New woodworking tool gloat

[Morris Dovey]

| That's great, Morris. I hope you it's a big seller and you get your | fair share. To often you hear of inventors getting very little to | show for their ideas. | Best of luck !

Thanks! I don't expect to make much (but wouldn't mind if I did!) Actually, there are a lot of really good ideas bouncing around; but the costs, time requirements, and risks involved in getting from idea to sold product are significant. I think it's much more difficult to find the people who can do that than it is to come up with the original idea. For most of us, it's pretty much a "chicken and egg" problem.

And there's the old problem that the technically-oriented people who come up with solutions frequently don't have really good sales and marketing talents (that'd be me.)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

Lew Hodgett (in 8K_mf.1863$ [e-mail]) said: | The more things change, the more they stay the same. | | Think you will find this one in Fred Bingham's book, "Practical | yacht Joinery".

It's somewhat a relief to hear that. The idea seems too simple and straightforward to have been overlooked for long. I spent a lot of time looking for this thing as an off-the-shelf product; but had no success.

| I made mine years ago.

My first was an all-wood version that couldn't be re-calibrated, built when I had my RAS in the basement of my first house and was putting up knotty pine board paneling in a room on the second floor back in '72 or '73. I didn't get around to a metal version that could be recalibrated until almost ten years later. I had a machine shop make steel, brass, and aluminum versions and decided that I liked the aluminum best.

You can see one of these original aluminum squares at the link below. All things considered, it's held up fairly well.

| BTW, glad to see you got a deal.

Thanks. :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

(large file)

[foggytown]

Now how in hell did Nahm the Jigmeister miss this one! :)

FoggyTown

[CC]

Great to hear someone gets something for their work. Hope it makes a good return for you

With so much going overseas to be manufactured, that is a gloat. Congrats Chuck

[Owen Lawrence]

Congrats. Why not put a couple of slots in the metal lip (the one that goes under your hand), and attach it to the wooden board with wing nuts on countersunk bolts? Then you could recalibrate with ease any time and every time.

[Leon]

Actually DuPont's patent was running out in the early 90's They knew this and lobbied to out law R12 and replace it with a more environmentally safe refrigerant, one that they had the a new patent on. One that would not be as detrimental to the ozone layer. Unfortunately the newer refrigerant is more harmful to humans than the old R12. There was an ongoing article back in the early 90's in the automotive trades magazines with details of how this would unfold and it all happened as the articles indicated.

[Leon]

Yeah but the old R12 was cheaper the replacement is more expensive and leads to higher profits. + the new is not as "harmful" to the ozone layer. DuPont played this up so that they could sell their more expensive newly patented Freon. As a matter of fact, Swedish scientists at the south pole back in the early 1900's studied the ozone and documented that the ozone hole was larger then that it was in the late 80's and early 90's. This was all before automobiles were much of a common thing to see and Freon did not exist then. This is all big business and government and environmentalists scratching each others backs.

[David]

My biggest complaint about R134a is that it doesn't cool as well as "good ole" R12. As much as I like my Toyota, the a/c takes quite a while to cool me down. The older car a/c's could freeze you out while driving through the Mojave in August. One more thing to miss about the "good ole days".

Dave

[Leon]

LOL. The first version did not use pilot bearings. It used a guide bushing. The problem there was that it used a guide bushing that seldom is centered accurately enough to insure a straight cut line.

[C & E]

Sure, now you come up with a common-sense way to get this simple task done

*after* I go out and buy a left sided blade saw!!! Thanks for nothin'!

Good luck with a nice idea!

[Morris Dovey]

| I wish you all success. Keep the ideas coming!

Thank you. I'm hoping that by sharing the experience I'll encourage other people with ideas to find their way to making woodworking more affordable, easier, and more satisfying for all.

Finding new ways of doing things more easily, less expensively, or that produce consistantly better results is (and should be!) a source of pleasure and satisfaction. Taking that discovery to market seems unnecessarily stressful and uncertain - mostly because it involves traveling in strange (and possibly hazardous) territory. Perhaps sharing some of my "baby steps" here on the wreck will make the territory less strange, and the process less stressful - and provide others with the confidence to say: "If /he/ can do it, then so can I."

Kind of like cutting dovetails that first time. :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Leon]

You know, I have heard similar complaints about the R134a but I think that the new refrigerant is being blamed for a design problem in many cases. I have found that some of the new cars will cool faster and colder than others. So far our latest vehicles seem to cool much better than the old ones. With slow air flow and lots of stuff inside the dash that has to be cooled before you feel air as cool as it is at the evaporator you do have to wonder if the new works as well.

[Morris Dovey]

| Congrats. Why not put a couple of slots in the metal lip (the one | that goes under your hand), and attach it to the wooden board with | wing nuts on countersunk bolts? Then you could recalibrate with | ease any time and every time.

Thanks.

I'd given this idea some thought. I like the wing nut idea but that makes replacement of the wooden rail a PIA (requires accurate rail drilling plus countersinking plus machine screw and wing nut) that I'd rather avoid. With the current setup, all it takes is three screws and a strip of inexpensive 1x1 to minimize part costs, have easy field maintainance, and reliable accuracy.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| With so much going overseas to be manufactured, that is a gloat. | Congrats

Thanks.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| Sure, now you come up with a common-sense way to get this simple | task done *after* I go out and buy a left sided blade saw!!! | Thanks for nothin'!

You should have asked before you spent! ;-)

Let me know if you need one that faces the other way - I'll see if I can get 'em to bend one "backward".

| Good luck with a nice idea!

Thanks.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[David]

My truck (w/R134a) cools down much faster than my Sienna. The lowest temperature of both of them, after running for at least 15 minutes is no where near the lowest temperatures provided by the R12 equipped cars. I used to service a/c's with R12 and would get outlet temps near freezing on a summer day. Not gonna get that out of today's vehicles! sometimes I'd have to adjust or replace a component to keep the older models from literally freezing up (the evaporator).

Dave

[CW]

Mine was.

[Morris Dovey]

Interesting - who made it? I looked everywhere I could think to look; but never found a comparable product (although that was before Mosaic and my intro to the web).

I'm really curious.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[CW]

I did.

[Morris Dovey]

| I did.

Nicely done!

(Phew! I was afraid I'd somehow overlooked a commonly available commercial product.)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA