Rotozip: goodgawd...

[Steve B]

Sorry. Your comments about the rotozip just made you APPEAR like a clueless newbie. Apparently you are a clueless experienced person.

Sorry.

Steve

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

You've apparently attributed someone else's post to me. I said the rotozip style of hand router was a _good_ thing for drywalling. It's easy, quick, does just what it was made for, and in the basic version, it's inexpensive.

How is that "clueless"? Or is that just your description of anyone who disagrees with you?

LLoyd

[Proctologically Violated©®]

It was, in fact, ATP who stated he was a dry-waller, and that the contractors he knows still use the keyhole saw.

And he wasn't condemning the rotozip per se, just providing some perspective. Something Steve B seems to have problems with.

I do have a Q, tho:

When you use the rotozip against an outlet box, doesn't the *tip* of the cutter then need a bearing of sorts, to not scar the box up? The tips I have will actually have the flutes on the side of the box. Or mebbe scarring the box up is not such an issue.

I used it already, to cannibalize the1,824 cu in into a real tool case, by cutting out the guts. What a pita, but in fact the rotozip was, poetically in this case, the right tool for the job! Hard to control freehand, tho.

I think you made the observation that the 'zip shoves the dust inside. Indeed, the long-helix cutter that came with it is a left-handed spiral, so much of the dust does in fact go inside.

I don't know that I'll ever use it again, drywall notwithstanding. It does, however, nicely fill the gap between a dremel and die grinder, size-wise, so I can see using it for some grinding--5 A motor, iirc.

Mine has the two-speed switch, which is an interesting safety design--not all that ergonometric, but a decent design from a safety pov--smack it down, shuts off. Hey, but how bout a trigger on a handle.... That's a novel idea..... You can put this on a Variac or other single phase speed controller for more Dremel-like rpm control.

Still, I object to it's misrepresentation, which is what my OP was all about. May have overstated a few things, but shit, heat of battle, donchaknow....

[Proctologically Violated©®]

I don't just watch them.... I STUDY them and take notes. No foolin...

And no, there are unreasonable expectations. I just hate lying em effers, is all.

Yeah, but mebbe YOU figgered out that the infomercials are in fact directed at people who are precisely NOT paying $100 for 29 drills. Not too many home-moaners req. parabolic cobalt/carbide. Altho I'm sure the informercial is being produced to convince them that they DO need parabolic carbide, w/ a coolant hole.

I'll bet I can sharpen a drill by hand far more quickly than you can find, plug in, set up yer DD. And bleeve me, ahm no 'spert. Mebbe not perfectly symmetrically, but more than adequately. It takes very little change in drill geometry to make it dull. Therefore, it often takes but a touch to make is sharp again. Not to mention being able to put different angles/tips on the drill, as req'd.

Here's the deal: In previous threads, the consensus was, among experienced machinists, is that for critical work *neither* hand sharpening nor DD are as accurate as a new drill. But, *home-moaners* will NEVER require that level of accuracy. So, the DD fills a kind of void that, well, doesn't really need to be filled.

Oh, oh, except that void CREATED by hustling a Drill Doctor instead of TEACHING people a simple shop technique.

Now, I'm sure there are some scenarios where a DD is in fact useful. But that's not the point. The point is, The Hustle. AND, the ultimate disservice done when *education* is denied, in favor of, well, The Hustle.

I stand corrected. I'll have to fire up my Baldor w/ diamond wheels (sitting there for a year now), see how it does on masonry bits.

You actually have a good point here. I feel like a heroin addict shooting up *very* bad heroin.

A very important point you raise. Changing the channel is not a real solution, when so many others are unwittingly addicted/conned. Simply changing the channel, without attempting to do something about it is, in principle, irresponsible. But from a practical pov, probably little other option.

But simply "changing the channel" is what is allowing Congress to rape every man, woman, and child in this country. And sit is Session to chortle about it.

Your earlier "advice" was actually better: throw out the TV.

Ergo, see my sig. :)

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:gLOTh.5$ [e-mail]...

The bits come in a number of styles, one of which is a "safe tip"... it has an unfluted bearing portion about 3/8" long at the tip... it'll sort of burn a plastic box but not badly, skids nice on phenolic and metal, and doesn't cut any flying wires inside the box (so long as you have your depth set reasonably right).

LLoyd

[ATP*]

"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message news:gLOTh.5$ [e-mail]...

I am not a drywaller. I have, however, installed quite a bit of rock over a

35 year period, and used a PC drywall router with the drywall bit. It has some advantages but is far from being universally adopted. It is mostly homeowners who can't do the smallest job without bringing out all of their "labor saving" tools. Meanwhile, a skilled guy with some hand tools would already be halfway done.

[Jim Yanik]

"ATP*" wrote in news:LmTTh.32$ [e-mail]:

As Tim Taylor would say; "more Power,Arggh...!" 8-)

(Home Improvement,"Tool Time")

[Dave Martindale]

Maybe you can. But I can find and "set up" (i.e. place it on a table somewhere) my DD in less time than I can get my bench grinder set up and ready to use. Right now, the grinder is sitting behind a mini-lathe.

Because the DD uses a chuck to hold the drill and cams to control its motion, it seems pretty good at getting both cutting edges the same length and the same angle. It seems less good at getting the same cutting geometry on all sizes of drills - the smallest sizes go a bit weird. This is with the 350X, the cheapest current model, which uses a chuck that's effectively a pair of V-blocks and has built-in fingers on the jaws to set the rotational position of the drill. The more expensive models use 6-jaw chucks to hold the drill and an entirely different alignment method, so they may work better.

Selling stuff to people who are too lazy to learn a technique that requires more skill is a time-honoured way to make money. I don't have a problem with that if the machine actually works. The DD does work well enough that I think it's useful.

Now, maybe I'm just too lazy to spend the time needed to become reasonably competent at sharpening a drill. But I do have a bench grinder, and I do have the tools needed to true the wheel, so I'll believe that I could do it eventually. Lots of people don't even own a bench grinder, or they do but the wheels are far from having a flat cutting face. They are considerably further from being able to do their own freehand drill sharpening.

I'm pretty unimpressed with TV these days. I've probably watched less than 5 hours of TV in the past year.

Dave

[Proctologically Violated©®]

Well, ito of priorities, make it clear to the Wife that the Shop comes before the Kitchen.... :)

Well, mebbe iffin yer really picky.... :)

Five-oh is about the right age to be totally disgusted with effing TV. I think, tho, I'm going to have to be sent to rehab--LawnOrder, UFC, donchaknow..... And now that Dennis Farina is on LawnOrder, after rehab I'll probably need a lifetime of Methadone.

I think that Wen ditty was discussed on rcm briefly. I think the Sears is a knockoff.

If I had a whole tray of bits that needed sharpening, and I was doing only

118 o, I would consider a DD as a shop tool. But usually I sharpen on the fly, so it is not yet an issue.

And since you are essentially correct, that the avg person is not going to learn how to sharpen drills by hand, Voila, the DD becomes a commercially viable product.

I would only add to that the "system" is set up to *make sure* that the avg person does not *want* to learn how to sharpen bits themselves--or, to do anything else themselves, really. Home Depot and HGTV notwithstanding--both of which masterfully perpetuate a marvelous fiction.

I still remember some artsy-craftsy pixie on HGTV, whippin out dat MIG welder, like it was nuthin.... Please....