk. The reviews had to be bogus.

nb


I wonder if some people would know good from bad at times. I figure no
matter how good an item is, someone will always dislike it so one or two
bad ratings won't dissuade me. OTOH, if a third of the ratings are 1
star, I'll pass.

On 1/8/2017 1:21 PM, Bill wrote:
notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-08, Larry Blanchard wrote:

problem with a vendor, but I do check out their ratings and reviews
first.
I've found Amazon's ratings to be unreliable.

There are some fake/purchased reviews, and some real ones. If you sift
through, you might be able to sort them out. Two years ago TurboTax
(Intuit) had a laughable number of fake reviews.
I'm trying to steer clear of them, just on principle.



TurboTax for the past two seasons includes what it always did, Schedule
C etc.

The year before that they upgraded me for free. I think they learned
their lesson.

On 1/8/2017 1:27 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/8/2017 2:07 PM, notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-08, Larry Blanchard wrote:

problem with a vendor, but I do check out their ratings and reviews
first.

I've found Amazon's ratings to be unreliable. This after shopping on
Amazon fer yrs. I even used to have Prime. No more.

I bought a banjo stand based on over 100+ reviews that gave the item a
five star rating. I ordered it, based soley on its Amazon rating and
it's
basically a piece of junk. The reviews had to be bogus.

nb


I wonder if some people would know good from bad at times. I figure no
matter how good an item is, someone will always dislike it so one or two
bad ratings won't dissuade me. OTOH, if a third of the ratings are 1
star, I'll pass.


I do not put much faith in ratings that are from a customer that has had
the product for a couple of days.

On 1/8/2017 1:40 PM, Leon wrote:
On 1/8/2017 1:21 PM, Bill wrote:
notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-08, Larry Blanchard wrote:

problem with a vendor, but I do check out their ratings and reviews
first.
I've found Amazon's ratings to be unreliable.

There are some fake/purchased reviews, and some real ones. If you sift
through, you might be able to sort them out. Two years ago TurboTax
(Intuit) had a laughable number of fake reviews.
I'm trying to steer clear of them, just on principle.



TurboTax for the past two seasons includes what it always did, Schedule
C etc.

The year before that they upgraded me for free. I think they learned
their lesson.


Should have mentioned the paid Basic version again has the forms you
expected.

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in news:7vadnaEfj94o6O_FnZ2dnUU7-
:


Well actually taking clothes off makes you cooler but adding more
clothes restricts mobility. This is an assumption that you are working
outside all day in the extreme cold or heat. It's a b___h working out
side in the cold and not being able to move freely.


Decent clothes and gloves do not restrict mobility that much. Most
people like these big heavy coat-shaped objects, thinking more mass=more
heat. It ain't so. It just makes winter worse because of restricted
mobility.

When it's really cold (and it hasn't been THAT cold), you can add long
underwear which won't restrict mobility that much either. Snow pants
don't restrict movement all that much either. Yeah, you know you've got
them on but they let me move just as fast as I want.

If you've got a stocky build, finding a decent fitting coat is a problem.
They're always tight across the shoulders. Let alone finding a decent
coat that's not going to tear up your hands because of zippers on the
pockets or snaps that get in the way.

It's a HUGE task to find something built for moving in Winter! It took
forever to find a replacement for my winter coat, and it got so bad I was
asking people to check their closets before one crept up on eBay. (Btw,
fellows, I'm looking for XL sweatpants made by "Simply for Sports" sold
by JC Penny's. Check your closets, I'll make an offer! $15 shipped for
new, used depends on condition. Yeah, I'm watching eBay.)

Puckdropper
--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in news:c5qdncSWVZWYC-_FnZ2dnUU7-T-
:



I do not put much faith in ratings that are from a customer that has had
the product for a couple of days.


I've seen a few of these:
5 Stars
I bought this for my cousin, and he was very happy to receive it!

When I can be bothered, I click the "unhelpful" button.

Puckdropper
--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

On 1/8/2017 2:13 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in news:7vadnaEfj94o6O_FnZ2dnUU7-
:


Well actually taking clothes off makes you cooler but adding more
clothes restricts mobility. This is an assumption that you are working
outside all day in the extreme cold or heat. It's a b___h working out
side in the cold and not being able to move freely.


Decent clothes and gloves do not restrict mobility that much. Most
people like these big heavy coat-shaped objects, thinking more mass=more
heat. It ain't so. It just makes winter worse because of restricted
mobility.

When it's really cold (and it hasn't been THAT cold), you can add long
underwear which won't restrict mobility that much either. Snow pants
don't restrict movement all that much either. Yeah, you know you've got
them on but they let me move just as fast as I want.

If you've got a stocky build, finding a decent fitting coat is a problem.
They're always tight across the shoulders. Let alone finding a decent
coat that's not going to tear up your hands because of zippers on the
pockets or snaps that get in the way.

It's a HUGE task to find something built for moving in Winter!

Hummm seems like that is the point I was making... LOL

On 1/7/2017 8:24 AM, Leon wrote:
On 1/6/2017 5:47 PM, woodchucker wrote:
On 1/6/2017 4:13 PM, Jack wrote:
On 1/6/2017 2:28 PM, Leon wrote:
On 1/6/2017 10:56 AM, Tim Daneliuk wrote:
On 01/05/2017 03:54 PM, Leon wrote:
Sears cannot survive at this rate, thank you K-Mart.
[Snip]

Amazon has set the bar very high for very fast delivery, great
pricing, and painless returns ... all from your living room.

