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UltraDeck Composite Decking material
I just completed building a deck that featured the UltraDeck composite decking material. This was my first experience with any composite decking material. In many regards, I was impressed. This is a solid, straight and true decking material. They claim it is maintenance free and I believe them. The hidden screw system works reasonably well and, once you figure it out, installation goes well. The second picture shows a close-up of the grooves in the sides of the boards. A T-s...
Festool 1400 Router - Yea, it's better
I discovered that there is no review of this router on this website so I decided to add one. I know that Festool tools are a little controversial. They are expensive. Some of us who own them have been called “Festfools”. In my case, I was able to buy this router used for a reasonable price that was just a little more than I would pay for a comparable new router from a different manufacture. I decided to do part of this review on a comparative basis. I will compare t...
Carter Magfence
My 18” bandsaw is, essentially, dedicated to resawing and other straight cuts. I was not happy with the original fence and I looked to upgrade. I did not find many options for an 18” bandsaw and finally purchased this Carter magnet based fence. I’ve worked with it some and now I offer a mixed review with both the positives and the negatives as I see them. (As an FYI – I have a second, smaller, band saw that I use for the curvy stuff.) As I would expect fro...
Good idea - bad design
At one time, I had a Wixey digital guide on my table saw. It could tell me, to .001 of an inch, what the distance was from the blade to the fence. I discovered that knowing the exact distance was not as important as having the ability to adjust the distance easily in very small increments (i.e. micro adjust). I have micro adjustment capabilities on my router lift and router fence and I really like them. This tool allows me to micro adjust my table saw fence. It’s a good idea...
Cross cut sled
I’d always thought of a cross cut sled as a “nice to have – but not essential”. Then Rockler had a sale on this item ($99) and I said “why not”. This is a tool that raises the buy versus build question. I could probably have made a sled as nice as this one, but I am sure I would have spent at least $50 in materials and several hours of labor and I decided, in this case, to buy instead of build. I am very impressed by the overall quality of the ma...
It's made of plastic !
I use my digital calipers a lot and I tend to be hard on them. I’ve dropped them and poured stuff on them and it seems like I am buying new ones often. I saw this particular caliper on sale for half price – only $14.99. I didn’t need one at the time, but I know that I will eventually need another one so “why not?”. I never imagined that it would be made of plastic. It has a very cheap, flimsy feel to it and it does not have the normal little turn whe...
Shopsmith clamps
I was using these clamps today and thought to myself that I have never seen a review of these clamps on LJ. These are my favorite clamps for gluing up panels (like table tops or chair bottoms). What you see in this picture will be a chair bottom by the end of the day. When you tighten these clamps you are applying pressure to the edges and the sides. This does a great job of keeping the boards aligned. I particularly like these clamps when I am making something that is too big to ...
Great Flashlight - Indispensable tool
I have 4 other 18 volt Dewalt cordless tools with 4 batteries and 2 chargers. The batteries are all interchangeable so I almost always have charged batteries on hand. My local tool store had these “bare” flashlights on sale for about $20 and I said “why not?”. By “bare” I mean without battery or charger. This flashlight has proven to be a great tool that I didn’t know I needed until I got one. There are often situations where some extra di...
Solid Re-Saw machine
I was looking at the bandsaw reviews on this website and I noticed that there was no review of my bandsaw. So I decided to address this oversight by providing this review. I need to put my review into perspective. Previously, I used the band saw attachment for my shopsmith. That is an 11 inch bandsaw that is much different than this bandsaw. I have never had experience with other bandsaws that are comparable to this. Therefore, I cannot compare this bandsaw to other comparable ba...
Freud SD606 Dado set - Tradeoffs
This dado set is the 6 inch version of Freud’s dial-a-width model. There are several things I like about it but, as is often the case, there are trade-offs. The dial-a-width concept means that you do not need any shims. The outer cutter has a mechanism that, effectively, causes the width of that cutter to expand up to 7/64 of an inch in increments of 1/256 of an inch. Using the dial-a-width mechanism in lieu of shims is very convenient. Me and those shims never got along very well....
