Apparently Festool has been busy designing with their SawStop technology, and their Shaper Origin technology.
Seems they have patents on a trackless track saw, that corrects for you. Hummmm.
Same for the miter saw, correction and saw stop.
And umm a light on a drill that knows where the light needs to be pointed as the bit goes into the work.
I'm not buying that one. How does the blade change course in the workpiece? I guess it could "see" the line before it enters the piece then pull the arm in that direction, X-Y and direction. Why?
A jigsaw, I could understand.
Same issue.
Towards the tip of the bit, obviously. ;-)
In the beginning. but the tip moves away as it goes in. Apparently the light stays pointed at where the bit went in.
Patents are not always the next great thing.
Why? It's not going anywhere.
That's a fact. I have eight of them. They looked good on a resume but that and the incentive money is all they're good for. ;-)
Well having the patent on the method/technology can lead to other uses. A patent on the technology used is a" weird/it aint gonna happen way" does not necessarily point at the tool that it could be used on. They figured out a way to get something to point in a direction and track that.
For instance, still considering a drill, if they can track where the drill is, in relation to the surface, they could put in a laser in instead of a regular light to track how far the bit has entered below the surface. Like setting a depth stop in a DP. The drill could stop spinning once the bit had gone a certain depth. Just a thought.
Not actually showing the exact use of the patent technology does not give the competition a hint as to where this might be headed.
Sounds like a damn expensive stop collar or rod.
For a patent to be valid, the best (at the time of application) implementation and utility has to be disclosed.
There may be something there or it might just be that they're hoping to shotgun the technology to lay some claim to beat others over the head with. When I worked at IBM (and likely still happens) when someone came to IBM with an infringement claim, the first thing IBM lawyers did was to pull everything out that the claimant could possibly be infringing on (I was on a few of the hunts). They'd put a pile of patents in front of their lawyers and play "Lets Make a Deal". Most patents are defensive - protecting from attacks on the flanks of the technology, as it were. OTOH, for several years, IBM made more on its patent licensing than it did with everything else combined. Hell, some years they would have shown a loss without the licensing of the mountain of patents.
Well in tight spots..... One can use a template with a router or get an Origin. ;~)
Not for everybody.
FWIW Technatool has an electronic direct drive drill press. It can be programed to turn off when a certain depth has been reached. Along side the manual stop set up fount on most all drill presses.
Not something you see very often on a page for a "basic" shop tool:
"Click here for Firmware Upgrade"
Eventually it will be the norm, considering 3D printers, CNC routers, etc. Smart technology in a drill press. Who woulda thunk it? ;-)
Can't waif for the day that you take a dull tool, toss it in a box for 5 minutes, and it comes out sharp and true!
This closest I've seen is the kitchen knife block that my daughter has.
Apparently/supposedly each time you remove and replace a knife into it's assigned slot, it gets a quick tune-up. There is definitely something in the slots because you can hear the metallic "sharpening sound" as you slide it in.
No electronics, no firmware, just "mechanical".
Am I gullible enough to believe that all slots are set at the perfect angle, etc.? Not really, but she's happy with it and I'm not going to take that away from her.
Is there a perfect angle for a kitchen knife? How does it handle serrated knives. Those are the problems. It's hard to find anyone to sharpen good knives.
Put two quarters down, that can get you the "right" angle for kitchen knives. I sharpen the metal knives once every two years on a water stone with fine and ultrafine sides.
15° - 20° is the "standard" for chef's knifes, although 15° is at the very low end of durability.
Japanese chef's tend to sharpen their knifes at 17° but most of what they are cutting is fairly soft. 20° is used for most western knifes. "Tomato sharp" but durable enough to last a decent amount of time.
I use the Work Sharp WSKTS which provides a 20° guide bracket. I also use a steel before each use.
The WSKTS has a guide for serrated knifes, but my only serrated knife is our bread knife which never seems to get dull. It is *only* used for bread.
I finally got a Ken Onion Work Sharp sharpener. It WORKS. Almost fool proof and will make a dull knife sharp in a matter if minutes. Or scary sharp.
IIRC 20~25 degrees. One is for kitchen knives and the other for a pocket knife. I keep having to check my chart when sharpening.
So the WorkSharp system works very well for my son and his wife. I have the upper end Ken Onion Work Sharp system that does more and I am finally happy and satisfied after many styles of knife sharpeners. If you remember Nailshooter from here he is a knife collector and has one for his regular knives IIRC. He saw mine, was impressed, and bought one to charge clients to sharpen their knives.
I use the Work Sharp WSKTS which provides 20°, 25° and 32.5° guide brackets.
Seems like the main difference between the WSKTS and WSKTS-KO is that the KO version has a dial to set the angle, while mine has different slots for different angles. More angle choices on the KO, but that's not something I need.
I assume the sharpening ability at a given angle is the same for both versions.
I'll have to look into it further. SWMBO was spending big bucks to have her knives sent out for sharpening by one of the high-price stores (initials WS). Who they sent them to, IDK, but they'll no longer take serrated knives. She has expensive Japanese knives (make Lie Nielson chisels look cheap) so it's worth keeping them up.
IIRC serrated knives are only sharpened from the back side. Do check into that. But I have to say, we have a very inexpensive set of Tromentina serrated steak knives that we bought in Jan 2006. We throw them in the dishwasher and they have never been resharpened. These seem to cut as well as out 3 year old seldom used Japanese steak knives. By design the serrated knives stay sharp for a very long time.
I looked at the knives. Most are normal with the bevel on the serrated side. I watched the WS demos and it's apparent from looking at the knives and the instructions that the back of the knife just has to be flattened. There isn't much bevel so it looks like it would take a light touch.
Do they stay "sharp" because they're really saws? Obviously, the fine knives are made from a good steel so that helps.
After looking at the YouTube videos on the WS system, I may get one. For $150, it wouldn't take too many knives to break even.
DerbyDad03 snipped-for-privacy@eznet.net wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
My experiences with steels have been that they don't do anything to help the edge. Maybe I'm using the steel wrong?
Puckdropper
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