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Leon[_7_]

On 9/29/2015 9:54 AM, wrote:
On Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 8:47:50 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:

I'm quite certain Festool was here long before that as
Robert/Robatoy could never say enough about the Rotex sander that
he used to sand and polish his counter tops.. IIRC he was on his
second one.

He was my pusher that helped me see the light.

Doing the work I do, we had some entertaining conversations about
buying the Fein oscillating tool. He had one that he bought after
much consideration, and he loved it. I never could justify the tool
(15 - 20 years ago blades were still $25 each on average) and he
couldn't see how I could live without it. He used his constantly.
After I bought my first inexpensive model, I couldn't either.

I don't think it was that long ago, I bought a 3 Pack for $72 in 2006.
Anyway thank goodness that the patent ran out and competition brought
the prices down.

Then we had a some great conversation and there was a lot of
consternation about the great biscuit debate that swelled up here on
occasion. He used a Lamello A LOT, and he was the only one I knew
that used the absolute daylights out of a biscuit machine at that
time. He used them to align and join some of his work where
connectors couldn't be used. Until Rob described it (and was
actually doing it regularly) I would never have thought of joining
two perpendicular surfaces with biscuits. Like me, he found through
practical experience the biscuit added a great deal to certain types
of joinery.

I started using biscuits in 1989. I gutted and rebuilt the kitchen in
our other home and used what I thought to be a load of biscuits. I
recall buying #20's in boxes of a thousand a couple of times. Thinking
of today, I am on the verge of buying my 3rd box of 5mm 1,800 count
Dominoes and I am about in the middle of a 6mm replacement box.

He was the first one I knew that had a 23ga. pinner. Honestly, with
no heads on the pins I had difficult figuring out what to do with one
of those, even if I had one. He was applying different moldings,
finishing pieces and all other kinds of appliques to work on occasion
and he gave the run down on it. He had a Grex (sp?) long before they
even sold them down here.

Karl turned me on the the 23 gauge pinner. I bought a Grex about 7~8
years ago. I love that thing and use it more often than I expected.
IIRC it came with 1,000 pins in each size/length that it would shoot.
I have bought 3 replacement boxes of 10K in different lengths. They are
great at replacing a clamp on light glue ups.

I don't know how he did it, but he always seem to be right on top of
any kind of tool innovations, especially those with any value.

That he was!

I too
remember his delight with the Rotex sander, and being a champion of
that tool. I used a Bosch sander at that time that was 90% of the
Festool for 20% of the price. I had to have a shop vac attached to
mine to sand inside an occupied home and got a little dust, and he
had the Festool with a shop vac (don't recall it being a Festool, but
some other Euro brand)and got no dust.

IIRC a Fein

In 2008 I refaced a neighbors kitchen. I cut my own 1/8" thick maple
veneer for the cabinets and built the maple doors. He was retired and
at home when I came back to sand the joints of the veneer. I used my a
pinner to hold the veneers while the glue dried, regular wood glue not
contact cement. Anyway before I got there he had masked off all the
cabinet openings with newspaper, card board, and tape. He said he would
wipe the counters down and mop after I sanded. I sanded with the Rotex
and with the FT finish sander along with the FT vac while he took a nap.
I was finished long before his hour nap was over and he could not
believe that there was no visible dust.

I remember that he used the
Rotex long and hard enough to actually kill it, and he was kind of
pleased with himself for that.

Gone too soon...

Truly

Robert