Woodworking gadgets that waste your money

[BrokenOlMarine]

I got the mortising attachment free with my Jet drill press.  It never worked properly and I boxed it back up and set it aside.  Twenty years later, still boxed up.  The table saw tenoning dodah, easier to cut them with with the dado blade unless you are doing production work.  The tenon thingee is in one of the cabinets.

[DieselDennis]

For over 10 years I have owned, yet never used, and still have in their wooden case a set of........

Tapered Drill Bits (for actual wood screws)

[Handplanesandmore]

For over 10 years I have owned, yet never used, and still have in their wooden case a set of........
Tapered Drill Bits (for actual wood screws)

If you're referring to the bits with a stop collar and countersink, they must have been invented by someone who was never a practical woodworker. Like those cheapo imported dovetail jigs and countless manuals not written for human consumption, they should be banned.


 

Simon

[Stwood_]

For over 10 years I have owned, yet never used, and still have in their wooden case a set of........

Tapered Drill Bits (for actual wood screws)

Dig them out and try them.....

I have a set of Fuller brand. I used them daily when I was in the cabinet business. They are not a gimmick.

[Bill Holt]

The tapered drill/counter sink is my "go to" set.  I've had them many years and the counter sink is far superior to my straight set.

[toolmiser]

I also use them, I didn't want to post last night for fear of being chastised!

[Handplanesandmore]

"being chastised!"

:-) :-) :-)

Simon

[TGW]

As I am always on a tight budget so I haven's succumbed to the prevalent gadgetry in woodwork.
However I have made quite a few misstakes.

A few examples:
1. Chineese bench grinder. Lasted 15 miinutes of very light use before it overheated. It vibrated badly because the shaft was bent from factory. The dealer refused to replace it as I should have known it was a hobby machine and hobby machines aren't supposed to last longer than that.
2. Fiskars axe. Clumsy and unwieldy. Impossible to replace the handle.
3. Chineese hacksaw blades. Softer than the mild steel they were supposed to cut.
4. Chineese screwdrivers. Lasted one screw apiece.
5. Chineese chisels. Softer than the wood they were supposed to cut. Apparently made from unhardened mild steel.
6. Stanley 444 dovetail plane. Pretty much impossible to use........ but at least I could resell it to a collector for something like 8 times the purchase price.
7. Modern Stanley block plane. Bad machining and a blade that doesn't hold an edge.

So..... 6 out of the 7 cases I came to think of were just tool pretenders..... and the seventh a useless gadget from the past which proved to be a resellable collectible.



Anyway I have often fould it rather puzzling when I see what others spend good money on:
-Disston number 12 handsaws. I have two of them in use. They costed 5 euros apiece. They are indeed excellent saws but so are my Disston number 7 and Atkins and some of my Warranted Superrior and Sandvik handsaws. Still some people apparently paid fortunes for number 12s on american e-bay a few years ago.
-Super advanced router tables with laminate tops. I just don't understand the concept...... either you go cheap with a laminate table or spend money on a cast iron table..... I just cannot se the point in spending significant money on perishable laminate.
-Festool domino. Certainly very good for certain jobs and certain users but everyone don't need one. I paid significantly less for my floor standing industrial hollow chisel mortiser than people do for dominos. Cutting mortises by hand isn't hard either.
-Certain dovetail jigs and other jigs for routers look unwieldy to say the least. I have ever bought any of thise. Secondhand chisels are cheaper.
-Fancy chisels made from strange alloys. Good old cast steel (pure high carbon crucible steel) is good enough for at least 95% of users. Hard to find new nowadays though. Why when half the fancy alloys are inferrior and the other half are costly enough to only really interrest the 5% fractile.
-Damascus knifeblades. An old style laminated blade with three layers generally hold an adge much better.
-Woodworking machines with aluminium tables. Old cast iron ones for the poor and new cast iron ones for the rich. Who needs the inferrior aluminium then.

[tomsteve]

Woodworking gadgets that waste your money

pencils. i swear theres a conspiracy with pencil makers to lose my @#&***% pencils so i have to buy more.

[doobes]

Two words: Biscuit Joiner.