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Stokestack

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Everything posted by Stokestack

  1. Thanks for the info, guys. I'll check out that site. But ugh, the videos are WMX files. Talk about defunct. If you want to watch these on a Mac without risking the installation of Flip4Mac, here are the links so you can download the files and watch them with VLC (which is reliable and free). http://www.taylorguitars.com/video/Humidity_1_High.wmx http://www.taylorguitars.com/video/Humidity_2_High.wmx
  2. Hi all. I inherited a La Patrie guitar, Transparent Black model. The soundboard is warped significantly: What would even cause this? Humidity? Anyway, I'm not a luthier or even an accomplished woodworker, but I'm willing to learn. Is there anything to be done with this thing? Regards, Gavin
  3. Last night I took both routers out and examined them side by side. First I compared the fixed bases. The Sears has a larger window to see the work, and three LEDs as opposed to the Ridgid's two. The height adjustment on both units is fairly sloppy, but the Craftsman's is pathetic. It's of no use at all, for three major reasons: 1. The scale ring around the height-adjustment knob is loose and stops turning while you turn the knob. 2. There's a dead spot in the gearing where you can turn the knob a full 180 degrees and the router motor doesn't move at all. 3. After you get the bit flush with the base, you push a button to disengage the height-adjustment knob so you can zero the scale. After you release the button, the gears do not re-engage, even if you jostle the assembly. They only snap back into each other after you turn the adjustment knob a quarter turn at least, meaning that the scale is now totally inaccurate. You will be using a ruler to make your height adjustments with the fixed base, period. The Ridgid's height adjuster isn't what I'd call precise, because the motor can slide up and down a bit before hitting the retractable stop that holds it into the base. But it works much better than the Craftsman, in that you might get away with using it without a ruler. Switching both machines on, the Craftsman was slightly louder but vibrated less than the Ridgid. The Craftsman "soft start" is much softer than the Ridgid, taking a couple of seconds or more to reach full speed. The Ridgid winds up quickly, and still twists a little with torque. I didn't mind either, but I like the Craftsman action. Sitting on a board, the Ridgid rotated slowly with vibration, and the Craftsman stayed put. The Craftsman's base is wider, however. The location of the Craftsman's power switch is much better than the Ridgid's; you can, with effort, flip it without taking your hand off the handle. No way can you do that with the Ridgid. This is such a common complaint that it's a little ridiculous at this point. Next I took out the plunge bases. No obvious advantage to either one here. The Craftsman does have dust boots on the rods. The Craftsman does suffer from one shoddy piece of engineering, though: The rod that limits plunge depth comes down and hits a small pedestal (see picture). That pedestal is stair-stepped in a circle, allowing you to rotate it and make coarse adjustments to plunge depth. It's a useful feature, but unfortunately that pedestal teeters slightly when the rod comes down and hits it. If your pressing force varies much between each plunge, you can get slight depth variation. This thing is held on with a simple screw through its middle, and I'll bet it'd be easy to modify it for the better. I decided to try the Craftsman, routing a half-inch-deep rectangular well out of some pine (not all at once, of course). I couldn't use the Ridgid for the task at the time, because I found that while the Craftsman comes with an edge guide, the Ridgid doesn't. Also, the Craftsman comes in a hard plastic case that holds the router, bases, edge guide and wrench securely. The Ridgid comes with a canvas bag with no interior pockets and only a divider to separate the bases. The wrench, extra collet, flimsy plastic dust-collection attachments, and base-alignment tool roll around loose in the bottom. The bag has outer pockets, none of which is wide enough to hold the manual (not that you really need the manual after day one, but come on). LAME. The one thing that the Ridgid comes with that the Craftsman doesn't is the base-alignment tool, which is basically a metal pin that goes in the collet and a plastic cone with a hole through it. I used the Craftsman with the plunge base to rout my rectangular well, and it worked fine. Really the only issue was my inexperience. I didn't try the Ridgid, because it's going back and I didn't want to make a mess of it. It don't see what would have made it worth (to me) more than double the cost of the Craftsman, when you factor in the lack of an edge guide. As far as I can tell, the Craftsman is a very good deal.
  4. Thanks for all the info, guys. Given that the Milwaukee has only 1 3/4 HP, the Craftsman 2, and the Ridgid 2 1/4; how big a deal is the power difference? I'll probably want to use the thing for some heavier duty in the future (things like moldings, perhaps). And yeah, it's just a router, so I'm probably over-analyzing it.
