Alternate Uses for Power Tools......

[Eric Sayre]

Woodworkers are self-taught leaders at improvising. But when you're working on problems outside of the "workshop" and you have all those power tools at your disposal, anything can happen.

I just chased a mouse out of my kitchen, into the laundry room. It ran into a hole in the dryer vent hose (where it aparently entered my house) and into the PVC venting under the house.

I went outside and looked into the vent and saw him (about 8-10 feet away) laughing at me. Since I was afraid he would run back up into the house, I turned on the dryer. Didn't work - he still stared at me from his little nesting place where it was warm.

That's when I drug my 2HP portable dust collector through the kitchen & out onto the porch (as far as the cord would reach). The 20' long 4" dia. hose was just long enough to get to the outside vent.

I shut off the dryer, removed the louvered vent flap, and sucked the mouse out of my house. Not only did I get the mouse, but I cleaned all the lint out of the venting system and dryer.

Man, I'm going to write a great review on that dust collector!

So....What are the strangest things you've used power tools for?

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

um.....did the mouse go through an impeller? yuck...

clever though! nicely done.

[Myk Rian]

Got a mouse with my pin nailer. Since it doesn't have a safety, it worked quite well at a 3ft distance.

[Heath Brandenburg]

That's great. My wife has recently suggested that I use the dust collector to clean our dryer vent. The suggestion came after I had verbally pondered the idea of cleaning the HVAC ducts with the DC.

[Paul Atkins]

We used to shoot flies on the ceiling with our nail guns during slow times. There must have been a thousand nails in the insulation. I needed a coffee fix one day and only had whole beans and no grinder. i duct taped a paper cup to my router with the largest bit I could find and poured in the beans. In less than a minute had fresh ground coffee. Used a lag bolt for a cork screw once. Used the dust collector to "collect" ceiling insulation once, till the bag came off in the kitchen ----

[Mark Rios]

I often use my tablesaw as a hammer.

[Michael Wetzel]

I use my tool collection in place of a savings account

[Dennis McGarry]

I use my tool collection in place of a savings account

+10!


I had my blower in the Furnace couple years ago go out at around 10pm on a very cold night, instead of freezing, wired the circuit to think the blower was ON and used the leaf blower to move the air every couple hours until I got the replacement the next morning...

[curtis rosche]

tried to use a cold chisel to pry off a bearing, damaged the chisel.
tried to use a maul to cut up a lawn chair instead of a hacksaw, it worked well when it was used on a chopping block, till i got to that one peice of steel rod that goes across the back, put a huge dent in the blade......

[Rick Potter]

Took a portable DC to a rental with a blocked dryer pipe. Blew out lotsa lint, toys, and a golf ball.

Rick Potter

[rick fulton]

Chased possums and raccoons out of my garage/shop with my leaf blower.

[Ben Franz]

All tools are hammers, except for chisels - they are screwdrivers.

[Lee Schierer]

You can use a shop vac with the hose on the exhaust to unclog a stopped up drain.

Shop vacs also work well fro removing unwanted stinging or buzzing insects from a room.

I just saw an episode of "Ask This Old House" where someone has invented an accessory for a reciprocating saw to shake paint cans quickly.

[John Baranowski]

You can use a shop vac with the hose on the exhaust to unclog a stopped up drain.

Sounds like a recipe for goop in the face...

[george wilson]

How do you cut up a chair with a maul?