Does advertising influence tool reviews?
I recently was given several issues of Fine Woodworking, and I was very impressed with the content. In six magazines, I found answers to eight of my most troublesome questions. My problem is that I have trouble believing in publishers’ integrity these days. Before I subscribe, I’d like you to answer the following questions: When you do product comparisons, how do you pick the ones you are going to test? Do you contact these companies prior to beginning the investigation? Do you ask them for anything in exchange for including their products in the comparison? Do you ask them for a unit to sample? Are you biased toward the companies that advertise in your magazine?
-- Randolph Torres, Pittsburg, California
Asa Christiana replies:
One of the reasons editors enjoy working at The Taunton Press is that these critical questions have simple answers here. Journalistic integrity is at the core of our business model, and readers rely on us to give them the unvarnished truth. So we maintain a buffer between advertising and editorial. As a result you will find no correlation between ad dollars and the winners of our tool tests. When advertisers buy space in the magazine, they are buying access to our audience, which is the most passionate and committed available. They understand that they are not buying favorable editorial coverage.
When we assemble a list of tools for a head-to-head review, we use factors like power, capacity, availability, and price to choose a group that a typical reader would be considering (we survey our readers often to keep track of their changing needs and habits).
For small tools, where we can afford to buy all of the test samples, we generally do not contact manufacturers. But for larger tools we do. Manufacturers send us machines and tools off the production line in those cases. We promise them nothing in return, not even a guarantee of being included in the article, and we return the tools when we’re done.
I hope this allays your concerns. As a journalist, I appreciate a healthy dose of skepticism.
Square crosscuts on the tablesaw
In Are you getting the most from your combo square? (Fundamentals, FWW #197), the author is off base when he says that “a miter gauge won’t deliver square crosscuts if its fence is not 90° to the blade.” In order for a miter gauge to provide square crosscuts, its fence must be 90° to its line of travel (miter slot). Blade alignment will affect cut quality, but it should not affect the squareness of the cut. If you rely on the blade when squaring up the miter gauge, and the blade is out of alignment with the miter slot, the cut will be out of alignment as well.
-- Phil Gaudio, West Simsbury, Connecticut
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How to Use a Combination Square
An easier kitchen than Norm’s
While I enjoyed reading My Dream Kitchen by Norm Abram (FWW #196), I found some of his suggestions to be problematic. As a master carpenter with 30 years of experience and as a professional estimator, I am acutely aware of techniques that can either make a project efficient and quick or labor intensive and cumbersome. Here are some suggestions to make the process a lot easier for your readers.
1. Build full-overlay cabinets. They have a sleek “European” look and are easy to calculate. They also eliminate the need for face frames.
2. Construct your carcases with simple butt joints held together with good steel screws (go ahead and try to break them apart).
3. Use detached bases so you can install them ahead of the carcases. Shim them level and lock them down. You work out all the bugs with lightweight, easy-to-handle parts rather than big, bulky cabinet boxes.
4. Install your uppers first so you don’t have to climb over your base cabs.
5. If at all possible, try not to scribe whole cabinets. Use detachable scribe strips or panels so you don’t have to continually reinstall the whole cabinet to test the fit.
6. I recommend against painted cabinets. Spring for some nice veneer plywood for the doors and drawers (about $130/sheet) and finish them with a brush-on product that you can apply in your garage. Unless you are using an opaque, sprayed conversion varnish, your paint job will not be durable or pretty.
-- Lawrence Motta, San Francisco
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My Dream Kitchen
The sun also rises
The Passive solar shop article (Shop Design, FWW #195) oversimplifies the process of determining sun angles. During the summer months, windows need to be fully shaded from about 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. If the windows are fully shaded only at noon (as the photo and drawing show) then in the late morning and afternoon there will be a large amount of glass exposed to sun.
