Hand Tool Reviews

I just bought this saw for an incredible price at a day-after-Thanksgiving sale (Menards). In fact, the $19.50 I paid is 1/2 the normal price in the local hardware stores. As for the saw's performance, I have some mixed feelings.

My motivation for buying this saw (other than the incredible price) was to use it with various blades to cut 4" pvc pipe, tree limbs, etc. instead of using handsaws. It does all of this fairly well, but it would perform much better if B&D came out with a wider assortment of blades. At just 3.4 amps, this saw is not overly well powered and thus it should have an assortment of blades available so as to maximize the efficiency of the cutting action. For instance, the wide woodcutting blade has teeth that are fairly fine - which is good for precise cuts in material such as pvc pipe and lumber, but not so good when cutting tree limbs or any other situation where you want an agressive cut. All I got with the saw was a wide woodcutting blade (the blade that is normally pictured in the saw) and a narrow blade to use for cutting metal pipe. In my opinion B&D needs to come up with some more blades!

Having said all of that, I really like the ingenious design of this saw. Although I will probably never have a need to "convert" this saw to its jigsaw configuration - I have much better jigsaws for that - I think that this feature might be handy to the novice weekend warriors out there.

If you can find this saw at a bargain price I recommend it as worth the money!

This is a great saw, but there is a problem with the mechanism for removing/installing the blades. This afternoon I went to change blades, and for some reason I could not get the blade on. Normally it's quite intuitive, you don't even have to think about what you're doing, so it took me quite a while to figure out what the problem was. There is a small stud (or whatever the technical term might be) that you need to slip the hole in the tang of the blade over. This can get turned the wrong way. It's designed so that the hole in the blade will only fit over it from one direction. Then you turn the entire blade, along with this stud, into the lock position. But if the stud is accidentally turned into the lock position when the blade isn't on it, then you need to press down on the release button, take a pair of small pliers or tweezers and turn it back to the correct position. It took me about an hour to figure this out--I was going crazy trying to figure out why the same blade I'd been using for a couple of years suddenly wouldn't fit anymore. I hope this note will save someone some time. Otherwise, an excellent product.

I've always been a little nervous using my handheld circular saw and I've never put my little jig saw to much use. Often I've ended up sawing things by hand--tedious! This saw is so handy and easy to use that I never hesitate to pull it out and put it to work. I love it!

I had one before and I get acostume to it.

I've owned a variety of Leatherman tools over the years and unlike a lot of other products out there, their quality and attention to detail keeps getting better and better. I also own a Leatherman Charge and love the manly feel of it. But the Leatherman Juice S2 can fit in your pocket like a regular pocket knife. Its sturdy construction can handle most of the simple projects around the house or office with ease. If you're the kind of guy who likes to carry a little knife in your pocket, then you'll want to trade it in for this little guy. A pleasant surprise was that it hasn't gotten scratched up when I've put it in the same pocket with my car keys. I've owned it for 6 months now and it still looks like new, except for a little lint here and there.

This is a great tool for those who carry one all the time. It is small enough to fit in my jeans pocket, yet big enough to actually get something done. The pliers and scissors combo is handy and all the screwdriver tips work well. The blade isn't bad and holds a edge ok (what can you expect from a knife in this price range). One side of the tool is thicker than the other so at first you might thing it is broken. This is normal and doesn't affect any functions (and saves a little weight).

I purchased a Bosch 24-volt combo tool kit from International Tool Corporation on the Internet. Form the very first time I used the Bosch kit, I was very disappointed in the Bosch cordless tool performance. I have used many Bosch corded tools with great performance and success. This is the first cordless tool I have used by Bosch and it is the worst performing cordless tool system I have ever used. Being a contractor I use a wide variety of tools and in buying the Bosch system I feel like I have been misled and used. The Bosch kit was more expensive, the batteries that are provided with the kit have short run times, it is difficult to find additional batteries and the longer run time batteries that I have found on-line indicate that I will have to wait weeks to receive them. In general, the performance of the tools is sub-standard at best. I feel I have bought into a tool system that will have to be replaced within a year, and combo kits are supposed to last at least 3 years. It will be a long time, if ever, that I will purchase Bosch tools again.

i am a contractor, i thought finally a cordless set with enough power to justify putting it in the truck and pulling it out on a job. it works great, plenty of power. one of my workers was pulling out a screw on a float over the water and the chuck backed off and fell in,(1 month old) a bosch mechanic said that bosch wouldn't replace it. the drill has to much power to use in reverse over the water, was what was told to me. after alot of anger they finally replaced it.the second thing is i bought it in june 2002 and was told the it was a higher price because you get a free sawzall. WRONG that ended april 2002 and BOSCH wont do anything about it. bottom line is no free sawzall

I am a contractor and I use these tools everyday. I have had this set for a couple of years now and I can say without hesitation it was a very wise purchase, I have no regrets. BOSCH is quality equipment and work flawlessly. I am still using the original batteries that came with the set and they are still going strong. I especially like the fact that the batteries recharge in just one hour and that they are Ni-MH.

