Grumpy MSG

I started with a home made bench top router table (somebody else made the table, I made the fence. I got lucky at Woodcraft a few years ago and got the Kreg bench top table that had a bunch of parts swiped off of it for less than half price. I put some research into parts and for less than $20 it was ready to go. I absolutely love the Kreg. That said, don't be scared of the idea of building your own. Buy a plate that fits your router that has changeable inserts for bit size and use MDF for the table top and fence parts and it will stay flat and straight, cover it with an inexpensive piece of laminate (parts and pieces of it easier to find than you think for a little bit of nothing, cabinet shops have cut offs left and right). I have heard more than once that the Keter table doesn't stay flat. I don't have any experience with it, but have looked at it and it does appear to be made lightly enough that with a router hanging in it all the time, the center would sag and deform.

If you are only going to have one router and have it spend most of it's time in a router table going for a 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 router combo is probably the best route for you to go. get a fixed/plunge base kit and you can leave a base in the table and drop the motor out to use with the other base. get it with variable speed and 1/4 and 1/2 inch chucks and you will be set for small to moderately big bits. I can't speak to the other brands, I started with a Porter-Cable 690 kit around 20 years ago and it is still going, later on I lucked in to an 890 with virtually no use at a pawn shop and since it could use the same bases, collets and wrenches it was a no brainer to buy it to put into the router table, the plus side to it for the router table is 2 switch locations one near the handle and one at the end of the motor (perfect for the router table). The 690 and 100 before it were the industry standard so getting an insert plate that the 690 or 890 bolts right up to is easy. The other features that make the 890 great for router tables is the micro adjust knob for fine tuning and the push button for large adjustments, it has the ability to use an above the table crank to adjust height (it works by grabbing the end of a hex shaft on the micro adjust knob) and when you push the push button for a large adjustment and raise the motor as high as possible in the table, it pushes in on the collet shaft lock and only requires one wrench to change the bit at that point. I don't like to speak bad about one brand or another, being a red, yellow, blue or green Koolaid drinker. But hey, if it was good enough for Norm for all those years... One attachment to take a serious look at is the Oneida router hood, and look he has a Bosch router.

So is it a 10 inch slider or fixed you want? They make the DHS716 in a couple of varieties, it is a 12" dual compound non slider that DeWALT's website says weighs 44 pounds, so there is around 20 less pounds in that saw than the 790. It says it will cut 4 X 6s and is a little confusing about crosscuts, it lists cross cuts at 2 X 8 or 2 X 10 (with back fence), which I am guessing actually means back fence removed for 2 X 10.

I think what you are talking about is the HKC55. It very similar to the European available DeWALT circulars saw, that has a base that allows it to be used with a track or be used as a conventional circular saw. In FlexVolt the DCS575 would be the regular saw, the DCS576 would be the same saw with a track compatible base.

A tracksaw is the way to go if you are installing a door in an existing opening that is not necessarily plumb and square anymore. The cut is cleaner, straighter and more predictable than a regular circular saw. If you are gifted with a regular saw you might be able to cut as straight, but you aren't going to have as clean a cut especially when you are getting where you are just taking a part of the blade off of the door. It is a tool that may take a little more time to use, but it helps folks who may not be as skilled. As for DeWALT blades, you have to take a serious look at potential replacements, because their blade diameter is slightly different than other tracksaws and the arbor diameter is different from a standard saw, so you may be stuck using DeWALT blades if you want their depth gauge to function accurately.

I think it may be the case of, they had their own battery. Somebody on here bought one on closeout a couple of months ago. Graco probably learned it would sell better if it used a more easily obtained market standard battery and be less aggravation for them.

Those Matchfit clamps are great, they work in the dovetails and can be used with a Paulk or MFT style table and are a few dollars less than the similar Festool clamps are.

The little DeWALT vacuums are great if you are going to clean your car, truck or in the nooks a crannies in a trailer out or you are going to clean up a little sawdust on a job site for something like a counter top or kitchen cabinets install. It is not in the same league as a big HEPA filtered vacuum. The two big dust extractors will move a lot more air plus have an alternating self clean feature that cleans one filter while continuing to pull vacuum through the other making them great for hooking to a sander. The big difference between the two is mobility, the 8 gallon has 4 3" wheels (2 swivel) while the 10 gallon has 2 larger fixed wheels and an extendable handle, making it better for the job site, while the 8 gallon is more compact and better suited to shop use. Another small difference between the two is the 10 gallon has variable suction and the 8 does not. Both have the ability to have a tool plugged into them so that when you turn the tool on the vacuum starts up and then it runs for a little bit after the tool is shut off.

