Power Tools

Power tools . . . wouldn't that make a great name for a heavy-metal rock group? As it is, it's enough to make the heart of any serious rehabber beat faster. The lanes of home-improvement stores are full of shiny, promising tools and, if you're a tool lover, as most people who work on houses are, they all seem like great devices to own.The truth is you can probably remodel a room or even rehab an entire house with a good collection of hand tools and just two power tools: an electric drill and a circular saw.The single drill should be a good-quality, 3/8 -inch variable-speed, reversible model.

In the first round of job cuts tied to the buyout of Black & Decker Corp. by The Stanley Works, the merged company said Tuesday that it would lay off 37 employees this week who work for the tools giant in Towson and other Baltimore-area facilities. Last month, Stanley bought Towson-based Black & Decker in a $4.5 billion deal that created the world's largest maker of hand and power tools. At the time, the companies said they expected to trim about 4,000 employees from their worldwide work force of 38,000.

Landscaping power tools were stolen from two Brooklyn Park homes between 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday, county police said.A floor scrubber, lawn mower, weed cutter and motorcycle were taken from the rear porch of a house in the 200 block of Edgevale Road in Brooklyn Park, police reported. The items were valued at more than $5,300. Though the items were chained to the porch, the thief broke the lock on the chain, police said.About 10 a.m. Sunday, Marian Soto reported that a man broke into the garage of her home in the 5700 block of Gischel St. in Brooklyn Park and stole a chain saw, two weed cutters and a blower.

Police reports in Baltimore city and county Southern Baltimore Robbery Police have identified and continue to seek a man who they say assaulted a man walking in the 3500 block of Round Road in Cherry Hill about midnight Sunday and robbed him of a lap top computer valued at $220. Eastern Baltimore Burglary Jewelry, two watches, a cell phone and a cell phone charger, all worth $5,400, were stolen Monday from a house in the 900 block of N. Kresson St. by someone who entered through a basement window.

Though it's been almost two hours since I heard the plaintive cry, "Get the ice!" I stand alert, knowing that it is spring and at any second I may have to stop what I'm doing and again race for the freezer.In the old days, the really old days, it was a spring ritual for males to place leeches on their bodies as part of a therapeutic process called bloodletting. It was believed that this practice would rid the system of excess blood accumulated over the winter. It's surprising that in this modern day and age the ancient ritual continues; however, today's males have replaced leeches with a more civilized method of bloodletting -- power tools.

Every year, Black & Decker Corp. hires a fresh crop of eager college graduates to help the world's largest power-tool maker get its products into homes and job sites across the country. But what if the company's new hires think a do-it-yourself project is tacking a poster of a favorite basketball player onto a dorm-room wall, or that construction work means using a screwdriver to assemble an IKEA bookshelf? How can they, with any self-respect, travel to building sites and talk tools with seasoned workers who rely on the products for their livelihoods?

Three residents of an apartment above a Westminster restaurant were hospitalized yesterday after power tools used in an unventilated area apparently sent carbon monoxide levels soaring.Denise Roberts, her infant son, Stephen, and her 3-year-old son, Michael, remained in stable condition yesterday at Carroll County General Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.The incident began about 10:30 a.m. when Mrs. Roberts called 911 after smelling smoke, police said.Officials from the county Health Department and the Maryland Occupation, Safety and Health Administration are investigating and will determine when renovations may resume, said Lt. Dean Brewer of the Westminster Police Department.

In its drive to dominate the power tool market worldwide, Black & Decker Corp. will introduce a line of midpriced power tools in the United States this summer, company Chairman Nolan D. Archibald announced yesterday.The new line of electric drills, saws and other tools will be called "Black & Decker Quantum" and will be priced between Black & Decker's lowest-end line, which usually starts at about $30 a tool, and the company's new DeWalt line of professional-quality tools, in which drills can cost about $120.

Black & Decker Corp., the world's largest maker of power tools, reported third-quarter profits yesterday that beat estimates, as cost-cutting and new product introductions offset a big dip in sales.The Towson company said it earned $66.6 million for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, a 14 percent increase from the $58.4 million it earned for the same three months in 1997. Net earnings per share rose 20 percent, to 72 cents, this year, from 60 cents for the same period a year ago.Operating profits -- the figure analysts keyed upon because some one-time gains and charges muddied the bottom-line numbers -- were 70 cents per share.

