Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rlgvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!rlgvax!toml
From: toml@rlgvax.UUCP (Tom Love)
Newsgroups: net.rec.wood
Subject: re: most valuable tools & other matters
Message-ID: <828@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 11:34:38 EST
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.828
Posted: Mon Nov  4 11:34:38 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Nov-85 07:16:28 EST
Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA
Lines: 47

someone said that if they could only have one power tool, it would be
a router.  since i am in the middle of a project for which i will soon
need a router, and currently have none, i will likely be buying one.
therefore i would like to hear from one and all regarding routers.
brand name recommendations, classification of type and purposes for
which they are appropriate, most useful bits, router tables (and plans for
same), etc --- dump your raves and flames out for everyone to hear.
this is a low volume group, so i imagine we could get away with a posted
discussion rather than mail-and-summarize.

other matters:  i recently bought a sears table saw, pretty near their
top of the line, as i recall.  i bought mine after using my father-in-law's
25 year old sears saw for some time.  his was a nice saw.  i find now, $400
later, that the new saws have several flaws.  the fence is lousy (and mind
you, this fence is better than the one on 90% of their other (cheaper) saws).
it has no positive interlock, i.e. gearing, on either end.  you basically
slide it to position and clamp it down.  this means using a combination
square every time you move the fence to square it up.  my father-in-law's
saw has a positive gear drive at the operator's end, so that you can turn
a wheel and move the fence.  not a flawless mechanism by any means, but
it works out far better than mine.

anyone have experience with the paralock fence mechanism?  they're very
expensive, something like $600 as i recall, but it sounds great.  is there
a cheaper alternative available?

two other significant problems:  the removable plate with a slot in it, thru
which the blade projects (sorry i don't know the name of the thing, i call
it a throat plate) is not at all flat - rather it slopes downward from the
sides to the middle, at the slot.  this leads to lots of inaccuracies.  i
haven't yet, but i plan to try to get them to replace this.  the other problem:
the motor is 110v, and when it starts up, it makes the lights flicker
badly in the house and the barn.  i have 220v available where i use the saw.
henry's saw ran at 220 and never caused problems.  it appears that the motor
can't be rewired for 220 - no extra terminals.  possibly a bad starter
capacitor?

just picked up the new "fine woodworking", with an article on james krenov
in it.  if you haven't read "a cabinetmaker's notebook" by krenov, i highly
recommend it.  much of it reads like a woodworker's version of "zen and the
art of motorcycle maintenance", one of my all-time favorite books.  check
it out.

tom love
computer consoles inc - office systems group
reston, va
{seismo | allegra | ihnp4} !rlgvax!toml