Machinery, Tools, Research, Reviews and Safety

I was just down at Lowes to buy some epoxy and they Have a Dewalt 12" dual bevel sliding compound miter saw on sale for $399.00 and get a free stand with it. Seems like a deal if one needs it.

I had an old friend pass away yesterday. He and I have known each other since 1986. It seems like yesterday and not 31 years. We used to work together quite and bit and he was always there when I needed him. Anyway, he'll be sorely missed. You would have never known that he was sick, but he is gone, nevertheless. There were no outward indications of anything wrong. As a matter of fact he was, in all appearances, in excellent shape and not all banged up or worn out like most his age. That alone makes me sad because there was no indications of anything being wrong. Perhaps if there had been I would have recognized it and at least been there to help. I may have b…

My equipment is in a need of having all cast iron surface cleaned and have all the raised spots of finish or sap or whatever removed. Some surface rust also. How would you go about this? 1. get some 400 1200 1600 sand paper and with a block plain sand the surface smooth? Mineral spirits is not working to remove anything as it has dried and I am not looking for a show room finish nor perfectly sheen finish. The existing goughes will remain. 2. How about a buffing wheel with rubbing compound? Does rubbing compound has silicone in it? 3. other options?

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…

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.

You boys have any experience with the Harbor Freight brand ? I'm in the market for a small to medium size.....but nevermind the size. If you have one your happy with feel free to share. I'm not in the snap-on $$ market though ,...could do a little more than the HF but I'm not getting crazy.

If this thread needs to be relocated by the powers that be, no problemo. I seem to remember Gene having a post on replacing the stock knives, on a DeWalt 735 planer, with the Byrd Shelix/Helix head. I have a 735, it’s never been plugged in. My meager WWing talents are improving to the point where I am considering trying some projects that involve using a planer. My shop is in the basement of our townhouse. The noise from the SS DC, Jet air filter, and router/table saw/whatever tool I’m using has driven the Missus to have to retreat to the upstairs on occasion. From what I’ve read the only negative to the Byrd upgrade is paying for it, a small adjustment to the depth of …

Need Help, not sure if this is the right forum, so please move if not. My daughter was given a large shopping bag full of drums for a drum or spindle sander, thought I could use them. This bag has everything from 1"x2" to 3"x3" all from Klingspor. I do not have a spingle/drum sander (not at this point). I am not familiar with them, do they have interchangeable drums? can you get drums to fit on a router? Educate me.

Maybe not for us hard-core tool junkies: https://www.wcpo.com/money/consumer/dont-waste-your-money/home-depot-vs-lowes-which-chain-is-better

I'd like to thank @Gerald for his efforts and great blogging that he just installed. Seems sometimes our blogging feature is a forgotten area of our community, and I am beyond excited that Gerald has taken the steps to install some interesting and very usable content in our blog area. Please visit Gerald's Dust Collection 101 series:

What would be the best 10" table saw for a 4×8 portable workbench?

Went to Lowe's today and noticed they are giving their tool department a makeover. Looks like they are dedicating a large area to Craftsman Tools. It appears the Kobalt brand is staying too. I saw a special section for Dewalt also. They are nowhere near done with the improvements so we'll have to wait and see what else is planned.

Want to make one on the cheap. I've seen where garage door gears were use for about $20... Anyone have any secrets to share. Was trying to sell/trade the Kreg bar clamps to buy one but most want the clamps on the cheap and that's not going to happen..I'll keep the clamps and make a sander...thx...

My table saw (10" Dewalt portable) is everything I want and need. It does a great job, saws straight & square. It did not come with a zero clearance throat plate and none is available for that mode.. I made one that works just fine. The only glitch is that When I use it I can't use the riving knife. I can not use it because it would weaken the home made throat plate too much. I could use an 8 inch blade and make one that would work, but that is too labor intensive and time too. Today I was cutting several small pieces using the home made zero clearance plate and when I finished I put my regular throat plate back on. I forgot the riving knife. First cut after that, the…

Hello again folks, so we are looking to add a new tool to the arsenal in the shop and I am going crazy searching for it. We are wanting a Router, we prefer one right now with a pre-fab table so we can start making our own paddles out of pine for our projects. However, the more I search the more questions I have and no one at Home Depot or Lowe's is any help, we don't really have many local hardware stores that I know of, if any. Can anyone here point me in the right direction?

The old Craftsman let me down tonight.. Motor stalled out....even under NO LOAD!..... Motor is a double-ended one, has a plastic cover over the un-used shaft.....always filled up with dirt...got rid of that. Thrust bearings were worked over....since I was tearing the saw down, anyway Yep, nasty looking. There IS a trash bag back there...will be full tomorrow...Drive wheel lost the tire a while back... Might as well install these, as well. IF I hand spin the drive wheel to start the saw up......it will run at normal speed....if I don't, it barely turns, and hums.....air compressor Sunday to blow out the motor...hoping i…

We'd like to get a trim router for the furniture bank. So I'd say it would get about as much abuse as in a High School shop. At this point all we're going to use it for are 1/8" round-overs to soften edges. All signs point to the Bosch Colt, but the reviews I find are 8-10 years old. Dewalt and Ridgid seem like runners up. Fe$tool is too expen$ive. Corded is probably the way we'll go Any recommendations from experience?

In my shop there is a seldom opened drawer full of tapes, rules, dial indicators and calipers of all kinds. Some instruments are metric, some are imperial, some have readouts in thousandths, some are, through use, are missing marks and numbers. Their common weakness is that they all rely on numbers. Numbers that often require conversion. So, in the drawer are also conversion charts, Imperial to metric and decimal to fractions and, calculators for those in between numbers. In recent years I have grown increasingly weary and frustrated with these tools and their cumbersome and often inaccurate implementation. Some of which, I'm sure, results from operator error. …

I searched for Harvey table saw and had 0 results. I was wondering if anybody here has one. I just bought one today and it hasn’t shipped yet. I have watched a lot of reviews on YouTube and all are very good. I bought the table saw with the router extension table and dust collection box for the router. The only table saw I have owned so far is my wife’s dads from the 1960’s that is around 18” square. This one should be a big difference.

Some time back I had asked about a digital protractor to compliment the Wixey. Well, the other day I was at Lowes and happened to see this hanging on the rack. Does anyone have one? Does it work as advertised? The Wixey took my woodworking up a couple of notches. I could see this doing the same...