Teen-age girls scream and cry in his presence. In his absence, they create Internet sites to wax romantic about his "insanely blue eyes," and write poems with titles like "Evan Rocks." But Evan Farmer -- actor, musician and television host -- is not actively wooing his gaggle of fans. Yes, he once played in a boy band. And yes, he's toured with Britney Spears, appeared in Cosmogirl! magazine and stood in for Carson Daly as the host of MTV's Total Request Live. These days, however, Farmer is working on something much more subdued: interior design.

The Baltimore area has seen corporate headquarters disappear before, but the loss of Black & Decker in a corporate merger could hurt more than most in terms of prestige, spinoff jobs and charitable giving, local leaders say. Allan Tibbels, co-executive director of Sandtown Habitat for Humanity, was left wondering what the proposed deal will mean for his nonprofit, which rebuilds housing in West Baltimore. The organization has benefited from Black & Decker's charitable contributions for years, as the manufacturer has donated power tools, employee volunteer hours and funding, Tibbels said.

Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. said yesterday that net earnings fell 18 percent in the second quarter as a sharp downturn in home construction and remodeling continued to hurt sales. The maker of power tools and hardware products reported net earnings of $96.7 million, or $1.58 per diluted share, compared with earnings of $118 million, or $1.75 per share, for the second quarter of 2007. Second-quarter sales fell 3 percent to $1.6 billion, the company said. The decrease included a positive 5 percent impact from foreign currency translation.

In June 2006, a minor brawl erupted at Ye Olde Six Bells pub in Horley, England. In the aftermath, police arrested Mark Dixie, a chef at the pub, who surprised them by breaking into tears. He had good reason. As a standard practice in arrests, a DNA swab was taken from him. What the authorities didn't suspect, but he did, is that his DNA would match that of the man who raped and murdered an 18-year-old woman nine months earlier. He was eventually sentenced to life in prison. This is just one of many cases that have vindicated the use of DNA in cracking crimes.

Black & Decker Corp. said yesterday that it would consolidate manufacturing plants and reduce personnel this year as the housing slump continues to take its toll on sales, which the company expects will decline this year. The cutbacks at the Towson power tools and home improvement company were announced as Black & Decker released its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, which continued to suffer from the economic slow- down. Black & Decker Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Nolan D. Archibald told a conference call with analysts that declining sales would force the company to shift some manufacturing work to lower-cost sites but he declined to identify specific areas.

Joseph Galli Jr. swears he does not "wake up in the morning, thinking I have to kill Black & Decker." But he does call it "poetic justice" that he is about to be in a position to at least inflict injury. Nearly nine years after being fired as head of Black & Decker's power tools division, Galli is expected to be named CEO of the Towson toolmaker's largest competitor, Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd., in early January, according to TTI sources. Galli, who still lives in Baltimore, has been out of the tool business since leaving Black & Decker and was forbidden by a clause in his contract with a subsequent employer from working in the industry for much of that time.

Amid the prolonged housing downturn and subprime mortgage crisis, Black & Decker Corp. surprised many investors yesterday by reporting third-quarter profit that topped its own forecast and that of analysts. While profit fell 16 percent, the Towson manufacturer of power tools and home improvement products was buoyed by the results and boosted its outlook for the year. Black & Decker's stock shot up more than 8 percent, or $6.74, to close at $89.74. "As we have described all year, outstanding international sales growth mitigated weakness related to the U.S. housing industry," said Chief Financial Officer Michael D. Mangan in a conference call with analysts.

Black & Decker Corp. said yesterday that it finally has won the year-long patent-infringement case it has been waging against power-tool rival Porter-Cable Corp.Towson-based Black & Decker said a federal judge in Virginia has ordered Porter-Cable to permanently stop making and selling several versions of a woodworking joiner. This type of joiner is essentially a tiny circular saw that cuts slots in wood so precisely that, say, two pieces of wood that help form a piece of furniture can be fitted together perfectly using wood "biscuit" tabs that fit into the slots.

A stunning first-quarter profit report posted by Black & Decker Corp. yesterday was virtually overshadowed by the resignation of Joseph Galli, the charismatic president of the company's power tools business, and a man many viewed as the eventual successor to Nolan D. Archibald, Black & Decker's chairman, president and chief executive officer.The revelation was buried in the company's first-quarter earnings report, released well after the stock market's close.The company said Galli "resigned to pursue other interests."