Link Party Time!

Here go again!  Post those links and have some fun!


Here are this week's rules.....


1.)  Please become a follower if you aren't one.


2.)  Grab a button or link back somehow.  Any way you do it is fine.


3.)  Post as many links as you want.  Anything goes.  Blog buttons, Etsy store items, or a picture of your favorite American Veteran.  It's all good.  Go ahead and link like crazy!


4,)  Try and visit a few of the other links and leave a nice comment if you can.


5.)  Have fun.  It's a rule.

Do you have a product that you need reviewed?  Do you have an online store that needs a little push?  Would you like to be a part of the "Tools Team".  Just email me for details.

toolsr4women2@gmail.com

Jet JWL 1220 Lathe Tool Review by Rory

I thought it was about time I wrote a review about the Jet JWL 1220 Wood Lathe.  I bought my Jet about a year ago at Woodcraft. ( Yep!, I actually own one.)  As a professional woodworker I use it a lot.  By a lot I mean I turned over 200 candle sticks with it the first month I used it.  Since then I have turned 100 or so bangle bracelets, wooden pens, chair spindles and goblets.  This machine is fun, addictive, and easy to use.

The Jet JWL 1220 will turn a 12" in diameter project up to 20 inches long.  There is also an available bed extension to make even long projects if you need to.  It is powered by a 3/4 horse motor and is belt driven.  In order to change speeds on this model you need to move the belt manually from one pulley to another.  But, Jet makes changing belt positions fast and easy, and I don't mind doing it at all.  Jet does make a variable speed model, but I didn't want to fork over the extra money at the time.  I have no regrets about not buying the variable speed version.  This one works fine for me.

The construction is nearly all cast iron.  I really like that in a lathe.  Plastic doesn't really cut it for me, and this lathe has very little of that going on.  It comes with 2 tools rests, a live center, a spur drive, and a small face plate.  It also comes with an attached bendable light, however the light is less than impressive.  It is not long enough to look inside a bowl while you are turning it and the light does not want to stay in place at times.

But you can forget about everything I have told you so far, because this next feature blew me away.....

It's a feature called "customer service".  After using this lathe for a few hundred hours, it broke.  I can't really say I blame it.  Any tool put through the paces like I have done with this one is bound to give up sooner or later.  It wasn't a major breakdown though.  It was just a capacitor on the side of the motor that failed.  No big deal.  But here is the amazing part.  When I called Jet Customer Service, I had the pleasure of getting through right away.  I was not put on hold.  I talked to a real live person who was familiar with the product.  The person spoke in a language that I could understand, and get this..............

I made the call on a Thursday afternoon at 2pm and the replacement part was on my doorstep the next morning by 10am!  The fix took 5 minutes and I was back in project mode immediately.  Jaw-dropping customer service.  I was stunned.

I don't know about everyone else, but to me service and product support is a huge deal. 

I highly recommend the Jet JWL 1220 Lathe and give it 5 pink hardhats out of a possible 5.  

Gotta love it!

I am looking for contributing writers who can write product reviews like this one.  If you would like to be a part of the Tools Are For Women Too Team, you can email me for details.

toolsr4women2@gmail.com

Let me introduce myself! - Stacy Risenmay

Rory asked me to do a post introducing myself and it is probably about time! All of a sudden this person starts posting on Rory's blog and I am sure you are thinking "Who is she and why is she here?" I never know how much about myself to divulge. Too little and it is vague. Too much and well, its overwhelming! So I will try to find a happy medium.
I grew up in the country and we were poor, only I didn't know we were poor. My dad was a milk man and my mom stayed at home. We had horses and other animals and to a tom boy like me it was paradise. I have always preferred to be outside. I love to work hard and get dirty. I love fishing, hiking, camping, gardening, and pretty much anything outdoors. I also love to build and refinish furniture. It started when I was about 5. I would sit in my dad's wood pile and hammer and saw to my hearts content. I of course took the tools from my dad's shed with out asking. Who would let their 5 year old have a saw? But I loved it.
I grew up and went to college where I met my husband. I knew right away I wanted to marry him. Problem was, so did every other female student! But I got him in the end :) My husband is the best assistant and doesn't get offended when the kids call the tools "mommy's tools".
We have four beautiful children. All boys. And I love it.They are amazing and teach me some of life's greatest lessons (like PATIENCE!). I hope to teach them to be kind and accepting of others, to love learning, to love themselves, and to love God.

