Читать книгу Knitbook: The Basics & Beyond - Chris Schapdick - Страница 20

Let me add some other tools that make the job much more manageable, quicker, and more accurate. I consider the tools in this section to be highly recommended additions to your tool arsenal. These tools combined will cost you between $500 and $1,000, depending what quality grade (i.e., brand) you go with. With the exception of the jigsaw ($30) and the wrenches and ratchets ($30–$70), the other items all run between $100 and $150. Remember, you can always buy some of these used or you can borrow them to save money.

Miter saw: These are great to make accurate right-angle cuts. They also can cut at angles other than 90 degrees (typically up to 45 degrees). Since tiny houses are often constructed with 2x4s (50x100mm) for the framing, this tool is invaluable for making numerous and exacting cuts to specific lengths. Can you frame a house without a miter saw? Sure you can, but I wouldn’t want to.

Circular saw. This is useful for cutting things in a reasonably straight, unprecise sort of way.

Power drill. My old one finally died, and this one is a relatively new addition to my stockpile of tools.

Miter saw. This is an inexpensive one, but it gets the job done.

Cordless impact driver: Have you ever tried to screw in a 3" (7.5cm) screw by hand? In case you haven’t, I can tell you: it’s not fun. Now imagine having to screw in a couple hundred screws like this. This is where the cordless impact driver comes in. It is an electric, motorized screwdriver on steroids. It’s a recent addition to my toolkit, but I wouldn’t want to do without one of these anymore; I screw all my framing together with this tool. Screws create stronger bonds than nails and are therefore preferable. You can use a good power drill to drive screws as well, which is what I used to do, but a cordless impact driver is way more convenient, since it comes in a small, lightweight format and is excellent for powering in any number of different fasteners. The impact part of this tool also differs from a regular power drill in that it utilizes a hammering mechanism to spin the fasteners into place.

Jigsaw: You will need to make rounded cuts or lop off corners of things. The circular saw is not going to do that for you; it’s too big and cumbersome. Enter the jigsaw. This works great on lots of different materials, and you can swap the blades for whatever your current cutting task requires. An inexpensive corded jigsaw will do.

Cordless (battery-powered) impact driver. It’s small and versatile, yet also very powerful at driving screws.

Jigsaw. One of these gives you some more precision in cutting and is very good at cutting curves and making rounded cuts.

Air compressor. Compresses air, which is then used to power various things you can hook up to it.

The gauges on the air compressor show you how much pressure is in the tank and how much you are delivering to whatever you have hooked up to it. You can dial the pressure up or down based on the needs of the device.

Air compressor and nail guns: I use this combo for interior work, mostly. The compressor fills an air chamber with pressurized air, which then can be used to power various devices. The main thing I use a compressor for is to use a finishing nailer to shoot very fine and thin (headless) nails. These are great for fastening pieces of trim or interior paneling. On my first tiny house build, I also used a framing nailer to secure the cedar siding to my house. This is a much bigger gun than the finishing nailer, and it shoots rather large nails efficiently, quickly, and repeatedly. You can even get an attachment for your compressor to fill your car tires; it mimics the machine at the gas station that puts air in your tires. This can come in handy and will save you the occasional dollar!

Framing nailer. This is the heavy-duty version of the finishing nailer. It shoots huge nails into things you want to attach together.

Finishing nailer. Use this for attaching interior trim in such a way that you can barely see the nails. Fast and efficient, it beats gluing stuff on the walls.

Wrenches and ratchets: Early in the build, you will be mounting the beginnings of the tiny house structure to the frame of the trailer. This is the one point where we will be working with bolts instead of screws. It is also the point where you will need to tighten some nuts onto those bolts. To do so, you will need either wrenches or ratchets. What’s the difference? A wrench is typically a dedicated tool that pertains to a specific size of bolt head or nut (as compared to pliers or vise grips, which don’t have dedicated sizing). They are sold in sets for around $30. A ratchet is paired with sockets. Those sockets come in various sizes. You pair the ratchet with the socket you need, and the ratchet is an extension to the sockets that allows you to tighten or loosen a nut or bolt. They come in various sizes, with the larger ratchets giving you more leverage than the smaller ones. Pricing will vary a lot based on the number of sockets and the quality of the product; expect to pay about $70 for a pretty good set. The other advantage to a ratchet is that it allows you to stay connected to what you are loosening or tightening because there is an internal mechanism that only allows the socket to be turned forward or backward (selectively); this makes for a quicker and easier process.

With a standard wrench, you have to disconnect and reconnect to whatever you are loosening or tightening after each motion.

Wrenches and ratchets are fairly ubiquitous items; if you don’t own them, odds are that you know someone who does.

These come in two broad flavors: metric (sized in millimeters) and SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) (sized in inches). The two kinds have a certain level of cross-compatibility, so don’t get too hung up on having one or the other.