I now have all the BOSCH 24 volt tools except the new jig saw, but will probably have it this spring. I would recommend these tools to anyone who wants quality well built tools.

We bought two of this because it looks so great in the review and advertisement. After using it for a month, there are some flaws, which should be improved to make it a practical tool. Does anyone know what's the awl for? To us, it is too blunt to be useful. It should have sharper edge so we can actually open envelopes, remove staples, etc. The set of screw drives is comprehensive but take care not to exert too much force on them especially the small one, the tip WILL BEND. Anyway, it was be repaired with the other CS4 :-). If you are a Swiss knife user, you will find the Philips screw tip drive too big for common screws found in the office. Also, you should be real careful about the blade, cause it is really sharp... it hurts but we love it. If you are not too fussy about the strength of the tool, go get it.

I have about a dozen different kinds of mult-tools. This one is
probably the most practical. It's design is slick with its rounded corners, making it comfortable to keep in your pocket - no sheath needed. It has everything you would need for any incident. Its anodized blue color only ups the cool factor for this handy gadget. Everyone should keep one of these in their pocket. It's always in mine.

Clearly, I owe the fine folks at Leatherman an apology. I had dissed Leatherman's customer service in a prior review (scroll down..), whining about a minor, self-induced problem. Come to find out, they (including the Main Man, The Head Honcho, The Connection - Tim Leatherman)had made several attemts to contact me in effort to address my complaint (whine), but all their attempts were deflected courtesy of my email blocker settings. Through their continued efforts they were able to contact me through other means. Sooo, here I stand, embarrassed for badmouthing such a fine company and terriffic product. Sorry.

The CS-4 and I remain inseparable - it's an integral part of my everyday life. In fact, I have gone on to purchase half a dozen or more as gifts for friends (including a Wave for myself), only I had them properly engraved/etched this time as recommended by the manufacturer.

Christmas is coming...

Brand new, the trimmer spool didn't release cord, so I decided to use it for a few minutes with the cord that was left before going inside to study the instructions. Bad idea. I got too close to some concrete steps and accidentally let the spool contact them. With a tool this powerful, watch out! The spool and casing exploded into shrapnel. The spool is a spare part, but the housing is not. You have to send it back for service. My previous trimmer was a cheap Black and Decker, and I never had problems with the line feed and it seemed rather indestructible. It seems like a very powerful tool, possibly too powerful for its own good. The housing of the spool should be metal, and the drive shaft looks like it could be stripped easily.

This trimmer is well designed. It makes a lot of sense to have the motor on the end of the stick opposite the trimmer string and makes it easier to balance. Be sure to install the attachments right side up or you'll block the motor vents with your body and arm (make sure the logo isn't upside down when using it.) I used it to trim overgrown ivy, vinca, and weeds and it worked well - although this isn't the machine for major, thick brush cutting or fiborous plants. Probably need a gas motor and a metal blade for heavy work.

I am a single woman who wants NO problems with lawn equipment simply beacause I can't work on them. I was at a local hardware store and found this Ryobi 132r TrimmerPlus on the clearance table. (...) I haven't weedeated all spring or summer and it cut right thru all the tall weeds and grass like butter! I didn't have the owners manuel but was able to find it right here on this site, my next purchase will be the blower for it! Buy this trimmer, you won't be sorry!

I am a Genral building contractor For 27 years and I started with a 9.6 makita back in early 80's then went to 12V milwaukee and then to this drill and niether fo this two drills are any good. Iam still using the old 80's Makita. I bought this drill basing it on other Bosch products and this has to be the worst. This drill fell off a SIX FOOT ladder and the whole nose of the BROKE COMPLETELY OFF. I will stay with Makita.

