I purchased some carbide cutters from AZCarbide (AZCarbide.com) to mount onto the lathe tools I made, including a 15mm 4inch radius (#RA4), a 14x28mm diamond (#DIA14), a 14mm square (#SQ14), and 16mm round (#RD15). I can't say enough good things about Dale Guilford, the proprietor, and his helpfulness. He sent an email to confirm the order, and responded in short order to some questions I had. The cutters were shipped flat rate for $2, and I received them in just a couple days. They were carefu...

Today we're going to discuss transfer punches.


$10 set from Harbor Freight #3577 (note: 2022 price is $12)



One trick that some people know is that if you have a drill bit set you also have a fairly accurate set of setup bars. OK, so they're round but you can use the shank end of a 1/8" drill bit to space an item exactly 1/8" away from a fence or set a 1/8" gap between two parallel boards you are fastening down.

The transfer...

Sorry about the ratings I never know if 1 is best or 5 is best I just leave it alone. I'm not even sure it its for the author to rank the product or for the users to rank the review, since the ratings are available to both poster and subsequent responders.

If you don't use a marking gauge, they are very handy. I won't go into the use, other than to say its for precise marking of a line a user-selected distance from the edge of a board, for cuts, and for hole locations. I'll presume...

In this corner, we have the Rockler Glue Brush, champion of woodworkers all over, known for it's distinctive "Rockler Blue" design.

http://bt3central.com/attachment.php...1&d=1335900223

And in this corner, we have the challenger, the Betty Crocker Basting Brush, the darling of cooks everywhere, entering the woodworking ring to become the heavyweight gluing champion of the world!

http://bt3central.com/attachment.php...mentid=17705&s...

Recently posted about the clearance on Groz planes at Woodcraft (in the Bargain Alert forum). That posting received a lot of comments, so I decided to share my results once my jack plane arrived.

The short story is that the workmanship from the factory was not great. But after a 1/2 hour of tuning it up the plane cuts great and I would not hesitate to do it again. I feel like it was a great value.


Updated (1/31/2012 - adding text from pdf file to cover for my...

Picked up a 4pk of basic chisels. By Irwin, labeled Marples on the package. Got them from PMenards on sale for $22. Got them home, handles are cheap plastic, blades very very dull. For $22, I'm not worried too much, but overall, very unimpressed. I will use them to split firewood I guess. I may try to sharpen then, but probably not.

The Harbor Freight 12" quick clamp/spreader looks like a great buy when on sale with coupon for $1.99, however, the main drawback with these units are that they fail when too much pressure is applied. The unit appears to be well made with a steel ratchet bar and a hard dense pvc for the handle. It has non marring pads for the jaws and works very smoothly. My initial impressions at the store were quite good and I picked up 6 of them thinking what a steal. It was only in use did I realize the ach...

I own a variety of clamps, and only recently started using parallel clamps. I own a few from Irwin and Jet, and I tried the Bessey clamps in the store. I recently got a sale flier from HF with a ridiculously cheap price on their parallels, so I had to try them. Overall impression: Better than the Irwin and Bessey clamps, not quite as good as the Jets but 1/4 the price. All of these clamps (Irwin/Jet/HF) have nice big handles. The Jets are hard plastic with three rubber strips for good grip. ...

Such a simple device, but with so many HF tools having such bad fit and finish, the 98303-0VGA T Track Hold Down clamps were a pleasant surprise. The stamped, and bent steel clamp arms were well dressed, and the finish is nice and solid, the rubber non mar caps are quite simple and effective, and the knob / nut is cleanly dressed with no sharp edges, and the knob feels good and solid. While I could have (and probably should have) shop built my own solution, I needed to maximize shop time on oth...

I gave the rating a 1 on Documentation, because... Well do you REALLY need documentation on how to operate a bar clamp? I picked up a bunch of these based on price, and a friends recommendation. This review also mimics how I feel about the 12", and 24" sizes which I own, and use as well... The 6" bar clamp sold by Harbor Freight under the Pittsburg name comes with wooden tightening handles, quick adjust lever that you simply depress, and slide to as close as possible to your desired location, ...

I have seen several ask this question on various forums.. but few responses with the exception of the Kamal #10 rabbet. I don't think many others have been sold and probably because of the bad responses about the standard Anant. I can answer the question about the Kamal #7 jointer at this point. The Highland WW header says it is better machined and a step up from the standard Anant with a thicker iron. And.. the thicker iron resulted in a tighter fit and less gap in the throat opening. But.. not m...

Well I bought some of these through the Bargain alert of a couple of days ago and someone asked "I wonder how much flex you would get on this 48" bar." So I decided to write a review. First my subjective opinion. This is a very well built clamp. It is very heavy at about 7 lbs per clamp. It is also in my opinion heavier per foot, that other similar clamps that I own. In other words the 24 clamps I have don't weigh 3.5 lbs, they way more like two. The bar seems thicker in both dimensions that the...

I picked up a 6 piece Chinese Chisel set for $8.00 at Harbor Freight expecting to find I actually had a 6 piece gasket scraper set (1/4" thru 1 1/2"), but once I cleaned them up with some wet/dry sandpaper and glass (Scarysharp trick) and gave them a little hollow grind with a cool grinder I was delighted to find they work just fine and keep an adequate edge for what I was doing (softwood shaping). I wouldn't expect them to hold up under heavy pounding and abuse, but I was trimming some round tenons...

I have put off hand tool work for a few years now. I finally took the plunge on some nice MHG chisels a few months ago due to demands for dovetailing. A set of waterstones ensued to sharpen them. It was clear that I was sliding down the hand tool slope but I still was very apprehensive about hand tools. Frogs, back bevels, spinwheels . . . a whole new world of terms I really had no desire to learn. I picked up a good hand plane book and while full of information it really didn't point me in the...