Jason Scott
01-30-2008, 12:23 PM
Hey all,
I wanted your opinions on the Swanson sliding T-bevel if any of you have it. I have needed one for a while for doing dovetails and finally decided that I was going to get one yesterday.
Going along with my new creed "I will never buy substandard tools that I have to replace" I decided on a Crown t-bevel from Woodcraft. They seem to have a great name and I have one of their detail saws, so off I went. I looked around at Stanley/Jonson/etc. from the big box stores especially b/c this tool is not so much an "accurate" thing as it is just to transfer angles. Anyway I said, no to the cheaper ones and decided on the Crown like I said. When I got to woodcraft though I picked up their 9" Crown and it felt ok, but not lightyears difference from some of the cheaper ones. I was curious so I took it out of the package and played with it. It seemed nice enough, and I love the "look" of it. But I decided to wait and go one more place I had not gone before I shelled out close to 30 dollars for this tool.
That is when I came across the Swanson Professional T-Bevel. Except for the color of the hardwood (more reddish than the nice Crown dark rosewood) it felt better made to me :confused: It was heavier, and the locking wheel was really neat and kept the traditional wingnut out of the way. In the end I decided to buy the Swanson, and it was not b/c it was 9 bucks compared to 27 for the Crown, it just "felt" better to me. So I am curious, are they a decent tool company? I have sworn off cheap tools, as I have replaced my craftsman ts and router, with Powermatic and Dewalt, so this seemed backwards to me that I was getting the "same" tool for 9.00 as opposed the 27.00, so this would be an instance of you can get a good tool for less money. I don't know, maybe I am wrong and I do not have enough experience to know why, this is my first t-bevel...In the end I could just not justify spending 3X as much on a tool that did not "feel" as good as the cheaper one. Please let me know your thoughts on Swanson.
Link to Swanson tools, the t-bevel is halway down the page:
http://www.swansontoolco.com/products/builder_squares.html
Jason
I wanted your opinions on the Swanson sliding T-bevel if any of you have it. I have needed one for a while for doing dovetails and finally decided that I was going to get one yesterday.
Going along with my new creed "I will never buy substandard tools that I have to replace" I decided on a Crown t-bevel from Woodcraft. They seem to have a great name and I have one of their detail saws, so off I went. I looked around at Stanley/Jonson/etc. from the big box stores especially b/c this tool is not so much an "accurate" thing as it is just to transfer angles. Anyway I said, no to the cheaper ones and decided on the Crown like I said. When I got to woodcraft though I picked up their 9" Crown and it felt ok, but not lightyears difference from some of the cheaper ones. I was curious so I took it out of the package and played with it. It seemed nice enough, and I love the "look" of it. But I decided to wait and go one more place I had not gone before I shelled out close to 30 dollars for this tool.
That is when I came across the Swanson Professional T-Bevel. Except for the color of the hardwood (more reddish than the nice Crown dark rosewood) it felt better made to me :confused: It was heavier, and the locking wheel was really neat and kept the traditional wingnut out of the way. In the end I decided to buy the Swanson, and it was not b/c it was 9 bucks compared to 27 for the Crown, it just "felt" better to me. So I am curious, are they a decent tool company? I have sworn off cheap tools, as I have replaced my craftsman ts and router, with Powermatic and Dewalt, so this seemed backwards to me that I was getting the "same" tool for 9.00 as opposed the 27.00, so this would be an instance of you can get a good tool for less money. I don't know, maybe I am wrong and I do not have enough experience to know why, this is my first t-bevel...In the end I could just not justify spending 3X as much on a tool that did not "feel" as good as the cheaper one. Please let me know your thoughts on Swanson.
Link to Swanson tools, the t-bevel is halway down the page:
http://www.swansontoolco.com/products/builder_squares.html
Jason