Why box it? pad and tape up the latches, zip tie the hasp shut and tape it up, tape a label on it and ship it. When I came back from Iraq, my DeWALT 4 piece tool kit in plastic box was taped, zip tied and labeled and shipped to a family member's house.

If it is less than 6 inches in diameter, I have found using a Freud Diablo pruning blade in a reciprocating saw is my favorite pruning saw.

Builders or Home Depot don't repair tools, of course they aren't service centers. If you are looking for a place that is a DeWALT service center, Service centers might be located in a larger local hardware store or even in an electric motor repair business. Chances are good that they may actually be a service center for more than one brand especially with the Stanley Black and Decker family. I am fortunate that I have a service center about 25 miles from the house in Rocking R hardware and their big fall tool sate is 2 weeks away where manufacturer reps will be in to demonstrate some of the latest and greatest products around as well as offer good discounts for the sale.

An inexpensive filter/regulator will prevent that issue. Make sure you monitor it the first couple of times you use it to ensure the pressure switch cuts it off when it reaches full pressure. As old as that is, max pressure is probably going to be 120-125 PSI. Look for a tag or stamping on the tank or pressure switch to tell you what it is.

My recommendation is for you to make a list of the cordless tools you think you would want (include the outdoor power equipment if you like) and research which lines have those tools available. Compare the tools, the availability in your area (which stores have what), prices and flat and simple which ones you prefer. Don't be afraid of lines like Ryobi, Ridgid or Porter-Cable or even Black and Decker if it is just for DIY type projects, a $69 B&D hedge trimmer will work on 50 feet of hedges for years instead of $199 DeWALT Flex-Volt and leave you money to buy a leaf blower and string trimmer with the same batteries at the same time.

Sound advice! Along the way through life you will find some folks who are incapable of uttering the magical words "I don't know" for fear of being branded as stupid. They may have a field of knowledge they know well like small engines/ lawn mowers, but don't know anything about generators/ inverters and are afraid to pick up a shop manual to get it right.

If they relied so heavily on that charger, they probably did it from the start, and that means the service life for those batteries and tools meet their expectations. In other words, they don't know any better, so that is normal to them. A great example of that mentality in action is the number of $99 DeWALT drills sold every holiday to homeowners at the big box stores. They started with 18 volt line and now have 20 Volt MAX available, they come equipped with the cheapest to manufacture batteries DeWALT can make. It is usually something ridiculous like a pair of 1.0 to 1.3 Ah packs and goes down hill from there, abuse them and they die even quicker. They will turn around in a year or two and buy another $99 drill. They won't go in and buy the $99 two pack of 2.4 Ah 18V XRP batteries for $99, because the can get a new drill and batteries for the same price. Now there is the equivalent to that in the 20V MAX available every holiday. You might look at how I treat my tools as ridiculous because I actually have an in service date label on my batteries and place another marker on them when their run time becomes suspect to me. It has allowed me to have a few 18V XRP batteries that have been around since Bush Jr. was President. There are plenty of folks who bounce through a new platform every 2-3 years, I know of one contractor who has been through Porter-Cable 19.2, older Bosch 18, Milwaukee 18 and was on newer Bosch 18 when I last talked to him. Another way to look at it is what may be unacceptable to you is normal to them. I know plenty of folks who can't live without their smart phones, several of which have to charge them multiple times a day and don't complain about replacing it every year or two. Meanwhile, I find that level of performance to be horrible and prefer my semi smart phone that lasts up to a week on a charge and is several years old. If you'll notice I really don't spend much time bashing platforms

Perhaps you think about it in a different way, how is the motor is the 20V/40V/60V chainsaw relative to the bar? Chances are it is used in something else too.

I haven't read any literature about it, but then again my training and experience about batteries started before cordless tools really became viable, initially from Exide in the 6 and 12 volt farm and industrial batteries and later GNB for 24 and 36 volt electric power equipment batteries (1000+ pound batteries for various fork trucks). I don't think it matters what type of battery it is, excessive heat or excessive discharge will shorten the life span of a battery. You are right there is a lifespan for batteries a number of charges and discharges before it run time is so reduced, it needs to be replaced. When you get to where you are drilling one or two holes with a battery or getting 30 seconds of run time with the vacuum trying to clean up before it dies, that battery is going out of the rotation and getting replaced quickly. Now if you are the small contractor who shows up on a job site with a battery in the drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw and one spare and a fast charger to do a job and swaps a battery once or twice on each tool as he uses them and then replaces those 4 batteries once a year, that might be your version of acceptable, especially if you are one of the guys who are buying the latest and greatest drill as each one comes out. Heck they get new batteries every time they buy the new tool. Another guy might have 10 batteries they take to the site with a couple on the tools, follows the manufacturers recommendation on when to change batteries, charge them up each night and get 4 years life out of them. Which is the right way to run them? The simple reason as to why a company would offer them if they shortened the life is because other companies do. The added bonus for the company is it gets to sell more batteries to you, the customer.

