What - non Festool - tool / workshop related gizmo/stuff did you buy today?

[Bugsysiegals]

• Dewalt 20V Brushless Kit: I have a 9-piece 18V kit but the grinder was only able to make 1.5 cuts into unistrut before needing to swap batteries and wait for my other to charge.  I bought a 6-piece brushless kit for $400 and couldn't be happier ... an excellent price for what you get IMO.  I'm only missing the circular saw and jig saw but figure I have the TS55 and it's a rare situation I need a jigsaw.
• Mr. Heater Big Maxx: I'll finally have a warm garage where I can apply finish during the winter.
• TSO MTR-18 Precision Triangle Set: I had a 12" WP triangle but wanted more Blue to match my Parallel Guides ... and it should be nicer for squaring up my guide rail.
• Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition Knife and Tool Sharpener / Blade Grinding Attachment: Our kitchen knives were very dull and I used this device, haven't even tried the attachment, to bring them back to sharp in 45m or less.  I'd say I did a pretty good job for my first time using it (can easily slice a very thin slice of Serrano pepper), not sure if the attachment is even needed or will do better, but now I almost want something which can be used by hand with stones to get them insanely sharp like my Lie Nielson blade when using ceramic stones.
• Benchdogs 1000/330mm fence system: I figured this would work better than my Incra fence and it wasn't much more than buying 8020 extrusions and applying my own rule.  I hope it aligns with the rest of my tape measures/rules.
• 2x Bora Portamate XT: I couldn't pass them up at $140 for the set.
• 2x 90" Tracktubes: Now I have a nice table to break down sheets in the driveway/garage and can go mobile if needed.
• Timberland Earthkeepers boot: Geez, I hadn't realized how worn out my boots were until I saw the new ones!
• Lumintop GT3 18k Lumen Flashlight: This thing is really bright and makes walking the dog at night a bit more fun.
• 5pc Glubot Applicator Pack w/Accessory Kit: This has the Glubot, Highbot, Babebot, and a bunch of accessories.  I figured this might be better than squeezing my 16oz Titebond III bottles?
• Swanson 8oz Plum Bob: Meh ... it takes forever to slow down and come to a stop meanwhile I can use my Beiter laser level and instantly do the same ... maybe I'll find a place I can't use the laser someday.
• Sony XM5 ANC Headphones: They work well to keep the lawn mower noise down and are louder with my music than the 3M Worktunes.
• TSO Bigfoot: I dunno ... maybe it will help me with the DF500 alignment since my middle partition in my cabinets seem to be slightly off with some drawers slow closing smooth and others binding.
• Feel like I'm missing some things ... I need to hide my wallet!

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[ChuckM]

• Snip.
  

  • Feel like I'm missing some things ...Snip.

  
  Photos! [tongue]

 

[Joelm]

View attachment 1

Lenox bandsaw blade tension gauge

 

[ChuckM]

I've heard good things about this gauge, though I've never seen one in person.

 

[Joelm]

So far so good. I've used it on 3 blades and now have them properly tensioned.

I bought it because I was having issues with a 1" resaw king. I now see that to tension it properly I need to tension the saw to it's fullest. I may just step down a size to a 3/4" and see if I get better results.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I've never seen or heard of that High Bot. Somewhere between the others. I really loved the Glu Bot when I was working in the assembly area of the cabinet shop. They work great for "injecting" glue into dowel holes, during assembly of cabinets. A simple squeeze gets you a pretty "measured" amount of glue and then it retracts rather than dripping.

 

[Euclid]

No huge additions here, but a miscellany of bits and pieces arrived from Axminster:

Compact Bosch 12V sabre saw and a variety of blades (to help with some small scale domestic demo and remodelling)

A pair of UJK assembly squares (the chunky aluminium ones; already had a pair of their large Valchromat ones - very useful they are)

A pair of spring-loaded transfer punches (one has a stepped end - akin to a step drill -for different diameters and the other has a smooth tapered cone end for holes that have been countersunk)

I discovered that there is a 1/4-inch hex bit holder to fit the old Yankee pump-action drill/screwdrivers (remember them?). Don’t have an immediate use for this, but it was inexpensive and I can foresee it being useful sometime, somewhere…  I have two Yankees: one large (i.e. long) one and one really huge one. Their proprietary bits have different diameter shanks, but there are three sizes of adapter available if anyone else is interested.