No. I can't get one single picture where they all look at the camera and smile "normal". But I love it.


My husband and I got married relatively young.  I was done with school but he had a few more years left to become an architect. We had kids right away so we were pretty poor. I loved being creative with decorating on a teeny, tiny, almost not there budget. This is when I started building furniture. I even sold some to help us in tough times.


When it comes to my projects, I almost always bite off more than I can chew. And I always think I can get it done sooner than I really can. At any given point I will have at least 3 projects in the works. My husband can't understand why I can't finish one before I start a new one and to be honest, I don't understand it either! I am not an expert by any means, in anything I do, but I am willing to share what I have learned with others because so many have been willing to teach me.
Here are some of the things I have built for our home.


This red cabinet has shelves and holds our movies on the top shelves and blankets are in the bottom. And it is "antiqued" because I love things that look worn and old. I also build another just like this but it is blue and in the boys' room. I didn't antique that one. I do show restraint SOMETIMES:)

This is actually the first thing I built and I didn't have any power tools. I wanted something that looked like an old shipping crate. It holds our board games.

I built shutters for this nook in our house and painted it to look like a window.

I built this clock to hide an ugly power box. It slid right over it. And yep. It's antiqued.

I have made lots of different shelves. I love "floating" shelves the best.

I love to paint. My baby's nursery is decorated in monkeys so I painted one on the wall.

After a trip to California Adventure's Bugs Life park, my boys wanted a room where they felt like a bug. I used the head and foot boards plus the ladder from an existing bunk bed and built the rest. The bottom has a piano hinge so that it lifts up and a trundle bed can be pulled out.

I also love to read.  "How to" articles, cheesy romance novels and everything in between.

 I love to try new things. Last year I even learned how to make cheese! Next on my list is welding.

 I am always up for trying new things and I love to challenge myself.

I started my blog 2 months ago. Actually I started 2 new blogs 2 months ago. Not JUST A Housewife and The Birthday Blog.  My husband was laid off due to the economy and I took advantage of this time with him home to do what I love. I will be opening up an ETSY store soon too.

Whew! I guess that this was a little on the "too much info" side. Like I said, I never know what to say and what to leave out. I hope you will visit and I can get to know a little about you! That has been my favorite part of blogging. I love the emails and comments. Thanks for letting me share!

Stacy is one of the new team members for TAFWT.  If you would also like to be a part of the fun, just email Rory for the details.

toolsr4women2@gmail.com

Link Party Time and A Question For You

I know that many of you out there love these link parties and I am always glad to throw them for you.  I have tried to make them some of the best parties out there by doing things like making the thumbnails pics larger than most, allowing a lengthy description of your link, having 2 parties per week so that there is always one going on here, and allowing everyone to participate and post an unlimited number of links.

Here is the question.....

Have I missed anything?  Is there something else that you as readers and followers would like to see improved? How can I make Tools parties the very best on the net?  Or do I just need to leave them as is?

Do me a favor and leave a comment.  Let me know what you think.  All feedback is good feedback, so don't be bashful.  I want to hear what you all have to say....

Here are this weeks party rules.........

1.)  Leave a comment if you have time, about how to make the parties better.

2.)  Please become a follower if you aren't one already.

3.)  Everyone is welcome as always.  Post as many links as you want.  No limits.

4.)  Examples of allowable thumbnails are things like blog buttons, projects, Etsy store items, or that special Christmas photo you are were in when big hair and leisure suits were still popular.  It's all good.  Link 'em up.

5.)  Have fun.  It's a rule.

I am still looking for a few more contributing authors, who want to be a part of the "Tools" team.  Feel free to email me for details.

toolsr4women2@gmail.com

Introducing Stacy Risenmay - Contributing Author



 I would like to introduce everyone to our newest member of the Tools Are For Women Too team, Stacy Risenmay.  In addition to writing for TAFWT, she also is a wife, a mom of 4 boys, writes her own blog called Not JUST A Housewife, and somehow manages time to tackle more than her share of DIY projects. 

