No, this level wasn’t a victim of jobsite rage.  Checkpoint designed it to check 0°, 22.5°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° angles — the U shape is just a byproduct of its function.  While they were at it they made the U6 in two varieties:  the U6 Flat for flat surfaces and the U6 V-Groove for tubing or conduit.

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Checkpoint packs a hell of a lot of measuring into their EV600 Square — it’s a combination square, torpedo level, and laser level, plus a bunch of well-thought-out features, all in one small package.

Checkpoint CNC-machines the EV600 Square from aluminum alloy 6061, laser-engraves all the markings, and anodizes it in four different colors: Brilliant Red, Royal Blue, Black, and Platinum.  They use acrylic vials with 45 minutes of angle sensitivity and a 650nm Class III laser diode that’s aligned to within a 1/4″ at 100 feet.

The rule stows inside the level and can be configured as an offset or flush square at a fixed 45°, a fixed 90°, or an adjustable angle.  A threaded aperture adapts all Checkpoint lenses and accessory attachments to the tool, plus the unit has a standard 1/4″ thread for use with standard camera tripods.

The EV600 Square runs for 10-20 hours continuously on two AAA batteries, and the laser diode will last an average of 10,000 hours.

Although the EV600 Square retails for $60 you can find it for $40 at Rockler.

EV600 Square [Checkpoint]
EV600 Square [Rockler]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Recently Kreg introduced this quick-change bit set for use with its pocket screw jigs. Personally I’ve never understood why these quick-change kits are so popular, especially with key-less chucks becoming so commonplace, but if you’re a fan, now you can quickly switch between drilling pocket holes to screwing boards together.

Kreg gives both the drill bit and the driver 3/8″ hex shanks that snap into their quick-change chuck.  One supposed advantage of the hex-shanked drill bit is that it won’t slip like a round-shanked bit can — but is slippage really a problem in this size bit with modern chucks?

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Whether you don’t want to spend the $100+ for a downdraft table from the store or you want to build a custom downdraft table right into your new bench, Rockler’s new solid-steel downdraft table panels are an easy way to start building your own.

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The selection of engineered building materials available to contractors and the general public gets bigger and better every year — there’s melamine, plywood, Baltic birch plywood, chipboard, MDO, MDF, particle board, phenolic, and more.  One of the relative newcomers, phenolic-faced plywood looks to be a good combination of stability, strength, and water resistance.

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Unless you like flirting with danger, you probably don’t want to rip thin strips against your table saw fence. The correct way is to cut the strips on the opposite side of the blade, leaving the meat of the wood between the fence and the blade, but doing it this way you have to recalculate the distance between the blade and the fence after each cut.

Rockler’s thin-rip tablesaw jig makes the job easier — each time you make a new cut the jig remains stationary, defining the thickness of the strip, but the wood and the fence move to butt up against the jig.

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Recently Rockler introduced a set of acrylic radius gauges.  This set of six gauges can be used for reference while turning, checking the radius when you’re rounding edges, measuring moldings you want to duplicate, or any other task that requires precisely radiused curves.

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The Gauge-It lets you easily and accurately measure blade height and angle on your table saw.  It compensates for blade teeth to give you accurate measurements, and the spring-loaded armature moves with your blade, indicating the exact angle.

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I’m not yet an expert on veneer, but I plan on becoming one. Good hardwood veneer can make even a cheap project look great — and provides access to woods I could never afford whole. (Lacewood desk, anyone?) But I’m a little scared of the old-school hammer/animal glue method. I’m thinking of going with more modern adhesives and something like this veneer smoothing blade from Rockler.

With a 9-inch hard-maple handle and a flexible plexi blade, it looks like just the thing to push down those difficult edges. But I’d love to hear from other Toolmongers with more experience. Is this $14 tool (and method) the way to go?

Veneer Smoothing Blade [Rockler]

Create fine dovetail joinery on your small box projects with Rockler’s miniature dovetail template.  This 3/8″-thick template mounts on Rockler’s own dovetail jig and allows you to create 1/4″ through-dovetails with either 1/2″ or 5/8″ spacing.  The template will work on panels up to 5-1/2″ wide and on stock from 1/8″ to 1/4″ thick.

Rockler includes the template, template guide, 1/4″ dovetail bit, 1/8″ straight bit, and a 1/4″ to 1/8″ collet reducer in their $60 kit.  To fit through the template guide, the included bits have 1/8″ shanks, which is why they include the collet reducer.  Of course, you need to already own the Rockler dovetail jig to use this kit.

Mini Dovetail Template [Rockler]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

With a clamping edge guide, making straight cuts with your circular saw has never been easier, but most clamping edge guides only let you make right-angle cuts.  The large rubber clamping pads on the Bora Clamp N Cut edge guide swivel 22.5° in either direction, letting you clamp it at an angle across the workpiece.

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We’ve seen self-centering bits around for awhile, but we wonder if it’s worth buying yet another set of drill bits.  Manufacturers and retailers claim the bits ensure accurate hinge and hardware installation.

Made by Insty-Bit for Rockler to fit the hex-drive Insty-Drive system, this particular three-piece set allows you to drill holes for #4, #6, and #8 screws.  The drill guide sits in the hardware’s screw-hole countersinks and aligns the bit for perfectly centered holes.

Insty-Bit makes these bits in the USA using precision-ground, high-speed steel.  Rockler and Amazon are currently discounting this three-piece to $13.  A heavy-duty nylon pouch to store the bits is included.

So, is it really that hard to drill a centered hole, or are self-centering bits the difference between fine furniture and something that looks like it was built in your garage?  Let us know in the comments.

Self-Centering Bits [Insty-Bit]
Self-Centering Bits [Rockler]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Why should J-rollers get all the fun?  Although it looks like a toy race car, the SpeedRoller Pro from FastCap fits comfortably in your hand to roll on laminates with pressure-sensitive adhesives, such as edge-banding or veneers.

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Rockler must be clearing their stock of Quick-Grip clamps to make room for the new generation.  You can get a 12″ Quick-Grip clamp or a pair of 6″ Quick-Grip clamps for $10.

The sale goes through October 18, 2008, or as long as Rockler’s supplies last.  Their online outlet will definitely honor the deal, but we’re not sure if the sale is happening at the brick-and-mortar stores.

6″ Quick-Grip Two-Pack [Rockler]
12″ Quick-Grip [Rockler]
6″ Street Pricing [Google Products]
12″ Street Pricing [Google Products]

Attach the Hold Fast vacuum chuck to your lathe and it’ll securely hold your turnings without marring the surface, so you can spend more time turning instead of chucking and removing workpieces.

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Though there’s no information on Irwin’s website yet, Rockler has started advertising Irwin’s new SL300 Quick-Grip clamps.  The new swiveling-jaw design gives you an improved grip on surfaces that aren’t parallel and compensates for the flexing of the clamp itself.

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So you think you can make your own wooden train tracks for cheaper than buying them. Well, unless you plan to make a few sets you’re probably wrong. Still, that’s no reason not to do it yourself. You can create custom track pieces or build a track that fills a whole room — your toddler would be the envy of every kid on the block.

To make wooden track out of the recommended white birch, maple, or European beech you need three different bits. One bit makes the female connector with a single pass, another makes the male connector in two passes, and the third makes the tracks themselves. The single-track bit works well for both straight and curved tracks, but if you want to spit out straight tracks in one pass, you want the dual-track bit.

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