I work in the building industry, and have bought my share of tools. I purchased the Bosch 24V, thinking it would be a good replacement for my 6 year old cordless Dewalt drill. During two years of use, I have had numerous problems with this drill, and have gone back to my 8 year old Dewalt. The charger has been fixed twice. I have fixed this drill twice and it is currently in the shop getting a repair estimate. Bosch has a repution for depndable tools. I own several Bosch tools, but I am deeply dissapointed with this purchase.

This drill has great power, however, the chuck assembly is attached with a small plastic ring. It will break in a 3 foot fall. My drill has broken twice in 6 months. To their credit, Bosch has repaired it free. I wish they would upgrade it to a more rugged model.

You get what you pay for. I didn't bother flattening the sole of this little block plane....what's the point, after all its a block plane! If it were a jointer, or even a jack, it would be worth doing, but anyway... The blade needs work. The bevel was not uniform, the back not flat or polished. As you might guess, the edge was marginal at best. Took about an hour to fix the edge with diamond and ceramic stones by hand lapping. NOW its sharp! I don't know how long it will hold an edge. Other minor gripes are that the mouth adjustment started out very stiff (worked that back and forth to loosen it up) and the blade advance screw is also too tight when the cap iron is clamped on. Maybe it will loosen up with use. In short, this is not a plane that is ready to use out of the box, but for the price, once you get it tuned, it looks like it will do just fine.

Is it a Lie-Nielsen, ahhh, nope... Could I buy 5 of these for 1 Lie-Nielsen, ahhh, yep... I have a few old Stanley planes (from Ebay) that I have tuned and have an excellent Veritas low angle jack that came ready to use right out of the box (except for the blade). I say this because I'm somewhat familiar with the performance of some planes. I don't have a high-end Lie-Nielsen block plane to compare this plane with but here's what I perceive the cons and pros would be in comparison to a more solid plane:

Cons:
Blade locking mechanism is somewhat sloppy
Blade is cheap (as expected) - if using a softwood, it's probably good enough. If planing regularly on hardwood, probably need a quality replacement blade (Hock, Lie-Nielsen).
Sole needs flatting... By flattening the sole, you ensure an even distribution of the cutting edge into the wood.
Blade needs tuning - no surprise - even some of the best planes need blade tuning.

Pros:
To me, the plane's weight, balance, and size makes the plane feel good in the hand.
Cheap. Cheap. Cheap.
Even though the blade locking mechanism is sloppy, it seems to hold the blade well enough, as long as the locking screw is not too loose.
Produces reasonably thin even wood shavings (after tuning, that is).

Bottom line is that I believe it functions quite well as long as the blade isn't challenged. With a $35 dollar blade addition, I believe it would perform very well.

As a side note, I originally paid 30 bucks for the plane with free shipping. I think the plane is worth that much but I don't think I would pay whole lot more than that.

I'm overall very happy with this plane, being able to take shavings of less than a half a thousandth of an inch across the width of the blade.

But some tuning was required.

First of all, the throat adjustment plate must be removed and the inside cleaned out, especially the milled contact points. It appears that grit and ground metal from surfacing the sole of the plane may have found their way in to this area and, as a result, the adjustment plate was jammed and wouldn't move. It was easy enough to get it unstuck however (don't use pliers like someone suggested, that's a really bad idea!) by gently tapping straight down on the brass adjustment knob on the front after unscrewing it a little. The plate will come loose and you can then unscrew and remove the brass knob to remove the bottom adjustment plate for cleaning. In addition to removing the grit, I ran some very fine grit sandpaper along the milled surfaces inside the plate receiving area and the sides of the plate itself: just a couple of light passes with the paper wrapped around a 90 degree edge to smooth it out a bit. Blow the dust away and reassemble.

I also found the back edge of the adjustment plate was rough--it looked like the raw cut edge from the manufacture hadn't been ground straight. This is the edge of the plate adjacent to the blade so I felt it was important to dress it straight by rubbing it against some sandpaper on a smooth surface.

Next I sharpened the blade. Use the scary sharp method if you want, I used waterstones to 8000 grit to get a nice polish and razor sharp edge. Check it with a square, you can either grind or hone it square or live with a slight cant to the blade if it's a little off square (mine wasn't.) Sharpening the blade like this is important if you want fine shavings.

Finally, I only dragged the plane across some sandpaper on a Grade A surface plate a couple of times before stopping, because it was obvious from the grinding pattern that the bottom of the plane is very flat, and required no tuning. If you must do this put the blade in the plane and have the cap mechanism properly tensioned before starting, so any distortions of the plane body introduced by that tension become part of the grinding pattern. Just make sure you have raised the edge of the blade above the mouth of the plane!

