Machinery, Tools, Research, Reviews and Safety

The Tormek sharpener came up in a thread a couple days ago. Coincidentally, I got a flyer from Grizzly yesterday. They have a Tormek knockoff. Does anyone have this Griz model? How does it work for you?

I cashed in on the Emerson $100.00 recall on my Craftsman radial arm saw. Now What? I don't want to make a pin router. What else can the remaining frame and jack be used for? No I don't have a boat.

A while back I bought a nice old Craftsman TS with a Cast Iron top and wings from my small engine repair guy for $50. I brought home and it wouldn't rip anything without bogging down and only a fair job of cross cutting. I took the motor off and had it checked and remounted it adding a Link Belt. Better but still not good. The old fence was impossible to use and always wanted to toe into the back side of the blade, so I replaced it with a new Vega Fence. I like it, it mounted on the old saw easily with just a couple simple modifications. Better but still lacking. When all else fails seek your answer on Youtube. I found it where I should have started …

Skil used to be owned by Bosch. At that time, it was a lower quality line, maybe with the exception of the worm-drive Skilsaws. Now it's owned by Chervon and some reviews I've seen lately it's a good quality line of tools. Porter-Cable used to be in bed with Delta. They were some of my original tools and very good. Then Stanley Black and Decker bought them. They, I guess, didn't want them to compete with the DeWalt line so they seemed to be downgraded. Now, it seems that they are doing a more quality tool now. Craftsman, as we have discussed, used to be a long-declining quality when Sears economized and looked for lowest bidder. Then when…

I am curious, I have looked all over for an example of a Mark V mounted on a cabinet roll away similar to the 10er's. But have found none. I am curious why? I see plenty of SS's with a cabinet built to sit underneath, but what I am looking for are any ideas for building one that the Mark V can set on, thus eliminating the factory legs. It seems simple enough, but there must be a variable in design I am not seeing, that prevents this from happening. Any help is greatly appreciated. Shopsmith 10er on table, can this be done with a Mark V? Now just imagine a Mark V, I'd like to build a roll away cabinet for the Mark V to sit on, with drawers and doors. And flip d…

We are proud to announce the giveaway of some wonderful clamps as contributed by our sponsor Bessey Tools! We will feature our Bessey Tools K-Body REVO clamps valued at $220.00 for the 30 day period from July 10 through August 9, at the end of this time period we will choose one lucky winner at random from a pool of active users of our community. RULES You must be active in our community during this promotional period from July 10 through August 9. Does this mean our woodworkers need to write essays or lengthy topics? Not at all, we just want to see your smiley shiny avatar here in our community and active. All members, and hosts are eligible for the random draw at…

Good morning...and happy weekend ! Probably doesn't mean much to you retired guys I am looking for an "angle finder" and hoping you have a favorite that you've been using. It needs to do inside and outside angles... No digital, please...nothing fancy...accurate mechanical readout preferred. Doesn't matter if it's a gauge or something like a protractor. Right now I'm transferring angles to a protractor but am getting tired of that... I am refurbishing a deck around an oval pool...not so oval as you might now...and am edging the deck around the capping and need to cut boards accordingly. I've had other small jobs where an angl…

Noticed that HF has two new tool lines - Bauer and Hercules. I never did understand where all their other house brands fit in the hierarchy -- Chicago Pneumatic, Pittsburgh Forge, Pittsburgh Professional, Chicago Electric, Daytona, Portland, Bunker Hill, (am I seeing a pattern here?) Central Machinery, US General, Earthquake XT, Storehouse, Warrior, Hardy, Predator, Drill Master, etc. etc. etc. Why don't they just have a good, better and best, or in their case, crap, crapper, and crappiest? And why do they sometimes have two SKUs for the same tool - different vendors?

Question to all. Has anyone closely compared the aluminum bar clamps sold thru Woodcraft to those sold at HF? I'm not a big HF fan, but I'll be darned if I can see any difference in these clamps. For a 36" one, HF is $11.99 while WC is $16.40. Appreciate any insight someone may have. Thanks so much and apologies if this has been covered already.

