[AD] Cryptic Offer from Rob Lee

CONTEST CLOSED!

Rob Lee

Ok - all full now!

Cheers -

Rob

Oh shoot!  Got here too late!

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

And I was really looking forward to seeing how Rob's "surprise" worked with my circular saw!



Oh well; the late worm gets donut crumbs

And the winners are?...

Re: Oh shoot!  Got here too late!

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

I had one similar to that in 1958, mine was fancier cause it had a right angle gearbox and a big hose clamp that held the drill to a bracket!

Re: And the winners are?...

Rob Lee

I had:

Andy Lincoln

Kevin French

Alan Young

Roger Lance

Mark Mandell

William Duffield

Virgil Johnson

Jack Guzman

Bob Entwisle

Thomas Skaggs

Parcels ship on Monday!

Cheers -

Rob

Wo Ho I'm a winner, I can retire!

Kevin French

Oh wait, I am retired.

SWEET!

Kevin French

The Panel Platform Kit arrived in the mail today, what a great idea!

I have to take the end of my barn off and replace it There will be plenty of use for the Kit.

For those of you who didn't make the cut

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=76830&cat=1,43455

Thanks Rob, for the Kit and for making quality tools

Re: SWEET!

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

Me too. I can see some handy applications for the kit. Many thanks Rob!

T.

$30 for 12 pieces of plastic and a bag

Dick Coers

seems pretty pricey! Nice for you to get one for free though. I think I am capable of cutting a few dadoes to make an egg crate style assembly in my shop though. LOL

Re: SWEET!

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

Another approach, which I saw in one of the homeowner's magazines, is panels of foam insulation. I wouldn't go out and buy such a thing, but I happened to have some from a failed insulation approach, and they're quite handy.

Re: $30 for 12 pieces of plastic and a bag

Kevin French

Ya, BUT would you have a handy bag to put it all into?

Re: SWEET!

Jack Guzman from Maine

Well, I don't cut alot of sheet goods building chairs but they look handy for jig making. I gotta give it some thought. Thanks Rob. Thoughtful product.

Re: $30 for 12 pieces of plastic and a bag

Rob Lee

Actually - the $30 is mostly for tooling and development time, and keeping people in north America employed.

Make no mistake - North American manufacturing firms sell labor - not raw materials.

I'm reminded...

John in NM

Of hearing my high school art teacher reply to a smart aleck in class who said, disparagingly, that he could have painted any Picasso. Her reply was "yes, but you didn't".

Why tear down creative effort? In a case like this, the solution would never have occurred to me - that thirty bucks is paying for someone having an idea that I never would have had (as well as manufacturing & marketing it).

I may not buy every single better mousetrap that comes along - but I do appreciate very much that people are inventing and producing good ideas, because I will benefit from some of them even if I do not benefit from this particular one.

Another good bit of advice I remember reading was from Colin Powell - "never stomp on initiative".

Re: $30 for 12 pieces of plastic and a bag

Mark Nowicki

And a bag of screws.

They are square drive, that fact alone is worth $50 bucks to me.

That the nylon bag is wide enough to fit all my Festool tracks, priceless.

Everything looks easy when others do it.

Product enhancement suggestion

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Offer the "Senior Citizen Version". It comes with an additional 1" thick foam kneeling pad and cup holder.

Re: Product enhancement suggestion

Bill Howatt

Reply would be funny if it weren't true!

I made a similar cutting surface roughly 2.5'x5' out of 1x4s ensuring any metal fasteners were at least 1.5" away from top surface. Mounted it on a set of folding table legs which is a good height for me and I can cut up 4x8 sheets just fine. Seems to do double duty as a table to paint things on too.

Bill

Bad teacher

Mark Hennebury

to put down a student for having the courage to stand and question the cool-aid induced mass-delusion. A single student that views something objectively and dares to questions the accepted view, is ridiculed, embarrassed and put down.

Not my idea of a good teacher.

Maybe a teacher should have welcomed the view and made an attempt to explain why society places artist that splash and slop paint with no apparent skill, to the level of mystical genius, that we should worship without question.

