I spent a few hours yesterday down at the Lie Nielsen Australia hand tool event at the RMIT furniture workshops in Orr st, South Carlton where the irrepressible David Eckert, from Lie Nielsen Australia and Henry Eckert fine tools and Chris Vesper, of Vesper Tools are displaying and selling their outstanding ranges of tools.
Hopefully the photos below will wet your appetite and you’ll be able to get down there before they close at 3pm today, (Sunday)
Some offerings from Chris Vesper!
An assortment from Lie Nielsen
More from Lie Nielsen
Hand Plane Heaven !!!!!
I hope that you like the photos and if time and your budget permits, that you get the chance to go and have a look. Otherwise, follow the highlighted links above to go to both the Lie Nielsen, Henry Eckert and Chris Vesper Websites and browse their collections at your leisure.
I feel that one of the keys to enjoying your woodwork is to find the right balance between hand and power tools. Adding pieces from the collections shown above will certainly go a long way in helping you achieve that.
As always, your questions and comments are appreciated.
For those readers who have either purchased or are contemplating the purchase of the new Festool Domino DF 700, I’d highly recommend that you click here, to download the supplamental manual for this awesome machine.
The manual, which was commissioned by Festool USA offers a clear and concise overview of the DF700 and will make it a lot easier to understand all the functions of the machine.
Hope you enjoy and as always, your questions and comments are appreciated
If your serious about your woodworking, as well as your power tools I’m fairly certain that you’ll want to add a few of the outstanding Lie Nielsen hand tools to your collection. For those of you who aren’t aware of Lie Nielsen they are regarded as the “Festool” of hand tools. As a proud owner of a couple of Lie Nielsen planes, from personal experience I can vouch for the fact that they’re awesome to use.
This weekend, (the 7th and 8th of July) Lie Nielsen Australia are holding a hand tool event at the RMIT University School of design which is located in Building 73, Orr st South Carlton 10am to 4 pm .
To view the Lie Nielsen Australia website please click here.
Also at the show will be Chris Vesper, who makes the best squares and sliding bevels that money can buy, as well as Julian Pratt and lots of demonstrations.
With special show pricing you’ll certainly be able to get a few bargains
I’ll be popping town on Saturday afternoon so we may catch up there.
The new Protool PDP 20-4 is on the way so please have a look at this new video on this outstanding tool which has been uploaded today by a Protool user in Russia
There’s no accompanying dialog and the production values aren’t fabulous but this will give you a really good idea of what this tool can do and the accessories that form part of the system
Please enjoy and let me know what you think.
As soon as I get a firm release date I let you all know.
Today we’re going to have a look at a relatively new tool from Festool’s sister company Protool. The SSP 200 EB is a bit of an unusual beastie and I remember the the first time saw it I was a bit perplexed by it.
The SSP is in essence, a chain saw that’s mounted onto a circular saw base. It has a maximum cutting depth of 200mm (about 8 inches) and it runs along standard Festool or Protool, guide rails for accuracy and ease of cut.
Its not a tool that you have to have but if you’re regularly cutting sleepers, timber beams, or LVL, (laminated veneered lumber) boards or girders, the SSP is guaranteed to make your life easier
Designed for cutting large beams the SSP which weighs in at only 6.5 KG ( 14 Pound) is a lot easier and safer option than circular saws with a comparable cutting depth such as the Protool CSP 165 which weighs in at 22kg, (48 pounds)
The CSP 165E
I’ve used both the CSP 165 and the SSP extensively and, personally i’d now always choose the SSP over a large and heavy circular saw.
When docking beams to length with the SSP you can tilt the blade forwards at a 10 degree angle which exposes more blade to the timber and gives you a proportionately faster cut. The maximum mitre angle on the SSP is 60 degrees and when used on a guide rail will pivot on the scribe line in the same manner as a TS 55 or TS 75 will.
Lets have a look at the features of the SSP;
1, Blade,
2, Fast Fix Blade Changing
3, Guide Slot for Guide Rail
4, Mitre Angle indicator
5, Tool less chain tension adjustment
6,Tool Less chain lubrication
7,MMC, (constant speed under load) electronics
8, Bar oil level indicator
9, Dust Extractor Connection
10, Auxiliary Handle
11, Clearly visible cut indicator.
Not being a major fan of chainsaws, I must admit to being a bit nervous when using the SSP for the first time but, within 5 minutes I was as happy as a pig in …….., and had chopped up a large beam into small pieces before I realised it. When connected to a CT26 dust extractor, with the 36mm hose about 2 thirds of the dust was collected leaving only a relatively small amount to clean up.