Also ordered some rip cut blades for the BCT Jointmaker Pro (which I’m still experimenting with tbh).

 

[Cheese]

View attachment 1

Lenox bandsaw blade tension gauge

Whoa...now that's cool.  [cool]

Curious how far off your saw was compared to the Lenox?

 

[ChuckM]

I've never seen or heard of that High Bot. Somewhere between the others. I really loved the Glu Bot when I was working in the assembly area of the cabinet shop. They work great for "injecting" glue into dowel holes, during assembly of cabinets. A simple squeeze gets you a pretty "measured" amount of glue and then it retracts rather than dripping.

Of the three sizes, I find the smallest the most valuable addition to my shop, because it offers full control in situations where you want to dispense only a small amount of glue. It's for small glue-up jobs, such as applying glue into 4mm domino mortises.

If lots of glue is desired, why not just go with the original glue bottle? I, therefore, would recommend the smallest size (baby bot) to people who want to try the Glu Bot. Be sure to clean the tip after a couple of uses as it'll clog or gum up.

 

[Bugsysiegals]

I've never seen or heard of that High Bot. Somewhere between the others. I really loved the Glu Bot when I was working in the assembly area of the cabinet shop. They work great for "injecting" glue into dowel holes, during assembly of cabinets. A simple squeeze gets you a pretty "measured" amount of glue and then it retracts rather than dripping.

Of the three sizes, I find the smallest the most valuable addition to my shop, because it offers full control in situations where you want to dispense only a small amount of glue. It's for small glue-up jobs, such as applying glue into 4mm domino mortises.

If lots of glue is desired, why not just go with the original glue bottle? I, therefore, would recommend the smallest size (baby bot) to people who want to try the Glu Bot. Be sure to clean the tip after a couple of uses as it'll clog or gum up.

My shop cabinets were assembled with dominos and titebond 3 dries so quickly I could hardly squeeze the glue and brush it into all the domino holes and on the dominos per piece that next time I might just use dado joints.  Nonetheless, I could see this helping to get into the little areas nicely but I was most impressed that you can hold the bottle upright rather than the regular bottle needing to be upside down ... I suspect this will have some advantages...

 

[Michael Kellough]

[member=60777]Bugsysiegals[/member]  since you are talking about cabinets I assume you are joining sheet goods or adding face frames to sheet goods so there is a joint between parts. Dedicate your time to putting glue on the joint, gluing Dominos is secondary, maybe even unnecessary.

 

[ChuckM]

My shop cabinets were assembled with dominos and titebond 3 dries so quickly I could hardly squeeze the glue and brush it into all the domino holes and on the dominos per piece that next time I might just use dado joints.Snip.

When I have lots of dominoes to do, I use one of these two methods:

A) Working Alone

1) Apply glue to all the mortises on one piece and its edge if applicable
2) Apply glue to half of domino and hammer it into the wet mortise
3) Repeat 2) until all dominoes are inserted into the first piece
4) Apply glue to the edge, if applicable, of the mating piece
5) Apply glue on the dry part of all the dominoes
6) Clamp the two pieces together, if it's just two pieces.

I use Lee Valley cabinetmaker's glue or TBIII, and never have had glue freezing up on me. Glue tends to dry up more quickly if too little is applied to the surface. (If long working time is needed,Old Brown Glue or thinned PVA may be my choice of adhesive.)

B) For really taxing glue-ups involving many many dominoes, colder shop environment, clamping cauls, large builds, and the use of glue size (for endgrain), I get help from my shop assistant (aka my wife). Just make sure that you explain to your shop assistant beforehand what to do or where to help.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

ChuckS, back when I was doing that everyday, I would use an entire bottle's worth from the big Glubot in a single day. At the volume I was using, I would never have considered the baby one.
I still use one of the big ones, but not exclusively. I use the regular condiment-type bottles most of the time.

Not today, but Saturday afternoon, I git a Bosch laser measuring device. It's just the smaller, indoor, short-range unit, but it's pretty cool. 

 

[ChuckM]

ChuckS, back when I was doing that everyday, I would use an entire bottle's worth from the big Glubot in a single day. At the volume I was using, I would never have considered the baby one.
I still use one of the big ones, but not exclusively. I use the regular condiment-type bottles most of the time.

Not today, but Saturday afternoon, I git a Bosch laser measuring device. It's just the smaller, indoor, short-range unit, but it's pretty cool.