Amazon is very fast. Last Nov. I ordered a Nikon DSLR with two zoom lens for
a Black Friday sale price that was unbeatable. I ordered on line at 6:30AM Fri.
and at 10:20AM Sat. it was sitting on my door step. I live in San Antone and
found out from my sister, later on, that they have a distro center in San Marcos.
`

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 13:18:42 -0500, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On 1/7/17 3:43 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 6 Jan 2017 23:22:41 -0600, -MIKE-
wrote:

On 1/6/17 10:45 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 06 Jan 2017 19:34:58 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 6 Jan 2017 15:52:47 -0600, Leon
lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/6/2017 3:00 PM, Jack wrote:
On 1/6/2017 10:57 AM, John McCoy wrote:

I think Sears will go out of business shortly.

I agree with you. I don't think they have a clue how to
solve their problems - they're still trying to figure
out "how do we compete with Walmart", when the world has
moved on and the real competition is the likes of Dollar
General (and, of course, Amazon).

I recently mentioned I was looking to replace my Sony
earphones. Amazon doubled the price from $14 to $27, plus
shipping. I finally found them online at Walmart for $14
and free shipping. Walmart knows whats up, and if Amazon
isn't careful, it will be in the bag with Sears/Kmart.




Not everything purchased through Amazon is supplied or sold
by Amazon. There are thousands of retailers selling their
goods on Amazon and they ship direct from their stores, and
they have all different prices and many are not even in the
ball park of being competitively priced.
But being aligned with Amazon, the (sheeple) public are
convinced they are getting the deal of the century - just
because they bought it online from Amazon - - - - - - .

Sure. Sometimes paying the $13 is less painful than spending a
day finding the cheapest price.


Not only that, but many times you do indeed get the best price. If
you happen to be within a certain distance of a warehouse you can
get same day delivery. I had a friend who ordered a printer and had
it delivered to his door two hours later. He went on Amazon and
spent about 15 minutes finding the printer he needed at the best
price, hit a button and had it on his door step 2 hours later. He
could've spent two hours driving around town, from store to store,
wasting gas, wasting time, getting ****ed off in traffic, and
gotten the same printer, maybe at the same price. But no, he was
sitting at home, in his studio, making money, no gas, no driving,
no frustration, and the printer was at his front door in two
hours.

In a way Amazon is merging new school and old school. There was a
time when groceries and drug stores, and appliance stores delivered
things to your home and it was considered normal. Amazon is
bringing that back along with everything that is new in technology
and consumerism.
That only works if you are just down the road from an Amazon
warehouse. They'd need a cruise missile to get a printer to me in 2
hours. I can usually count on 3 days for a "fast" delivery if it is
coming from Canada - a week if it has to cross the border.


Correct, it's different for different areas.
Keep in mind, though, that the way Amazon is expanding, a year or two
from now you might have the same experience that we do.

Which suggests to me that Amazon is engaging in
exactly the kind of overexpansion that killed a
lot of brick-and-mortar stores. Their prices
have risen to a level where I don't use them
anymore unless I need something I can't get
locally.

Perhaps but I still find their prices good for most things. I was
just looking for a micro-SD card. They seem to be about 20% cheaper
than I can find them locally (same brands/models compared).

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 11:26:35 -0500, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On 1/5/2017 6:17 PM, wrote:
Sears today supposedly has value because of all the real estate it owns-occupies in malls across the country. Not because it has retail sales. The sales side started dying awhile ago. And likely will continue. K-Mart never upped its game to compete with Wal-Mart. So it is gone now. The Craftsman, Kenmore, Diehard brands are all good. But now days its easy to buy the same quality or better easily. No need to go to a Sears store.

And I do not know if the real estate value of Sears is good anymore either. I don't think malls are the gathering place they used to be. Several of the older malls in my half million people town have slowly withered. There is a NEW mall that is a happening place. But older malls, no. New, yes. Times have changed and Sears did not change with them.


What value? Liability for rent I can see but the era of the mall is over.

Going back some years we used to go to the mall a couple of times a
month to shop, maybe have lunch or at least a snack. I bet it has been
3 years since I set foot in a mall, but less than a week since I made a
purchase on line. Sales on line are up 17% last year according to NBC
news.

Amazon also lets me place orders in my underwear. Macy's frowns upon it.

How do they know? Hint--you can order online at
Macys, and the online store has some stuff (Big
& Tall sizes for example) that the brick and
mortar stores have to special order.
Sears Canada just recently got their S--t together on their website
too - electronic version of catalog shopping looks half decent. Take a
look at sears.ca

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 14:27:15 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 1/8/2017 2:07 PM, notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-08, Larry Blanchard wrote:

problem with a vendor, but I do check out their ratings and reviews first.

I've found Amazon's ratings to be unreliable. This after shopping on
Amazon fer yrs. I even used to have Prime. No more.

