Tool Review -- Olson Saw No. 42101 5" Pin End Scroll Saw Files

Busy Bee carries these as their Cat. No. 42101 -- $10.99 CDN for the package of two.

Here's Olson's own description of the items:

"5in. long x .156in. wide x .056in. thick, pin end Olson Scroll Saw Files convert your scroll saw into a power sander! Pack of 2. Fine grit scroll saw files smooth, sand, shape, and correct even complex contours and forms, eliminating hand sanding in hard and soft wood, plaster, greenware, soapstone, and non-ferrous metals including copper and brass. Made from a durable tempered spring steel core coated with silicon carbide abrasive, they work in most scroll saws taking Pin End blades."

They do work as advertised, but the grit is quite fine. (No grit number is specified; I'd guesstimate it as finer than 220.) Don't expect aggressive material removal from these files.

I've only tried one out for cleaning up a band saw cut on some softwood end-grain. The result was ok, but it was slow-going. The file didn't seem to be inclined to clog, which is a good thing.

These files are for fine work. I imagine they'd do a nice job on soft metals.

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FEEDBACK

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Small Engine Ratings

Princess Auto has changed the way that they rate their small engine offerings, and not for the better to my mind.

It used to be that they gave a horsepower (hp) figure for a given engine; now they're giving only a displacement figure in cubic centimetres (cc). I don't find that helpful. I don't understand the thinking behind the move, and I see nothing on Princess Auto's website by way of explanation. I sent them the following email about it:

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"Please reconsider your policy of rating engines only by their metric cubic displacement. I don't find it helpful, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

A horsepower rating for me is a useful benchmark for gauging an engine's suitability for a purpose. If you must go metric (which I don't consider to be 'progress'), then at least give a power rating in watts. A wattage rating is readily convertible to horsepower."

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Here's the reply I got:

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"Good Morning Tom,

We thank you for your feedbacks.[sic] I will forward your suggestions to our Leaders and Buyers Team.

Best Wishes"

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Hmmm. I won't hold my breath waiting for them to bring back horsepower ratings.

Something that I find almost amusing about Princess Auto's move is the utter inconsistency of their engine descriptions. You can see an example here.

The engine is listed by its metric displacement, 163 cc. So you'd think that this is part and parcel of an overall move toward metric measures only, right? Wrong. In the 'details' section of the ad, there's a torque figure in ft-lbs. Bore and stroke are given in inches. One might expect a power rating in watts to go with the metric displacement figure, but no power rating in any kind of unit is to be had.

To be blunt, I think that this move on Princess Auto's part is an ill-considered one made by someone who knows just enough to be dangerous. Princess Auto needs to give its head a shake, and ask itself just what on earth it thinks it's accomplishing with this.

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Metric Displacement To Horsepower Conversion (Four-Stroke Engines)

Anyway, in the interest of being a little more helpful here than Princess Auto is, I found a cc-to-hp converter on the web. The converter is based on an assumption that 32.5 cc of engine displacement yields one horsepower. It's a reasonable assumption that appears to give a pretty good ballpark figure. I tried it on my lawnmower's 148 cc engine, and got an answer of 4.55 hp. The lawnmower engine's label rating is 4.5 hp, so that's close -- good enough to go with when trying to judge an engine's suitability for a purpose.

I can't be the only one who finds Princess Auto's move to be unhelpful. It will be interesting to see where, if anywhere, Princess Auto goes with this.

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FEEDBACK

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Tool Review -- Princess Auto Power Fist No. 8144727: 1/2" Keyed Chuck

I picked this up to go with an ancient wood lathe that I'm restoring.

Here's a better view out of the packaging.

The chuck is described as 1/2" capacity, but it's actually a 2 -13mm chuck -- same difference, really. The chuck fits 1/2"-20 spindles.

When I first tried closing the chuck by hand, there were tight spots that needed the key to be applied to get past. I thought, "Not another piece of junk that I'll have to return." That cleared up -- there must have been a bit of machining chaff in the works that cleared out. The chuck now opens and closes smoothly by hand.

I mounted the chuck on my lathe, and it runs true. All-in-all, not a bad deal for $19.99 CDN. If Princess Auto's Power Fist stuff were consistently of as good quality as this chuck, Princess Auto and its customers would both be better off.

