Sawdust on the Floor

Each year the woodworking shows roll through the South Jersey, Philadelphia area. And each year I attend as many of them as possible. I enjoy looking at the “Newest and Better” tools that the vendors bring out to show. Some are truly great inventions, and some well…., let’s just say that they won’t be getting any of my money. Besides the new tools, there are always a lot of vendors showing off the latest upgrade to their product line. Again some of these fall into great idea, and then some fall short of the mark. One tool that I always stop and admire is the Sand-Flee.

While I will admit that the name conjures up some insect that lives either at the beach or the desert, the truth is that the Sand-Flee is really a great invention. The Sand-Flee is a “portable” table or bench top finish sander. The Sand-Flee is available in two sizes, the 18″ Sand-Flee and the 9″ Mini-Flee. Working much like the bigger and sometimes more expensive over arm finish sanders, the sand flee features a rotating drum which you cover with your desired grit paper. Over Arm sanders contain two rollers, one that does the sanding and the other that acts as a pinch roller. The amount of pressure exerted by the pinch roller can affect the flatness of the final sanding. A misadjusted pinch roller can drastic change the profile of your stock, and not always in a good way. The Sand-Flee does not employ a pinch roller, the only pressure exerted on the wood is from your finger pressure. Excessive pressure will wear the sanding material faster, it also tend to leave burn marks on your wood. Another distinction that the Sand-Flee has over the over Arm sanders is the lack of any height restriction. Over Arm sanders typically limit the size of the project to a few inches.

The concept with the and flee is that you simply attach the desired hook & loop grit sand paper to the Velcro covered roller, turn the machine on and run your stock over the rotating drum. The unit turns at 1725 RPM on the larger 18″ unit and 1700 RPM on the 9″ Mini. These speeds are sufficient enough to do a very effective job sanding, but not fast enough to burn the stock.

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Over this past week end I took a break from woodworking and drove up to central Jersey to attend the Woodworking Show held in Somerset New Jersey. For me it was a perfect afternoon.  I mean how could it have been any better.  I was able to spend the afternoon looking and talking to others about one of my favorite things, Tools.  While the number of big name vendors who were in attendance at the show seemed smaller than in years past, those that were there were extremely knowledgeable and helpful. One of the most helpful in my humble impression was the people representing Kreg Tools.

Ok I will admit that I have somewhat of a fondness for Kreg tools, but at the same time I am a total skeptic. I was talking to the salesman about the Kreg right angle Klamp and how it compared with the one currently being sold by Rockler.  The Kreg version is currently being sold under the name of a “Kreg 90 Right Angle Klamp”.  While it appears to be physically different from the Rockler Pock-it hole clamp, both products work in the same manner.  One arm of the clamp is inserted into one of the pre drilled pocket holes; the other end of the clamp is placed over the adjacent boards securing the two boards together while the screw is installed in the other pocket hole.

According to the Kreg representative, the Kreg version is being replaced by a newer version of the Kreg Klamp.  The new version is called the Kreg 90 Degree Corner Klamp.  The issue with the original Kreg Klamp is that it required the woodworker to use one of the existing holes to secure the stock together.  While this may not sound like a big deal, consider the time it takes to insert the original clamp and then unclamp it, now multiple that by the number of joints you need to connect. It could become a significant time factor.  I have tried both clamp(s), both take some time to install and then remove; neither is really easy to use.  Another potential issue is when used on soft woods, this is from the salesman; the hole can be deformed by the clamp. Since he didn’t have any softwood handy, I can’t verify this problem is really a problem.

One problem that he and I talked about that we did agree on was that with neither the Rockler clamp nor the Kreg right angle clamp do much to keep the joint aligned.  In fact with the Kreg right Angle clamp, the joint twisted as I tightened the clamp.  Because of the size of the face(s) on the new Kreg 90 degree corner Klamp, this problem is diminished. Another feature of the new Kreg 90 degree Corner clamp is that is can be used with other forms of joinery. As seen in the picture above, there is access to the end of joint for tools such as a drill.

So how impressed was I to the new Kreg 90 Degree Corner Klamp, well I took one home with me.  It now is part of my ever growing collection of Kreg tools.

For more information on or to purchase any of the products discussed in this post, please click on the highlighted links and images in the post.