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

[Lincoln]

Arrived from Germany yesterday double boxed and absolutely straight.  [smile]  Total time from date of order to arrival at the door was 7 days. I've purchased stuff from Florida that took longer than that.  [sad]

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Very nice, did you order from Tobias, at Elektrowerkzeug? The new LO55 really does look like a great router, going to be hard to resist that one.

 

[Cheese]

Very nice, did you order from Tobias, at Elektrowerkzeug?
The new LO55 really does look like a great router, going to be hard to resist that one.

Thanks & no  [smile]...PM me if you're interested in where I purchased it.

Over the years we've seen a history of revealing on the FOG where we've purchased items in Europe and then suddenly a few months later, that vendor will no longer sell/ship to the US.  [mad] I'm sure Mafell isn't much different.  [blink]

 

[ishmerc]

Bosch also sells FSN OFA 32 KIT 800 that will work on the Mafell guide rail. The Mafell and Bosch guide rail are identical except for the cost. Bosch is cheaper, you can mount different routers to the Bosch plate. I bought this several years ago but never used it, so I can't tell you how well it works. What I can say is, the cost is a lot cheaper than the Mafell.

 

[smorgasbord]

Not today, but thought I'd wait until I got some actual use out of it.

Lagune Driftmaster III bandsaw fence:

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It's got a rack so that you can controllably move the fence, with a rule that's imperial one side, metric the other (no cursor nor cross-hair, but I attached a magnet that sits right above that helps). The crank is disengagable with a flip lever, so you don't have to crank to move the fence a lot. One revolution is ¼". Here's the rack from underneath:
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But, the nicest thing about this is the adjustability. Here's the backside:
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There's even an adjustment to lift the rear of the fence so it doesn't drag on the table.

The height of the fence is good for resawing, and you can reposition it to be low easily, using the angle to table locking knobs.

It's be nice to add a DRO, but between the Carter guides I added a few years ago and this fence, and a modified Alex Snodgrass setup (my big saw has flat tires), I'm happy with way it cuts now. I do 90% resawing on this thing. I do have a ¼" or ⅜" blade, but I don't do much in the way of curves since I have a jigsaw and a CNC.

The fence that came on this saw is fine. Just, without all those adjustments it was a pain, especially if you changed blades and the drift had to be adjusted. This fence is taller, too, which helps on the resawing.

 

[PaulMarcel]

Nice! I didn't know they brought back the DriftMaster with a lot of improvements. I have the original. Even recently, I looked for it on their site and nothing.

The original used a threaded rod under the carriage and a flip lever that would engage the threads. One full turn of the handle is 1/16", which I love for resawing since my blade is 1/16"... two full turns to salami-slice off 1/16" veneer. I like that yours can be flipped for metric or eagle-hamburgers though 1/4" per turn seems like too much; maybe the metric side is finer. It's annoying when manufacturers design something useful then pick some commodity threaded rod for adjustments and the pitch isn't useful in any unit system.

 

[Michael Kellough]

[member=77266]smorgasbord[/member] that fence looks like a really fine upgrade.

 

[smorgasbord]

Here's the link (no affiliate) to the DriftMaster:https://lagunatools.com/accessories/bandsaws-accessories/fences/dx3/

Yeah, I was disappointed that they ditched the threaded rod for fine-tunability. I thought maybe it got clogged with sawdust or something over time? The new rack and pinion arrangement is OK, although for really fine adjustment you'll end up putting a dial indicator on the fence while adjusting, which is why I thought of retrofitting a DRO - the small Wixey tablesaw DRO might fit.

Installation of the V3 is much better than what I saw on the Wood Whisperer video some years ago. On my bandsaw ("Bridgewood" OEM of the ACM saw still sold here:https://www.acmitaly.it/catalogo/macchine/seghe-a-nastro/bs-540/ ), the fence holes are large and unthreaded, and just a tad too low to get the right height without modifying either the table or the mounting bracket. I ended up just using the next size smaller bolts, which gave me enough leeway to get that right height.

I got good results with the ½" Wood Slicer, but also have a ¾" to try, as well as a Laguna Resaw Master and a Carter resaw blade. I think I need to replace my tension spring, as I bought the expensive tension meter (used on eBay, figured I could resell it when I'm done), and I'm not getting high enough tension even when cranking up. Then again, I also don't think my wheels are perfectly co-planar, but looks like I need a heavy duty split ring wrench to get either one off.

