Reconditioned Tools

Last year I was in need of a framing nailer to build a couple of decks I needed to get to, so I stop by Home Depot to check out their Ridgid stick nailer. The price was comparable to Senco and Bostitch, both I have owned in the past. The nailer uses paper stripped nails which I like better than the wire stripped ones for safety reasons. I started looking for a attendant, when this guy tells me that there is a store at the local outlet mall in Jeffersonville that is selling reconditioned tools and they have the same nailer there for a lot less money. Now I am no framer and I only build decks every once in a while, so I decided if I could pick up a nail gun cheaper I would especial since I don't need it that often. So off I went to find the magic store that sold cheap tools. It was right there in the mall like the man said it would be. I open the door not really expecting to find much that would help me, but boy, oh boy was I wrong. They carried all kinds of reconditioned tools, like Milwaukee, Ryoba, and Ridgid. I found the section that had the nailer and couldn't believe the price, well lets just say that for the price of the framing nailer at Home Depot I bought a narrow crown stapler, fifteen gage finish nailer, the framing nailer and a twelve volt lithium powered drill and still had enough money to take my wife to Bob Evans for dinner. All the tools are reconditioned but they come with a one year warranty, I know that Home Depot offers the life time if you get the tool at their store, but man for the price I paid I will except a cut on the warranty. This find couldn't of came at a better time because the next week my Porter Cable finish nailer broke a drive rod and the replace part was eighty nine dollars, that was thirty more than the Ridgid cost me.
Now I know a lot of guys who wouldn't even consider recondition tools most them are hobbyist. Now if they worked every day with these tools I could almost understand that, but to pay all that money for a tool just gets used a couple times a year seems unnecessary to me, after all there are many carpentry crew that use only reconditioned tools and love them, and I have never heard any them say that they wouldn't them again. If you get a chance to pick up some of the reconditioned tools go ahead they are a great value, and if your are coming to Cincinnati for WIA this October you might just want check the store out for your self.  I will post a more detail review of tools in a future post since I have been using them now for a year and have a pretty good feel for them.

Joey