General Tools

[Jerome Hanby]

While I Was in Woodcraft Today buying stuff for my wood threading project, I looked at the General Tools model 55 circle cutter. I had purchased the no name Asian circle/wheel cutter from Woodcraft a while back and it was just awful. The General looks much better made plus it's marked "Made in USA"! I talked with one of the Woodcraft guys about whether it would also cut wheels and he thought it would no problem. The instructions are printed on the inside of the box and I didn't want to tear it all to pieces in the store, so I took a chance on it. Got it back to the office, cut the box so I could read, and no mention of wheels. It's an American company, I'll just call them. First lady promptly answered my question, no it wont cut wheels, you need a model 6, and your local Fastenal can get it for you. My next question was will the model 6 cutter fit my model 55. She turned me over to another lady for that one. She got out the equipment and verified that the cutters were not interchangeable. I thanked her and said I'd just go by Fastenal and order a number 6 to replace the crappy Asian knock off that was giving me problems. She gave me a name and number for Fastenal to contact to get the item ASAP, then stopped and said she'd just send me one hoping that made up for the lack of local availability!

If these things are as sturdy as they look and work well, I'll be looking for General first next time!