Click below to watch a video of the SSP in action.
As you can see from the video there is plenty of different applications for the SSP. Ive used it on both softwoods an Australian Hardwoods and found that it didn’t struggle with either of them.
No review of the SSP would be complete without giving you the chance to watch the Official Protool film on the SSP. Its the first Big Budget advert for a power tool that I can remember seeing in a long time.
Enjoy !!!!!
Well I hope you enjoyed that.
As always, your comments and questions are appreciated.
Well I’m into my second week of being home on sick leave and now that I’m feeling a bit more human I thought I’d take the time to sort out some of the photos on my computer left over from my time at Festool.
I came across this one which I used to use when teaching classes on the Kapex. It was taken in the service centre at Festool and shows just how wrong the dual lasers on a Kapex can go when a well meaning tweak of the laser adjustment screws goes wrong.
Thats all for now,
As usual, your comments and questions are always appreciated.
Just about to be released onto the Australian and New Zealand markets, the new 240 volt PDP from Festool’s sister company Protool is surely be well accepted by trade and serious DIY users alike. Inspired by the old Protool PDP 20 this new model takes advantage of technological improvements and is fitted with a brushless EC-TEC (electronically commutated – technology ) motor, the same style as those found in the Protool cordless PDC 18 and the Festool T series drills and impact drivers.
The result is a tool with amazing speed and power. A four speed gearbox, similar to that on the hugely successful PDC 18 volt cordless drill, gives the PDP 20 a top speed of 4000 rpm in top gear and a low speed of 400 rpm in its lowest gear which is perfect for all those high torque applications.
The specs for both the PDP 20 hammer drill and its brother the DRP 18 Drill Driver are shown below.
Both drills feature the fast – fix chuck system and come with the unique and highly effective centrotec chuck as standard. The drills should be available as either standard or set configuration with a heavy duty right angle drive being included in the set version.
Please see below ‘for more features on the tools.
1: Fast Fix Interface, (comes with centrotec chuck)
2: Four Speed Gearbox, (400 to 4000 rpm)
3: Brushless EC-TEC Motor
4: Inbuilt Work-light
5: Magnetic holder for tips and drills
6: Inbuilt Belt Clips
7: Constant Speed Electronics.
I had a chance to have a play with the new PDP 20-4 at the recent tradesman’s expo in Melbourne and was blown away by its performance. Coming in at around 2 kg it doesn’t seem possible for a drill this light to have this much power, when it comes to using the tool in timber and concrete it doesn’t disappoint.
I’m hoping to get my hands on a test model soon so stay tuned for a full review.
In the mean time please drop me an email or post a comment if you have any questions.
Every so often a new tool comes on to the power tool market that reinvents a process and changes the way we do things. The new Saw Max by Dremel is, I feel such a tool.
Dremel have created a tool which will change the way we approach the pedestrian task of cutting timber, plastics, tile, stone and steel. The Saw Max wraps all of these applications up into one easy and safe to use tool.
The heart of the Saw max contains a worm gear drive which transfers a massive amount of power to the carbide tipped blades, which gives the Saw Max an almost unstoppable feel. With the ability to connect a dust extractor the saw max has an extremely efficient dust collection system which gives you a cleaner and healthier work environment.
The Saw Max can, when coupled with the SM600 flush cut blade can be used as an undercut saw to quickly and easily undercut door frames and skirting boards to insert new flooring materials.
I’ve had a good chance to test this tool so please click this link, Dremel Saw Max to read my in depth review on this amazing new tool.
I hope you enjoy this review, I had a lot of fun playing with the Saw Max, and writing this article
As always your comments and questions are always appreciated.
I was sent this video about the new TS55-R which gives more information about the new features on the saw.
I particularly like the new riving knife, splinter guard / blade window and the new depth adjustment lever which automatically allows for the guide rail.
its been put together by the guys at intelligent workshop in the UK. Click here to view their site, its worth a look
Enjoy!!
Any comments or questions are appreciated as alwaya.
This is just a quick post to let all of my Victorian readers know that Lie Nielsen Tool works, (Australia) is holding a major hand tool event this weekend, the 21st and 22nd of April.
its being held in the Furniture workshop at Holmesglen Tafe, Gate 3, Building 5 Batesford road Holmesglen.
For more info please click here to go to the Lie Nielsen Australian website.
As well as Lie Nielsen there will be stalls from Chris Vesper, Philip Ashby and the Hand Tool Preservation Society.
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