Popular Woodworking 2005-12 № 152, страница 64
■ Veritas Bevel-up Bench Planes 800-871-8158 or leevalley.com If you use bench planes, your core set should include three tools: a jack, jointer and smoothing plane. Used together, these three tools flatten and smooth surfaces, and perform many other workshop tasks. This year, Veritas introduced two tools - a jointer plane ($225) and a smoothing plane ($185) - that complete a set of these three essential planes. Together, they are an excellent value, are easy for beginning planers to set up and, most importantly, perform brilliantly. What's unique about these tools is they have the bevel of the iron facing up, like a block plane, and they all use the same 21/4"-wide iron. This bevel-up feature makes the tools easy to set up (there's no chipbreaker to mess with) and having the three same-size irons (with different pitches or shapes) allows you to swap blades around for tricky grain or to put off a sharpening session. All three tools have an adjustable sliding mouth plate to close up the throat and an ingenious stop system to keep you from damaging the cutting edge with the mouth plate. The jointer plane also allows you to screw on a 90° fence for truing edges of boards, another nice feature for beginning planers. These three tools are ideal for anyone wishing to explore hand planes. You'll get started on the right foot, you'll find the tools versatile for different styles of woodworking and you'll never outgrow them. ■ Veritas Mk. II Honing Guide 800-871-8158 or leevalley.com Honing guides are a boon to new woodworkers who don't have time to hone their honing skills on a daily basis. But which one to buy? There are so many. I think you need two: the cheap $14 side-clamp guide in every catalog and this new one from Veritas. The Mk. II honing guide excels at sharpening a perfect square edge on chisels and plane irons. Its genius is the guide's "registration jig." This clamps to the front of the honing guide and does two important jobs: It squares the tool perfectly in the jig and allows you to precisely set whatever sharpening angle you desire. (You can even set the jig to hone shallow back bevels on plane irons, a useful and clever trick.) The jig handles almost every tool in our shop with the exception of a few mortise chisels. And, despite all the markings and settings on the jig, it is simple and intuitive to set up and use. It is perfect for beginners and expert woodworkers alike. The only operation the stock guide won't handle is honing a gentle camber on the iron for a smoothing, jointer or jack plane. That's what you need the side-clamp guide for. The Mk. II's wide roller dictates the edge be square. There are some workarounds that allow you to use this jig for cambered edges, but for now it's simpler to also buy the second guide. This j ig was a long time in development, and we think that Veritas has created a nearly perfect guide that is an excellent value ($48.50). ■ TOO NEW to Test ■ Blue Spruce Toolworks Dovetail Chisels This small company makes the best marking knives, and now it is beginning to offer some sweet chisels designed for dovetails. The side bevels are actually concave so you can sneak in tight spaces. 503-631-7485 or bluesprucetoolworks.com ■ Grizzly G0480 10" Jointer We got to see this machine in Las Vegas, but we haven't been able to get one in the shop yet. But wow. It's a 10" model with a carbide-insert cutterhead (a design we really like). The bed is nice and long at 84", and the retro-style base is a nice touch in this world of look-alike machinery. The price: a fair $2,095. 800-523-4777 or grizzly.com ■ Makita and DeWalt Laser-guided Miter Saws Before you drop a wad on a laser miter saw, wait until you see the newest saws from Makita and DeWalt. We saw early versions at the Las Vegas woodworking show, and it looks like these two companies really figured out how to do it right. And the DeWalt miter saw has an astonishing crosscut capacity. 800-462-5482 or makitatools.com 800-433-9258 or dewalt.com ■ Powermatic 701 Benchtop Mortiser It looks like Powermatic has figured out the benchtop mortiser. A close inspection revealed a new kind ofhold-down, a brutish depth-stop and a patented way of setting the bits. PW 800.274.6848 or powermatic.com popularwoodworking.com 33 |