I bought a banjo stand based on over 100+ reviews that gave the item a
five star rating. I ordered it, based soley on its Amazon rating and it's
basically a piece of junk. The reviews had to be bogus.

nb


I wonder if some people would know good from bad at times. I figure no
matter how good an item is, someone will always dislike it so one or two
bad ratings won't dissuade me. OTOH, if a third of the ratings are 1
star, I'll pass.

I look at the text of the rating more than the rating itself. What
exactly ****ed the customer off? Often it's really a silly issue.

I ignore any ratings where there are only one or two people rating.

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 10:53:00 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/7/2017 7:25 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 7 Jan 2017 18:42:27 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/7/2017 6:26 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 7 Jan 2017 18:11:54 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/7/2017 5:55 PM, wrote:

There may be a fix. ;~)
When we moved into the home we had build 6 years ago we switched to
Uverse TV, phone and internet.
Service was so unreliable that many on our block dropped Uverse when it
went out for the 3rd time for 4 straight days. We dropped the TV and
eventually the phone. The Uverse DVR does not work like most DVR's,
when the service goes down you loose use of recordings in addition to
the internet and phone.

The Comcast DVR I had for the short time I was in an appartment was
the same.

Anyway I had a problem with our internet service through Uverse and the
repair guy come out to fix their problem. I mentioned that the TV often
stopped and he said it was the box on the outside of out house that was
the problem but they would not repair that. The box was only 5 years
old at the time. He did say that I could have the box replaced for free
if I simply upgraded my internet speed to above 24 gig IIRC. The faster
speeds required the latest versions of the "box". He indicated that I
could upgrade the speed for a month and change back to my previous
speed. He stressed that your contract dies not dictate the speed only
that you continue service. I was out of contract anyway but it was good
to know.

All of our hardware is new. They just installed the fiber a couple of
years ago and just allowed us to connect in '16. All of our hardware
has been replaced (some of it, twice) since then, too.



I did upgrade my speed to what they now call Fiber at 300 gig and the
box was replaced at no extra charge. Very fast and no more TV stopping
for a few seconds.
Unfortunately for us the internet being 20 times faster than our
previous speed is pretty much wasted unless checking my internet speed
on a speed test. If we download a TV show through DirecTV it takes a
long time still. You still have to wait a little while so that it
does not buffer. An On Demand movie might be faster.

Down loading large software updates or programs happens in a snap
however. And for a whole my up load was 300gig also they have throttled
that back to about 75. I don't see the difference between 300 and 75.
It is like trying to distinguish the difference between 1 second and a
quarter second.


Any way........ If you can get the newer box your hesitation may stop.

They've been in the house at least six times in the eight months, or
so, that we've had the service. Most of the problems didn't relate to
the Internet but everything was new and has been replaced at least
once.

Well Uverse was never great for us and one of the reasons we dumped it.
From what I understand Uverse is on the chopping block since ATT
acquired DirecTV.

The only alternative is DSL and DirectTV. Been there. Won't go back.
It's *far* worse.

I had DirecTV back in the early 2000's with the Tivo DVR, when DirecTV
would sell you that DVR. When I up graded several years later to HD,
DirecTV tried to make their own DVR, all of that went down the drain.
The Tivo DirecTV DVR was bullet proof.

DirecTV has ironed out the problems, that bugged us, and is the only
service that we have gone back to.

I hate satellite TV. We've had both and they're crap. Every time a
cloud rolls by they go out. They claim that it doesn't happen but it
does and they can't/won't fix it. No thanks.

Location and the install has a lot to do with reception. We have fewer
issues with dish than we had with Uverse or cable. BUT we did have a
lot of trouble with dish when we first switched to HD dish.

That's what DTV kept saying but they were unwilling/unable to fix it.
I had the exact same problems with DISH in my previous house.

UVerse is no picnic, either, but at least I can get Internet worth
having (even if agrvating at times). They aren't a picnic when
there's a problem, either. My wife deals with them and has learned to
ask for a supervisor, right off the bat. Don't even bother with the
phone droid. We've called them so many times with problems that they
even sent us a $200 VISA gift card. With these problems, they're
still better than DTV or DISH.




My TV hesitation was with streaming through the internet and through my
DirecTV DVR. The new box cured the problem. I might add that the fiber
comes up to my house but was not being used to it's full potential until
the faster internet speeds were offered with the new boxes.

Through the DVR? The Internet service doesn't touch the DVR, at least
in our setup, there is a separate router.

Yes, just like the blue ray and smart TV. I use a switch to supply
Ethernet to those components plus the Roku. DVR gets data from the
satellite dish and the internet.



We have a separate router but it, through Ethernet, plugs into the
Direct TV DVR for past shows you missed and or OnDemand shows. The DVR
will also, IIRC, work with WiFI but hard wired is better and our home
was prewired for all of that.

We can use the DVR in other rooms (via WiFi, or I suppose, Ethernet)
but Internet service isn't routed through the DVR, rather both/all
connect to the router (switch).

Same here, use the DVR in other rooms. Yeah if you have Uverse, it
probably works a lot like cable IIRC.



Those shows that down loaded through the router hesitated/locked up for
a few seconds periodically along with our computers when working on the
internet, Uverse Internet. That problem went away with the new box that
is designed to handle the 300 Mbps+ speeds.

It's not the TV that hangs, rather the Internet. It's annoying
watching YouTube videos and IHeartRadio hesitates, sometimes, every
few minutes. The TVs are fine (more heavily buffered, I presume).

