Bridge city center scribe

The Traffic Will Bear 

Simple........

it's "beautiful looking".......kind of like that blonde that was beautiful looking......and you bought everything she had to say or do like it was gospel.......

Human Nature.

Re: Bridge city center scribe

I suppose. I see a lot of this sort of thing: very expensive stuff to do what can be done most of the time using some simple method.

Re: Bridge city center scribe

Bragging rights for people who have way, way too much money. Bridge City website has it listed for $174 (reduced from $295) What a deal. Wish I had the money to buy one. I wouldn't buy one, I just would like to have the money.

Re: Bridge city center scribe

I made one using wood scrap and pieces of broken drill bit from Boeing Surplus. 10-cents?

Since it scratches the centerline of anything the outer pins encompass you don't need wood with parallel sides. 

Re: Under the Bridge City tools

Men will buy anything that tells a mechanical story.  Meaning, when you look at the object, it has a visible mechanical principle, and it is executed in a way that best tells that story.  There are some tools on the market that muddy that principle by excessive embellishment and oddly placed curves.  BCT does some of that.  Generally their stuff is pretty nice

BCT was always a jewelry for guys company, and it is pretty cheap jewelry if you look at what real jewelry costs.  There are 7 million people in the US who have assets of one million or more, not including primary real estate (according to the first search result).  So there is not really any head scratching over why some people will spend the money.

So the humble brag approach is to make stuff out of wood.  For my whole life I have been fascinated with wooden stuff that is as accurate as metal working stuff, it all is really, if one is talking about joinery or hand planes.  All in the thou bracket.  But I also love anodized aluminum.  3D printing is kinda in the middle, 3D printed jigs are sophisticated, very accurate, and a little ugly. 

I did once give some thought to joining that club where you get everything BCT has or is ever going to make.  At the time the buy in was like 3K.  But now that they are in heavy competition with Banfang, and the image of the Bridge City is pretty repellent...

Credit where it is due, they have actually made some innovative and useful stuff like that saw.  However, when it comes to spending large amounts on anodized stuff, or sawstop, etc...  I really can't see any rational reason to embrace anything that isn't CNC.

Re: Bridge city center scribe

Why? Because it makes me feel good to use a beautiful tool like that. Why do we buy any high end tool from Festool to Bridge City? You can always find a cheap alternative. A handsaw cuts wood, why buy a Sawstop?

Too much money?

I worked damned hard for 40 years for my money, and I resent the fact that you think I don't deserve a beautiful tool. 

Re: Bridge city center scribe

I appreciate your point. There's the pride of ownership idea, and just having something beautiful. I suppose I am thinking, ....ok  but you can't buy them ALL. And with that in mind, if I were to spring for something like this, I would at least want it to do a job I would have trouble doing without the tool. So I'm back to how easy it is to find the center of a squared up board.

A fine example of tool making......

had to use an outstanding piece of scrap (no knots, splits, etc), some prime dowel stock, and the end of my favorite #2 pencil (retired from active duty) to make this masterpiece of center finding.......

but, it was worth it.......

Re: Bridge city center scribe

So back to the rant of why anyone would buy it then? Then the answer is because someone besides you wants to buy it. And it not because I'm a buffoon or a tycoon.

Re: Bridge city center scribe

I'm sorry that I apparently pissed you off. I was in one of my frugal moods. No offense meant.

Re: Bridge city center scribe

For a very few dollars you can buy a center finding metal ruler which are very accurate, easy to use, and hang on the wall out of the way!!!

Re: Bridge city center scribe

Eliot, I enjoy using tools, hand or power. I don't enjoy fighting the tools, so I want good tools. They don't have to be the best, but they do need to work efficiently. And I'd also much rather use an attractive tool than an unattractive tool. There is more added pleasure here.

I'm fortunate that I can, and do, make these tools for myself. Another may prefer to pay for someone else to make it for them. 

At the end of the day they are just tools. The measure of an artist is not the tools you own, but how they the tools are used.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Too much money?

Resent all you want. I too worked for 50+ years, hard and often for little money. If you have that much that you can waste it on such a vastly overpriced solution looking for a problem, ... yes you have too micuh money and misplaced values.

Re: A fine example of tool making......

Roger, do you have a left handed version???? 

Re: A fine example of tool making......

Don......I do.....just for you lefties......

the two do look remarkably similar.......

Putting the tool to the test......

In the maniacal pursuit of ultra precision in the ww tools we use, I tested my version of the center finder by making a line on a test board.....and then, rotating said test board 180°......striking a second line on top of the first line.....the results:

the two lines are almost indistinguishable......to the untrained eye , they appear to be the same line.......this devise may be accurate to .001"......amazing!! 

Re: Putting the tool to the test......

It's amazing how often one can hit that with a caliper, but  with a center finder it works on tapers or one can lay out variants as with laying out corners on a tapering 8 sided tapered spar.

Re: Bridge city center scribe

Festool is a funny one.  Well known to be social engineered.  Not built for the long haul, but for people who won't haul for long.  A legitimate, probably dominant category.  This is even true for working stiffs, who at least in the big cities are selling themselves like trophy wives with huge collection of yellow or red bling, and 100K pickups.  And I say; "go for it"  Forest Hills was meant to be mined.  But I'm not falling for the fake funk, I'm in on the joke.  Best ever was the guy who set up a hammer company with those Ti heads, then sold it and set up a hammer company with Ti handles and steels heads.  Hilarious.  One born every minute.  As I said, there are some innovative BCT tools, it isn't all one way.  I am happy if people are happy.  People can come to my place and laugh at my 300 dollar chisels. 

Re: Putting the tool to the test......

Initially, I responded to this subject in a joking manner......this little center finder was made a number of years ago and it sits on a shelf in my shop where I make use of it occasionally......it is made cheaply from scrap......but, it was made carefully on a drill press with attention to drilling the two outer holes an equal distance from the center hole......the point here is that you can make some very accurate tools for little money and get the precision of a tool that costs a significant sum......such a tool will not have the pizzazz and glamor of the expensive tool however.