Does anyone have any experience with the latest Craftsman 14 inch bandsaw? I have been drooling over the grizzly g0555 but it is about 250 more after shipping and I can't swing that for awhile. The Craftsman seems to be a RIKON clone and has really good reviews as far as I have seen. I currently do not have a bandsaw and have been ready for one for awhile now.

Learn something new every day!

It appears that Festool has come out with a table saw, well a small one as it fits in a Systainer? Hard to get too much data on it. May not be available in US or Canada and might have some SawStop technology. Cordless job site saw? https://www.misterworker.com/en-us/festool/18v-4ah-cordless-table-saw-csc-sys-50-ebi-basic-576820/75577.html

I'm sure many of you all are already aware of this cell phone app. But, this old luddite wasn't. To me, this is an amazing piece of gadgetry. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plaincode.clinometer&hl=en_US&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dinclinometer+app&pcampaignid=APPU_1_1s1HW-G5OqmpjwS047fQAw&rdid=com.plaincode.clinometer What's really funny is that I downloaded it to my Kindle hoping to use it. But, when I hit install, nothing happened. I was sorely disappointed. Later, I picked up the cell phone to find that it had been installed on it. I never did nuttin to tell it to do that.…

Just a heads up if you are thinking of buying a Table Saw in the near future.

My table saw was set-up with a Forrest Woodworker II 10”-40 tooth, .125” kerf saw blade. The wood was clamped to a miter gauge to prevent slippage while cross cutting. I made additional cuts, on other boards, using my TS cross cut sled and had similar results; same results using my rip fence. I measured the parallelism between the blade and the miter gauge slot and it was 0.002”. The blade was clean and does not appear to be damaged. The blade is a used blade but appears to be sharp. I removed the FWWII blade and installed my Ridgid 10”-50 tooth blade and received good results. I made the same comparison with my Freud 10”-80 tooth plywood blade and my Freud 10”…

I saw there is at least one other Craftsman model 113 lathe in this group (or was). I was just given a 113 for free (and wondering if I overpaid?!). [the model 113 is distinctive because it has a 2+" tube as a base] What do you do for parts? Specifically, the adjusting wheel on the tail, but probably more before I'm done! Thanks

I am in the Market for a dust collector. I need 785 CFM for my Thickness Planar. 6" main line, 4" drops 2 x 2 1/2 drops (router and Chop saw) Will only use 3' of flex near tool then transition to rigid back to the dust collector. Static loss around 3" 1. Priority low noise. 1A. Hepa or 1 mciron. 2. Priority Cyclone separator 3 Priority must fit in 8' floor to ceiling. 4. Yes I only use one tool at a time now but if this build goes well I may have friends over running 2 to 3 devices. Total CFM then ~1500 CFM. 5. Blast gates will be used and two 4" must be open to properly supply the 6" main. 6. Floor sweep will…

OK, if you are a roofer or plumber working in obscure places without power, sure. But does the world's DIYer really need all these cordless tools -- routers, table saws, chain saws, jig saws, recip saws? What does a new 32V battery replacement cost? And what happens when it gives out two cuts before you are done? I have a drill-driver because I'm often working in someone's home and don't want to have to string extension cords all over the place. And most of the time I'm driving screws that don't work all that well with a corded drill. But in the shop, I'm rarely more than 6' from an outlet. A number of years ago, there was a trim carpenter …

I keep getting e-mails about free DeWALT (sic) tools, samples, or something. E-mails end up in my SPAM folder, right among the offers for girlfriends, or pictures thereof, from various parts of the world, Viagra pills from CanadanPharmcy (sic, again), insurance and tactical flashlight offers. If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't. Or am I missing out on something?

Simple survey. What should be the next tool band saw or bench drill press? If it's band saw, bench top or floor model? My primary source of wood are old pallets. my next big project will be a long book case with doors and offset shelves