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Meets most of my intended purpose as a makeshift tail-vise, but hard to use effectively
When I set out to build my workbench, I knew its home would be in the basement right next to my wife’s fabric cutting table. The location made it hard to fit a tail vise without blocking the main walkway through the basement. Given that I was already pushing my wife’s forgiveness by setting my workbench in the basement, I knew I needed another option. I considered a variety of solutions, including the Veritas in-line vise, a Rocker Auto-Lock T-Track clamp (inspired by Dema's ...
Cheapest no-tip track upgrade I can find
Ever since the IWF 2014, I have been dying to pick up the new BORA guide systems. After months of hunting and phone calls to BORA, I finally managed to get my hands on the BORA saw plate. The short story is…it’s awesome. Paired with the BORA WTX, this answers the mail on a track system upgrade for my Porter Cable PC15TCSMK. The Good: Works as advertised. The saw guide is (supposedly) compatible with any straight edge guide in the market. I’ve tested it with both t...
Fantastic starter HVLP set, but choose your finish wisely
When my wife asked me to upcycle a dresser for our daughter, I told her that I needed a new tool to get it done. After doing my research and agonizing if I wanted to get the Earlex Spray Station 5500 as my first HVLP or go for the HF/Rockler HVLP. I eventually settled on this one, figuring I can learn from the experience and go for a 3 or 4 stage after I finally wear it out. I’ve had and used the unit for almost a year now. The HVLP comes with 3 tips, that at best I can figure is ...
Very promising clamp edge system
Like many other woodworkers, I’ve done a dance around buying a track saw or making due with after market and/or shop made guides. Knowing that I’d be in the dog house if I splurged on a track saw (i.e. Festool) before I had a decent portfolio of sheet-goods based projects, I attempted to make due with two HF straight edge and a home-made guide. At shorter lengths (up to ~24-30”) that solution work fine. Any longer, and it becomes a pick your poison question of fighting de...
Where has this thing been my entire woodworking career?
The recent announcement of the Wood Peckers precision framing square sent me down a dangerous path of wondering where I can pull a few hundred bucks out of my budget for an impulse buy. After sanity checking myself, I decided that I need to bring myself back to reality and ask if there was an alternative to consider. Enter the Veritas Square Fence. If a framing square were Tom Cruise, it would say “you complete me” to this Veritas innovation. I spotted this innovation in the...
Simple and user friendly, just the way I like it
During a Woodworking Show, I saw the merit of ruler stops and cabinetmaker rulers for my layout. I impulse buy for a WoodPeckers Rule Stop-1 (the smaller brother of the Rule Stop-2 review that gave me the motivation to get to writing this review) and eventually decided that $30 was too much money to splurge. After waltzing over to the Lee Valley/Veritas booth, I spotted this Veritas Ruler Stop in their catalog and I figured it would be a good alternative. I picked this up and a 12”...
Better than nothing (for free), but you gotta wonder about the dye.
I picked up one pair of these red Harbor Freight split leather work gloves as a freebie, and use them on occasion for gardening. The gloves do the job to protect my hands, but as the HF site reviews say…the dye can run and get on your hands. If you’re wary of the dye being toxic, consider looking elsewhere. In my mind, they’re a last resort if I’m doing something dirty and don’t want to use my Mechanix gloves.
Single-purpose freebie: Paper cutter
Harbor Freight item 60274, 47877 is one of the many freebies I stock up on. I wouldn’t call it a multi-purpose tool. My family has one purpose for them: to cut paper, and usually coupon trimming. Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I seem to only cut HF coupons with these scissors, sometimes for more scissor freebies. My wife uses them to trim coupons when we are on a long drive. The complaints I have for this too are: They may be relatively sharp at first but dull very qui...
Light duty freebie that I treat as a consumable
The smallest Harbor Freight tarp (item numbers 953, 69248, 69136, 69128) comes up as a freebie every now and then. I stock up on these whenever I see the freebie. The tarp is very thin and very light duty. I treat them as consumables and generally don’t expect them to last more than a couple of uses. I’ve had 2 of them tear on me after snagging a sharp corner of something. Usually they serve to line the minivan when picking up lumber (or an annual Christmas tree), or cover u...
Excellent but Elusive Freebie. Hard to get this wrong.
I have one of these magnetic parts holder and I have one more freebie coupon to use. Like the 6” counterpart, as a parts organizer, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do: keep the screws in place where I need it. My opinion is the same for this 4” parts organizer and the 6” parts organizer. At the current price of $3 (sans any coupon you might use), it’s hard to get it wrong, and it’s probably coming from the same factory line in China that other stores sell for more...