Agreed. The baby bot, as the name suggests, is good for small jobs only. The glue flow is too small and slow for big glue-ups.

 

[squall_line]

Not today, but Saturday afternoon, I git a Bosch laser measuring device. It's just the smaller, indoor, short-range unit, but it's pretty cool.

Are you following me and/or hacking my browser history?  I was looking at those on Saturday myself!

I purchased one at my old job (the 50C unit) and used it along with the app to measure rooms and annotate photos with measurements to produce sketchup drawings of outlets and doors, and was looking for a personal unit to diagram my house to record all of the circuits in my breaker panel and draw up plans for some updates, and noticed that only the highest-end units have Bluetooth now, for almost double what I paid 3 1/2 years ago.

Alternately, I was trying to use Canvas with my iPad Pro's LiDAR to scan my house to get the same thing.  I may just go back to the old fashioned "write down the dimensions and draw it up from scratch" method of putting it all together...

 

[Packard]

I have had my DeWalt 611 for a while now, but yesterday was the first time I’ve used the plunge base and the DeWalt track attachment to router dadoes.

I usually use my table saw and a stacked dado head to make dadoes.  I often spend 15 minutes on the setup getting the fit to the plywood “just right”. 

I bought a set (my second set, the first one in 1/2” shank) of Whiteside dado bits for “undersized plywood”.  I had to familiarize myself with the plunge base as well as with the track attachment.  The second sample went well.  Happily, I no longer have to get the fit “just right” so setup is vastly quicker.  (It is a good bit looser than I would make using the dado head.)

I will probably use it where there is not visual inspection available for the dado fit.  In this case, I am making a wall mounted bedside table (16” 16” x 6”) and I wanted a solid back
solidly afixed which will be set in the dado slot.

So, clearly that dado slot will not be visible, and this is a good application for the pre-sized dado bits.

The track adapter works OK.  It does not slide as smoothly as I imagined.  Unlike the saw that is entirely supported by the track and slides easily, only the adapter is supported by the track and the friction between the router base and the stock governs how easily it will slide. 

I imagine dado slots in melamine clad material would slide more easily, but that material is not “undersized” and the bits would not make dadoes large enough to accommodate the material.

Ah.  No one said that woodworking was going to be easy.

 

[luvmytoolz]

A while ago I bought a Virutex abrasive planer that has proven incredibly useful, and able to do some work that would be almost impossible with any other tool. One of the tool suppliers has a special on, so I added the curved abrasive planer to my workshop now!

No doubt it's possibly not as good a build quality as the Makita curved planer, but this will do convex as well as concave curves of any diameter, whereas I think the Makita only does concave curves, and it's half the cost. The straight planer has done a massive amount of work to date, and done it easily and more than satisfactorily, so I'll be very pleased with this one I'm sure.
https://beyondtools.com/products/700w-curved-abrasive-planer-ce123n

 

[pettyconstruction]

I got the silliest little thing today, but it's so handy. Quite often, I use both the DF500 and Zeta at the same time, or the TS55 and DF500 together. Swapping the extractor hose back and forth is no big deal, they are at the tool-end. Changing the plug every time gets old real quick. And it never fails that the wrong one is plugged in.
While shopping for some wire management clips, I came across this, for a whopping $3.

I keep one of these 3-way outlets plugged into all 3 CT's. Especially handy when I'm sanding.

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That’s what I do also,
Charlie

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Cheese]

Betterley just released in October, an adapter that attaches the Grabo to the Festool guide rail. The Grabo has a self contained, battery powered vacuum pump on-board to maintain a safe vacuum level at all times. I've used the Grabo to lift and replace New York bluestone pavers in the patio. I've also attached the Grabo to textured plaster walls.

[attachimg=1]

Here it's supporting a guide rail on a painted door. The Betterley adapted easily fits inside the Grabo carry bag.

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[woodbutcherbower]

I'd love to have the problem of TB3 drying too quickly. I'm standing here in an mostly-unheated shop, the temperature is -6C/20F, and the glue is unusable because it chalks and won't bond at these temperatures. a woodburning stove is in here, but doesn't burn 24/7 because I occasionally have to sleep.  I'm having to use PU which I hate with a passion. Every coat of oil-based finish I apply to anything takes 3 days to dry = and I do this for a living. Be careful what you wish for .........