October 2001 Popular Woodworking
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637 TOOLS COMPARED– EDITORS PICK THE 97 BEST! October 2001 #124 12-VOLT PG14 DRILLS BAND SAWS PG20 BISCUIT PG28 JOINERS BRAD PG32 NAILERS DRILL PG38 PRESSES DUST PG44 COLLECTORS HAND TOOLS PG50 JIGSAWS PG54 Straight Talk JOINTERS PG58 on Tools MITER SAWS PG62 MORTISERS PG66 The only guide that recommends ROUTERS PG70 tools worth SANDERS PG78 buying TABLE SAWS PG82 THICKNESS PG86 EXCLUSIVE FAR EAST REPORT PLANERS What You Must Know About Chinese Tools www.popwood.com TOOL BUYING GUIDE 2002 Contents 6 CHINA BOUND A lot more tools are now FROM THE EDITOR being made in China. What does this mean for prices Buy With Confidence and quality? Save money and find your comfort zone. 14 12 VOLT DRILLS dmit it. Spending money on tools and a casual attitude about your hobby. Others 20 BAND SAWS Amachinery for your shop can produce are passionate about spending time in their lots of anxiety. Your budget is limited, and shops almost every day, or are pros depend- 28 BISCUIT JOINERS so is your knowledge of all the product lines. ing on their skills and tools to make a living Go to the store, buy on-line or over the phone and support a family. Clearly, different wood- BRAD NAILERS and the salespeople aren’t giving you any workers make different demands on their 32 confidence that you’re making the right de- tools and have different expectations about cision, either. If you’re lucky, you may have reliability and how much to spend. 38 DRILL PRESSES a friend who owns a tool you’re interested For these reasons, we make our buying in, but it’s several years old and there are lots recommendations in three user categories 44 DUST COLLECTORS of new models to consider now. so you can match yourself to the right tools. We publish this comprehensive Tool In this year’s Guide we added the most HAND TOOLS Buying Guide for only one reason. That is essential non-powered woodworking hand 50 to give you the best chance you have to make tools as a category: low-angle block planes, the right decision the first time when se- combination squares and chisels. For space 54 JIGSAWS lecting a new piece of equipment for your considerations, we dropped scroll saws and shop. Our goal is to arm you with more than lathes for this year. In the cordless drill 58 JOINTERS enough knowledge to put you in the com- category, we focused on 12-volt models only. fort zone when you open your wallet. In our opinion, this is the right sized cord- MITER SAWS On the following pages you’ll find 17 cat- less drill for most, but certainly not all, wood- 62 egories of woodworking tools as well an im- working shop applications. These 12-volt portant article about what’s going on in man- drills deliver the power and runtime to get 66 MORTISERS ufacturing these days. In specific tool cate- the job done without the weight that makes gories, ranging from table saws to combina- you feel like you just did 100 arm curls. 70 ROUTERS tion squares, we give you three important And if you fret over the question of ad- pieces of information: vertiser influence on editorial recommen- SANDERS • We tell you what are the important fea- dations, don’t. Our job is to serve you, our 78 tures to evaluate and compare among all the readers. Not only is it our job, but truthful- tools in this category (as well as those fea- ly, your subscription or newsstand purchase 82 TABLE SAWS tures that don’t count for much at all). goes a lot further in paying our bills than • We list all the brands and models avail- does advertising income.We just couldn’t 86 THICKNESS PLANERS able in the U.S. market with their specs and afford putting anyone other than you first. street prices. One final note, many thanks to the Edward • And we go the extra mile and make B. Mueller Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, specific recommendations about the mod- for allowing us to shoot photos in their store. els we have actually used in the Popular PW Woodworking shop and have confidence in. We also know that all woodworkers are not alike. Some of you are just getting start- ed, others have years of experience but keep 2 POPULAR WOODWORKING October 2001 ® August 2001, Vol. 21, No. 4 www.popularwoodworking.com Editor & Publisher Steve Shanesy terrco Art Director Tricia Barlow Senior Editors David Thiel, Christopher Schwarz Project Illustrator John W.Hutchinson Photographer Al Parrish Editorial Intern John Tate Editorial Assistant Barb Brown Contributing Editors Circle #116 on Resource Directory Coupon Nick Engler Bob Flexner Glen Huey Scott Phillips Troy Sexton Technical Advisers: Bill Austin • Makita USA. Inc. Scott Box • Delta International Chris Carlson • S-B Power Tool Bill Crofutt • Grizzly Industrial Measure Dale Zimmerman • Franklin International