Gary roofner's Page

Gary,

     The new saw is awesome!!  I can't say enough good things about it!!  Good luck on the router table and let me know if you need any help.  I got a lot of ideas from www.crestonwood.com

Gary, I had a disappointing shopping trip this morning.  I left home at 7:00 am and was in Portland when they opened the doors.  I had gone there to purchase one of the grippers however they sold out yesterday.  They have been running a special 10.00 off the regular price of $79.99 thru April 30th.  Apparently they are pretty popular as a portland cabinet shop bought several the first of the week.  They have some on order and will honor the discound price when they come in.

I did get to look at the Jessem Zip slot mortiser and my opinion is unsure at this point.  The ones they had were the 1/4 inch mortise size but I did find out that they also  make it in 3/8 "and 1/2 " sizes but were out of stock.  I was able to watch the demostration of it and during the 5 or so minutes the guy broke two bits and and messed up the mortise on one when the broken bit split out the mortise.  I looked at the bits and at they appeared to be a little questionable due to size and maybe the material that they are machined out of.  The are going to have a 3/8 inch one shipped in  this next week. According to the guy he indicated that the mortiser is the same base unit and that you can change the bit sizes by changing out the bit sleeve to another size.  He told me that they had sold several but they run out of bits due to breakage .

I will return again when they have the 3/8" and look at it again.  The reason i elected to go with the 3/8" size is because I have about 1/2 dozen kreg bits that I have collected over the last 2 -3 years that have the tips broke off.  they are 3/8 inch dia size and I know they have some pretty good steel in them so I am wanting to see if I can't modify and regrind one to work in the mortiser.  The end of the bits look pretty simple in shape and should not be a problem.  They had the same type of stop collar and are long enough after the tips break off to make a mortising bit.

I'll keep you posted on this.

Hi Gary almost missed this post.  Had surgery on my left shoulder and not really fully got my mind into spending as much time as i normally do readind posts.  Yes I got two rippers  love them, definately a finger saver as well as preventing kick backs. 

Yes they got the mortise zips in and I'm still not fully sure if I want to make a purchase just yet.  I looked at a 3/8" thinking that this might be the answer to what I was looking for.  I had this one in mind as I have collected some broken kreg bits where the pilot is broke and thought I would check into grinding these into mortise bits.  Since during the first demo the guy broke bits like they were straws and the price of the bits are out of reason. Then demo of the 3/8" broke another one.  The bits are breaking near the cutting tips. I am beginning to think that either this demo man is not fulling understanding the system or the system is not cracked up to be what they.  I used it boring a couple mortise holes and found it to work well however the bits are not the best in the world.  This was my thinking in using the Kreg bits reground to mortise bits.  I am going to do more research before i purchase this as i have a horizonal mortise that I make a few floating mortised with as well as a standard mortise.  The system I use most is the table saw tennon jig cutting the tennons and the vertical mortise machine for the mortise.  What i though I would use the mortise zip is for portability and occassional use on repairing some occassional broken and damaged tennons and dowel project with out totally taking the piece apart. 

 I have not abandoned the idea yet as I think it is a reasonable tool.  Have you any thoughts on the pros and cons of this tool?  Have a good day and I will keep you posted on what I decide to do.

Gary, my brother-in-law has had the bead lock system  for about 3 or 4 years now and I have had the opportunity to use it on a couple different occassions and it was alright.  The only thing that I found discouraging was that you had to settle for the size of the stock or alter it.  It took some time to do this however it worked well holding the joints tight.  When it first came out the stock was not available at all locations however they cured this problem by making a bit of which you could make your own stock using the bit and a router table.  

it works siniliar to the doweling jig and this is why I opted not to buy one as they only  made it in 3/8" an 1/2" sizes at the time.  I could get the same results using one of my self aligning doweling jigs and could then go down to 1/4".  I don't know if they have since began making a smaller size than the 3/8" or not.

Thanks Gary. Works great and fun to build.