If you are lucky enough to have a year to plan before you build, the story-pole method shown in the article will work, but in June you should take note of the angles from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
-- John L. Schackai, New Orleans, Lousiana
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Passive Solar Shop
Wood planes really are easy
Your article Wood Planes Made Easy (FWW #196) finally tipped me into action to build some planes. I have wanted to try them since first reading an article by Ejler Hjorth-Westh in the June 1995 issue of Woodwork magazine. I built a large hard maple table last year and struggled mightily with smoothing the top. My jack planes and smoothing planes resulted in too much tearout. And my scraper was ineffective on such a scale. I finished the table, but when I read your recent article, it was time for action.
I made two high-angle planes, 60° and 75°, intended for use on figured woods. Your article made it easy to complete the first plane, and the second was even easier. I found that using the chopsaw was very safe and accurate for cutting the blade ramp. No follow-up truing was required. I made my planes from maple with an ipé sole, since I found both in my scrap pile. They cut very nicely, though I still need some practice in setting the irons.
-- Stanley Backlund, Camino, California
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Wood Planes Made Easy
Setting the Blade in a Wood Plane
Asa Christiana replies:
For tips from the author on setting the blade and using the plane, go our video, Setting the Blade in Wood.
More Letters
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Earlex spray system got a bad rap?
- Ian Mullaney, CEO, Earlex Inc.
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Getting started in woodworking
- Mark Salomon, Sacramento, California
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Design your shop to catch some rays
- Chuck Googooian, La Cañada Flintridge, California
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Starting out with less
- Dave Baker, Halfway, Oregon
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Some shop vacs are quiet
- Laurence Parker, Brooktondale, New York
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more...
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A Facelift for FWW.Com
By
Fine Woodworking editors
4/29/08
Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. We've made some changes to the looks of this Web site that, we hope, will make it easier and more enjoyable to use.The biggest change involves something you don't see. We've eliminated that large block of links to other areas of the site that used to occupy quite a bit of acreage near the top of the home page. Getting rid of that block of links opens up more space to feature the how-to videos, projects, articles, and slide shows that make FineWoodworking.Com the most comprehensive woodworking web site anywhere.Replacing that static box of links is "Quick Links" (see a sample at the right). Clicking on that opens up a window containing two dozen of the most useful links to other pages.The second major change brings the community side of the site front...
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Buying Lumber a Bit at a Time
In the drawing of a highboy in “Buying lumber a bit at a time” (Q&A, FWW #196), the grain of the lower case side, which is joined by tenons to the legs of the piece, should have been oriented horizontally. If it were vertical, as originally drawn, the tenons would be very weak.
Build a Sleigh Bed -- Includes Project Plan
In the article “New Twist on a Sleigh Bed” (FWW #197), the dowels connecting the top rails to the legs should be 1/2 in. dia. and not 3/8 in. as shown, while those connecting the X-slats to the rails should be 3/8 in. dia. and extend 1/2 in. into the slats and the rails. The distance from the base of the footboard leg to the bottom of the lower cross-rail mortise should be 13-1/4 in. and not 14-1/4 in.
Bosch PS40-2 10.8 Volt Cordless Impact Driver
In the Tools & Materials department for Fine Woodworking #195, we listed the wrong phone number for Bosch Tools in the article titled “Small Impact Driver May Be The Only Drill You’ll Need.” The number was also incorrect in the online tool guide. The toll-free number is 877-267-2499.
Tool Test: Benchtop Planers
In our test of benchtop planers (FWW #195), we misstated the number of blades on the Ridgid R4330. There are three.
More on Shop Noise
In the Q&A item “More on Shop Noise” (a subscribers-only Q&A originally published in FWW #194), we neglected to explain that sound pressure, which is measured in decibels and is a true measure of danger and potential damage, is different from loudness, which has to do with human perception. So the two machines that each produce 90 db. will indeed produce 93 db. when running at the same time. And while this is only 30% louder, the sound pressure is doubled and the acceptable duration of exposure is divided in half. Nonetheless, a good set of earplugs or earmuffs would reduce the sound to safe levels, as we stated.
more...
If you see something that doesn't look correct in an article, please send feedbackto the editorial team.
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