I really like Hartville Tools (www.hartvilletool.com).  They appear to be a small, family-owned company but their pricing is very competitive.  And they’re real winners on customer service.  They give you a year to return any item, even if you simply don’t like it.

I recently ordered a Norton 3X grinding wheel from Hartville that was so out of balance that my Oneway Balancer couldn’t overcome it.  So I shipped it back to Hartville.  And not only did I quickly receive the replacement, they also credited my account with the cost of the return shipping!

I suppose you could argue that it’s only right they did that, but many companies don’t.  Kudos to Hartville!

Last month I upgraded my Grizzly jointer to a new serpentine belt.  At the time I wondered if a simple belt upgrade would have been just as good.  Well, I finally got curious enough to try it out and found that I was right, just changing to a high-quality belt was actually slightly better than the serpentine kit.

I was using the SawStop to cut some small dados this morning when it suddenly refused to start.  The blinking lights indicated that the brake cartridge was out of position.  After an hour of adjusting and puzzling, I finally deduced the real problem.  I was using a blade that had been recently sharpened and, because of the smaller diameter, I had to adjust the riving knife down so that the dado bottom (top) would clear it.  (adjusting the riving knife height is, by the way, a major pain).  I finally set the riving knife clamp to it’s lowest setting to ensure it would clear.  But at that position, the clamp is so close to the frame of the brake cartridge that the cartridge’s electronics see it as a blade being too close.  After adjusting the clamp up by one tooth, that gave it enough clearance so the cartridge would allow the saw to start again.

What puzzles me, however, is why the saw ran several times before seeing the riving knife clamp.  Maybe sawdust that vibrated out?

I need to get a planer, but money’s a little tight right now.  So I decided to take a shot at using a portable planer instead of a heavier model.  So I picked up a Dewalt DW735 at Lowes, $650 with tax.

After about 10 minutes, I packed it up and returned it.  It’s unbelievably loud and kinda cheap-feeling.  For a few hundred dollars more I can get a Grizzly 15″ planer, which is the way I’m heading.  I may just bite the bullet and get the helical head model.  Either way, I’ll get a vastly better planer for not that much more money.