OK, wreckers. It's 'fess up time!

I use mine for some panel glue-ups. How do you do yours? A spline? Dowels?

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mark
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I wouldn't use it where I would use a heavy tenon, either...

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Larry Jaques wrote: ...

Is it the 735 3x24 by any chance? I'll be more than happy to pay you for it plus shipping...I have worn two out and can't find anything currently made that I like for balance anyways as much...

Unfortunately, the particular gears that are worn are no longer available to repair mine... :(

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Wed, Dec 29, 2004, 8:02am (EST-3) snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (foggytown) claims: And now in a burst of refreshing honesty we're all going to admit to the most useless, waste-of-money, unnecessary, white elephant, "why the hell did I ever buy that" tool in our arsenal.

I've bought some stuff I didn't really need, yes; and some some stuff I've not used yet. Possibly those could be called a "waste of money", by some, but not by me. Possibly some stuff might even fall in the "why the hell did I ever buy that?" category, too. But, in truth, I can't really think of anything that could actually be termed useless, or a white elephant, because anything I've bought will be put to use, eventually - some of them are for projects I won't even be able to start for awhile yet - just bought the tools because I had the money to spare at the time, and knew I'd eventually need them. .

JOAT People without "things" are just intelligent animals.

Reply to
J T

Interesting thread. I can think of a lot of contenders for most useless. However, the tool that clearly takes the cake is the first hand plane I ever bought, quite a long time before I ever really settled down with the notion of trying to make interesting things out of wood. I think I bought it to trim a door in an apartment.

Anyway, years later, I picked it back up and tried to do something interesting with it. It was one of those simple types with no mechanical depth adjuster. You had to loosen a big wheel, then jiggle the blade a bit to try to get it to project just right. Very fiddly. Worse, it had an ALUMINUM body. Based on more recent research, I would have thought Stanley got over this bad idea after the dismal failure of their Sweetheart line, but I suppose not. Aluminum planes suck for all the reasons you've ever read about. Not the least of which is that they leave horrible black streaks on everything. Adding insult to injury, it was never made very well. The sole wasn't flat, the cheeks weren't perpendicular to the sole. It was almost impossible to adjust, and it wouldn't stay adjusted for love or money.

I tried to true it up and tune it, but I ultimately just threw the thing in the trash. I kept the iron out of it, and that's the only piece. It's rare for me to toss anything. I still have a flywheel from a Nordic Trac, and the remains of my ill-fated treadmill belt sander. I can always find some use for almost everything eventually, but this plane was a completely useless piece of crap.

I can come up with other tools that really aren't very useful. My hot glue gun hasn't been seen since I don't know when, and I don't really miss it. My Crapsman router and table is a tool the use of which is best studiously avoided. My cheap Delta scrollsaw is a close second to this plane for most useless, poorly-conceived purchase, but even that stupid space waster has proven sort of halfway useful at least twice. No, the plane wins, hands down.

Reply to
Silvan

porter cable detail sander, cant keep paper on the thing for more than a few seconds

jim

Reply to
Jim & Sharon

"mark" wrote in news:JQFAd.45913$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

...

I glue up right after jointing, lightly clamping only 3-4 boards at most at one time. I make sure the joints are flat at the ends and middle by feel, and use a rubber mallet to fine position the boards prior to tight clamping. I do the (wider) final glueup from the sections in the same way.

Works okay for me ... although I can see your point that on a big glueup it would be very handy to have a biscuit joiner.

Reply to
Nate Perkins

How about for, say, a tabletop? Rather than just edge-gluing?

Dave Hinz

Reply to
Dave Hinz

Oh yeah, got one of those too. Also as a gift. Also from SWMBO... I used it to cut some round cuts on tile (toilet flange), and the tile got into the front bearing and it squeals like a pig now. Odd that using a tool in a manner shown on the box would ruin it.

I hate tools that are broken by design. And don't even get me started about Christmas presents that are so poorly designed or made that they're broken out of the box. (DISNEY, I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU PEOPLE).

