Well from a DH who is handy here are maybe some helps:
hammer....use a heavy corrigated head hammer. I have four I use depending on applictation. lightest is a 22 ounce ( finese ), a 24 ounce, and two 28 ounce hammers. I watch my 21 year old drive nails it drives me crazy...he averages about one in three, he is wearing out the cats paw. It has to do with you must hit a nail straight on the head to drive it
Saws...get a decent sidewinder like a skil, I have been cutting material for 38 years and I still have problems with cheap or non sidewinder saws
a decent chop saw is essential for some jobs
use carbide tip blades on both the skil and the chop saw ( use a more toothed finer blade on the chop saw
Tools in general: some jobs require certain tools, there are no short cuts, just long way arounds and not the finished product you had in mind. I have a lot of tools and machinery, I have spent a lifetime collecting ( and sometimes building ) the tools I have and I still need to go out and buy something on occasion ( although most of my purchases are replacing something that is worn out lately )
Sons, Son-in-laws, and obviously some hubbies on this thread: There are individuals that have zero mechanical ability, thinking....doing...executing. I have one son and a son-in-law that fit that ticket exactly. They are basically accidents waiting to happen, have four thumbs instead of fingers and some other kind of useless organ for a thumb, and I won't even go into what they are thinking when they donk something up. Every time I get help from either one, I end up with something broken, a hammer handle, a shovel handle, cut the cord on my chop saw ( it was brand new not 3 days old ), the list goes on. When I get help from them I am very patient, explain exactly step by step what I want or expect. I have found that they do much better when I do that and both I and them are a lot less frustrated if I take time to do this. If I expect them to know how to do something I am doomed. Needless to say I don't really use either one on projects, everything takes three times as long to do, I am a lot less frustrated and so are theywhen I don't ask for help.
Here are some pics of my current project. It snowballed thanks to our local county not letting me repair my roof and I ended up ripping off the old roof and putting on new trusses. I am not happy
Then my wife who has been gone for a week comes home last night, and starts ranting about I didn't vacuum and mop the floor ( I did just not to her oriental crazy standard ), no I spent the last two days in the rain working on pouring concrete and crawling around on the roof installing hurricane ties ( really hard it is an existing structure and they are just a bugger to put on).
It was 9:00 before I had the first thing to eat yesterday cause I was so busy and she is complaining ( which I made). I just went to bed and didn't talk to her. This is after a smart remark yesterday on the phone from California about whether I was going to get this done before it snows
BTW she hasn't picked up one board or nail...help....ZIP
Any way here are some pics for the frustrated, I need to get this finished up, I wish I was working on a smaller project, I really don't like doing roofing work at my age, and I keep saying this is the last project like this to myself. Maybe this will cheer you guys up knowing this isn't your project.
Anyway got to go, I am trying to get this done for a framing inspection.