  5. "But I'm curious why you would buy the Rigid if you could get the Milwaukee kit for less money. It's a better router than either the rigid or the craftsman and you said they had over 40 in stock for around $130." As it turns out, it was only the 1 3/4 HP set from Milwaukee they had for that price. I logged back in here to correct my earlier post, but couldn't remember which thread it had come up in. I'm interested in why you find the Milwaukee better. As far as the cases go, the Craftsman one seems pretty easy to use. The canvas Ridgid one is in fact the bigger pain (also noted by others in a couple reviews I read). I thought the construction of the Milwaukee set was inferior to the Ridgid, but that was a cursory examination. I didn't go back to look at it after seeing the Craftsman. Thanks for any info.
  6. Hi all. I decided to get a router with two bases, so I picked up the 2 1/4 HP Ridgid at Home Depot. It's about $200. I had forgotten to look at Sears, and today I found they have a 2-HP two-base router (http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00917543000P?mv=rr) for $107. I looked at it in the store and didn't see any major deficiencies. It seems decently made and as far as I can tell has all the features of the Ridgid except 1/4 HP and the speed range is slightly more narrow (12,000 to 25,000 RPM instead of the Ridgid's 10,000 to 23,000). The Craftsman also comes in a hard case, whereas the Ridgid comes with a canvas bag that offers little protection (especially for the flimsy plastic dust-collection attachments). Any reason I should keep the Ridgid? Thanks for any input. Gavin
  7. I saw what I think is that same Milwaukee set today at Home Depot for $130-$140. The guy said they'd been sent 46 of 'em for some reason, so they were blowing them out. This was in Marina del Rey, CA.
  8. The tool itself has never exhibited any vibration problems. It spins smoothly at all speeds with no noticeable slop anywhere. There's going to be vibration as you're cutting material, in any case. The pillars on which the tool travels up and down are about 3" high. But the chuck and bit only total maybe an inch in height. And some of the bit has to be below the baseplate, so most of the pillar height is pointless. The bar into which the tool screws never needs to be more than an inch from the baseplate, and probably less. Take a look at your picture; in that shot, the crossbar is already pretty low, and it's way higher than it would be in actual use. I'm not talking about keeping the tool vertically perpendicular to the material's surface. I'm talking about keeping the bit a uniform distance from the edge, which the single contact point of the edge guide can't do. The tool can still rotate about the rolling pin of the edge guide (as if swinging like a pendulum), moving it toward and away from the edge. Because you cut off the rest of my sentence: "...but with the way the thing rattles apart, I don't see the point." Thanks for the info about the Dremel adjustment and base, jm.
  9. Yes, the Dremel one gets bad reviews and looks predictably sloppy and cheap. Thanks for the link. I don't know much about laminate trimmers. Do people mount them under tables like a router sometimes? I'd like to use roundover bits and whatnot, so is that best done with a table setup or can you hand-hold the thing for edge work like that? Also, do most laminate trimmers accept template guides, and is there a "standard" for template guides (are they interchangeable between brands)?
  10. Hi all. I just bought this base, but I have a less positive review. Concave-base issues notwithstanding, I found the physical construction to be solid. The tool screws firmly into the crossbar and I had little worry about slop there. Unfortunately, the entire assembly will begin to rattle itself apart within seconds of starting the tool, even when the various adjustments are tightened with pliers. After several minutes of use, even the base was wobbling. The result is that the depth and bit angle are continually changing. Much of the depth-adjustment range is pointless, far above the base and well out of reach of any bit. By the time you crank it down to where the bit actually protrudes below the base, the lower spring on the support pillar is crushed down almost to its limit. And, as mentioned above, nothing ensures that the bit remains perpendicular to the base. In use, I didn't find the edge guide to work very well. Because it has only one point of contact with the edge, nothing ensures that it remains perpendicular to a tangent as you follow a contour. Also, the maximum distance from the edge is very limited. I don't know if there are better designs out there, but this one doesn't seem precise to me. If nothing else, I thought I might keep the base to mount upside-down in homemade mini router table like this: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/microrouter.htm but with the way the thing rattles apart, I don't see the point. And with this base and edge guide coming in at almost $100, I think I'll return them and get a laminate trimmer. I welcome any suggestions for what to look for in those. I don't build guitars (yet, anyway), but most of my needs are similar. Gavin
  11. "They have a Milwaukee 2 1/4 HP for $124 with two bases." Hey Godzilla, What model was that? I can't find it on their site. I see one matching the description, but it's more than that and they say the coupon code doesn't apply to that one. Thanks! Gavin
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