In other news, we’re finally far enough into trim and finish work at work that the table saw he bought isn’t needed.
And since he has a big cabinet saw in his shop, he asked if I wanted the job saw, unless he gets another flip house, he won’t need it.
My cabinet saw is in my basement, and too hard to get sheet goods to, so I’ve thought of a jobsite saw in the garage before. I said yes fast!
(ironically since I’ve given away 3 free found or scrounged jobsite or small bench saws in the last 15 years… all too big or too heavy for my uses. Last one this size was solid cast iron.. great tool but I couldn’t more it around. )
This is the cheapest saw he could get 3 years ago. Ryobi tools are definitely low end entry level these days. But this sucker has been an amazingly precise saw, very little run out, and a surprisingly precise fence. I’m not sure I’d want to do fine cabinetry or exotic trim work with it, but it’s a great all around saw, especially for it’s class/price.
Included a very nice, long USB-C cable. So many lights and things come with a 3″ cable anymore, this was a nice surprise. You can actually get it onto a table or the floor to charge it, instead of dangling it from the outlet.
Fresh from the box;
For scale;
First thoughts; heavy!
Second; well, it should be durable…
I’d swear the thing is solid metal cased, but it says ABS. It’s built like a tank! I’m sure it weighs twice what my Spirit does, heavier than any other light I have. Big 2600mAh battery has to be heavy too.
Its Big enough I’d bet its two 18650s in there.
Definitely Not a pocket carry light!
Flashlight modes are 200 and 50 lumens.
Flood light is 400, 160, 12.
The outputs all look right to me, except I’d swear the flood low is 30 or 40… but its a soft flood, wide area, guess it could look brighter than I’m used to 12 being.
The flashlight is one big smooth spot… no real discernible hotspot, bug I wouldn’t call it a flood beam… in between concepts.
Its a rather easy interface, although I find the button a little hard to “read”. Easy to press, but its… odd. Its a soft click button under a hard rubber cover. Hard start to the press then the switch clicks fast… hard to describe. Works fine just feels different than the average flashlight switch.
Single click on/off, click to cycle modes(only within 3sec of on, after that clicks off or swap between emitters) Long press to change between emitters.
Little odd that the flashlight starts in high then low. But on the work light/COB it goes medium, high, low. No memory, always starts the same.
Does memory the emiter your on though… so if you turn it off in flashlight mode it comes back on in that.
Charging is done by the verry handy built in USB plug, and thankfully in the new C standard, matching my phone and another light; less cords to keep track of!
Came charged to 3/4 charge indictors. Took 20 mintues to go to 4/4. Like the indicator, nice feature, always on with either emitter on. Odd break down of percentages per the manual(4 lights actually means 95%+ not 100%), but honestly who cares that much, its a good rule of thumb for not running it dead, better as you use a light more, learn how long you have left once it hits 1 or 2 indicators.
Magnets aren’t as strong as I expected. Small and wide spread on the loop, its going to need a large area to stick to, to be stable. I stuck it up to the door pilar in my truck and its rock solid, not going to move.
Stuck to flats on a 1″ steel bar with just two magnets in line, and it would shift depending on what angle you had it open; weight distribution. And I’m not 100% sure it’d stay there fully upside down..
Can see that being an issue in more creative spaces where you might not have a place to get the balance right for where you need light… time will tell I guess.
On the flip side, smaller and weaker they’re not going to collect near as much metal dust/debris in a tool bag.
The carabiner clip is… not bad, but different; the gate opens outwards. Works fine, just not what you expect.
Nifty bonus, the halo ring around the COB is GITD.
Only thing I would really like to have seen is a rotating joint where the light body meets that hinge. So many more options for aiming it then. Again, time will tell if its really an issue or not.
Overall, so far, I’m very happy with it! Light function is fine, and the build seems great!
For the $28 I paid shipped, I think its a good value. Wish it was a bit less, @ around $25 point I’d get a couple more of them. $35 is the standard price online for this color, $40 for other colors. That much each is a bit much for multiples, but that’s me being picky about $10 lol… I think its definitely worth the ~$30.
They do a few colors, green, blue, orange, yellow, and I think black. Looks like the green is the standard/basic, as I said it costs a little less everywhere, so thats what I got.
A friend on an EDC forum asked me an interesting question today;
HeyAK-A, You’ve had that Victorinox Swiss Tool Spirit for quite some time. Which threeof its tools have you used the most? TIA
It’s funny that he should ask me that; A couple nights before when putting things up for the night, I was looking at it and thinking about what I use and don’t use.
My answer is as follows; Top 2 are easy, pliers, phillips driver, in that order.
