Popular Woodworking 2002-12 № 131, страница 41

Craftsman Self-cleaning Planer

Tired of hooking your dust collector to your portable planer and fighting with the hose ? Craftsman has the answer with its model #21743 13" thickness planer with built-in dust collection.

The planer itself is of decent construction, with all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a premium benchtop. But the amazing feature is a fan (powered by the planer's motor) to pull the dust and chips away from the cutterhead and into

either a plastic garbage bag or garbage can. Now that's clever and convenient!

And while they were adding extra duties for the motor, they added a switch to raise and lower the cutterhead with a motor instead of the hand crank. When you're moving the head 3" in either direction, this is a nice feature.

The planer itself (priced at $440) is a little pricey, but the take-off fan for dust collection is a great idea if you don't own a dust-collection system. It's a product worthy of note by woodworkers and manufacturers. Very clever.

Contact Craftsman at 800-377-7414 or craftsman.com

Tite-Mark Worth the Investment

Don't be put off by the $80 price tag on this tool. The Tite-Mark cutting gauge will earn its keep in your shop, especially if you ever cut dovetails, tenons or mortises by hand.

The circular blade scores deeply if asked, and it refuses to follow the grain or chatter across your work like the pin does in many wooden marking gauges. The tool's microadjustable head lets you get close to the setting you want and then sneak up on your ideal measurement by turning the knurled knob - an excellent feature when dovetailing.

And the tool's design is well thought out. The

tool's rear locking knob prevents the Tite-Mark from rolling across your bench, and the head is milled so you can retract the resharpenable blade into the head, which protects the blade and allows you to store the tool upright.

After almost a year of use in our shop, the blade hasn't come loose once, a common complaint with other cutting gauges on the market.

Because of the price, we were a tad skeptical of this tool when we first tested it, but the Tite-Mark quickly became our favorite cutting gauge and we highly recommend it.

Available from Glen-Drake Tool Works (glen-drake.com), Garrett Wade, Lie-Nielsen and other catalogs

Porter-Cable Laser Miter Saw

Every year someone puts a laser on a tool and calls it genius. Well this year they might be right. The new Porter-Cable 3802L LaserLoc (Delta has a similar model) is easy to use, super accurate and outshines (pun intended) all the aftermarket laser doodads we've tested.

Here's the difference: The saw has two independently adjustable lasers, one on each side of the blade. You flip a switch (separate from the saw's trigger) and you can see two lines on your work with the blade's kerf running down the middle. This allows you to cut on either side of blade with the laser to guide you. The lasers are easily adjusted in three axes so you can

sport-tune your setup (or regain your settings if you drop the saw). The lasers shine brightly and can be seen even outside. We found them to be accurate enough for tight-tolerance woodworking.

The saw itself is a 12" compound model with a 15-amp motor, electric brake and a horizontal handle. A 40-tooth carbide blade is standard. The saw, which is due to hit stores in late 2002, is expected to sell for $350 to $400.

The big question is: Do you really need a laser-guided miter saw? We found that thanks to the lasers we spent less time sneaking up on measurements and more time cutting wood and getting down to business. In our book, that's worth something.

Contact Porter-Cable at 800-487-8665 or porter-cable.com

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Popular Woodworking December 2002