Bad tool purchases

[Steve Clardy]

Aw, come on guys... I can't be the only one to be suckered in by the Porter Cable Profile sander. I never thought it could be possible that a sander could leave a surface in worse shape than when you started sanding. This one re-wrote the rule book for me!

Now Dan. I had totally wiped the pc detail sander from all memories, and you have to mention it.

[Paul B. Cresti]

buying a Felder RL160 dust extractor....very expensive and never lived up to the hype...oh well live and learn. Sometimes the best things do not cost a lot of money and the best solution to a problem can very well be the simplest (sometimes )

[gary rogers]

I actually bought two of the PC profile sanders. The first one didn`t last thru the job and I couldn`t get back to the store where I got it to get it replaced. It was a vast upgrade from the Ryobi detail sander which went back to the store after a five minute test. Sold the PC`s on Ebay for about half of what I paid and got a Fein Multimaster that I should have bought in the first place.

[John Shuk]

My Laguna LT16 bandsaw turned out to be one a tool that I'm not happy with. I guess I bought it early in the model run and it seems as though none of the bugs were worked out. My experience was that Laguna wasn't willing to make things right for me.
It's a bummer because I justified paying more by telling myself that I was getting top of the line quality and service.

[Brian Kent]

Ryobi Table saw - not the expensive 3000 model but the cheap one.
Ryobi 1/4" shank router.
Buck Brothers planes.
Harbor Freight carving chisel set (8 for $6.99).

[Bruce Benjamin]

The details are long and tedious but not only is the Jointech Smart Miter the worst tool I've ever purchased, the customer service was so unbelievably bad that even now when I read the review I wrote, it's hard to believe. But every word of it is true...Except that it's actually a little worse than I stated in my review. If anyone is interested in reading the review, PM me and I'll send you the link.

Bruce

[Pat Germain]

I bought the proverbial Craftsman Contractor saw about 12 years ago. Right after I bought it, I discovered the rec.arts.woodworking newsgroup (I was an early user of the Internet) and saw numerous mentions of "Crapsman".

My wife would have had a large, brown cow if I tried to get rid of the saw. So, over the years I've hot-rodded it and it's actually a decent saw now. (Of course, it would been better to just buy a decent saw to begin with.) Luckily, I did opt for a belt drive. Whew! Also, sticking with that saw earned me many a "kitchen pass" to buy whatever I want as long I have the cash. LOML didn't even bat an eye when I ponied up over $800 for an 8" jointer last month. Woo-hoo!

My first framing saw was a SkilSaw. I think I used it once. Then my brother used it and it literally burned up halfway through a cut.

I also have a cheap, portable jigsaw. I think it's also a Skil. It vibrates like a Soviet helicopter which makes it impossible to make smooth cuts.

Last week I was talking with a fellow woodworker about clamps. I was debating whether to go with the Bessey K-clamps, or the Jet clamps. The fellow woodworker informed me he bought a "whole bunch" of clamps for just $3 each from Harbor Freight and I should go with those. I must admit, I was tempted; for about 10 seconds. I think I'll save some dough and buy a couple of Jet clamp kits.

OT Comment: I've learned much about quality hardware in my life. For example, people busted on me when I spent $600 for a hard-tail mountain bike when "department store" bikes can be had for under $200. I felt vindicated when I was a leader for my church middle school bike-A-thon. Almost every kid with a department store bike broke down. Poor kids. Their brakes failed. Their derailers failed. They huffed and puffed up hills with their heavy, steel frames, steel wheels and cast metal components. I'm now convinced my bike was worth every cent and no longer do I question locals who strap a $2700 Yeti bike to the top of their $600 VW Golf.

[Carl Crout]

Exaktor sliding table - replaced it with the Jessem

Biscuit joiner - have use it twice

Craftsman 7 1/4" circular saw - can't see the blade clearly while cutting so I use dad's 1960's solid steel 7" Craftsman circular saw

Scheppach sharpener - doesn't get tools razor sharp - I only use it for my planer and jointer blades. I use the LV MK II motorized to sharpen everything else

[Rick Potter]

When I posted this, I thought it would make me less depressed to find out others had the disease. Well, it started out that way, but after reading the entries up to now, I find that I also own no less than TEN other tools that made the list.

I need a support group.

I am going back into my cave now, and pulling the covers over my head. Manly men should not be seen whimpering.

Rick P

[Roger Bell]

This idea for a thread comes up a lot.....and I must say I have a perverse enjoyment in reading the responses.........we've all been there......right? "Live and Learn" seems to be the bottom line and the consistent theme..........the Woodworker's "human condition", eh?.

Woodworking shows...........

Black and Decker..........

I would have to say that the worst genre of bad purchase is the one you buy on impulse that promises to make you a better woodworker......but, five years later, you have yet to even try it out...........it remains still in the box. Makes you feel stupid........which is not altogether a bad thing....given that Live and Learn is a necessary part of life and the process of maturation.

If you want a specific example (one among many).........some stick-on laser units for the chopsaw and the DP I bought from a WW show for $75.......still in the box. Anybody want 'em?

[Chris Kalkowski]

Add me to the list of owning this boat anchor.

Perhaps my worse tool purchase was a Rockler dovetail jig. I bought it early in my woodworking career, thinking I'd be using it to make dovetails on drawers. The problem was that it took a long time to set up, and it was a fixed spacing jig - so the dovetails didn't look right unless the drawer was just the right size.

Once I learned how to do dovetails by hand, I found that I could do them almost as fast as I could by machine, given all the set up time, and they looked "better" when made by hand.

I eventually sold the jig on eBay for a fraction of what I paid for it and was glad to get rid of it.

Mike

[Dave MacArthur]

Well, I was actually laughing quite a bit reading this thread, and feeling pretty good about myself, until the 4th "biscuit joiner"... then I got thinking about my DeWalt biscuit joiner, which until this very moment I absolutely loved.
Now that I think about it, I used it twice in 11 years! Once to test it, and once a week later for the project I bought it for. It worked just great, and for all these years I have been very happy with it every time my gaze wandered across it sitting there all prima-donna on my shelf. Now, thanks to this unwelcome self-assessment of actual use, all those years of sweet blissful biscuit heaven are destroyed...

I guess that in most cases where I could use the biscuits, I have either gone with locking router joints, or pocket screws via an early Kreg jig.

There is hope though, as I feel that if I refuse to come back to this thread, I should become happy with that yellow chunk of solidified quality again very soon, and we will have many more good years together.

[Jason Boushard]

I am surprised at all the biscuit jointer comments I use mine on every shadow box I build am I missing something?

[Dave MacArthur]

Ok, maybe I used it a few more times than that lol...
First tool, a craftsman elec. screwdriver, totally underpowered... it wouldn't drive a screw into anything denser than air. I decided that weekend that all future power screw drivers would be full-up drills.

[Jim Becker]

I am surprised at all the biscuit jointer comments I use mine on every shadow box I build am I missing something?

While mine gets used on occasion, it's the one power tool I could live without if I had to "downsize" by one tool. I think it comes down to preferred techniques, Jason. A lot of folks who used to use biscuits in cabinet construction, for example, discovered pocket screw techniques, including myself. Yet, for shadow boxes that benefit from the "hidden spline" that a biscuit provides on a mitered corner, that tool is quite valuable.