With this procedure completed I could adjust the mouth of the plane to a very fine opening, and align the blade to get an even cut across the edge of the blade. I used a piece of scrap wood to test the alignment.

The plane is hefty, stable, and strong. I've been using a cheap block plane from the orange borg and the change to this one is a welcome step up.

It works best in soft soil. I am most pleased with the price.

It's a good tool. Very effective in areas where there isn't much spacing between plants. Works good with loam and sandy soil. Works in clay but it takes substantially more effort.

I had a yard full with garden areas that had about Five years of weeds to clean out. With the Garden Claw, I was able to clean up those areas in no time. It made work that would have been impossiable to do, very simple. I couldn't have done it without the Garden Claw.

I have owned this product for a year. Like most Jet equipment I own, this one arrived with minor (nuisance type) damage from being dropped. I am wondering if Tool Crib purchases the damaged equipment from Jet at a reduced price to garner higher profit margins.
The saw performs adequately although the accompanying blade did not have a long useful life. The rip fence is low quality and does not permit easy minor adjustments. The miter gauge is also poor quality. Maybe I'm spoiled by the more accurate fence on my table saw but for [price] I expected more attention to detail.
I am using the saw at the lower power level although it can be rewired for higher power.
I like the nice sized cast iron table but plan to build something larger to accommodate more intricate cutting.
The blade guides are not high quality and you should plan to purchase a better quality set.

Purchased my Jet 18" bandsaw with 3/4", 4 tooth blade bout a year ago. Before purchasing this saw I searched for as much info on bandsaws that was available. I am 100% satisfied with it.
Everything I cut is hard wood. I have cut up to 6" thick and even with the 3/4" blade, it was no problem for this saw.
The table surface area is one of the largest on any saw. That's nice! It's easy to clean and the hand wheel adjustments for the cutting height and blade tensioner makes life good.
I don't believe there is a better 18" saw out there for the money.

I, too, have had my 18" Jet bandsaw for almost a year, and it has been a pleasure to use in every respect. Mine arrived without damage or problem, and other than the difficulty of moving a 6' tall wooden crate weighing almost 400 pounds around, setup was straightforward and worked first time out.

I had some problems with blade drift (i.e., trouble cutting a straight line), which seemed to vary with the kind of wood, the blade used, and the tension. I finally made two purchases which I *highly* commend, both from Ittura Designs, a bandsaw supply company that provides an amazing range of accessories and expertise. The first is a tension gauge, to tell you how many psi you're really putting on the blade (note to experts: the Jet has no problem tensioning to 30,000 psi), but the turning point was a Lenox ProMaster iI carbide blade. This thing isn't cheap---over $100 for a single blade---but what an unbelievable difference! The tolerances and sharpness of this blade have made drift a thing of the past: I now cut through everything like a heated knife through butter. If you spend this much on a bandsaw, spend the extra $100 on one of these blades, otherwise you're wasting your time and your wood.

The finish on the saw seems good to these relatively inexperienced eyes; the dust collection works terrifically, and while the lower guides are indeed tough to adjust, the Euro-style rollers work well and seem to hold their adjustments. (One aside: a lot of bandsaw accessories, like zero-clearance inserts and Cool Blocks etc., don't seem to be available for the 18" Jet, so if you're a tweaker, you might want to look elsewhere).

In summary, this is my favorite tool in my workshop. When I started woodworking, I followed closely the "do you need a tablesaw, or can you make do with a bandsaw only" argument, and now that I've had my Jet for a year, with the ProMaster II carbide blade, I have no regrets about my decision to leave a tablesaw behind.

Mine wouldn't work, the pruner shaft tube was a bit too long to work when attached to the extension; I disassembled it and cut it down 1/2" shorter and it worked good after that.

I just used the tree trimmer add-on for the first time. A few times the screw that holds the blade loosened. Don't know why. It is important to make sure that the screw that holds the blade is quite tight and that the motor is on the high setting. Also, this works best with hard, rigid stems. With rigid stems and branches it works like a charm - but be patient. It works very poorly with thin or flexible stems like forsythia.

A very handy tool to have in your shed to make pruning very easy. This is the third trimmer that I have purchased over the past several years. The problem is that in the last two that I have owned the set- pin holding the blade intacked sheers off or just vibrates off. So far I have been unable to purchase one (set-pin) and finding something to replace it makes the cutter useless. Please advise.