 

[festal]

I was looking at Driftmaster myself.  Was trying to find the older one but now that new one is out, i might get it

 

[Mini Me]

I regard the Driftmaster as a con and it is not needed if the BS is set up properly and that only requires a bit of time and costs nothing aprt from a new blade. There are a few threads on SMC about doing that but I will explain here if you want me to. I am a bit pushed for time at the moment but if needed I will come back to it. I will ask you to ignore anything posted by Tom Trees as I am sure 99% of BS problems can be solved far more easily than what he proposes.

 

[PaulMarcel]

Yeah, I was disappointed that they ditched the threaded rod for fine-tunability. I thought maybe it got clogged with sawdust or something over time? The new rack and pinion arrangement is OK, although for really fine adjustment you'll end up putting a dial indicator on the fence while adjusting, which is why I thought of retrofitting a DRO - the small Wixey tablesaw DRO might fit.

A DRO would be nice; considered it a few times so now you have me thinking again haha! I never really had problems with gunk build-up on the threads. After ~10 years, the part that engaged the threads started being cranky and not engaging enough. An adjustment that took longer to guess the hex size fixed that no problem. Your red lever to lock the rack engagement seems nicer. The v1 had literally a hex-bolt head to push the lever to engage. I added a small drawer pull to it instead to make it nicer. Manufacturers never try their own stuff ("dog fooding")

Installation of the V3 is much better than what I saw on the Wood Whisperer video some years ago. On my bandsaw ("Bridgewood" OEM of the ACM saw still sold here:https://www.acmitaly.it/catalogo/macchine/seghe-a-nastro/bs-540/ ), the fence holes are large and unthreaded, and just a tad too low to get the right height without modifying either the table or the mounting bracket. I ended up just using the next size smaller bolts, which gave me enough leeway to get that right height.

So mine is the "Laguna 'Italian-Made' 18" which is a relabeled ACM. I looked yours up and other than the on/off buttons, everything is identical to mine though yours looks to be 20". I had to drill holes in my table as well but the mounts were swinging arms so it was easy to set the height and placement. Yours looks like vertical slots. I could see that being less forgiving.

I got good results with the ½" Wood Slicer, but also have a ¾" to try, as well as a Laguna Resaw Master and a Carter resaw blade. I think I need to replace my tension spring, as I bought the expensive tension meter (used on eBay, figured I could resell it when I'm done), and I'm not getting high enough tension even when cranking up. Then again, I also don't think my wheels are perfectly co-planar, but looks like I need a heavy duty split ring wrench to get either one off.

I, too, bought that tension meter off eBay. It is holding down some papers in a nice blue box. "Someday".

As for the DriftMaster for drift, that wasn't why I wanted it. I wanted it for the precision repeatable adjustments with the micro-adjust wheel. That is hugely important vs "tap the fence with your knuckle, but not too hard"

 

[smorgasbord]

I regard the Driftmaster as a con and it is not needed if the BS is set up properly and that only requires a bit of time and costs nothing aprt from a new blade.

As I said, the nicest thing about fence is the adjustability. The fence that came with my saw is pretty much identical to what I've seen other saws have - a round rod with a hand screw to lock in place, and a not very tall fence that can be adjusted for drift with two bolts, but not for table angle, and has just the one profile.

The hand screw on some of these saws moves the fence a bit as you tighten. Mine wasn't so bad, but small movements to change resaw thickness weren't easy. Adjusting for drift required a lot of patience - again as I tightened the two adjustment bolts the fence moved out of position.

After getting the DriftMaster I can say that it's certainly not a con. But, like any tool upgrade, whether you would benefit from it is a personal decision.

 

[Mini Me]

It is not needed at all if the saw is set up properly but it is your money and your decision how you spend it. The alternative is to spend an hour or so to use adjustments that are available on the machine. I would think that attaching the fence and adjusting it would take longer than doing the adjustments available on the saw. I bought a Laguna fence that had the micro adjuster on it but no drift adjustment many years ago and that is worth the money. My dislike of the Driftmaster is simply because it is totally unnecessary and Laguna sell it knowing that.

 

[smorgasbord]

So mine is the "Laguna 'Italian-Made' 18" which is a relabeled ACM. I looked yours up and other than the on/off buttons, everything is identical to mine though yours looks to be 20". I had to drill holes in my table as well but the mounts were swinging arms so it was easy to set the height and placement. Yours looks like vertical slots. I could see that being less forgiving.