Stacy loves to refinish and build furniture, roam home improvement stores, and take on new DIY challenges.  I was pretty excited when Stacy agreed to come on board and be part of the team.  I think she is going to have a lot of expertise to share.  Her specialty here will be writing tutorials, product reviews, and some other fun stuff.  If you didn't get a chance to read Stacy's last post about Minwax Gel Stain, click here.  Gel type stains are still fairly new out there and she is a real pro at it. 

I have no doubt that Stacy is going to be a valuable new member of the "Tools" team.  Please welcome her by leaving a comment and visiting her site, Not JUST A Housewife.

Welcome Stacy!

I am still looking for a couple more team members.  Feel free to email me for details.

toolsr4women2@gmail.com

Link Party Time!

Imagine a link party that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, and welcomes every buyer, seller, blogger, and smiling face on the net.  I am not sure how many of you realize it, but that's kind of the way I have it set up on Tools Are For Women Too. 

The Monday party ends on Wednesday at midnight and then the Thursday party starts up and goes until Sunday.  So no matter what day it is there is a party going on here.  Pretty neat, huh? 

Here are the rules to this weeks link soiree.....

1.)  Everyone is welcome.

2.)  Post as many links as you want.  No limit.

3.)  Buttons, store items, post links, and projects of all kinds are all good.  Feel free to link, link, link.

4.)  Please pass the word along about the party and invite a few friends to be a part of it.  Write a post, link back, grab a button, send an email, or pass a note to the woman next to in your meeting at work about the party.  However you want to promote it is fine.  It's all good.

5.)   As always, have fun.  It's a rule.

Does your blog need a little help getting off the ground?  Feel free to email me for inexpensive ad rates and details.

toolsr4women2@gmail.com

Minwax Gel Stain Review

Happy Friday! It's Stacy from Not JUST A Housewife here and I will be doing the first product review on Tools are for Women too!

I first need to say that my camera broke today :( My eight month old grabbed the camera strap and it fell down. Luckily it didn't hit my baby, but it did hit the hardwood floor. So I dug around my picture file and found some old photos for today. I apologize that they are not as clear as I would like.

OK. On to the review!!!

I really like this product. The first time I used it was 3 years ago. I would recommend practicing on some scrap wood first since it has a different consistency than regular stain. And I would use a foam brush so that you don't get lines from bristles. My favorite color, which I used for the projects I will show today, is Minwax Gel Stain Walnut 606.

It is great for projects where you don't want to sand or strip off the old stain. You can even use this on fiberglass and metal!!!! I know of several people who used this to reface their kitchen cupboards with really good results. Here are two of the things I used the gel stain for.

This is the bead board in my bathroom before I used the Gel Stain. It had a nice beachy feel with the whitewash but it didn't fit the rest of my house.

I LOOOOVE how it turned out. Suddenly my bathroom looks more expensive! I did two coats. It is very important to wait the full 8 hours (more if it is humid) before applying the second coat. I am impatient and learned the hard way. The first coat will come off when you try to put on an additional coat if you DON"T wait.

The next project I will show you is my dad's old desk. It used to be in his office and I have a lot of fond memories of it. This was the first thing I used gel stain on. I wish I had a better picture because it was really banged up with lots of water marks. Normally I would have stripped it or sanded it down but I had been wanting to try Minwax's Gel Stain so I tried it on this. I tested it out on a place you couldn't see just in case. But it was beautiful!

I am embarrassed to show you this after picture because it does not do the desk justice! And it is killing me because the desk is right here next to me in my office in all its glory and I can't take a picture. This picture was taken a few years ago before I got a nice camera and I was trying to take a picture of my office and not necessarily of the desk. But trust me, it looks great!!!

So I am giving this product 5 out of 5 Hardhats with the side note that it works great as long as you follow the directions correctly. Good luck on your next project!

Stacy is a contributing writer and a part of the Tools Are For Women Too Team.  Please visit her site and say hello.

http://happyhappyhousewife.blogspot.com/