I needed an 8 degree 1/2 inch dovetail bit to use with my dovetail jig. Looked around locally, couldn’t find one. Went to the catalogs, found one, ordered it along with some other stuff. Dovetail bit was back-ordered indefinitely. The price was listed as $9.99. Since I really wanted to get on with the project, I drove 60 miles round trip to a dealer in another city, using the excuse for the trip of taking my wife along for lunch. They had the bit in stock, so I bought it for $14.99. This was only 50% higher than the one I had on order. When I arrived back at my home, there was a woodworker’s magazine in the mail. In it, I found a 5 piece dovetail bit set, including the one I needed, for $19.99 for the set! In addition it was carbide, not high speed steel as the others were. Guess we shouldn’t worry about price-fixing in the router bit business.
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Replies
A 5-piece carbide dovetail set for $19.99? Hmmmmm, keep in mind that not all carbide bits are created equal.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Sorry, I misspoke. The price was $19.00, not $19.95! The ad is inside the rear cover of the June 2003 issue of Woodwork magazine for Woodline USA bits. Do I recall hearing good things about them in a forum recently? Also, I wasn't thinking about the quality, just the great disparity of prices.
How's the weather in your beautiful section of our country? Probably a lot better than here in Upstate New York.
Ive been swearing woodline bits gor quite awhile now check all the related threads. Great bits especially for the money.
Darkworks: The French "Cheese eatin surrender monkies"..Grounds Keeper Willie
Hi Bob, well....as to our weather, it's turned a bit chilly and it hailed some yesterday, but all in all it's been pretty nice lately!
Woodline has its followers, Ron Teti being the most vocal. Sounds like he has the cost-benefit thing figured out to where Woodline bits, periodically resharpened, do the trick for him more economically than CMTs and other more expensive bits.
Reading the various comments on Woodlines, it appears that certainly for the edge treatment bits and other straightforward designs they work fine. Mikkemel's rail/stile set sounds like it failed miserably. I like his idea of buying the set 30-bit set and building up the more expensive bit-stable over a period of time.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=8070.5
Hang in there Bob, Spring's right around the corner!!!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Bob
Be careful with cheap things that go round and around real fast. You can sling off those carbide tips even on a good bit. I have a friend, a professional woodworker lost a finger joint, a brand new bit lost a piece of carbide and got his finger. I have no idea what brand of bit it was.
Gods Peace
les
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