To expand on it a little, Bosch is a company that had a larger presence in the US a few years back and had a problem when they switched battery pack designs and had some problems with the change over. They went from an insert type battery (Like the older 18 volt DeWALT line to a slide on pack (Like the 20Volt MAX DeWALT line) and had a horrible transition due to the marketing and markings. folks would go to purchase additional batteries and end up with making 2 trips to the store to get the correct batteries. Throw in the fact that at some point, some stores had old batteries and tools, while others had the newer batteries and tools. DeWALT chose to make it much simpler, just leaving the old marked as 18 and the new marked as 20 which made it much easier to not screw up when sending someone with almost zero knowledge to go get a tool or battery at Lowe's, Home Depot or any other store for that matter. Given some of the discussions on here now about various battery platforms , I can just imagine how crazy it would have been on here if TIA had existed then.

The big question is, do the fast chargers reduce battery life? At some point you would hit maximum efficiency for charging and battery life, charge faster than that and you will introduce too much heat and reduce the number of charges a battery will take over the life of a battery. Are you willing to replace all your batteries after one year to get faster charging or would you rather they last 3 years and just have to charge longer?

The "dick move" is to try to use the court system to require all manufacturers to license and use your technology. Doctor Jonas Salk, the University of Pittsburgh and the National Foundation For Infantile Paralysis (Now known as the March of Dimes) did not fight anybody to prevent them from using the vaccine his team created. And from Wikipedia's Post on Jonas Salk: I left the footnotes/links for Wikipedia so you could see where they got their info. There sir, is an example of how not to do a "dick move". Like I said in an earlier post, he could have licensed his technology at a cost to recover his investment relatively quickly and start profiting after that while making woodworking and carpentry safer along the way. I am not telling you not to buy his products, I just don't like how he went about trying to force others to use it using the court system. As for having great idea, I am no Izzy Swan, but I have had a few reasonably good ones I think and I have sent them to a company or two, hoping something might come from them. I am not looking for a patent or payment, and if a company made one of my ideas, I just hope they would send me one of the prototypes to try out and one of the first production ones made.

The massive hole in your argument is that Bosch did exactly that, created a safety device equal to or better than the SawStop with 2 shots to a cartridge and doesn't lock up and ruin a blade. SawStop sued and instead of a license settlement/agreement went for the cease and desist order. So now if you purchased one of the Bosch jobsite table saws (SawStop did not even offer a comparable model at the time), you cannot purchase replacement cartridges. That is why a lot of folks think they had a great idea, but don't agree with the Company's policy and therefore won't do business with them.

If it truly was all about encouraging safety, he would have licensed his technology to all manufacturers for a low cost that would allow him to recover his investment quickly and then turn a profit after that. His lawsuit against Bosch showed his true colors.

So let me see if I have this straight, all you are asking for is a lot of new tools (some of which do not exist on any battery platform at the moment), If the tool exists, you want them out of the factory door better than any competitor's tools and at a lower price than the competitors. You want tools to include features you want, not necessarily what other people want, rafter hooks, blade left/ blade right, 4 way blade/ variable orbital cut, onboard dust collection/ bluetooth dust collection control, long battery life/ faster battery charge times to name a few. It doesn't seem to matter that the ideas come into conflict with each other as to what is "best". Some folks want to be the first to purchase the latest and greatest tool, then they are unhappy when the next generation tool comes out after the company gets feedback and makes a few changes. I think I have figured it out, for some folks their "Comfort Zone" or "Happy Place" (if you are fan of Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore), is actually an unhappy place, finding all the flaws with things instead of the high points. Just a year ago, you didn't have cordless tools with the power of corded tools, now you can't wait for DeWALT to come out with a full size 10 inch table saw or full power vacuum. Allow me to predict the argument to go along with that one will be it should be on an X stand/ rolling stand, not the one it came out on. In the meantime why don't you learn to think outside the box and use what you do have, instead of being unhappy with what you don't.

Rotate it 90 degrees in the correct direction and the sparks will fly out the bottom, rotate in the wrong direction and they are coming out the top. Either way some will make it back toward the operator, however out the top will be more noticeable and more annoying at the same time.

If you are looking for something to clean it with you could go the expensive rout and use a Meguiar's product for leather seats or go to Wally world or the Bullseye and get Kiwi saddle soap and conditioning oil.