So what were the great/little purchases of 2017 you are happy with?

[radhak]

We do a lot of run-of-the-mill purchases thru out the year that we don't think twice about, like toilet paper or toothpastes, etc. (yeah, I know toilet paper can also generate passion among some, but let's keep it clean here )

But some of my purchases keep me happy a long time after the event. Mostly this has to do with the tiny gem that nobody knows of, the extraordinary deal that saved me a ton, the incredibly useful piece I can't live without, or something a mix of all that.

Most of my purchases like these nowadays come from Amazon - they have become the go-to place for variety and choice and price. But not always. Others come thru too, at times.

Of all the things I bought in 2017, these are what come to the top:

Jen Manufacturing Inc 2" Poly Foam Brush (Pack Of 48) These redefine the foam brush. They are so firm they stand up to far more work than other foam brushes I have bought from HD/Lowes (The HF ones were the worst), and my finishing has improved dramatically just because of these. And they are as cheap if not cheaper than anywhere else!

GlideRite Full Extension Ball Slides When I had the bright idea of replacing regular deep shelves with shallow drawers, the cost of the slides was daunting, till I hit on these. They look cheap online, the package looked cheap when delivered, but boy they are great quality! They are strong, smooth, and precise. And the over-travel of 1-inch puts them over other regular full extension slides.

Alzazco Super hooks How many times have you wanted to hang something up that's not too heavy, but the push-pin is too fragile? These hooks belie their looks (and even seem unscientific) and deliver - they barely make a hole in the wall and are practically impossible to fail (I tried with much higher weight than recommended)!

HFS 1-2-3 Blocks I always wanted this block I saw on Lee Valley, but thought it was overpriced. Then I see this, and it's a pair of them for a third the price! They are as precise as I could ever need. Solidly built.

Mirka 5-Inch Hook-and-Loop Sanding Disks Another low-price-high-value find. Some reviewers say their hook-and-loop fail faster than the higher priced ones, but I am not sure about that - the ones I got from HD dropped off at around the same time-frame as these. And these are far cheaper, and very good quality!

[mpc]

Great purchase (not little at all): Jet JJ-6CSDX jointer when they were on sale at Rockler several months ago. I have a small Sears Craftsman desktop jointer (about 32 inches total width) that I used once in a while. Too narrow for much face jointing and not enough table length for edge jointing longer boards. I sometimes have good luck with an old Stanley #8 jointer plane... and sometimes I made things much worse. Finally got fed up and was shopping for jointers with an eye out for a long table 8" model but they were a) rather expensive, b) needed 220-240 volts and I don't have such outlets anywhere near where this tool would go, and c) they have a huge footprint (ignoring the table span). When the Jet went on sale, and I looked at reviews, it was clear this was enough for my needs... especially since this model has somewhat longer table span than many other 6" jointers. With a little help lifting it onto its base, and a shop-made roll-around stand that lifts it up several inches, it's been a joy to use. Things go together so much easier with truly flat stock! Like many jointers, the "motor housing" area is mostly a big empty box which somewhat irks me - lots of wasted potential storage space. I like to keep tool accessories (push blocks, any wrenches or other tools, spare blades, etc.) with the tool whenever possible. To make the jointer "fit" into my shop better I wanted to raise it a few inches - that way the tables would clear the items on either side of the jointer's parking spot. So I tossed together a beefy couple-inch-tall wood box, with an accessories drawer, that sits between the mobile base and the jointer motor housing area. It all works.

Close runner up: an Incra Mast-R-Lift-II-R router lift assembly - when that too was one sale. The Incra lift includes a router plate sized the same as Rockler/Bench Dog plates so it was a drop-in into my existing router table (in the BT3's extension rails). Much easier "above the table" bit changes and height adjustment compared to my older Freud FT2000E router with the add-on RouterRaizer conversion. The RouterRaizer almost worked perfectly... but the twin-shaft Freud plunge router could cock sideways and jam when raising the bit. Lowering was perfect... raising no. I had to open the dust box around the router and help lift it to avoid issues. I thought about sticking a big spring between the box floor and router to help push the router upwards but that would add stress to the screws holding the router plate to the router table. They don't have a lot of "meat" to bite into to begin with. So a new Bosch router (again, on sale sometime in the not too distant past) and then later a new Mast-R-Lift has transformed my router table setup.

