So, just in case you’re wondering, the absolute smallest doorway you can squeeze a BK Princess Ultra through is 30” - and not a smidge less! At least without removing the blowers on the back which require square drive bits to do so. Ya, those square drive bits you don’t keep at home in your personal tool box at home. Oh, and since the stove is now stranded in the kitchen (all doors less than 30 inches) your dear wife must now work around it all evening so now you have to be REALLY nice.
So, measure twice, keep your tools with you, and be nice to your wife.
30 inches WAS sideways! I’m so glad I didn’t order a King!!!
Hey Black Moose!
Being from New Hampshire you should know the frogs love the Robertsons bits! They can also put up lots of Canadian plywood in one day! Or as we call it sheetrock.
I feel your pain, If there is one thing I hate, it is not having a tool when you need it most! Its even worse when you have that tool but didn’t remember to bring it with you . As a carpenter I try to buy multiple sets of almost every hand tool I use and to have a set at home at all times, for that very reason.
Good luck with the 21 hour burns, let us know how it works out for you! Don’t forget the pics.
EDIT: Oh! I almost forgot! Be nice to your wife. Buy her something useful that she didn’t expect. Surprize gifts are always a hit with my wife! Example: I bought her a pink cordless mouse for her new laptop today, $25 and she loved it!!
By the way, I love you Canadians. Love skating, skiing, maple trees, Vancouver Winter Olympics, maple syrup and George St. Pierre!!
I learned how to sheetrock from great Canadian sheetrock legends. Please forgive us for always using °F when discribing temperatures!!!
Torque bits were my ‘tool hang up” this week. I feel your pain. I had to ask BIL ‘what is the tool called that has 5 points on it like a star’.
Shari
ahhh! Yes!! I needed those to take a vaccum appart once. I couldn’t find them separately at ACE Hardware! I had to buy the smallest kit they had with the torx, $20! The little kit came in handy for 10 years and I lost it on the last job I was on, bummer. The job was a Stop’n'Shop rehab, we brought tools in and out of the job with their shopping carts (graveyard shift.) I forgot the little set in a cart, it was dark, about 4am and drove home. The worse 20 mile ride I ever had to and from a job. I got pulled over 3 times, one ticket!! I’ll never work another graveyard construction job again!!
When I buily my house, by far the funniest/most capable subcontractor I hired was a French-Canadian American sheetrocker. He provided me the most entertaining week of the whole year long experience.
When I buily my house, by far the funniest/most capable subcontractor I hired was a French-Canadian American sheetrocker. He provided me the most entertaining week of the whole year long experience.
It took him a whole week!! Did he hang all 1000 sheets by himself?
You would never guess that Canadians have such great sence of humor. But they do! Jim Carrey, Martin Short…
Just so you know, we call it drywall, not sheetrock (and I’ve never heard it call Canadian plywood either, tho there is some really good plywood made in Canada eh!)
Been using square drive screws since the 80’s and love them. They’re the best when you need to put in hundreds of them with a drill. Great for one handed screwing. (no comments from the peanut gallery.)
I’ll be starting a new kitchen floor this weekend. Be screwing down the floor with square drive heads on them. I just bought five thousand of them. Oh, and a stand up screw driving gun to help. You gotta love these new tools now a days.
TOOL NOTE: When you go and get your square drives, get a set of “torx” drivers also, but get “security” torx, that’s the ones with a dimple in the middle. Almost anything important on a modern car is done with those, and I have started to see them used in more and more applications.
Ja, just tell the wife “change of plan, Honey… we’re putting in a bay window”.
IMHO no exterior door should be less than 36” including interior doors to kitchens, laundry rooms, some bedrooms as well. There should be no interior passage doors less than 32”. I’ve had to take bedroom furniture in and out via a balcony.
Harbor Freight sells a kit of 100 different security bits for something like $7. It’s a great buy and you’ll have just about any bit you’ll ever need, all in a reusable plastic carrying case.
Ya, those square drive bits you don’t keep at home in your personal tool box at home.
They are called Robertson and I have just about every size. Just about any Canadian household has them.
When I moved to Canada from New Jersey in 1982, one of the first things I came across were Robertson head screws and bolts.
Now everytime I get something that comes from “YANKEE” land with slotted or Phillips head screws/bolts, they immeadiately are dispatched to the “can” and replaced with the “SQUARE HEADS”. 1st class invention IMO….........................
When the Holmes on Homes crew went to New Orleans, they shipped all their tools in wood crates screwed together with… you guessed it, Robertson screws. Nobody thought to put a cordless screwdriver in with their carry-on and when the crates arrived they had a hard time to find a screwdriver to open the crates with. It was funny watching them take turns hand cranking out the screws trying to guess which crate had the cordless drill/drivers in it.
Just so you know, we call it drywall, not sheetrock (and I’ve never heard it call Canadian plywood either, tho there is some really good plywood made in Canada eh!)
My name is Keith and I am a Canadian!
Yes, Keith! We Americans sometimes call it sheetrock or drywall, wallboard and some other names I probably have never heard! I’m a Union carpenter, drywall is like our bread and butter. When other jobs dry up there’s ussually always a big drywall job going on. As I said, I’ve learned a lot from great Canadian drywallers, and worked with many throughout the years. The term Canadian Plywoood is used as a humorous French Canadian accented term to describe drywall here among Massachusetts carpenters. There are thousands of Canadian drywallers here in New England. A lot of the ones I know live up in New Hampshire and commute to Boston, to work in the big drywall jobs. Many American based commercial and residential construction companies are run by great Canadian craftsmen. I hope I didn’t offend any Canadians. I’m quite fond of many I’ve met and became friends with. Tace care and watch out for Moose crossing!
TOOL NOTE: When you go and get your square drives, get a set of “torx” drivers also, but get “security” torx, that’s the ones with a dimple in the middle. Almost anything important on a modern car is done with those, and I have started to see them used in more and more applications.
Out in the field we use torx security and other security screws quite often. Especially, while screwing in bathroom stalls, so they cant be messed with. I’ve worked on a few court houses also, where we screw access panels on judges benches with such screws. They don’t want any surprizes under those!
The Robertsons are good screws! We also use them more often than phillips out in the construction world. Especially while decking and millwork installing. We always keep multiple shafts in our belts: #1 and 2 Robertsons, #2 and3 phillips, they are the most common in millwork, doors and hardware…
. As a carpenter I try to buy multiple sets of almost every hand tool I use and to have a set at home at all times, for that very reason. 
The job was a Stop’n'Shop rehab, we brought tools in and out of the job with their shopping carts (graveyard shift.) I forgot the little set in a cart, it was dark, about 4am and drove home. The worse 20 mile ride I ever had to and from a job. I got pulled over 3 times, one ticket!! I’ll never work another graveyard construction job again!!
