Lee Michaels wrote:

Damn, when Charlie does a review, he does a review. Mere mortals may have
difficulty getting through all that material. But it is complete review,
not like those short puff pieces that the magazines are proud of.

There's only so much that can fit in a thousand to fifteen hundred
words and four pictures magazine article - and that's what they
often have to work within. And they do make their money from ads,
not from the subscriptions.

But even the stuff I do probably has an "I bought it so it must be
good" bias. Let's face it, when you plonk down a chunk of change
it's easy to overlook shortcomings of the thing we were sure was
the best product to fill an existing - or imagined - "need".

To eliminated the Owner Bias, I've been loaning tools to other folks
who know their way around furniture making as well as to folks
who don't know squat about furniture making. I show and tell them
how the thing works and send them on their way to try it. In return
I ask for either a written evaluation based on their experience, or
that I get to interview them and write up their responses. Since
they have "no dog in the fight" they are more apt to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth - as they know it and
have experienced it.

Good work Charlie.

Thanks - I think.

The Silver Tongued Devils at woodworking shows (demonstrators/
salesmen) make it look so quick and easy to make a (fill in the joint).
That's their job - and it ain't to inform you of the strengths AND
weakness of their product - or to tell you all the things YOU must
do exactly right - for the product to perform as the demonstration
implies. And most demonstrations of a joinery making tool is usually
of just ONE joint. In the real world, it's only after you've made the
joinery
on the OTHER END - or on all the rest of the parts - and dry fit them
that you probably will discover that IT AIN'T THAT SIMPLE, even with
their super tool.

I'd like to see the demonstrator make a couple of drawers - to fit
the drawer openings in an existing piece - like we're gonna have to do
in the real world. (OK, so you could build the piece to fit the drawers
-but that would be kind of "unusual".

The reviews I have trouble with is for a tool that isn't like anything
out
there before it. Case in point, the Festool DOMINO. It has the
additional
problem of looking like a biscuit joiner/cutter - at three or four times
the price. And because it does it's job in a way like no other method
it takes more words and illustrations to explain why it's so
revolutionary.
It puts loose tenon mortise and tenon joinery capabilities in an
absolute
novices hands.

If you want to see what I mean about the DOMINO - go through THIS stuff

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/D...OfContent.html

Wish I could condense the reviews - but brevity has never been my
strong point. The hope is that it provides objective information to
a woodworking needing info for a purchasing decision in an
understandable