Other big but satisfactory purchase this year: a Laguna P-Flux Cyclone unit (again, when on sale)... the largest one they offered that was 120volt rated. MUCH better than the Delta 50-720 it replaced; a tad less noisy too Still using the "drag the hose to the tool" technique though - I don't yet have permanent ducting along the ceiling so the Laguna is a tad hamstrung in it's ability to show off. Integrating this into my shop required a total re-arrangement though - including moving wall mounted cabinets over about a foot so this monster (big footprint - almost 3x the Delta's) can fit into a corner. Fortunately, other than the wall mounted cabinets, my tools are on wheels or on shop-built cabinets with wheels. I emptied the wall mounted cabinets - making big piles everywhere - and then slapped together some 2x4s to make floor-to-cabinet legs so I never had to muscle the cabinet weight myself. Laguna rates this dust collector at 18.8 amps current draw and suggests a 30 amp circuit. My shop has a dozen 20 amp circuits... each outlet box has its own circuit breaker so I don't have to worry about "this tool plus that tool together will throw the breaker." The P-Flux will trip the breaker of one nearby outlet on start-up... Laguna's suggestion for a 30 amp circuit makes sense. A different 20 amp outlet though seems to tolerate the P-Flux start-up fortunately - and I got lucky in that this outlet is closest to where the dust collector ended up! "20 amp" circuit breakers clearly have some wide tolerances! Besides working better than the 50-720 dust collector, emptying the P-Flux is MUCH easier and much less messy. The "drum" design Laguna uses is SO SO SO much easier to re-install than trying to clamp a plastic bag around a big metal tube. Far less messy too... with the Delta some fine dust would always drift down from the bag or the edges of the metal fittings inside the tube while attaching the bag - right in my face. The most I ever needed my dust mask is when I'd change the Delta's bags. Not so with the Laguna P-Flux. Anybody in SoCal want a perfectly working 50-720 - it's for sale... It does have the 1 micron upper filter.

mpc

[cwsmith]

I haven't made very many small purchases this year, just trying to think of what they might have been... oh, a corded Ridgid JobMax back in January when they had this deal of buying the JobMax and getting a free accessory head. Got that with a free recip saw head and shortly thereafter added a right-angle drill head and the jig saw head. These really work fine and I'm happy because the old 12-V JobMax that I bought several years ago was just one frustrating tool, which I've never been happy with.

Back in March or April, my little Nikon 995 digital camera failed on me. No longer any service for those, that I can find anyway. So my wife says it's time for me to go buy a decent SLR instead of another compact camera like the Nikon. Back in 1982 when I suddenly found my Division moving south and I was going to be out of work I decided to expand my freelance work to full-time and I took a trip to the "Big Apple" and purchased a Canon 'New F1' 35mm SLR and several accessories to support my endeavors. At the time the 'New F1' was Canon's top-of-the-line SLR. Still have that and it works fine enough, but it's just too expensive to buy film anymore and then find a place to process. Got used to digital and it's just so much more efficient and cost worthy.

So given that my wife says it time to buy a decent camera, I went on the search. After a bit of reading and YouTube browsing I decided an a Canon 80D, which is a 24 Mega Pixel SLR that not only shoots great pictures, but can also take HD video. I got a great bundle price including a couple of lenses, a camera bag, and several accessories. I've added another zoom lens and two prime lenses to the bag since the original purchase. Right now I have three zoom lenses that cover from 16 to 400 mm and a 24 mm wide-angle and 50 mm fixed-length prime lenses . In addition I added a set of four extension tubes of macro photography and a macro LED ring light/flash unit.

I wanted a camera that I could use some of my old camera equipment with; like my auto-bellows (for macro and slide duplication work), my larger professional flash unit, and my original flat-field 50mm copy lens. All of which work great with the new camera. So for a bit less than $2K my photo equipment pretty much covers most of whatever I wish to photograph.

