Machinery, Tools, Research, Reviews and Safety

I was looking at bandsaw blades on line from Suffolk machinery. It has been over a year since I've purchased new blades but is seems there has been somewhat of a spike in prices since my last purchase. I am also looking for advice concerning which blade to use. The max width to fit my Craftsman 14" is a 1/2" blade. Which blade will produce a good clean cut on materials up to 8" thick. I was considering 6 TPI but thought I'd check here before making my purchase. My 10 TPI blade tends to clog while cutting birch.

Hello Everyone, I am in the market for a thickness planer. I have used a couple and really liked the Dewalt model. I was at a tool outlet store yesterday and they had a Rigid planer there for $400 with 25% off. Does anyone have experience with the Rigid? I have used Rigid tools before. I know the table saw are pretty nice. The Dewalt is quite a bit more expensive. I know sometimes it is worth spending the money and getting the better tool. I am just a hobbyist/weekend warrior. This is not something I will be needing all of the time, but have enough rough sawn lumber that a planer would be nice to have. I am tired of having to go to my buddies hou…

First off I'd like to thank all the folks who participated on our Hand Plane Specifications Sheet Template for our new wiki. Now I have another mission I'd like ya'lls help on, I am looking for the main woodworking machinery categories. Just the main ones, we can talk about sub categories at a later date. Of course this is for our new wiki project. Here is what I have thus far. If you feel any of the categories I have so far can be consolidated further, please advise. I look forward to anyone's input and interest! We are looking for any missed categories from what you see below. Main Machinery Categories Band Saws Boring Dovetailers …

Will the "real" Craftsman tools, please stand-up. Not surprising this dispute would surface sooner-than-later... Stanley sues Sears

This last summer there was a discusion on another forum of making diamond wheels for the WorkSharp. Bill @Schnewj did a lot of research and cost analysis on making diamond wheels for the WorkSharp Sharpening System. From that discussion I was able to get the sources for the materials thru Bills research. So I set out to make a set of diamond wheels. The idea behind all this was to make some MDF wheels and buy some magnetic sign material 6"discs with PSA backing. Then drill a hole in the discs and peel the cover off and stick them o the MDF wheels. He also found a source in Los Angeles that sold lapidary steel diamond discs for the lapidary trade that were 6" in diame…

Inspired by an experienced member on another forum to clean up some rust I renewed my search for an older 6" jointer...so I Google "jointer for sale" and one pops up way the heck out in Connecticut. I send the gentleman an email and he responded with "somebody's gonna look at it Tuesday...I'll let you know"... Since it was the only 6" I dropped it for other interests...and a potful of pain in my lower back... While discussing my situation with a good friend on Sunday, and that I did not go to Connecticut to look at the jointer, another one pops up on Craigslist. This one appearing, by the photos, to be much cleaner. The gentleman reported that it was used once fo…

Some information about Li-Ion (and NiCad) battery life, use and technical details https://www.protoolreviews.com/news/how-long-do-lithium-ion-batteries-last/39576/ I will confess that my last few cordless tools have been Ridgid. If you dot your Is and cross your Ts, they have a lifetime warranty on batteries. The first one I got had some issues and they replaced the batteries twice in the first three years. For the last 5 or so, the re-engineered ones have been working just great.

I have the Hitachi M12VC, 2 1/4 HP router in my router table. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced router lift that will accept this router?

Before Christmas when I was using my drum sander for making gifts I decided to take it apart after Christmas for a little tweaking. When I got it the table needed to be made parrellel to the drum (fixed), I found out that it works better with a dust collector attached (so far), but the biggest problem is that the drum is about 10 thousandths out of round on the outside end. This makes a vibration when used on that end, and it doesn't allow the full use of the sandpaper around the drum. This is what it looks like right now. My plan is to take the drum to my cousin and have him remachine it, reinstall it and tune everything up.

Hi so I'm looking at buying 3 sharpening plates, I'm considering dmt stones, they are around 65 each. Any of you guys use them? What would you recommend?

I gotta say mounted in my angle grinder it's ferocious. Smooth (no grabbing) aggressive and it is Frightening. My grinder isn't paddle switch so if it gets out of my hands it's still going. Well I'll get used to it. I got used to standing up once too.

So in the last few months purchasing my new band saw and my pressure pot, I've come to the realisation that the HF lathe was going to cause some draw backs to types of projects that I eventually would like to do with a wood lathe. How ever with the most recent covid package passing last night it turns out that it is more than likely coming that I will be getting a new lathe very soon. I was looking at the delta how ever I couldn't find any of the model that you guys have been using. How ever the wen lathe peaked my interest a bit. I've had the old wen lathe of course it worked out quite well as it turned out I bought an older model. Either way the new lathe I'm loo…

My miter saw died. RIP. It’s one of the original Makita 10” saws. We bought it in 1979 or 80 to use in building our first house. It has seen almost continuous use since. The seven years we lived on the boat was the only exception. It was made back when the entire saw was cast iron. It was a very quick death. The bearings went from just fine to completely trashed in just a few days. I could have the bearings replaced but my son, ever the modern woodworker is urging me to upgrade to the new and “better” saws available today. Still on the fence on this one but can’t wait long. I use the saw daily at this point. There are about three or four major brands and they all have dif…

My old Craftsman (13 model) keeps giving me fits. Pulleys won't stay lined up and that leads to a lot of vibration and heat. Looking at a new replacement table saw. I don't need anything fancy so a low end entry level small shop one should work ($1200 +/-). I also have to get it down to the basement and the doorway is 29 inches wide. Been considering the Laguna F1, but there seems to be a quality and alignment with them. The Grizz 962 looks promising, but the fence isn't the greatest ----- but I have a Vega fence on the Craftsman if it'll fit. Also looked at the Delta from Lowes, but there seems to be a motor problem with them. Jet is a maybe, too. There seems to…

For years I always had access to either an 250 amp AC or 225 amp AC/DC stick as well as oxy/acetylene gas to weld and did a fair amount of welding in the farm equipment trade. I completed a local trade school course many years ago for stick & gas which also included MIG at the time. I also was "schooled" by/ with some old timers who ran fab shops and welding services. During my last couple of years in manufacturing I had upper level responsibility for an in-house welding training program which could grant AWS certifications so overall I have enough experience to be totally dangerous. By no means am I an expert however I'm pretty proficient in stick (arc) & gas wel…

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…

Some one said you look like those cops standing there at the desk. I said hows that and she said they carry all their important things attached to their belts all around their body and it looks like you carry yours in your pockets. I showed her what I had planned on doing today instead of the emergency room. No big deal. Except the little pair of Vise Grips which usually are in this mess is missing from the picture.. I said the black marker is for after I get the tree out of the ground I can write on it as to which end is up as I go to replant it. I guess maybe I should have waited till after she found the vein with the needle...before I said that! You …

So I'm looking around but haven't seen anything that looks complete enough without getting too fancy. As I mentioned before I'm trying to get the shop more compressed and workable...Any links or photos? Not fancy just needs to be the most sensible. I saw these but don't need to laminate and need to combine to be one complete table...

take a look at this. Be sure to click the "what's included" button.

So, I'm finally getting started on the overhaul of my Delta 36-630 table saw. I already had the stand and everything else disassembled for my move earlier this year. I decided to go ahead and do an overhaul cleaning and maintenance while it's apart. I have the bearings out and will pick up replacements this week. Little did I know that the large washer flange thing on the inside of the arbor was actually pressed on the spindle, not threaded on. I used a pair of jaw pullers and it came off without further trouble. This leads me to my first question. How do I press that part back onto the arbor?? I'm also going to work on cleaning every moving part that is threa…