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FEEDBACK

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Tool Review -- Princess Auto Power Fist No. 8265167: 5' Tape Measure

I have a thing for inch-only tape measures, especially compact ones -- the modern trend toward great, huge bulky tape measures leaves me cold; I find the things awkward.

So I was quite taken by this little $1.99 tape measure that I came across at Princess Auto today.

It's an inch-only five foot tape measure with a 5/16" wide blade -- neat. Except that it must have been made on an off day. (To put a charitable spin on it.) The registration hook at the end of the tape is mispositioned by about 3/64", like so.

Not good enough. I'll return the thing the next time I'm in the store.

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One can't help but wonder what the factory was thinking when it let these tape measures go out the door. The factory couldn't possibly not have known that the things were grossly defective, but it let them ship out to be sold as legitimate measuring tools.

One suspects that the factory might have a pretty low opinion of the tool-buying public. One fears that the factory's opinion may be well grounded.

It would be interesting to learn how many of these tape measures ever actually go into service as credible tools.

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FEEDBACK

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Shop Fox D3758 Biscuit Joining Kit

Busy Bee has these on special for $28.50 CDN ($32.99 CDN regular).

The way I'd been applying glue to biscuit slots left a bit to be desired, so I decided it was time I sprang for a proper applicator. The Shop Fox kit stocked me up nicely on biscuits at the same time, so I went for it.

The biscuit slot applicator works ok -- it delivers glue right down into the slot. Here's a close-up view of the applicator head with its cover off.

The glue channel is a narrow, rectangular passageway down the centre of the applicator head. It's probably wisest to thoroughly clean and rinse that passageway after every use. If that glue channel were to get clogged with hardened glue, one would have a difficult time of clearing it, and restoring the applicator to useability.

I still have a hard time gauging just how much glue to apply to a slot; I guess I'll learn eventually by trial and error.

I haven't tried the roller applicator yet, and that brings me to my one gripe with this kit. It seems to me that Shop Fox ought to have thrown in a second bottle, so that one could have both application methods ready at hand, without having to muck about with swapping applicator heads. I'll be keeping an eye out for a spare bottle that fits the roller applicator's thread.

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Bottle Found -- SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2017

Busy Bee has a glue bottle with a conical tip that's just the thing. (Busy Bee Cat. No. B2356 -- $3.49 CDN.)

The thread on the neck of the B2356 bottle fits the Shop Fox roller applicator head perfectly.

So now I have the arrangement that Shop Fox should have provided in the first place -- two applicator styles at the ready.

I've tried the roller applicator, and it works well.

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FEEDBACK

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A Set Of Lilac Bough Candlestick Holders

And after an evening's use.

We have an old, overgrown lilac tree on our property that got a serious pruning some time ago. That left me with some lengths of lilac boughs that had been aging outside, somewhat sheltered from the elements under a bench.

I'm a novice at wood turning, so I thought I'd set myself an exercise in cylinder turning, using the lilac boughs as challenging material. The result I found myself getting was quite attractive -- the boughs' flaws contrasting with the machined wood. Then it dawned on me that if you drill a 3/4" hole in most anything, you have a candlestick holder. So I bored each cylinder at one end, and you see the result in the above photos.

As I discovered from my turning exercise, lilac is a lovely, dense hardwood that machines nicely -- shearing cuts on the lathe produce a smooth surface that scarcely needs sanding. If lilacs grew in abundance to the size of oaks, there'd be a lot of lilac furniture in the world.

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FEEDBACK

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A Rude, Crude Shelf Blank

Sometimes it's pleasant to refrain from doing careful, tight tolerance work and turn one's attention to something a little less demanding, e.g. a simple shelf blank glued up from salvaged Ikea bed slats. Here's a view of the biscuit-joined creation I've just glued together and clamped up.

It's been in the clamps long enough; let's liberate it and see what we've got.

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It's not great, but it will do.

Now I just have to rip it to final width and cross-cut it to length, and I can install it in the tool cart that it's meant for.

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And I think I can call that a success.

It sits flat on its clips, and it's plenty sturdy enough for anything I might load it with.

I may make some more of those. I haven't run out of bed slats yet.

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FEEDBACK

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