RWH:

I've had excellent service from the GP "CG Machine." You do have to be sure to put the pads against a planked area. Gone up to 30# with no problem.

Bill.

I have the equivelent made by Graupner that I bought when in Germany. From what I can tell, it's a lot better than the GP model. It has very solid, square fiberglass posts. I really like it and it's a lot more accurate than the two-finger method.

It's the sort of thing that would be easy to make if you have a drill press and a table saw using a good hardwood such as maple. The problem with Great Planes isn't the idea behind their tools (with some exceptions) but the implementation. The quality just isn't there which is unfortunate because they certainly have the marketing power and the money to do quality if they cared.

here's a pic:

I was wondering,.....In this forum many people have put the topflite monokote trimmer on the worst tool ever list. I was looking through old magazines, and I found an article in MAN that put the monokote trimmer on the list of top 10 best tools ever. I have not used one, so I can't speak for or against it. There are so many people on here that don't like it , I don't know which is true. I'M NOT TRYING TO SAY ANYONE IS DISHONEST. I think the magazine is a good reference, and I don't think all of you are lying. How could there be such drastically different points of view? Once again , I haven't used one, but I was thinking about getting one, I'm not sure what to think! Which is true, and if you don like it, what exactly is wrong. Thanks

big_ stik:

Journalistic integrity, like honest lawyers, is an outmoded concept. The days of unbiased reporting disappeared when editorial consideration of advertising revenue became paramount.

This is not to say that the magazines will lie, but their standards are often a bit lower than yours and mine.

If the device merely works as advertised, it's "Great." If they had some problems with it they will say "Takes getting used to." If it didn't work at all they will come back with "Requires practice to make the best use of it." Or just not mention it.

And if it is really a nice device the superlative adjectives will flow like water over Niagara Falls.

All magazine reviews must be taken with a large grain of salt - they want to keep their advertisers, you see.

Bill.

Well, this is just my opinion, but I trust those who buy a product and attempt to use it for its advertised purpose more than I trust someone who takes paid advertising from the company that makes the product. When was the last time you saw a major company's product get blasted in a magazine review???

rwh amd william, I also have had good results with the GP CG balancer, although it is a bit cumbersome to use sometimes, since I only build and fly sailplanes.

Getting a 12 lb. , 150 " span sailplane onto that thing is a bit tricky sometimes.....

Michael

For me the worst tool is the ones that someone else buys you at the super duper home do-it your self store. Never fails they seem to bypass the high quality stuff and go for the cheap crap made out of pot metal or melted down cans of beer and dull, break, and then take a 40mi an hour trip across my shop into doom, probably only to be melted down again into some other cheap *** tool. why don't they auction that stuff on e-bay oops and then I would Buy it and give it back as a gag gift.

I have two dremmel chord less tools. Work OK at first but not very powerful. Then as you use them a few times the battery to motor connections become loose and the power to the motor is intermittent. I now use Black & Decker tools ($25) and love them. I have two dremmel paper weights now.

Hi Jim, ditto. I love the power and reliability of my B&D RTX rotary tool. All Dremel accessories are compatible with it.

In my opinion ... The great planes corded hinge slot machine. I went through two of them trying to cut a single hinge slot. What happened ... the plastic gears shattered. I was using the larger optional cutter blades rather than the blades that come standard. Really quite a disappointment. I am sure it would work better with metal gears. Quality and hardness of Balsa can vary in many kits.

Great thread!

I have to chime in on the Six Shooter discussion. When I started in the hobby 14 years ago a guy gave me an old (at that time) six shooter pump to use. I used it for over 11 years and loved it, but it finally broke. So it maybe had 15 + years of great use. I had a GP hand crank pump to use, so I used that and a year later it leaked. So I called my LHS and ordered a new Six Shooter. Well, it was just as the other posters have said. You need about a 60 horse engine to turn the thing and it pumps very slow. I thought after a summer of use it would loosen up, but no. So I bought a H9 hand cranker and it is working great.

Although I have not tried the Monokote Smart Cut trimmer myself, I would just say that ANY tool is awful if the user has not read the instructions and understtod them well. How many of you can honestly say you read the instructions COMPLETELY before starting to use the tools you are complaining about? Perhaps the manufacturers did not include detailed instructions (I know for a fact that to be true with my tap handle; I discovered later that you can force the bit deep into the "inner" chuck, as mentioned by JWN-RCU)
Now, how many of you have ever bought a tool you haven't used it yet?
More than 5 years and still haven't used it? Anyone?

Luis

It hasnt been 5 years but I thought I just had to have one of those micro torches, played with it when I first got it, now it sits unused in back with stuff piled on it . someday I might light it up again just to see if it still works.

No, Dalolyn, I meant not used it AT ALL (still in the box, never opened, never tried, waste of money, will use it one day, kinda-thing)
Luis

I don't think there's such thing as a bad tool, only poorly chosen ones

Rajul,
I'll have to disagree with that. I've had some very poorly designed tools that didn't work. A balsa razor plane that after I took it out of the package I found out that it didn't use a single edge razor blade but a poorly harden excuse for steel that was impossible to sharpen. Badly made copies of "Allen" wrenches that stripped when you tried to tighten a set screw with them. Poor fitting screwdrivers, especially phillips blades that weren't ground correctly to fit the screws.

Nowadays I only buy quality read expensive tools. Mostly german.

My two cents.
John

I agree with you on that, John. It really irks me about these cheap, crappy, gimmick tools that "our" manufacturers sell to us. Especially the larger companies who can afford to put out a better quality tool. They're still trying to convince people that there are "miracle" tools that will allow anyone to make a contest-winning model even though they basically have little skill.

I guess that's all part of the learning process, but in the mean time these companies are making a lot of money selling crap that has never worked for anyone, but people are desperate to try.

OK, so on to higher quality stuff...

for those of you who were asking about my building board, I drew up a fixture with dimensions. What I didn't note on the drawing is that there are four magnets on each - two on each side. I'll note that on the drawing when I get a little time. In the mean time, here's a link to the drawing. It prints out well, but looks blocky on the screen due to it being fairly high resolution (300 dpi).

http://www.airfieldmodels.com/inform...et_fixture.tif