Well, remember our shows coming through the internet hesitated on the
TV, but not through the dish, you are not watching shows coming from the
internet. But because our TV/DVR/Roku all connect to the internet also,
the pause in the internet shows also along with the internet on the
computers were an issue before the new outside box.

I thought it was an area problem, the hesitation but the installer
assured me that the newer box, the one capable of handling higher speeds
would solve the hesitation problem with everything connected to the
internet. He was correct.

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 11:55:39 -0500, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

In article l-OdndxO45_qY-3FnZ2dnUU7-
, lcb11211@swbelldotnet
says...

On 1/6/2017 5:07 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 6 Jan 2017 16:14:25 +0000 (UTC), John McCoy
wrote:

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in news:QZOdnbpFJasTtvLFnZ2dnUU7-
:

On 1/5/2017 10:37 PM, wrote:

Sears didn't kill sears. Nor did Walmart. Nor did the Internet. The
North American Public killed Sears. And are the poorer for it, when
you get right down to brass tacks.

I believe it was merging with KMart that killed Sears. KMart had bad
deals going back in the early 90's.

KMart was the "coup de grace" - and a great lesson in how to
use bankruptcy court to avoid all your mistakes and make a
fortune from other people's money - but Sears's problems go
way back before that.

Sears was once what Amazon is today - you could buy anything
from them. Mail in your order, and in a week or two go down
to the Railway Express Agency(*) and pick up your package.
With the arrival of mall culture in the 50's and 60's, Sears
let the catalog business fade away, and became just like a
hundred other department stores (most of which have long
since disappeared). Come the revival of mail-order, and
instead of Sears sitting pretty with an order processing and
shipping system already in place, they have nothing - and
the new guys take over that space.

You could by a house, a car, a motorcycle, all your furniture, all
your clothing, all your tools and hardware - virtually anything you
needed "on line" (the phone line) back in the early years of Sears.
They were WAY ahead of their time. They totally lost touch by racing
all of their "competition" to the bottom.


Yeahhhhh they dropped the house, car, motorcycle long before they had
any real competition.

FWIW, I grew up in a Sears house. Can't
honestly say much for them. Sturdy enough I
guess but that's about it.
They were affordable, and could be assembled by semi-skilled workers
anywhere you could reach with a mule team.. They brought "quality
housing" to a lot of areas where substandard housing was the norm.

All the engineering and design was done, and there was a WIDE choice,
right up to the $5850 Magnolia - a veritable mansion, down to the
$1700 Crescent bungalow. and the $1880 2 story Norwood.

On Sat, 07 Jan 2017 23:32:32 -0500, wrote:

On Sat, 7 Jan 2017 21:19:41 -0500, woodchucker
wrote:

SNIPP

I melt in the heat.. Would rather it be cold... Although the back
suffers in the cold. But I do more work in the shop in the winter and
fall. In the summer I am out as much as possible, but I can't take the
high humidity with heat..
I have played volleyball outside when it's 100 during the day but only
about 2 hours.. after that i'm done.


You can put on clothes until you are warm. Can't take off untill you
are cool.

But people taking them off is much more interesting than them putting
them on. That's about the only thing California has going for it. ;-)

I put up with 115F and 90+% RH for 2 hot seasons down at the Victoria
Falls - when I came back December 1975 the cold almost killed me -
I've never really "enjoyed" the cold since - used to like
snowmobiling, tobogganing and skating, but no more.

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 11:24:05 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/7/2017 10:32 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 7 Jan 2017 21:19:41 -0500, woodchucker
wrote:

SNIPP

I melt in the heat.. Would rather it be cold... Although the back
suffers in the cold. But I do more work in the shop in the winter and
fall. In the summer I am out as much as possible, but I can't take the
high humidity with heat..
I have played volleyball outside when it's 100 during the day but only
about 2 hours.. after that i'm done.


You can put on clothes until you are warm. Can't take off untill you
are cool.

Well actually taking clothes off makes you cooler but adding more
clothes restricts mobility. This is an assumption that you are working
outside all day in the extreme cold or heat. It's a b___h working out
side in the cold and not being able to move freely.


With some of today's high-tech winterware you don't have to look like
the Michelin Man to be warm - and when it gets up above about 110 with
humidity around 95% taking ALL your clothes off doesn't make you cool
(in more ways than one)

Remember - from below -- My experience. .As the temperature and
humidity go up, the speed and efficiency go WAY down. Even a 30MPH hot
wind does NOTHING to cool you down!!! Standing in the spray of Mosi O
Tunya cools you down temporarily - but you are not going to get any
work done standing on the knife-back bridge.




I put up with 115F and 90+% RH for 2 hot seasons down at the Victoria
Falls - when I came back December 1975 the cold almost killed me -
I've never really "enjoyed" the cold since - used to like
snowmobiling, tobogganing and skating, but no more.

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 11:53:43 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/8/2017 10:35 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
In article e53f370e-286c-47b5-96b8-4750c73cc302
@googlegroups.com,
says...

On Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 1:33:36 PM UTC-6, woodchucker wrote:
On 1/5/2017 1:40 PM, Leon wrote:
Apparently Craftsman was around before Sears acquired it 90 years ago.
And now Sears is selling Craftsman tools to Stanley.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears-...--finance.html


Yep, not sure how selling off the better selling lines will save Sears.
If you sell them, you get quick cash, but then what?

