Category: Review

April 20, 2020 – Review: Kreg Accu-cut Fence system

April 20, 2020 /

I have added some new products to my shop/tool stable to work on my latest project. One of them is the Kreg Accu-cut fence system to turn your ordinary circular saw to a more precise track saw.

The reason that I considered this option is that I wanted to make some angled cuts on 10′ long lumber. I could do it on the table saw, but I would have to be really careful as my shop is only 24′ in length. I would usually open the door to make sure I had extra length (with counter space). Also, I have some sheet goods to cut.

If you have ever priced one of these units, you would see why the Kreg system is so appealing. I saw entry levels around $400 and the high end at $1000. You supply the saw, so you can use your everyday circular saw which means that you don’t have to own a specific use tool.

The theory is that the saw rides on a track to create a straight cut. I have heard of cases where table saws have been replaced for track saws. I often times use a circular saw to break down sheet goods when working on projects because they are so much easier to handle. So, I thought this might be a good solution.

The setup was a little tricky. I usually read the instructions, especially when there are lots of small parts and screws. There were some errors in the instructions like diagram labels not matching the written text which left me guessing at times.

Getting everything indexed and aligned was a little bit fiddly. The saw had to be moved on the carriage, so as not to cut the rubber bumpers (edge). I also tried to get the saw as close to the bumpers as possible so I could plop the track down on the line and know where to cut, but it is about a sawblade off. I suppose when you make something ‘universal’, you have to leave margin for every saw possibility.

The carriage seems a little flimsy made of plastic and the hold down of the saw a bit tenuous with two pointed screws holding the saw into place. When on the track there was a bit of side to side play. There is not a real good feeling of positive connection when the saw is on the track. What I can say is that none of those things caused a problem for my cuts.

The track has a sticky back and a rear stop, so it stays in place pretty well with friction and forward pressure. You do have to watch to make sure the front is not moving away from the line as you cut. This is remedied by watching the track ahead, not the saw. If you want to make a cut longer than 50″, you need to stop, remove the rear stop, slide the whole track back before cutting again.

By far and away, the biggest downside to this product is the screws that hold the track together back out with use. I saw a lot of complaints about this on the internet, After using it yesterday, I put some thread locker on the screws.

Score ProsCons
Value4/5Compare to other track saws the cost of $80 vs $450-1000A 50″ track is not long enough to rip a full sheet of plywood
Allows the use of one circular saw to be more preciseAdding tracks are expensive. If I used routinely, I would have an 4′ and a 8′ track ($160)
Quality3/5The sled glides nicely on the trackThe set screws holding the track together, tend to back out with used
The friction pads hold the track on the wood without clampsSaws with a thick base plate do not mount securely
The setup instructions had some errors that were not totally intuitive
Performance4/5I got nice results on cutting panels in half, tapers and ripping lumberEverything was as advertised, I just didn’t do enough research on this before purchasing. I think full panel cutting capability would be better.

The bottom line, this is a worthy product for someone like me. I have three electrical circular saws already, I sometimes cut sheet goods and accuracy is important. If I were a professional using a track saw, I would most likely consider a more expensive option for durability reasons. I really wish that I could rip an entire sheet of plywood easily, extra track lengths are available for purchase at $80/4′.

I will continue to use this because I like the results that I got and I don’t regret the purchase.

April 13, 2020 – Valuing the software to run the hardware

April 13, 2020 /

This comparison is probably a stretch, but I feel like it will work so I am going for it. I suppose that there are a couple of inputs that make this opinion come alive. In the old days, say pre-Windows XP, hardware was upgraded more often. When hardware was changed, there was a driver that also needed to be installed. That driver may or may not have actually worked. Sometimes it required re-installing service packs and rolling back to move forward. There also wasn’t a video for everything or a forum or ideas to help you get started.

Today, unless you are upgrading your video card or something for a specific reason, you don’t need to add another hard drive or faster DVD drive or more RAM. If you are one of those people, you probably know more about this than I do. However when it didn’t work, which was frequent, what would you have paid to make it work? My point being that without software to run that device, it was worthless. But it wasn’t like you had a choice for vendors, nor could you really pay to have a better or different experience.

I can remember whole Christmas presents not working; never could figure out how to make that game load or that modem work, etc. For those that cant relate to this experience, this is precisely where I am going. Our value of the software is free, because that is our perspective and experience. Yet without it, it doesn’t work at all.