General Manager Jeffry M. Lapin Editorial Director David Fryxell Twice. CIRCULATION David Lee, Director Lynn Kruetzkamp, Group Manager PRODUCTION Glue Barbara Schmitz, Director of Manufacturing Martha Wallace, Magazine Production Dir. Heather Griffin, Production Coordinator Once. ADVERTISING National Sales Representative Hardwoods, softwoods, pressure- Bill Warren, Five Mile River Assoc. LLC ® RR1 Box 1400, Stockton Springs, ME 04981 treated or exotics – Gorilla Glue Tel. (207) 469-1981; Fax (207) 469-3050 is tough enough to hold them [email protected] all. Incredibly strong, nearly Advertising Sales Joe Wood, Tel. (513) 336-9760 invisible glue lines, and Fax (513) 336-9761 100% waterproof. Just the way [email protected] serious woodworkers demand it. Classified Advertising Sales Joan Wright, Tel. (800) 388-1820 Call 800-966-3458 for a [email protected] dealer near you, or visit Advertising Production Coordinator www.gorillaglue.com Debbie Thomas, Tel. (513) 531-2690, ext. 219 [email protected] to find out more. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES Subscription inquiries, orders and address changes can be made at www.popwood.com (click on Subscriber Services). Or by mail: Popular Woodworking, P.O. Box 5369, Harlan, IA 51593 or call (515) 280-1721. Include your address with all inquiries. Allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery. NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION Curtis Circulation Co., 730 River Rd., New Milford, NJ 07646, (201) 634-7400, fax (201) 634-7499 ATTENTION RETAILERS: To carry Popular Woodworking in your store, call Reader’s Service at 800-844-7075, or write: Popular Woodworking Magazine Dealer program, c/o Reader’s Service, 4099 Martel Road, Lenoir City, TN 37772 Back issues are available for $6.50 ($8.50 Canada; $10.50 other foreign). Ohio residents include 6% sales tax. Send check or The Toughest Glue money order to: Popular Woodworking/F&W Publication on Planet Earth™ Products, PO Box 2031, Harlan, IA, 51593 or call 1-888-419- 0421. Please specify publication, month and year. Woodworker’s Book Club: 1507 Dana Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45207; (513) 531-8250 Circle #136 on Resource Directory Coupon 4 POPULAR WOODWORKING October 20001 Woodworking tool manufacturing is CHINA BOUND Now that Taiwanese woodworking tools are accepted by U.S. woodworkers, manufacturing is moving again. This time, to mainland China. What will this mean for American consumers? f you’re not in the habit of check- ketplace. Whether the bad rap “Made built exclusively in the United States Iing labels on your new tools and in Taiwan” was deserved in the early and now import some products. Either machinery purchases, you might be days is not only debatable but, like way, the American woodworker is surprised to learn that “Made in most issues, a lot more complicated reaping a huge benefit from these China” is showing up a lot more fre- than consumers imagine. imported tools. quently these days. Don’t make the From the first days that Taiwanese As woodworkers, we groan reg- mistake and think this means the equipment began arriving in our ularly at constant price increases for product was made in the Republic ports, there were real quality differ- lumber. But when it comes to tools of Taiwan, the island country off the ences among the various importers. and equipment, particularly ma- coast of mainland China. Quality differences still exist and can chines from Taiwan, we don’t stop With increasing frequency, prod- vary on what may seem to be the to think what a bargain they are. ucts once made in Taiwan are now same product coming from the same A case in point: I bought my first being manufactured in China. What manufacturing plant. But it’s fair to table saw, a Delta/Rockwell model can we expect from such a shift? Will say now that overseas manufactur- 10 contractor saw, in 1981. I added quality suffer? What about prices? ers are producing millions and mil- long guide bars for the fence and cast- Just who is having woodworking lions of dollars in good-quality wood- ers and paid just over $850. What’s equipment made in China now? And working equipment. Some of it’s that saw cost today? Equipped with why would manufacturers make such made by companies that import their a Biesemeyer fence, just over $850. a huge change just when their prod- entire line from Taiwan; some of it’s Essentially, it’s the same saw with a ucts have finally won broad accep- made for venerable names who once far superior fence. tance with U.S. woodworkers? Just for fun, I went to a web site Importers and manufacturers of that allows you to calculate the cost by Steve Shanesy Taiwan-made woodworking equip- my table saw in 1981 and then ad- ment have worked hard during the Contact Steve at 513-531-2690 ext.