2018 - Year of the Dog... 2019 - Year of the Pig!

Well, it's officially 2019, and according to the Chinese calendar, it's the Year of the Pig. 

I'll need to do a little reading to understand how that will affect everything in the woodshop this coming year, but according to The Chinese Zodiak.org - here's what to expect:

According to the chinese astrology , 2019 is a great year to make money, and a good year to invest! 2019 is going to be full of joy, a year of friendship and love for all the zodiac signs; an auspicious year because the Pig attracts success in all the spheres of life.

Did you know that 2018 was the Year of the Dog?  

That made me think of the dogs of 2018 - the products I bought or used that were worthless. I have a few... here are the top three.

These Flexilla Blow Guns  were particularly frustrating. 

Lest you think I'm just down on Flexzilla, know that I LOVE these Flexzilla air hoses

- they coil effortlessly, so I figured their blow guns would be great, too.  

I even ordered two of them! 

After I unwrapped them and hooked them up the various hoses around the shop, the seal on one instantly failed, perpetually leaking air. Yes, Flexzilla replaced it almost immediately, but the replacement isn't much better, leaking with reckless abandon. 

What's even worse - admittedly, these guns get a lot of use, but the hook on the top of both of them broke off in the first week or two. We hang these on pegs around the shop, so this is beyond irksome. 

My solution was to buy two blowguns from Snap-On and put these two in a drawer, for emergencies. What a shame... my opinion? Don't waste your money on these. 

My next Dog of the Year are these Bessey clamps. Admittedly - these are actually a few years old, but Bessey sent me some bar clamp fixtures to test, and we put them through the wringer. If any tool manufacturer wants a true test of their  product, they should send them our way.  

We give everything a good workout at my shop!

After adding the pipe to these, we put them in rotation, only to experience failure after failure - cracks in the metal, 

as well as another weird thing... these clamps tended to shear off the threads of the pipe. Not just once, but over and over!

It would start innocently, by pulling out of parallel from the front pad. 

By the time we realized what was happening, there were probably a dozen clamps that had broken, by ripping off the threaded end.

 We have a cart full of pipe with broken threads, 

which is a reminder to me every time I walk past it  - don't waste your money on Bessey clamps. 

I've reached out to the people at Bessey who sent these to me, to no avail. Never heard back from anyone. So on one hand, I'm thrilled to be a part of their testing team, but on the other hand - we're frustrated. WTF, Bessey?

My final dog of 2018 is Powermatic, which bills itself as "The Gold Standard" of tools. 

Last Spring, my Delta 6x48 sander died, and since I needed it for a class that very night, I called local supplier and bought the Powermatic equivalent, sight unseen. If I'd have had a bit more time, I would have checked out the options before choosing this one. 

Where do I start... from the plastic parts that randomly broke, 

to the (almost instantly) flaking paint,

 to the fact that the sanding area on this machine was much smaller than its Delta counterpart... well - this sander was a dud. I take full blame for this one, as I didn't perform my due diligence, but I did learn one thing - Powermatic isn't all that, in my book. 

Anyone else have anything they want to nominate for the 2018 year of the Dog?

Coming up next... the best products that I used 2018. Stay tuned!