Ker-chunk, Shifting gears. I recently picked up a set of Bora 1100 mobile work bases. Until my recent pantry project, some of the nicety features or accessorizing like dust collection and mobile bases were not in the plan. It was true that my machines could be moved without that mobile base. I really didn’t like to do it and hassle has been some of the issue with previous projects.

Quickly, the pluses on the product are 1) relatively inexpensive at $45 per pair 2) flexible and customizable size accommodating 400 lbs of weight. The minuses were 1) the assembly was time consuming 2) supplying your own frame.

So, unlike the driver situation my tools will work without mobile base. What I will say about it is that I am hoping that I will have much less hesitation to get started when they are easier to move. My shop is small, so having the ability to utilize the space effectively is important. Completing the task is more important than owning the hardware.

April 7, 2020 – Review: Save Me the Plums

April 7, 2020 /

‘Save Me the Plumbs’ by Ruth Reichl was the March selection for the Left Coast Winery Culinary Book Club. It is a short book detailing the time that Ruth spent as Editor in Chief at the magazine Gourmet.

This is the second book of hers that we have read as part of the book club. The first one ‘Garlic and Sapphires’ was a great introduction to Ruth as an author and a fascinating look at a food critic in an highly competitive environment. In many ways, this book is a continuation of that story because when she left the New York Times, it was for this job at Gourmet.

Ruth is a great writer. Her books are short with quick chapters and she pulls the highlights into each one. Even though this is a good book and a quick read, I have had a hard time making time and prioritizing this given the current circumstances. It has been hard to concentrate and be normal with quarantine as the norm and ‘Family Time’ as the expectation.

The focus of luxury and high cuisine from a magazine such as Gourmet feels a bit before my time. As someone in my forties, I am just beginning to appreciate (or be able to participate) in such things. I didn’t grow up around the magazine and am not really familiar with it since it went out of business in 2009. It does seem like the kind of magazine that that I would be the editor of where the story of the food was told, not just the recipes.

I finished the book last night and the ending made me wish that I had read it faster. I will spare the complete spoiler, but I can totally relate to the situation. This is an enterprise where everything seemed like it was going great only to have extenuating circumstances ruin a good thing. In the end, a person is grateful to have the opportunity to prove success but bittersweet that it isn’t more appreciated and recognized and at least allowed to continue.

Opportunities open doors when others are closed. I suppose Ruth may still be Editor of Gourmet rather than writing books and we still wouldn’t have these great stories. I enjoyed reading this book and there are a few recipes in it, some of which I have made. I think more than food, this is a book that is about a person’s self doubt, will to succeed and humanism. I liked this book because I liked ‘Garlic and Sapphires’ first.

March 5, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 5, 2020 /

We have an exchange student for the year from Spain living with us. Unfortunately, part of his agreement to be here is that he cant participate in the things that are the most uniquely ‘American’. For instance, no shooting, no driving, no ‘high risk’ activities. We spend a fair amount of time enjoying those activities.

However, for Christmas, he purchased this book for me called ‘100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation’ by Clint Emerson. I have been slowly reading this over the last couple of weeks.

Now, I like to learn and I believe in the philosophy of preparation. Given the recent COVID-19 hysteria, I am noodling going quite a bit deeper into this next week. The title ‘Tacticool’ is denotes something that might look better on the surface than it really is as well as bring a little humor into my work.

Quite frankly, a lot of this book is mental masturbation such as how to ditch a plane, use a flight suit and swim into another country without detection. I learned a few things like cell phone cameras can pick up IR light or how to make a polymer from milk (casein). I think the value of this book is around the idea of situational awareness: where weak points in hotels could be or tactics around kidnapping and escape. Of course the likelihood of this ever happening is extremely small.

If you are a budding Mall Ninja or an untrained SEAL then this is a manual for you. Otherwise, it is primarily for fun. Remember that your brain is your biggest tool/weapon/asset and keep exercising it because you never know when you need recall the best technique to survive a grenade attack.

February 24, 2020 – Review: My Paris Kitchen

February 24, 2020 /

“My Paris Kitchen: Recipes and Stories” by David Lebowitz is the February 2020 book selection for the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Book Club. David is an American food blogger that has lived in Paris for the last ten years. You can check out his work in the link.

This work is a cookbook, where the stories are largely about some aspect of the recipe in focus. There were a few interesting factoids that I picked up reading the book like most apartments don’t have kitchens in Paris, service at most stores is curt to nonexistent, mustard is the French salsa and the most prevalant cheese used is Gruyere (which is Swiss).

The section that interested me the most was the appetizer section. It has the most variety of recipes and is not strictly French cooking. Influences of Africa and the Middle East are very apparent in this section, like the use of Harissa.

