[gideon]

This is what a company standing behind their products does:

I complained about a drill guide I bought a few weeks ago and wrote a review on the website.


I was contacted by their products group manager and we had a long talk about this guide and whats wrong with it. He set it up with my configuration and ran some tests, found that what I said in my review was dead on accurate.

I told him that I intend to keep the tool as I still need it for accurate boring at angles.

He thanked me for my time, the review and not chewing them apart.

They just credited me the full amount for the tool and let me know that they are considering my recommendations in a re-design.

Cheers to woodcraft.com

This is the guide:

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2003121/11022/Precision-Drill-Guide.aspx

 

[gideon]

this is the review:

By Gideon from Philadelphia PA on 9/24/2013
Your Rating: 1 stars
Headline: Disappointing.

Cons : Poor Quality, Flimsy Construction
Best Uses : Small Projects
Describe Yourself : Professional
Primary use : Business

This guide is not stable in any way. It twists under downward motion which shifts the position of the exit hole causing ill fitting joins. I now need to do considerable tuning to get my splayed legs to fit in their sockets properly.

Additionally, the lock screws will fall out during operation. After each use, I have to search the floor for them.

Not good for narrower stock.

Very disappointing. No way this was worth the price but the construction is better than general tools versions. Even then, this is simply price gouging.

 

[Phaedrus]

Wow, that is impressive and great to see. The refund was the decent thing to do--but caring enough to really examine your specific problem, replicating it, and having a real conversation with you about it is remarkable anymore. Thanks for passing on your good experience.

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX using Woodworking Talk

 

[4DThinker]

That jig looks just like my Portalign drill guide that I bought 20+ years ago and still have mounted to a black and decker drill. Looks like Woodcraft simply copied the design rather than engineered an improved version of it, and theirs suffers the same flaws my original has.

 

[ryan50hrl]

The craftsman and wolfcraft ones suffer from the same issue. I really wish I still had access to a mill so I could make my own...the concept is great....but the quality of materials and machining is what is killing all the current ones on the market.

 

[gideon]

I told them their guide is like General Tools approach to making tools:

Take a great idea and make it just cheap enough to not piss too many people off instead of charging a bit more and wind up with a tool that will provide real value.

Also said that I'd be willing to pay 3 x the price of that POS for something that was properly engineered for my needs.

He asked what I thought it needed and I gave him a number of ideas - ones that any designer should have anticipated.

Any way, that guide is not worth the $53 bux. Absolutely not. They have to be paying less than $10 per piece for those, hence my gouging comment.

And, I bought one General Tools jig and I will never, evr, ever touch another of their tools ever again. If ever there was sh!t quality out there its them.

 

[nbo10]

Gideon,
Did you ever get this guide to work well?

I just picked on up and it does not drill plum in the direction of the turn knobs. :furious: On a large surface I can shim one side to get it plumb, but that doesn't exactly work on thin stock.

 

[gideon]

Gideon,
Did you ever get this guide to work well?

I just picked on up and it does not drill plum in the direction of the turn knobs. :furious: On a large surface I can shim one side to get it plumb, but that doesn't exactly work on thin stock.

Nope. You cant get this to work right no matter what you do. When I use it, it's with the understanding that I'm going to be filing and chiseling my tenon and mortise to get the right fit.

But, for me, it's the only way I can line up an accurate angle for my splayed legs. It's really frustrating.

I took a look at the review section for that guide and saw that they didn't post my review. That's pretty crappy. Wonder how more people they've refunded.