I think Sears will go out of business shortly. Been 2 years that I have
been waiting for them to give up. Last Christmas, no one was in the
store I went to, while all the other stores were packed.

The craftsman line is not what it once was. Too bad. But don't look to
Stanley, B&D to bring it back. They are horrendous at managing the tool
lines..

Dewalt, B&D, Milwaukee, Stanley, are all former shells of what they once
were. The latest one to drop was Milwaukee, with people lamenting that
the quality has dropped.

Even B&D coffee maker sucks now.

I don't see this as a bad thing, nor a good thing.


--
Jeff

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Does not bode well for quality but I've got a few Craftsman tools and for parts and service I'm glad a company without a foot in the grave will take over.

I'm kind of tempted to drop the bucks for one of
their big mechanic tool sets before they're
gone. OTOH, I've been taking the Jeep apart for
years now with a 50 buck Harbor Freight set so
maybe not.



Craftsman will still be around, it is Sears that might disappear. You
can get craftsman at 6 other brand stores too.

https://www.craftsman.com/where-to-buy?location=77407

You might also consider Northern Tool for tools too. We have a few of
their stores in the Houston area and they, compared to HF, are much
nicer and do carry brand name tools.

BUT they have their own brand of sockets and wrenches that resemble the
slick chrome that SnapOn sells/used to sell.
The wrenches are pretty darn inexpensive and have a life time warranty.
I have a few of their wrenches for special use and am impressed for the
money.


I bought this particular wrench to replace the wrench that came with the
router. Like Craftsman you can buy individual wrenches.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/



Up here in Canad Canadian Tire has the best price/quality ratio,
particularly if you can wait a few weeks and get what you need on
sale. They also sell the Stanley tools - really clunky junk in
comparison.

On 1/8/2017 5:53 PM, wrote:


I look at the text of the rating more than the rating itself. What
exactly ****ed the customer off? Often it's really a silly issue.

I ignore any ratings where there are only one or two people rating.


Well, there is nothing silly about ordering the wrong color. That is
worth a 1 star rating. It is amazing how many people reveal their own
stupidity by posting perceived problems.

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 13:18:42 -0500, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On 1/7/17 3:43 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 6 Jan 2017 23:22:41 -0600, -MIKE-
wrote:

On 1/6/17 10:45 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 06 Jan 2017 19:34:58 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 6 Jan 2017 15:52:47 -0600, Leon
lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/6/2017 3:00 PM, Jack wrote:
On 1/6/2017 10:57 AM, John McCoy wrote:

I think Sears will go out of business shortly.

I agree with you. I don't think they have a clue how to
solve their problems - they're still trying to figure
out "how do we compete with Walmart", when the world has
moved on and the real competition is the likes of Dollar
General (and, of course, Amazon).

I recently mentioned I was looking to replace my Sony
earphones. Amazon doubled the price from $14 to $27, plus
shipping. I finally found them online at Walmart for $14
and free shipping. Walmart knows whats up, and if Amazon
isn't careful, it will be in the bag with Sears/Kmart.




Not everything purchased through Amazon is supplied or sold
by Amazon. There are thousands of retailers selling their
goods on Amazon and they ship direct from their stores, and
they have all different prices and many are not even in the
ball park of being competitively priced.
But being aligned with Amazon, the (sheeple) public are
convinced they are getting the deal of the century - just
because they bought it online from Amazon - - - - - - .

Sure. Sometimes paying the $13 is less painful than spending a
day finding the cheapest price.


Not only that, but many times you do indeed get the best price. If
you happen to be within a certain distance of a warehouse you can
get same day delivery. I had a friend who ordered a printer and had
it delivered to his door two hours later. He went on Amazon and
spent about 15 minutes finding the printer he needed at the best
price, hit a button and had it on his door step 2 hours later. He
could've spent two hours driving around town, from store to store,
wasting gas, wasting time, getting ****ed off in traffic, and
gotten the same printer, maybe at the same price. But no, he was
sitting at home, in his studio, making money, no gas, no driving,
no frustration, and the printer was at his front door in two
hours.

In a way Amazon is merging new school and old school. There was a
time when groceries and drug stores, and appliance stores delivered
things to your home and it was considered normal. Amazon is
bringing that back along with everything that is new in technology
and consumerism.
That only works if you are just down the road from an Amazon
warehouse. They'd need a cruise missile to get a printer to me in 2
hours. I can usually count on 3 days for a "fast" delivery if it is
coming from Canada - a week if it has to cross the border.


Correct, it's different for different areas.
Keep in mind, though, that the way Amazon is expanding, a year or two
from now you might have the same experience that we do.

Which suggests to me that Amazon is engaging in
exactly the kind of overexpansion that killed a
lot of brick-and-mortar stores. Their prices
have risen to a level where I don't use them
anymore unless I need something I can't get
locally.
That is my situation too - not using Amazon, but any internet
source. There is a lot of stuff I can't buy for any price locally -
that I end up odering "on line" - but if it is avaialble near by I
choose to support my local businesses unless they are WAY out of line
price-wise. The convenience of being able to see it and pick it up NOW
is worth something. Not getting what you asked for can be bad enough
buying locally - when ordering across country and getting the wrong
stuff it is a TOTAL PAIN.

