Mmcc, 1) pick gourds when the stems are brown and dried. For minimal cleaning, on the outside, gourds should be placed off the ground and spread on a pallet. (2) gourds will take sometimes months to dry, 6-12 months. When you hear the seeds rattling around they should be ready. (3) gourds cannot be cleaned on the inside until they are dried. (4) After they are dried you can pick one of the many suggestions listed here to clean. My personal way of doing it is to place the gourd in the sink, turn on the hot water, put dish detergent on the gourd and scrub with the stainless scrubbie. This should get the mold off. Sometimes I have to use a kitchen table knife to scrape them. I personally like to see some of the various designs that are on the gourds. (5) To clean the inside you have to determine what design you want. If the gourd will not have any openings on them you don't necessarily have to clean the inside. After cutting open the gourd I use a Proxxon Mini-Jigsaw to cut my designs. I have various tools to clean the inside out. I have a old metal slotted spoon that I have sharpened and attached a metal rod to and I can clean out most gourd with it. I have also purchased gourd scrapers. You can soak the inside and scrape out. Then you can sand the inside. (6) Just about any medium can be used on the outside of a gourd. It's like a smooth canvas - shoe polish, leather dye, leather paint, markers, oil pastel crayons, watercolors, oil paint, acrylic paint, wood stain, etc. You can coil them with pine needles, raffia, cording, etc. You can embed into the outside of the gourd with many things. (7) After completing your design you have, again, many ways of preserving your work. Polyuretan varnish, plain ole varnish, any kind of wood preservative will do. You can make them foodsafe by using an oil that is used for wood cutting boards. (8) Gourds can be waterproofed on the inside by using Spar Varnish or beeswax. There are a lot of different ways of doing some of the things I've explained by can't remember. Gourding is a matter of choice. Whatever you want to do, try it. Keep gourd scraps and experiment on them. Happy Gourding!

I have a Roto-zip ($150) and a Fein Multi-tool ($400 -but there are cheaper ones out there). This is what I've found from spending the last 7 years doing a complete gut and remodel (rebuild mostly) of a 130 year old farm house. For what you want. - cutting a square hole out of hardwood floor for an air duct (although nails that aren't visible through the tongue & groove could make this tricky) Fien tool - the rotozip struggled cutting through hardwood - lots of burning and went very slow - actually I don't think either it a great tool for this job- a good quality jigsaw would be better. - cutting sheet metal ducts and gutter downspouts I have not done a lot of metal cutting with either - but I think the oscelating blade would be better. We've done most of that with a metal blade on the compound miter saw -larger projects get cut with a blade backwards in a skill saw - or by hand - bought a nibbler but did not like the way it works (this was for work on outbuildings). - cutting notches out of tile for backsplash going around back of sink I found the rotozip worked wonderful for this (need the right bit) - put your tile on a piece of scrap sheetrock so you can keep the whole tile supported (just cut into the sheetrock). Was worth the full purchase price even if I never use it for anything else. - small routing jobs (hinge mortises) I would not use the rotozip - it is harder to control than the Fien tool and you really don't want to slip doing this work. For these things DH uses a good wood chisel. Bigger routing jobs get done with the router. - cutting holes in drywall Rotozip made way too much dust - best here is a hand saw of some sort. Utility knife and a steady hand does not make near the mess. For small cuts (like outlets) an exacto knife with a 3" serrated blade was our favorite, but we have not found blades like that again. It was pointed enough you could push the blade through the sheetrock and then start cutting. - detail sanding Unless you have holes and need a drum type, the oscelating tool wins hands down. However I've got several nice sanders and they work better than the Fien tool for the job. I also have drum sanders for my drill press so I've not had to use the rotozip to sand anything - - cutting existing trim and baseboard shorter to install a cabinet Fien tool hands down. Main reason we bought it. There have been so many times in our whole house remodel that the oscelating tool has turned out to be the ONLY tool suitable for the job. BTW - I second what others have said - dremel is great for the hobbiest (woodworking, arts & crafts) but I've never considered it for construction type house work. I owned one years ago but gave it away at some point. Cathy

Mine go to the greatest sewing machine mechanic in the world every 6 mos.. I have close to a dozen pair of scissors; embroidery scissors, cutwork scissors, points, dressmaker shears, 10" and 12" canvas shears, and the inevitable "snips" every production stitcher knows and loves. ;) You name 'em, I probably have 'em! (even have BANDAGE scissors from a long deceased great-aunt who was a nurse). The key to maintaining a nice edge is to use the shears for the purpose for which they were intended. I hang mine on the same pegboard that holds my rulers, curves, and standards. Many years ago, I discovered the helpmeet cutting up a stewing chicken with my coating shears... he remarked they were "really sharp". I siezed them, washed them, and icily told him, "NEVER use MY shears again, EVER!". He never has, lol. (never touches my measuring equipment, either!). They're the tools of my trade... keepa you hands off. :)

"Make sure that the nearest stud is more than one-half inch from the box you will install..." This depends on what manufacturer's box you are using. There are some old work boxes designed to be mounted to the stud using screws through the side of the box. If you are using bendable strap clamps you need some room (these are bent over the front edge of the box while catching behind the surface material). Other boxes use screw expanded 'wings' to grab the wall material from the back, while the top and bottom wings catch on the front of the wall material (the hole needs to be pretty tight for them to work well). Screws through the wings are not nearly as solid as other methods, and rarely hold long term in plaster or drywall. Simply opening a hole large enough to fasten the box to the side of a stud (use a new work box and screws) is often faster and more solid. It is not hard to cut drywall to patch the area. It may take a couple layers in plaster walls to get drywall flush to the face of thick plaster from a stud face, or a thick bed of setting compound to build up to the surface (not as hard as it sounds with EasySand). Aligning boxes to wood lathe may result in them not being even throughout the room, and is generally not worth the trouble. Making all the boxes the same height looks a lot better, and it is not hard to cut wood lathe as required, or start a sawzall style tool (or en a regular gig saw) 'blind' without a starting hole. You just pivot the blade into the surface.