Just a teensy rant

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

I spent a great deal of money at JoinTech last summer, and part of that was on a pair of router table Smart Fences. Along with these come a detailed explanation of which PVC fittings to buy to put on the dust port thingy so you can actually USE it to suck the dust out of the fence. I carried the fence and a hunk of 2" dust collector hose into the hardware store and still never found a fitting or any combination of fittings that would actually work without wrapping some kind of tape around it. This irritated me greatly then, but I got over it and rigged something up with one of those 'cut to fit' rubber adapters that almost worked. The other day I put a new ShopVac into service...one with the fat hoses. I took the PVC fitting, wrapped duct tape around it 7 or 8 times, and by golly it works. But I still don't understand why the JoinTech boys can't SELL an appropriate adapter...or simply fix the port on the fence so it'll take SOME standard size hose or reducer without getting duct tape out?!? :confused: :mad:

Thanks for listening.

KC

[Bart Leetch]

So did you call, write or E-mail the JoinTech boys & ask this question ??? :eek: :D

[Bruce Page]

Hey KC, you’d think that wouldn’t be too much to ask.:rolleyes: BTW, my Fein turbo III vac hose fits my Woodhaven router fence perfectly.;)

[Scott Coffelt]

I hear ya, same issue with my Delta Twin Laser CMS, nothing fits. The chute is too small in outer diameter to work with anything. I finally wrapped it with electrical tape until I got a fit. I mean come on mfrs start matching things up to industry standards, it's not too hard to figure that out... if not, at least make some overpriced accessories that we can actually buy that fit. :rolleyes:

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Almost all of my tool hookup have had some duct tape wrapped around the hose or inside of the connection. It would be great if they would wake up and make their products with standard sizes!

[Steve Cox]

Whose standards? The ports are probably metric which was the probelm I faced when trying to hook up my Laguna band saw. If we (the US) would simply join the rest of the world this probelm would go away. Just my teensy rant:D .

[Nick Mitchell]

Steve, how remarkably enlightened :D




Whose standards? The ports are probably metric which was the probelm I faced when trying to hook up my Laguna band saw. If we (the US) would simply join the rest of the world this probelm would go away. Just my teensy rant:D .

[Jamie Buxton]

Whose standards? The ports are probably metric which was the probelm I faced when trying to hook up my Laguna band saw. If we (the US) would simply join the rest of the world this probelm would go away. Just my teensy rant:D .

That made me grumpy too. Laguna has all of its bandsaws custom-built, and claims to be ACM's biggest customer. Why couldn't they take the trouble to put an inch-size dust port on the machines?

[Scott Coffelt]

Well, if a tool is supposedly made in the US it should have standard measurements. DC fitting companies make them to standard sizes not metric, so if the rest of the world would follow the US on this we would have a consistant standard.. come on world, follow us to the standards.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Scott.....the last couple of new made in America cars I've had....some bolts metric....some bolts SAE........do we really want the world following us? :eek: ;) :D

[Nick Mitchell]

*sigh*


:(

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

So did you call, write or E-mail the JoinTech boys & ask this question ??? :eek: :D

In fact, I asked them face to face when I bought the stuff at the factory. The answer was, well, there's soooo many different dust collection/vacuum systems...

Again, the litle port thingy doesn't fit ANY of them. I think this frustrates me almost as much as buying Porter Cable guide bushings for a Porter Cable router with a Porter Cable stock baseplate, and the bit STILL isn't centered in the hole. Never have understood that. :(

[Jeff A. Smith]

I bought a Smart Miter when they came out. It was CNC'd wrong. They replaced it. Now, 2 years later, the one they replaced it with has a warped table. It won't sit flat on my saw, therefore, you can't possibly make an accurate cut with it. If you push down on the southeast corner of the table, the northwest corner of it raises up more than 1/8".

I asked them about a warranty repair.

No dice.

$91 after I pay shipping to them -- or something like that.

Anyway, then I send an email to Woodpeck and ask them what THEY would have done had I bought the Incra cutoff table instead of Jointech's, and the reply I got from them was (I'm paraphrasing):

"Our policy is that as long as the product fails under normal use, we'll replace it."

That's it? You mean on the one hand, a Jointech product that has been babied in my climate-controlled shop, properly stored, never abused, and used less than 3 times is warped, and I'd have to pay to fix it, and on the other hand an Incra product bought from Woodpeck would be replaced EVEN IF I DAMAGED IT under normal use?

That's all I need to know.

Oh yeah... My 10-year-old Jointech router fence has a problem also... I'm not even going to ask what they'd charge to fix that -- on the one hand, all I need on the Smart Miter is a piece of phenolic, and that's $91, God only knows what that positioner will need.

I finally figured out from looking at the Smart Miter that they dang near saw (route, actually) the thing in half anyway. That's where the warp has occurred. It's a big rectangle with a big "C" routed almost from one end to the other, and then this hand-hole on one of the last remaining solid pieces that actually holds the thing together instead of letting it fall into two halves. I'm no longer convinced that particular product is even a good design.

Anyway, the warranty difference alone will steer me to Incra next time.

Sorry for the long co-rant!

Jeff Smith

[Norman Hitt]

Whose standards? The ports are probably metric which was the probelm I faced when trying to hook up my Laguna band saw. If we (the US) would simply join the rest of the world this probelm would go away. Just my teensy rant:D .