The funny thing of it all is, that there are so many features on the new camera, that leaning them all will be a challenge. For example, I haven't shot any movies with it yet. I'm now in the "learning" mode... but in sort of a reverse way. As I read it, seems that using "manual" mode is the target for achievement and that is really about the only mode that I know, since that is the only mode on a 1983 SLR. I laugh when I read a review that warns that this item or that lens can only be used in manual mode, as if you'll somehow fail to get a picture outside of the many automatic options. The many auto selections are nice, but I'm still more comfortable shooting manually, selecting my own shutter speeds and apertures. The one feature that I love though is that with the LED screen you can get a pretty exact view of what your final image will look like given the settings you have made.

So, that was my big purchase... not only for this year, but probably the last decade.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

CWS

[leehljp]

I bought two light duty saws this year, back in late July, actually. One a Lowes (Cobalt) 7 1/4 inch (SM1850LW) sliding miter saw and a Ryobi 10" portable table saw with quick stand (RTS21G). Age is taking a toll on me moving heavy tools around plus in the past couple of years, I have been helping with several people finish rooms in their houses that were flooded out two years ago. Instead of loading my BT3000 or Makita 12 inch CSM, both on a Bosch Gravity Rise folding stand, I chose to purchase the Kobalt and Ryobi, which are much lighter and more mobile. I spent about 5 days doing volunteer work with a few others in the past 3-4 months. While not quite as accurate as the heavier saws, but for contractor like work, they do excellent. And with time and watching the cuts, I can make accurate cuts. I did replace/upgrade the blades on both immediately and they do a nice job. I have found that if I need two or three cuts on repair jobs around the house / outside the house, I will grab one of these new tools rather than the heavier tools.

[radhak]

Somehow I never got around to a jointer, and probably won't know, but have that Incra router lift, and isn't that a beauty!
I also have the Jet 1HP collector, and by not doing a good job of its plumbing have not seen the best it could offer - all my fault, and my workshop is always a mess. One of these days...

DSLR cameras are really great; daunting in their features, but when you get that one sweet shot, it's all worth the learning curve! I have the Nikon D750, and I'm nowhere close to being a a master of it!

[os1kne]

Here's a nifty little item that I purchased recently - and wish that I'd bought one years ago - under $10. A wireless remote outlet that I have my shop vac plugged in to.

It really comes in handy for me for clicking the vac on for miter saw cuts / sanding with ROS, etc.

[capncarl]

My best/largest purchase for 2017 was the 5hp cv1800 Clearview dust collector. My Delta 50-760 just wasn’t cutting it and dust was overtaking my shop. 11 months later the dust collection piping is not completed, nor is all the machinery dust collection finished. Even unfinished, the Clearview does an infinitely better job than the smaller delta. ..... and it should as much noise as it makes.
I wanted to be able to a better job of re-sawing with my Delta 14” Band saw, but the cost of riser blocks, larger motor and a new supply of blades found me looking at a replacement saw. I now have a Rikon 10-326. I like it a lot.
capncarl

[Bill in Buena Park]

Well, there were some turning tools, some welding equipment... but my favorite little purchase so far....

An asparagus steamer pot. 10" tall, 6" in diameter, stainless steel. Can be had for ~$25 after 20% coupon at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Normally a tool for cooking, this pot will become a tool in the shop. Add a 8x8x3/4" sheet of lexan, a seal, some 1/4"NPT fittings and a gauge, and you've got a vacuum chamber for stabilizing soft or punky wood for turning, knife scales, etc. I picked up the HF vacuum pump to make it work, and will probably do a short vid on it in the not-to-distant future.

[twistsol]

I'd love to say that it was the Shaper Origin, but I ordered in 2016 and I don't think it will make it to my house this year. I did add an Incra TS/LS to my Ridgid R4512 tablesaw which was expensive but works really well and is extremely accurate.

The award goes to the Incra Miter 5000 sled which makes the Ridigid saw feel more like my old BT3100. I also picked up a ShopSmith sized miter bar and second panel for it so it works nicely on the SS as well.