On 1/8/2017 6:03 PM, wrote:


You can put on clothes until you are warm. Can't take off untill you
are cool.

But people taking them off is much more interesting than them putting
them on. That's about the only thing California has going for it. ;-)


When they take them off do you have to put a dollar bill in the elastic?

On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 18:03:18 -0500, krw wrote:


But people taking them off is much more interesting than them putting
them on. That's about the only thing California has going for it. ;-)


Hang on a sec! This is a newsgroup of generally middle-aged, nearly all
male, carpenters, and I'm pretty sure they would *not*, in fact, be very
interesting with fewer clothes!

Cheers,
Colin

wrote in :


But people taking them off is much more interesting than them putting
them on. That's about the only thing California has going for it. ;-)


I don't know... Sometimes the things women put on are really interesting.
Then they go to your place and start to feel hot...

Puckdropper
--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 19:07:09 +0000, notbob wrote:

problem with a vendor, but I do check out their ratings and reviews
first.

I've found Amazon's ratings to be unreliable. This after shopping on
Amazon fer yrs.

I wasn't talking about Amazon ratings. I was talking about Ebay's seller
rating and feedback. Sorry if that wasn't clear.


--
What if a much of a which of a wind gives the truth to summer's lie?

wrote in news:cch57c5rdmrke7s50afkjcalcnfuevb85o@
4ax.com:


With some of today's high-tech winterware you don't have to look like
the Michelin Man to be warm - and when it gets up above about 110 with
humidity around 95% taking ALL your clothes off doesn't make you cool
(in more ways than one)

Remember - from below -- My experience. .As the temperature and
humidity go up, the speed and efficiency go WAY down. Even a 30MPH hot
wind does NOTHING to cool you down!!! Standing in the spray of Mosi O
Tunya cools you down temporarily - but you are not going to get any
work done standing on the knife-back bridge.

You may find that having some clothing on is actually more effective than
being "without apparel". (Twister reference there.) Things like
moisture wicking materials can make sweating more effective.

I could be wrong, though, but I prefer the moisture wicking shirt when
playing roller hockey. I can tell you that I don't feel as drenched as I
would without a shirt.

Puckdropper
--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

On 1/8/2017 7:21 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
wrote in news:cch57c5rdmrke7s50afkjcalcnfuevb85o@
4ax.com:


With some of today's high-tech winterware you don't have to look like
the Michelin Man to be warm - and when it gets up above about 110 with
humidity around 95% taking ALL your clothes off doesn't make you cool
(in more ways than one)

Remember - from below -- My experience. .As the temperature and
humidity go up, the speed and efficiency go WAY down. Even a 30MPH hot
wind does NOTHING to cool you down!!! Standing in the spray of Mosi O
Tunya cools you down temporarily - but you are not going to get any
work done standing on the knife-back bridge.

You may find that having some clothing on is actually more effective than
being "without apparel". (Twister reference there.) Things like
moisture wicking materials can make sweating more effective.

BUT Sweating only makes you more comfortable/cooler if the humidity is
low enough that it will actually evaporate. With 90%+ humidity you just
get hotter. One day I took my clothes off after being in the shop and
I could literally wring the sweat out of my pants and shrt. I was
completely soaked as if some one has hosed me down. And I had 2 fans
blowing.




I could be wrong, though, but I prefer the moisture wicking shirt when
playing roller hockey. I can tell you that I don't feel as drenched as I
would without a shirt.

Puckdropper

On 1/8/2017 6:15 PM, wrote:

The convenience of being able to see it and pick it up NOW
is worth something. Not getting what you asked for can be bad enough
buying locally - when ordering across country and getting the wrong
stuff it is a TOTAL PAIN.


OTOH, the internet has made many thousands of products available that
cannot be found locally at any price. Lowe's is 7 miles, Woodcraft is
about 30 miles, but even they don't have everything.

Never heard of a Sachertorte until last night but one will be shipped to
me from Austria this week. We get the best coffee and tea from around
the world. The internet made it possible. Yes, we could get through
life the same as our parents did, but we don't have to.

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 21:09:36 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 1/8/2017 6:15 PM, wrote:

The convenience of being able to see it and pick it up NOW
is worth something. Not getting what you asked for can be bad enough
buying locally - when ordering across country and getting the wrong
stuff it is a TOTAL PAIN.


OTOH, the internet has made many thousands of products available that
cannot be found locally at any price. Lowe's is 7 miles, Woodcraft is
about 30 miles, but even they don't have everything.

Two Lowes and Three HDs in 15 miles. Highland is 30 miles. Rockler,
Woodcraft, and Peachtree are about 50. I still order stuff online.

Never heard of a Sachertorte until last night but one will be shipped to
me from Austria this week. We get the best coffee and tea from around
the world. The internet made it possible. Yes, we could get through
life the same as our parents did, but we don't have to.

We get our coffee from Vermont (Green Mountain). We can often find it
locally but not the decaff stuff.