Dave "Ahem. Sorry." Hinz

Reply to
Dave Hinz

That's funny -- here's a tip for you from someone who hates to throw anything out. I had it in my hands, on the way to the trash, because mine squealed exactly like yours. Then I thought, "what the hell, it's only 4 screws. The least I can do is see what makes it tick, then cut the cord off if it's nothing obviously wrong. So...it wasn't the bearing. The squealing is caused by the little white finned cooling fan slipping down on the shiny, polished (yeah, good move) shaft, and contacting the plastic housing. I clipped mine completely out, and the tool works fine now. I have no idea what I will EVER use it for, but I did see some kind of cut-off sheel attachment that looked marginally useful....but probably not. But i didn't throw it out.

Reply to
mark

Not aimed directly at the last poster but just a general observation:

It's amazing how many of us hold onto stuff we'll never (again) use. Many times, the plaintive cry is, "But it's worth more than I can get out of it." Wrong. It's worth exactly NOTHING sitting unused on your shelf. If you sold it to someone, that would accomplish two things: 1) give a disused piece of equipment new life, and 2) put a few bucks in your pocket which you could use to buy wood for a new project.

Reply to
Chuck Hoffman

Real handy on sheet plastic, though.

--RC

"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells 'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets fly with a club. -- John W. Cambell Jr.

Reply to
rcook5

3) piss off the guy you sold it to.

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

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Reply to
LRod

Does the Ronco Popeil Pocket Fisherman count?

Reply to
Bullwinkle J. Moose

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 12:33:14 -0600, Duane Bozarth calmly ranted:

You must be rich, Duane. Media cost for those things has to be $50/day, minimum. Have you seen the new Searz circular thingy? It has a pair (or 3?) of 3/4" washer-sized sanding discs on it. I can't imagine how long they'd last while sanding, but I'll bet you a dollar to a donut that it's sub-1-minute.

(Disclaimer: I was in Searz to return an old broken Crapsman tool which they no longer made. I finally settled on a $15 gift card from them. It took me 3 months to get to the gift card ting and to find something to purchase from them. I settled on a long-sleeve shirt and a philips/flat screwdriver blade.)

----------------------------------------------- I'll apologize for offending someone...right after they apologize for being easily offended.

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Inoffensive Web Design

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I have one of those, it's great for getting into small spaces and also SWMBO uses it, she doesn't like my big sander.

MP Mike Patterson Please remove the spamtrap to email me. "I always wanted to be somebody...I should have been more specific..." - Lily Tomlin

Reply to
Mike Patterson

This one gets my vote. Created so much damn dust, I was back to my drywall saw in a flash.

Reply to
Bill Stock

"Chuck Hoffman" wrote in news:Y4IAd.3901$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com:

I think too highly of my fellow man to burden someone with bad tools. If someone is fully informed, and knows what they are doing, then, and only then, will I allow them to take/purchase the Searz Routah with AHAF...

That, or I'm too embarrassed to admit that I spent good money on crap. I'm old enough to know better.

Patriarch

Reply to
Patriarch

Funny thing is, that doesn't always happen. I had one of those Wagner paint drip squirters a number of years ago. I got it to paint the house trim -- the house was mostly brick with a bit of trim and some siding on the chimney and roof eaves. After I figured out that this beast was next to useless -- it either spit paint runs or one had to thin the paint to the consistency of water, but it was noisy -- I decided to get an air compressor and a real paint sprayer. One of my wife's co-workers heard about all the problems I had with this thing and offered to buy it; he was absolutel sure I just didn't know how to use it and that *he* could make it work properly. Not one to shrink away from recovering some of my shrunk costs, especially from an arrogant so-and-so, I jumped at the chance to unload this piece of crap. A while later my wife asked him whether he had a chance to use it yet; he replied, "oh yeah, it works great!" uh-huh.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Now we'll just use some glue to hold things in place until the brads dry +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Reply to
Mark & Juanita

"Norman D. Crow" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@enews2.newsguy.com:

I bought a good drill press for maybe $300. Good used lathes are for sale all the time. But I'm afraid of a good lathe. All the wood turners I know chase tree trimmers, fill their basements with half- turned bowls wrapped in plastic and newspaper, and upgrade to a better, multi-thousand dollar machine every couple of years.

I already am trying to get one addiction under control. There are at least a dozen handtools here, which I haven't used yet. ;-)

Patriarch

Reply to
Patriarch

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