You know, Steve, we had wonderful tools, (Made in America) that were Well Built, and worked extremely well for metalwork, woodwork, construction, electronics, etc, etc, for over a hundred years here in America without anyone seeing any necessity to change to the Metric system. Our products sold Worldwide during this time period, but now, someone, (Probably a New World Order Proponent), seems to think that we have to be like Sheep and Follow someone else, just because they're doing it differently, which to me, makes about as much sense as this current idea that everyone should be Politically Correct every time they speak, and for sure Never say what they truly Think, 'cause someone might be offended or get their tender feelings hurt. I don't see England or Australia Changing from driving on the left side of the road, just because most everyone else in the world drives on the Right. Incidentally, this isn't intended to be rude or hateful, it's just a very sore subject with me. :D :D Did I say I hate Metric? :D

Ken, I figure the car manufacturers are getting a "Kickback" from the Tool Companies to put some metric bolts/nuts on the cars, 'cause now every mechanic has to buy "Two Sets" of wrenches instead of one just to work on one car, and Bottom Line, not Quality seems to be the only thing that counts in the Good Ole US of A anymore. :(

OK, I'm off my Soapbox. Did I say, "I HATE METRIC". :D :D

[Tim Marks]

I don't see England or Australia Changing from driving on the left side of the road, just because most everyone else in the world drives on the Right.
Why should they? Japan drives on the left side of the road too, so they probably get a discount on cars that they import.

[Allen Bookout]

If you ever watch Lou Dobbs on CNN this is called exporting America. This is why we all have to suffer when big business exports manufacturing and jobs to Asia and other overseas locations to take advantage of starvation labor and cheap raw supplies.


This is why I try so very hard to buy "Made in America" or "Made in Canada" products even if I have to pay a little more. However, I do know that most things are impossible to purchase without buying a foreigh brand imported by American companies. With current American policies there is no incentive for American or Canadian companies to keep the production local.

Good luck to us all. Allen

[Nick Mitchell]

Norman, is there anything specific about the metric system that you 'hate' so much? Have you ever tried to use it? Is it just because it's unAmerican? I hope not. A measuring system based on the number 10 is so much easier to use, that once you start using it you'll wonder why you struggled with fractions and the number 12 for so long. Here in canada we still use a lot of the Imperial system as well so I build in Metric and sell in Imperial. Give it a try.







You know, Steve, we had wonderful tools, (Made in America) that were Well Built, and worked extremely well for metalwork, woodwork, construction, electronics, etc, etc, for over a hundred years here in America without anyone seeing any necessity to change to the Metric system. Our products sold Worldwide during this time period, but now, someone, (Probably a New World Order Proponent), seems to think that we have to be like Sheep and Follow someone else, just because they're doing it differently, which to me, makes about as much sense as this current idea that everyone should be Politically Correct every time they speak, and for sure Never say what they truly Think, 'cause someone might be offended or get their tender feelings hurt. I don't see England or Australia Changing from driving on the left side of the road, just because most everyone else in the world drives on the Right. Incidentally, this isn't intended to be rude or hateful, it's just a very sore subject with me. :D :D Did I say I hate Metric? :D

Ken, I figure the car manufacturers are getting a "Kickback" from the Tool Companies to put some metric bolts/nuts on the cars, 'cause now every mechanic has to buy "Two Sets" of wrenches instead of one just to work on one car, and Bottom Line, not Quality seems to be the only thing that counts in the Good Ole US of A anymore. :(

OK, I'm off my Soapbox. Did I say, "I HATE METRIC". :D :D

[Steve Cox]

Even here in the US we use metric for medicine and many electronics measurements (such as wavelength). Supposedly we adopted the metric system in 1976 though it certainly hasn't taken effect yet. It is so much easier to use than SAE and I'm certainly not of the PC sort!:p If you want an example of what we use every day think about our monetary system. How would you like to work with 1/8 of a cent and if you have 12 cents that equals a dollar and 3 of those are the next denomination and next up is 5280 dollars. We'd all be screaming for a decimal system. Just food for thought and I certainly don't mean to be disrespectful of anyone I just wish we would adopt what is to me a clearly superior system.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Norm,

I graduated from a HS in a small southern Illinois town in 1967. In a HS physics class we were encouraged to use the metric system as the whole world was supposed to go to using the metric system in the near future (I forget the year the change was supposed to happen...in the '70s IIRC).

In the '80s I got my first vehicle that was both SAE and Metric. What a pain! Now I find my self working on CT scanners and MR scanners that require me to have both metric and SAE tools. Now most would think so what?.....When working in the field of a 1.5 T superconductive magnet....15,000 gaus....you should, for safety reasons, use non-ferrous tools. Once in a while you can get away with using ferrous tools but when that magnet takes that ferrous tool away from you it can cause that tool to do some really strange things as it flies through the air. People get hurt when these things happen! Non-ferrous tools are (1) hard to find, (2)brittle or weak and 93) expensive.

I am quite comfortable working with the metric system....units of ten.....it's really a pain converting from metric to SAE or visa versa......I just wish the system would be constant!.........Hey....as I get older and more rotund....I like being able to say I weigh only 110 kilos! :eek: :rolleyes: :D

[Ken Garlock]

Kirk, I have the Incra "Wonder Fence". It came with a 2" plastic street ell(without the threads ;) ) The hose from my Craftsman shop vacuum fits nicely into the female end of the plastic elbow, and the other end of the elbow fits in the end of the fence. Maybe a trip to Rocklers or Woodcraft will uncover a similar connector.

Good Luck