We recently purchased a new kitchen sink, and hired plumbers to come install it. Halfway through the job, the plumbers discovered the new kitchen sink wouldn’t fit the prior kitchen sink opening in the countertop. Now what? Two options:
- Hire a handyman to come same day and cut a wider opening in the countertop.
- I could do the job myself with a jig saw. Of course, I would have to go out and purchase a jig saw first.
I called a lot of contractors, but they either didn’t answer, or said no thank you, job too small. While shopping at Lowe’s, I had a good conversation with an associate, and he gave me the guidance on a decent starter jig saw and also some blades to cut a Formica countertop. After I purchased the jig saw, but out of the many rejections from various contractors, one company agreed to come out. $160 later, we had a wider opening and a lot of saw dust in the kitchen. The sink should now fit, but now I also owned a brand-new never opened jig saw. I threw it in storage, just in case I might need it one day. The plumbers came back two days later and finished the kitchen sink installation.
Porter Cable 6 Amp Orbital Jig Saw
Meanwhile, about two or three months ago, our backyard patio gate broke, and we hired a handyman (“Bob”) to come fix it. We already had him here to install new closet doors, so why not have him fix the gate too while I was out travelling? Bob installed the closet doors, but the gate handle was on back order (?), but he promised to come back in two weeks to finish the job. Again, that was 2-3 months ago. After repeated calls, he claimed to have the gate handle in hand, and would stop by “this week.”
You can guess what happened. Bob never showed up. Do you know what didshow up? Empty promises. Fed up, I went to Home Depot and bought a new gate handle. Surprise, surprise, plenty in stock. I attempted to install it, but the “Curse of DIY Home Improvement” struck again. One small DIY project requires 5 additional steps. The original fence post was warped and didn’t fit against the wall. As a result, the 2nd half of the gate lock wouldn’t install right, and the lock would never work! After some research, before I could finish installing the gate handle, I would first need to:
- Purchase a new wooden post, cut to the correct size.
- Rent a rotary hammer drill from Home Depot for four hours.
- Purchase the SDS-Plus 3/16″ hammer drill bit, as Home Depot didn’t have any compatible ones on hand. I smelled a scam, but I was stuck.
- Purchase the concrete/brick anchors to fasten the new fence post to the brick wall.
With the sunlight slipping away during my four hour rental period, I plotted and measured for the holes, and began to use the hammer drill to drill holes in the brick and mortar. Drilling with a hammer drill? Different, but interesting. Finding out that you still don’t have the correct bit to drive the concrete anchors after Home Depot closes? Priceless. I switched over to my trusty Black & Decker 14.4 v cordless drill, and used grunts and swear words to secure enough concrete anchors into the fence post and brick wall. Phew. Stupid gate.
And then the same problem?
The board was straight, but the wall….. wasn’t? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
I solved the problem by using a combination of a hand saw and my new Porter Cable 6 Amp orbital jig saw. I measured and squared out an opening to allow the gate handle lock components to fit properly. I just sat on a previously-purchased blue Lowe’s bucket, and cut out the opening following my pencil lines on the fence post. Not bad! And now I have my 2nd power tool.