What new tools and consumables have you discovered lately ? How well do they work in your shop?
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We've been trialing some replacements for inexpensive calipers, more flexible, comfortable head-worn magnifiers, a replacement for the cheap, poorly made current generation of X-ACTO and Excel hobby knives, and 'cooler' thin CAs for binding and finish repairs.
Digital Calipers: The gold standard in the shop is the Mitutoyo AOS Digimatic absolute zero caliper. Close to perfect, with smooth movement, accurate return to zero, and hardened stainless steel tips that is trouble free in luthiery use, with the only issues of note the lack of auto-off and the related mediocre life of the LR44 battery. At $125, equipping every bench with the 4" version and the 6" version modified for fret use gets expensive, so to fill the gap, we have been using the Harbor Freight Pittsburgh branded 4" calipers for the past 10 years, and exchanging them for new when they start acting up (usually no more than 12-14 months). Lately, the replacements have been worse than the ones we are exchanging under warranty, so after reviewing available options, we purchased replacement iGaging OriginCal Absolute Origin 4" units at $40 (Amazon Prime) and iGaging EZCal 4" calipers at $21 (Ebay). Both are compared and reviewed in the link below. To summarize, both are very good bench calipers which have the longer lasting CR2032 batteries as standard (the Absolute Origin - like the Mitutoyo AOS Digimatic - does not have auto-off) and are essentially identical in use to the Mitutoyo, which stays cased in the roll-arounds. Both are dust and splash resistant as well to IP54 standard, so suitable for bench use in a wood shop ( a coolant-proof IP64 version with Bluetooth link is about $50). These are not Mitutoyo's...but at less than 1/3 the cost, they are good tools that should survive on the bench, and improve on the Mitutoyo in one or two areas (e.g., battery life is more than doubled with the CR2032 cells and better, much more robust battery cover).
Link: https://www.amazon.com/iGaging-ABSOLUTE-Digital-Electronic-Caliper/dp/B00K3PZXMW/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1522260771&sr=1-1&keywords=igaging%2Bcaliper&th=1
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yqZx_FNbSs
Head Mounted Magnifiers: The shop's options up through a few weeks ago were the coif-destroying OptiVisor or my surgical loupes. The OptiVisor - besides being the preferred device in some circles to achieve that 'just slept in my baseball cap' look - limits peripheral vision and has a limited number of close-up lighting options. Further, the visor and lens set is quite expensive - well over $100 for the visor and most useful magnification lenses. The surgical loupes are comfortable, but offer just one magnification and are a pain to flip up...and about $600 for a pair of middling quality. We've been trialing several options and have settled on a $13 eyeglass or elastic headband set with 5 included lenses and a nice, bright, easily directed pair of LED illuminators. The magnifiers can be worn without the batteries installed, or the 3 AAA batteries can be installed at the cost of between 3/4 ounce (Lithium) and 1-1/4 ounces of added weight on the bridge of the nose. Further, the magnifier can be worn over glasses with a little adjustment, although it can get a bit crowded on the bridge of the nose if the glass frames are bulky. The review video is linked not so much because of its stellar insights into the nature of the magnifier, but because the soundtrack is from one of my favorite 1980's cuts of all time - The Outfield's 'Your Love' off of Play Deep. Super-danceable, even if I did get tired of the refrain substituting for a better thought-out pickup line from the wit-challenged but romantically-inclined. These magnifiers are offered by a number of retailers on Amazon and Ebay - all seem identical and should cost about $13 per set delivered, with one-day service through Prime offered at that price.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Headband-Magnifier-Handsfree-Extension-Replaceable/dp/B077D5Z29W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522267819&sr=8-2&keywords=vorey
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEwg9L7_eoI
A Better X-ACTO Knife: We had a stash of 1970's vintage #11 blades that were just about exhausted when I showed up here to work a few years ago. The replacement blades I found (EXCEL brand) were made in China and were terrible, with soft, poorly-shaped, easily dulled edges...and they would barely stay in our classic, worn-out handles. After looking for better blades, I found an entirely new Japanese-sourced OLFA 9164 Ak-4 handle and blade selection (with the XB-157T blade mapping to X-ACTO's #11). The handle uses a very positive brass and steel clutch mechanism to hold the blade, has an acetone-resistant, faceted, non-rolling handle, and come with perfectly honed, defect-free assortment of blades of consistent sharpness. Highly recommended.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006O87TQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Link (Blades): https://www.amazon.com/OLFA-Art-Knife-Straight-5-pack/dp/B001KO75UI/ref=pd_sbs_229_23?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B001KO75UI&pd_rd_r=YC71BC0Y37MV93XBAWCY&pd_rd_w=uSUTn&pd_rd_wg=sMe7S&refRID=YC71BC0Y37MV93XBAWCY&th=1
A Slower Thin Master Glue and Thin Fill'n'Finish from GluBoost: Most of the thin CAs we have found (e.g., Hot Stuff, Mercury) are too hot to allow us to pad on much finish before the glue kicks. Both of the thins from GluBoost - the thin Master Glue and the thin Fill n'Finish are a bit slower than other brands, allowing deeper penetration for wicked application and more consistent thickness builds on finish repairs. Our latest projects had us binding three Style 42 instruments in a mix of ivoroid, fiber purflings, and shell and a pink ivory/Euro spruce instrument in macasser and fiber purflings. After two light coats of shellac, all were bound without and spills into the body (the glue is perfect viscosity to get good penetration without uncontrolled runs), and the glue files, scrapes, and sands well for clean-up. Great stuff.
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. And the holdfasts are so lovely to whack away at...therapy and fixture holding combined in one tool...next to a nice, sharp boys axe and a pile of birch to split, just the thing for a little stress relief.
