Got a flyer from these people last night and was interested in the Kreg miter gage. It looks like Kreg tool purchased the Fasttrack gage and will now be producing, or at least selling them.
snipped-for-privacy@vmtw.com (vmtw) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:
I bought one at the Woodworking show in Sacramento about a month ago. It is an excellent piece of equipment. Virtually ALL that was changed, and this was supposedly just as part of a test, was the color of anodization on the Fastrack fence piece. Mine's blue, as if that matters.
I bought both a 24" version and a 36" add-on fence, since both kitchen cabinets and living room tables are on my honey-do list.
The only problem I had was that the miter bar adjustment mechanism revealed that the miter slots in my 18 month old Unisaw are slightly unequal in width. When adjusted for my preferred left-side position, the miter works well, but is too snug for the right side slot to move. The head scratching is proceeding as to how to remedy that situation, although it isn't the most critical of problems.
Patriarch More Signal. Less Noise (tm charlieb)
Scott
They are selling the discontinued FastTrack precision gauge at PrairieRiver for $79.99 and the Kreg is just a rebadged Fasttrack
John
I saw that too except I wonder if the warranty on the Fasttrack will be as good as the Lifetime warranty on the Kreg. I wonder if Fasttrack will still be offering the miter gauge. Seems also that the Kreg has a lens and cursor on the stops, not sure about the Fasttrack. Kreg also has a neat stop accessory to deal with mitered ends of boards. I wonder if that accessory would fit the Fasttrack stops.
I saw a Kreg at the Houston show in Feb. IIRC the fence end near the blade was beveled. Is yours?
A fine cut file run the whole length, or in those places where it is tight, you can easily shave off .0000's with great control.
Alan
On 3 Jun 2004 11:59:41 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@vmtw.com (vmtw) stated wide-eyed, with arms akimbo:
-- Vidi, Vici, Veni ---
Don't know about the warranty, but I know that when the present stock of Frasttrack products are sold, at that time the old FastTrack line will ONLY be availble under the KREG brand
Call up PrairieRiver and ask them about interchange ability of the new KREG stops/etc on the older FastTrack products. As I read it, the new stops ONLY fit the NEW KREG fences for the miter gauge, but that extension fits the old FastTrack gauges just fine
John
I read it that the fence is different and that the stops are different. While the Fasttrack may be a deal now, Kreg accessories may not be available to fit the Fasttrack later.
Looks like a nice tool, but I have one question. They state that it is machined to ISO9002 tolerances. What with that? ISO does not specify miter gauge tolerances or any other tolerance that I know of. Ed
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:mQ0wc.34$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrdny01.gnilink.net:
I thought ISO meant that you just had to document what your specs and processes were, and then submit to audits that showed that your organization actually used those processes, specifications and documents. Theoretically, I suppose, you could say +/- 1/16", and still be ISO compliant. ;-)
This Kreg/Fastrack tool has me cutting much tighter miters than before. That, and a stiffer, full kerf blade in the table saw.
Patriarch
I get the gist - and agree. But you made me curious about this. This is about as close as I could come to a rationale in a few minutes:
It's advertising hyp. You're right, ISO 9002 doesn't have anything to do with manufacturing tolerances.
ISO certification pretty much comes down to stating "this is what we do and how we check that it stays that way".
I wrote the QC manual for our company using ISO 9000 guidelines. To comply, I must have a measuring device that can be traced back to a particular measure. Our industry tolerance is +- 1/16". Yes, one sixteenth of an inch. Pretty wide variation. The measuring we do is done with a tape measure from the hardware store, but I have that certified 24" ruler in my desk. ISO regulations mean simply that if I say we will meet a tolerance, that is what we will do, even if I stated the tolerance of +- 1/2" They don't care and if the customer accepts a sloppy tolerance, we are in spec. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
Yep, if you make junk, as long as you have a documented process and turn out the same, repeatable junk, you can be ISO certified.
Scott: I'll be taking a weekend course from Mark Duginske, the inventor of the original gage, and will have the chance to check it out at his shop. If you have more specific questions, send them to me in advance and I'll ask Duginske.
Bob
From what I read, the ONLY changes are to the "fence", and the Kreg modified "fence" will fit ALL older FastTrack mitergauges. You just buy the Kreg "fence" to be able to use the new Kreg stops/etc
Looking at commerical crosscut sleds, I find that using 2 of the FastTrack mitergauges and a 4ft length of DP track (they say they still have LOTS of the DP track in stock, but will NOT be making more in the future once the on hand stock is gone) produces a very useable crosscut sled at a lot less than the cost of the commercial sleds, and you can use it with or without any attached wood base. Without wood, it allows you to swing the mitergauge heads to produce a crosscut "sled" that lets you cut very accurate angle cuts as well as dead on crosscuts
John
That's about the size of it. In a former life, my employer went for ISO9000 certification. It was a real eye-opener for me to find that the entire interest was in the documentation. Product? What's the product got to do with it?
Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA
ISO9000 is summed up as "Say what you do, do what you say".
ISO9000 certification. It was a real eye-opener for me to find
product got to do with it?
certification. It was a real eye-opener for me to find
to do with it?
Totally independent of product. Along the same lines as the fact that every company now believes it must have a mission statement. Thing is, every mission statement sounds exactly the same as every other mission statement, the only difference is the product or service:
"We plan to be the most highly respected [insert manufacturing sector here] by providing quality [insert widgets or service here] that exceed our customers requirements through highly motivated people and documented processes [optional: substitute quality or process initiative de'jour for 'documented processes'] while maintaining the highest ethical standards."
So, it doesn't matter whether you are making rockets, autos, or hamburgers, the mission statement is the same.
Did I miss anything?
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