"Arch" wrote in message
...
There is a world of difference beween a bit held rigidly in a cross
slide driven precisely by a longitudinal screw and a gouge held in a
hand and freely squeezed and waved around, in and out, up and down along
a tool rest.

My eldest called Sunday in the second quarter. He was setting up his new
planer, and asked what kind of magnetic dial indicator gage I had. He's a
great woodworker, but he's also an engineer, so I reminded him that touch
gages as in the manual were what I had been using on that planer's
great-grandfather for as long as he could remember. "Because you can
measure it is no reason to feel obliged to report in .001 units. The rule
you're using, likely as not, is calibrated in .0625."

Bit of silence, then the reply. "Guess I can use the block setup method
after all, eh?"

"If you're curious you can use the dial, or even feeler gages to find out
how far you need to tweak the microadjusters."

"There are no microadjusters." Silence. " I get your point."

Second half featured a call as to why there were only three wires on the
motor.

Steel City planer, and he says the fit and finish, while rougher than on the
old Rockwell Invicta, were better than the Powermatic he was looking at.