Mine's actually the 540 (22"). I got that one because the resaw capacity matched my MiniMax FS 350 Jointer/Planer.

I, too, bought that tension meter off eBay. It is holding down some papers in a nice blue box. "Someday".

If you do dust that tension meter off, I'd be interested in your results. My bandsaw has had the tension removed every night, except maybe once for one overnight, so I was surprised that my preliminary results were that I wasn't measuring the tension I should have.

I ended up using Snodgrass's "open the top cabinet and push the blade at the bottom of the cabinet to left. About a ¼" without getting white finger is the right tension" method. I know the Wood Slicer claims to run better at slightly higher blade tensions, and since my blade is so long overall (165"), I figured higher tension might be needed anyway to not deflect over the larger resaw span. I'm running the saw at the 20mm setting for the 13mm blade width and getting good results, but am worried what happens when I put a ¾" and 1" blade on the saw. Capacity is supposed to be at least 35mm on this saw.

I tried something new recently, too. I made a new batch of elephant rattles (my wife's design), where I resaw a 18mm board, cut out the shape and a recess for a couple of pennies, then glue back up to get about a 16mm thick rattle. Previously I had lightly sanded the resawn surfaces to get them flat and smooth for the glue, but after my most recent resawing it looked like the slight irregularities of one surface meshed with the other side, so I just glued them back together (with a lot of pressure). The result was a better grain match.

One other thing I found interesting is perpendicularness. Snodgrass's check is to cut partially into a 2x6" (not resaw), and then flip the board around to put the blade in from the back. If it slides in the table is perpendicular to the blade. In my case, it slides it with no perceivable deflection, but with my resaw fence adjusted to be 90º to the table with a good (and good sized) square with strong backlight, I found about 0.35 mm difference between top and bottom of the resaw. So, the slightly wider kerf than blade allows for some minor inaccuracies. I need to re-adjust my table that tinyest amount, but in the meantime I just adjusted the fence to be parallel to the blade since that was now so much easier with the new fence, and now getting uniform thicknesses within about 0.15mm to 0.2mm across 7", which I think is pretty good.

 

[Lincoln]

Have dedicated my Midi to my Kapex and my CT26 to shop tools, so wanted a cordless vac for site work. Landed on the Metabo ASR36. M class, 25 litre capacity, auto or manual filter shaking, very decent run time with 10ah batteries. Made in Germany, with a six year warranty. Very happy so far.

 

[rst]

I have the original Metabo 18v that I use with four 8amp  batteries and Festool hoses.

 

[hdv]

Bought myself a Grabo Pro in a systainer. There was a nice sale yesterday with 20% off that I just couldn't resist. Very happy with it. Comes in quite handy for someone who almost always works on their own in the shop.

[member=8712]Richard/RMW[/member] : Yeah, I like that hot glue gun too. It works great with knottec knot filler.

 

[rmwarren]

Bought myself a Grabo Pro in a systainer. There was a nice sale yesterday with 20% off that I just couldn't resist. Very happy with it. Comes in quite handy for someone who almost always works on their own in the shop.

[member=8712]Richard/RMW[/member] : Yeah, I like that hot glue gun too. It works great with knottec knot filler.

[member=66485]hdv[/member] where was the sale? My finger has been hovering over the buy button for a while, I recently sold a VacSys that wasn't getting used due to lack of space and thinking a Grabo would be a nice consolation to have around.

RMW

 

[hdv]

[member=8712]Richard/RMW[/member] : not sure if this will be of use to you, because it was at a shop that I don't know of if they'll ship to your side of the pond.

Le'me check.... Sadly no. They ship only within the EU.  [sad]

The deal was great though. I paid about €300 for the Pro in a systainer, including tax and shipping. Over here that is a real good deal. TBH, I don't know what they ask for it in the US. Some tools are quite a lot cheaper for you guys.

 

[Cheese]

Hey guys...don't forget to purchase the Betterley rail holder which secures the Festool rails to whatever you need. Unlike the Festool Gecko which is a one and done deal for short term applications, the Grabo will secure the rails to the substrate for as long as the batteries hold out. This is a rail hanging vertically on a door.

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[hdv]

Thanks for the reminder!  [thumbs up]

It was mentioned before here on the forum and I had made a mental note to check it out when I got a Grabo. But somehow I already had forgotten by now. Must be getting old...  [crying]