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 23:55:18 -0000 (UTC), Colin Campbell
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 18:03:18 -0500, krw wrote:


But people taking them off is much more interesting than them putting
them on. That's about the only thing California has going for it. ;-)


Hang on a sec! This is a newsgroup of generally middle-aged, nearly all
male, carpenters, and I'm pretty sure they would *not*, in fact, be very
interesting with fewer clothes!

Carpenter crack? (now you can go find your eye bleach ;-)

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 18:19:50 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 1/8/2017 6:03 PM, wrote:


You can put on clothes until you are warm. Can't take off untill you
are cool.

But people taking them off is much more interesting than them putting
them on. That's about the only thing California has going for it. ;-)


When they take them off do you have to put a dollar bill in the elastic?

Don' t know but I'm not sure I want to see what's available for a
buck.

On 09 Jan 2017 00:24:48 GMT, Puckdropper
puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote:

wrote in :


But people taking them off is much more interesting than them putting
them on. That's about the only thing California has going for it. ;-)


I don't know... Sometimes the things women put on are really interesting.
Then they go to your place and start to feel hot...

It's fun to unwrap presents but playing with the toy, after, is fun
too.

On 1/8/2017 9:36 PM, wrote:

We get our coffee from Vermont (Green Mountain). We can often find it
locally but not the decaff stuff.


Couple of times a year I get 2 pounds of Kone directly from the grower
www.smithfarmscom
and other varieties from www.armeno.com

I don't even drink coffee but I make sure my wife can enjoy the good
stuff.

On 09 Jan 2017 01:21:50 GMT, Puckdropper
puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote:

wrote in news:cch57c5rdmrke7s50afkjcalcnfuevb85o@
4ax.com:


With some of today's high-tech winterware you don't have to look like
the Michelin Man to be warm - and when it gets up above about 110 with
humidity around 95% taking ALL your clothes off doesn't make you cool
(in more ways than one)

Remember - from below -- My experience. .As the temperature and
humidity go up, the speed and efficiency go WAY down. Even a 30MPH hot
wind does NOTHING to cool you down!!! Standing in the spray of Mosi O
Tunya cools you down temporarily - but you are not going to get any
work done standing on the knife-back bridge.

You may find that having some clothing on is actually more effective than
being "without apparel". (Twister reference there.) Things like
moisture wicking materials can make sweating more effective.

I could be wrong, though, but I prefer the moisture wicking shirt when
playing roller hockey. I can tell you that I don't feel as drenched as I
would without a shirt.

Puckdropper
At 90+%rh the wicking really doesn't help. The only advantage to
clothing is shade and helping to prevent sun-burn. Under the hot
African sun you can burn through a light cotton shirt in a very short
time.

On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 21:36:30 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 8 Jan 2017 21:09:36 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 1/8/2017 6:15 PM, wrote:

The convenience of being able to see it and pick it up NOW
is worth something. Not getting what you asked for can be bad enough
buying locally - when ordering across country and getting the wrong
stuff it is a TOTAL PAIN.


OTOH, the internet has made many thousands of products available that
cannot be found locally at any price. Lowe's is 7 miles, Woodcraft is
about 30 miles, but even they don't have everything.

Two Lowes and Three HDs in 15 miles. Highland is 30 miles. Rockler,
Woodcraft, and Peachtree are about 50. I still order stuff online.

Never heard of a Sachertorte until last night but one will be shipped to
me from Austria this week. We get the best coffee and tea from around
the world. The internet made it possible. Yes, we could get through
life the same as our parents did, but we don't have to.

Are you getting the torte, or the flavoured coffee??
If you are getting the torte you really want a real good gob of
whipped cream to dip every bite into. It's VERY flavorful, but just as
dry!!! Austrian practice is to eat a little bit of torte with a
spoonfull of Schlag

We get our coffee from Vermont (Green Mountain). We can often find it
locally but not the decaff stuff.

Ed Pawlowski wrote:

OTOH, the internet has made many thousands of products available that
cannot be found locally at any price. Lowe's is 7 miles, Woodcraft is
about 30 miles, but even they don't have everything.


I had a chance to visit Highland Woodworking while in Atlanta last week.
I can easily recommend them to anyone here as a nice place to visit if
in Atlanta. I controlled myself and limited myself to a new "Lost Arts
Press" book (on mouldings) which I had been eyeing before my visit, but
I feel like I have more interest in their web site now than I did
before. Being apparently impartial, they have some tools from both Lie
Nielsen and Veritas, for instance. I tried to step around the "green
tool" section, without getting anything on me. : )

Bill

Interesting I got a letter from Sears - been a craftsman club member for
(have a card) almost 40 years. Maybe more.

They stated they will be continuing the line in the stores and add new
ones as they come out and have B&D there as well. They were paid for
the sale and will get more after a big cash payment. Then in 5 years or
so Sears will be paying percentage of sales. (3%) All sorts of details...

Time will tell. Don't forget Diehard and other trade names....
Silvertone is long gone.

Martin

On 1/8/2017 11:53 AM, Leon wrote:
On 1/8/2017 10:35 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
In article e53f370e-286c-47b5-96b8-4750c73cc302
@googlegroups.com,
says...

On Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 1:33:36 PM UTC-6, woodchucker wrote:
On 1/5/2017 1:40 PM, Leon wrote:
Apparently Craftsman was around before Sears acquired it 90 years ago.
And now Sears is selling Craftsman tools to Stanley.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears-...--finance.html



Yep, not sure how selling off the better selling lines will save Sears.
If you sell them, you get quick cash, but then what?