But I had to add a footnote, that I’m not sure that #2 counts as Vic specific since I hated the Vic driver. I cut it off and welded a Leatherman flat style 1/4″ bit holder onto it several years ago.🙂 #3 is hard to tell what I use more, but I *think* its the large flat head driver/bottle opener as leverage/a pry bar.
Honorable mention/#4, #5 goes to the other two that tied with that big driver, the awl and the wire cutters.
Use the awl as a pick, scraper, small pry tool a lot. And the wire cutters get alot of use when I’m running the wire feed welder. Honestly, out of those last three its really, really, really hard to tell what I use more. I can tell you what I Never use; the knife blade.
I started out hating the style(which is ironically now my favorite to use on any other knife, a sheepsfoot), and now I just prefer the ergonomics of a dedicated pocket knife. Rarely, almost never used, is the chisel/scraper. Like maybe 15 times in the ~12 years I’ve had the tool.
That thing I’d probably use more if I remembered it was there… for some reason, maybe because I carried a Leatherman for so long and they don’t have one, I never think of it being there.
I tend to see it when opening another tool and think “dang that woulda been handy 10 minutes ago…”
About three years and 2 weeks ago I got a tempered glass screen protector for my then new Samsung Galaxy S5 Active. A cheap one.
Its great! Clear and touch sensitive, can’t tell any diference in using the phone. Easy to clean, and so far I have yet to mark, scratch or stain it, and I’ve been on a messy construction/remodelling job site all week. It was easy to apply, with a glasses cleaning cloth, the included alcohol wipe, and antistatic dust collector cloth… peel the back, press it in place, and press the center, and the adheasive magicaly self levels out all the air bubbles… It wasn’t even a one time deal, the adheasive will lift, and allowed me to move it twice to get the best fit, yet its still on there solid if your not trying to move it. Now, it doesn’t fit Exactly right. Its a touch too big at the top and botton edges, and since my phones screen sits in a recess with a lip around it, the top edge of the protector is held just slightly above the surface of the screen… But its and area like 1/8” wide, but maybe 1/4” long above the speaker… Big deal
The same goes for the 1/8” wide bar that crosses across the bottom below the buttons, for like 1” its off the screen. Again, who cares? Both spots are only sitting about half way up that lip, and because of the lip itself nothing can get under the protector in those areas, so it doesn’t matter. Otherwise its a perfect fit. Here is the card that came with it, for the item/brand info if anyone is interested. This was like $6 shipped.
And amazingly it’s lasted allthee years. Mostly;
My phones screen by comparison is immaculate! Not a mark or speck on it!
I’d say that cheap $6 screen protector definitely did it’s job, andI more than got the good from it, and beyond the investment!
Put this together last week for a thread at EDCC about single cell CR123 lights, just realized I should put it here too. 🙂
My most used(also oldest) and favorite of my three single cr123 lights, has to be my Jetbeam BC10. Simple two modes, (no freaking strobes) perfect for averages spaces on low, and while its a moderately low turbo mode for these days, it’s eye shattering enough for pitch black times.
This light is just bombproof, and comes back for more!
Next up is the Rofis JR10, with what has to be oneof the coolest light features this decade, the infinite angle head, which I love for hands free lighting. 4 modes from comfortable in small spaces, to eye splitting in almost any space, almost always plenty of light. Love the mode memory, No strobes, and fast easy side switch to change modes.
It loses a couple points for its length to carry, and weight– both from the longer rotating head. (And maybe the custom brass body 😉 ) But all three of these get carbine red more than pocket clipped anyway, this one being the only one I pocket carry, and it is OK that way.
The third is my custom built Solarforce L2M withthe 1xCell body tube. 3 modes, reverse cycle orderis hard to remember after other lights, h-m-l, but it’s a good range. Once again, love no strobes! This is my extreme cold, big and easy to grip with heavy gloves light, doesn’t get carried many other times, it’s just so Huge for the average day, and forget pocket clip carry! Wider floody beam probablyhelps make up for it, but I never notice…
Also love caribiner carry, with that sith like evilchrome bezel on it, I always feel like I’m packing a lightsaber around!
![[IMG]](https://akcustomtruck.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/wp-1653468642820.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/20150707_181616.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/2018-07-27-23-26-41.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/2018-07-27-23-26-12.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017-11-25-22-26-10.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017-11-25-22-26-36.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017-11-25-22-27-01.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017-11-25-22-27-30.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017-11-25-22-28-40.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017-11-25-22-29-02.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
![[IMG]](https://akadventurer.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017-11-25-22-28-10.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
Alaskan, Adventurer, Engineer. 