Emerson close-out at Harbor Freight?

[DGDevin]

I have several of the Emerson clamp-on cutting guides in various lengths, I've found them easy to use and of high quality and they've done good work for me guiding circular saws and routers. At a local Harbor Freight today I noticed there were no more Emerson guides on display, but the clearance section had two 36" versions still new in the box priced at $4.97. Considering these things formerly sold for around thirty bucks that strikes me as a good deal--I grabbed them both. I think I'll visit the other nearby locations to see if they have additional lengths still in stock, at that price even SWMBO approved. So if you think you could use a cutting guide and there is a HF in your area it might be worth giving them a call....

[-MIKE-]

I bought two of those from Woodcraft and had to return them. It might have been a bad lot, I don't know.

The problem was that they seemed to develop a "memory" at the location at which I had to repeatedly clamp several times.

I was cutting plywood and clamping at 48", repeatedly. It seemed like the clamp was digging it a little to the metal rod. And with each successive clamping, it would slip back a tiny bit. After several clampings, it would not hold at the same distance any longer.

So to whoever might buy those, just keep that in mind and check it out before the return time is expired.

[DGDevin]

It could be that clamping the jaws in place extra-tight causes that, I managed to make those marks on the rod one time but without it leading to problems. Once I eased-up on how tight I was trying to set the jaws in place before flipping the lever the guides have worked fine (for over a year). My guess is if you have to really lean on that lever to lock the jaws then the jaws are a bit too tight. My impression is that like many tools there is a sweet spot, and once you figure it out it becomes second-nature.

[-MIKE-]

LOL

Right before I hit send on that post, I almost typed, "and no, I wasn't clamping too tightly." :-)

When it happened on the first clamp I bought, I took it back and discussed it with Woodcraft. We came to the conclusion that I should try just pushing the lever to the first position (there are two).

On the new clamp, I did that and got the same results.

Like I said, it may have been a bad lot or something. I just wanted to warn people to check it out before the return time is up.