Maybe Picasso was just a talentless, lazy, ego-maniac that realized that there is no limit to how gullible people are, how willing they are to believe anything, and that he could exploit that all the way to the bank.

Maybe he realized early on in his career that he wasn't that good and never would be as great as the world’s best. Maybe he realized that what you did didn't matter at all, marketing was the real art.

A teacher that tries to extinguish the spirit of free thought is not a teacher to me.

Your smart-alecky student was the hero in your story for pointing out that the Emperor really has no clothes.

Nothing bad to say about developing new products, initiative etc.. just never drank the coolaid on the modern art.

There is more to it...

John in NM

But I didn't want to go on at length. After the initial comment she described the classical training that most artists at the time went through (and that Picasso quit early as I recall) and pointed out that his early works were much less abstract that the ones for which he is famous in the relatively shallow popular culture. After that she explained that though many abstract works look technically simple, one needs inspiration to execute them.

That said, I think her response would have been somewhat different with one of the more engaged students, the gist would have been the same but she probably would not have had the initial harsh reaction. But aren't those sometimes unreasonable reactions something we learn from as well?

EDIT...

Come to think of it, if the example had been Serrano, I would entirely agree with you

You aren't an artist until a patron says you are

Dick Coers

Not enough room to say financially successful artist.

I worked at Caterpillar for 30 years

Dick Coers

I'm very aware of development cost. It doesn't cost multiple millions of dollars to make an off highway mining truck. But it could have taken 5 years of development to bring one that could survive to the market. Also includes the years of down commodity pricing when you don't sell many. The huge advantage Caterpillar has, is that the customer will spend more than twice the original cost of the machine in parts over the lifetime of the machine!

My biggest problem with a cutting grid on the floor now is first finding room to set it up after 45 years of shop accumulation!

Re: eye opening and discouraging

CharlieL

I like to tinker and be inventive. I learned my lesson a few years ago when people were complaining about dust collection on Contractors table saws ( and probably still are ). Call me stupid, but I spent quite a bit of time coming up with a couple different designs to get what I felt is the best solution, and have explained to people what the benefits are of it. I also spent the money to buy the machinery to make them. I've had some success with getting the product out there, but not anywhere near what I would of expected, or wished. In most cases I don't get much support, the few people that are interested just want to know for free how they can make one themselves. I've also come to the conclusion that some of the complaints about poor dust collection on Contractor's table saws were were just people ( or salesmen ) bashing Contractors saws in order to make Cabinet saws look better. It's all been eye opening and very discouraging.

Re: SWEET!

William Duffield

Mine aren't here yet, but I'll check the post office again this afternoon. They're more likely to arrive tomorrow or even Monday, if prior USPS performance is any indication. In the meantime, Rob's kit certainly looks more convenient to use, flexible and adaptable than the kludges I've been using with my tracksaw.

Perhaps even more intriguing, with the addition of the removable dogs included in 05H41.01, the Panel Platform Kit will address issues I've had with work holding when using my Carvex jigsaw, and the Bosch I had previously. Yet another convincing argument for more dog holes (rather than fewer )! Hey Rob, can I order a dozen dogs separately? (If not, I have plenty of 3/4" maple dowel stock.)

Pictures of both my old setups and my adaptation of this ingenious new system will follow. My new saw trestles have been patiently waiting for inspiration for locations of dog holes, so it's about time to install my 3/4" FAMAG Bormax bit in the drill press.

Re: SWEET!

Andy Lincoln ,in Dearborn MI.

I received mine today as well. Of course I trimmed and fitted the last interior door on Wed night. I can see the potential for these, I like thoughtfulness of the design. I really like the 3/4" dog hole pegs ,shown in the link above, as well. I can see myself putting together a finishing/clamping/sawing/riser grid system in many applications.

Thanks Rob for allowing me to sample the product.

Re: SWEET!

Andy Lincoln ,in Dearborn MI.

Please be sure to post your innovations. I always enjoy the routes you take to practicality and problem solving.