Popular Woodworking 2001-10 № 124, страница 20
fstatsl
Overall Performance Overall Performance key * Angles past 90° (including 135°) can easily be achieved by attaching the 90° fence and adjusting the angle of the adjustable fence. ** Blade geometry for the Top 20 is different than all the other blades. The teeth are offset.As a result, the variance is not a measure of runout. Pl. = plastic,Al. = aluminum, R=rubber, FF=face frame, Ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being outstanding and 1 being unacceptable, ■ = PW Recommends WHERE DO BISCUITS COME FROM? As important as the tool itself is the lowly biscuit. But just where do these little suckers come from? Kathleen Oberleiter, the dealer sales manager for Lamello,says her company has one plant in Switzerland that produces biscuits for Europe and the United States. In addition to producing biscuits under its own name, Lamello also makes the same quality biscuits for Makita and Black & Decker (and Black & Decker's sister company, DeWalt). Lamello (800-252-6355) brags that its beech biscuits are compressed and within one-tenth of a millimeter in thickness with a moisture content between 8 and 10 percent. Here in the United States, Porter-Cable (800-487-8665) started making its own biscuits in Jackson,Tenn., in the mid-1980s.Then the company concluded it would be better to have another company make the biscuits. Now Hill Wood Products of Cook, Minnesota, makes all of Porter-Cable's biscuits. In fact, Hill Wood's plant is the only major producer of biscuits in this country and makes between 60 percent and 70 percent of the biscuits sold in the United States, says Hill Wood President Steve Hill.Instead of beech, Hill Wood makes biscuits using Northern white birch. Interestingly, Hill says Hill Wood does not compress the wood for its biscuits and relies on the moisture in the glue to swell the biscuit and lock the joint tight.The company's equipment is capable of compressing the biscuits,but Hill says he's found that wood can compress unevenly, resulting in biscuits of different thicknesses. Hill Wood cuts its biscuits to the same thickness within 5-thousandths of an inch. So how does birch compare to the European beech? Hill says beech is actually a little harder and the grain is a bit tighter than in birch, but that it's real close."The glue or the wood is more likely to fail than the biscuit," he says. Freud (800-334-4l07),a major player in the biscuit market, has its biscuits made by a Spanish firm that makes biscuits for many other firms, according to Jim Brewer,vice president of operations. Freud's biscuits are made of beech and are compressed, he says. Kaiser biscuits, which are made in Austria from beech, are distributed in the United States by Practical Products Co.(800-847-8839) of Cincinnati, Ohio, according to Donald Baltzer,company president. Kaisers are well thought of in Europe and are compressed during manufacturing. 10 Popular Woodworking October 2001 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