David does a good job of Anglicizing the recipes as there are ingredients that do not exist the majority of the United States. He talks about what is considered proper and what he would use (in some cases does use) in its place.

The photography and food stylizing make the recipes look very appetizing. This month, the host of my book club will not be available. So, we will not be focused on a specific meal but just appetizers. I think that I will make ‘Sardine Spread’ as my first foray into this cookbook.

Truthfully, I don’t see myself using this cookbook much. I think that it is largely the lack of classic French dishes and the plethora of cultural fusion in the book. My go to cookbooks are written by subject matter experts on the particular cuisine, like Rick Bayless for instance. Nevertheless, I want to try a few things before it gets filed away.

February 18, 2020 – Review: Amazon Warehouse

February 18, 2020 /

What an epic hassle dealing with bad thrust bearings on the bandsaw has been. Today I will be discussing my experience with Amazon Warehouse and not the guide upgrades that I had ordered. I think that it will be clear when I am done why.

First, for the uninitiated, Amazon Warehouse is a division of Amazon that resells returned items from Amazon. These items are supposed to be inspected, cleaned but otherwise in ‘like new’ condition.

In my case, the Jet JRBG-14 were bandsaw guide upgrades that cost $153 from Amazon. I noticed that Amazon Warehouse had them for $112 with Prime Shipping. Rather than trying to see if they were stocked locally or find a replacement thrust bearing, I decided that I would work around the problem for four days while I waited for a significant upgrade, according to reviews.

When the package arrived on Thursday, I eagerly opened the package and to my surprise there was a problem.

  • Top Guide
  • Bottom Guide

I wont make you guess or wait too long to get to the point. So, upon closer inspection, I was sent two parts that do not match the diagrams or my expectations. And worse, the bottom bracket was missing the blade guide as well. What it appears to me is that someone ordered this upgrade and returned the OEM guides back to Amazon. The dope that supposedly inspected this clearly did not do their job.

Needless to say that I was pretty PO’d. I lost four days waiting for this to not get a usable part. To top it off, some dishonest actor got away with this. And quality control at Amazon Warehouse must be very poor. This has got to be one of the few items that is returned with a diagram of what the item is supposed to look like. The next day I drove up to Portland to solve my problem for good, costing me about three hours to get the replacement bearing (but not the upgrade).

I think the Latin phrase Caveat Emptor should be put into place when buying from Amazon Warehouse. I would be skeptical ordering anything complicated or expensive in this manner. Unfortunately, you cannot actually see what you are buying and there is no guarantee that getting what you bought.

February 5, 2020 – Book Report: Amacord

February 5, 2020 /

A few days ago, I finished reading “Amacord: Marcella Remembers” by Marcella Hazan. This book was selected by the Left Coast Culinary Club to read for January 2020.

I have to admit that I had never heard of Marcella Hazan, probably because of my age. She was a contemporary to James Beard, Julia Child and Robert Mondavi (think 1960s through the 90s). This is a biography about her life and an ode to Italian cooking, culture and living through food.

Preparing Masala Carrots

It is interesting to read a biography when you have no context or even a particular interest in the author or subject. It is probably a ‘You had to be there’ moment because we live in an era where not many things are exotic or unavailable. At the very least items or spices can be ordered on Amazon and the instruction is on Youtube. But during Marcella’s heyday, Italian cuisine and techniques were foreign to most Americans and northern Europeans.

The book jumps around a bit when it comes to a strict timeline, but it is organized in a way that the chapters are broken into phases in life and career which are presented mutually exclusive to the overlap in years. Even though I have been to Italy, I suspect that Italian cooking is much deeper and richer than pasta. Since this is not a cookbook, she alludes to that varied cuisine, but never really gets into recipes.

The chapter that I found most interesting was titled “How to Not get Rich: 1972-1993”. This talks about her various attempts to build branding outside of her cookbooks and teaching, think food products or manufacturing. I will summarize the outcome as she was unwilling to compromise on overall quality to meet the price thresholds to bring products to market. But, I got the feel from reading the book that her life was extremely fulfilling in living in the United States and Italy, pursuing her passion of teaching an building deep friendships with like minded people.

What I would say to that is that we are all in our journey of validation and fulfillment. From where I sit, that sounds pretty rich to me. When I get to my twillight, I think that I would rather be in Marcella’s seat than wealthy.

If you like culinary history or Italian food, you will probably like this book. I enjoyed the peak at a different era and I definitely like to read about success stories. It has inspired me to look a little deeper into Italian food in the future.