I think Sears will go out of business shortly. Been 2 years that I have
been waiting for them to give up. Last Christmas, no one was in the
store I went to, while all the other stores were packed.

The craftsman line is not what it once was. Too bad. But don't look to
Stanley, B&D to bring it back. They are horrendous at managing the tool
lines..

Dewalt, B&D, Milwaukee, Stanley, are all former shells of what they
once
were. The latest one to drop was Milwaukee, with people lamenting that
the quality has dropped.

Even B&D coffee maker sucks now.

I don't see this as a bad thing, nor a good thing.


--
Jeff

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Does not bode well for quality but I've got a few Craftsman tools and
for parts and service I'm glad a company without a foot in the grave
will take over.

I'm kind of tempted to drop the bucks for one of
their big mechanic tool sets before they're
gone. OTOH, I've been taking the Jeep apart for
years now with a 50 buck Harbor Freight set so
maybe not.



Craftsman will still be around, it is Sears that might disappear. You
can get craftsman at 6 other brand stores too.

https://www.craftsman.com/where-to-buy?location=77407

You might also consider Northern Tool for tools too. We have a few of
their stores in the Houston area and they, compared to HF, are much
nicer and do carry brand name tools.

BUT they have their own brand of sockets and wrenches that resemble the
slick chrome that SnapOn sells/used to sell.
The wrenches are pretty darn inexpensive and have a life time warranty.
I have a few of their wrenches for special use and am impressed for the
money.


I bought this particular wrench to replace the wrench that came with the
router. Like Craftsman you can buy individual wrenches.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/

Martin Eastburn wrote:

Time will tell. Don't forget Diehard and other trade names....
Silvertone is long gone.

as is J.C. Higgins....

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1...xS_Shotgun.jpg

http://nbhaa.com/Higgins1.jpg

Martin Eastburn wrote:

Time will tell. Don't forget Diehard and other trade names....

Hard to forget brand names I avoid like the plague. My boss bought a
Diehard marine battery. We hadda replace it within the week.

Silvertone is long gone.

Thank goodness fer small favors! I once had a Silvertone bass
amplifier. Brand new, it was already crap and I returned it to Sears
the next day.

Their guitars/basses were made by Dan Electro and they were also junk.
I hadda buddy who bragged he'd scored a DE Long-Horn bass. He paid
$600 for it and thought he's scored some kinda hot deal. I played it
and told him, "This cost about $75USD, new, and it certainly isn't
worth that much, now". I found another DE guitar at my jammin'
buddy's house. I'm not sure, but I think the high-end strings I gave
him ($10 set), to re-string that guitar, were worth more than the
guitar.

You see a lotta Dan Electro's in use, these days. The "lipstick"
pick-up is held in high esteem by many of today's hipsters. The
guitar, itself, is still essentially junk.

nb

On 1/9/2017 8:48 AM, notbob wrote:


Martin Eastburn wrote:

Time will tell. Don't forget Diehard and other trade names....

Hard to forget brand names I avoid like the plague. My boss bought a
Diehard marine battery. We hadda replace it within the week.

FWIW, most all batteries are manufactured by just a few manufacturers.
No batteries are exempt from being DOA. Personally I have had good luck
with DieHard and what ever brand Toyota sells.







Silvertone is long gone.

Thank goodness fer small favors! I once had a Silvertone bass
amplifier. Brand new, it was already crap and I returned it to Sears
the next day.

Their guitars/basses were made by Dan Electro and they were also junk.
I hadda buddy who bragged he'd scored a DE Long-Horn bass. He paid
$600 for it and thought he's scored some kinda hot deal. I played it
and told him, "This cost about $75USD, new, and it certainly isn't
worth that much, now". I found another DE guitar at my jammin'
buddy's house. I'm not sure, but I think the high-end strings I gave
him ($10 set), to re-string that guitar, were worth more than the
guitar.

You see a lotta Dan Electro's in use, these days. The "lipstick"
pick-up is held in high esteem by many of today's hipsters. The
guitar, itself, is still essentially junk.

nb

On 1/5/2017 12:40 PM, Leon wrote:
Apparently Craftsman was around before Sears acquired it 90 years ago.
And now Sears is selling Craftsman tools to Stanley.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears-...--finance.html



Sears is selling Craftsman, most all of us assume just the tools. I
wonder what will become of the Craftsman lawn mowers/lawn power tools,
and Craftsman Garage door openers.

The article says that Sears will pay Stanley 3% royalty after 15 years.
That sounded odd to me as I sure they will continue to sell Craftsman
products so paying back 3% did not make sense if they are buying the
product from Stanley. Stanly could simply increase the cost to Sears by
3% BUT if they continue to use the Craftsman name on the items that
Stanley will not be buying, like the Chamberlain and Genie made
Craftsman Garage door openers, and or who ever manufactures the
Craftsman yard equipment, that may be where the 3% royalty kicks in.

On 2017-01-09, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:


FWIW, most all batteries are manufactured by just a few manufacturers.

I think Exide leads the charge. One thing I recall is, if ever buy a
Yuasa l-a battery, you can bet Yuasa yer gonna be walking.

nb