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“My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.” — Jack Nicholson
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It has taken longer than planned, but our new website is about 90% complete–it is up and running and being refined as I type. Please let us know if there are things you would like to see changed or improved–your feedback carries a surprising amount of weight with this Tool Potentate.
Over the past couple of months we have been in dialog with Jack Campbell at Gerstner USA regarding storage ideas for the growing family of HP-6 profiles.
Now is the time for users to chime in directly. Should it be wall mounted? Free standing? Ideas for expansion? These are but a few of the considerations that Jack needs to hear from our user community. Gerstner cases are indeed finely crafted, heirloom products. If you have an idea or two to share, it will help Jack narrow the design options. Ponder this for a while and drop Jack an email; jack@gerstnerusa.com
I love not being very bright (everything is new and fun this way) so imagine my surprise when I learned of “lock bumping”. Geez, I don’t know if I have ever seen something so ridiculously easy be so disturbing.
If you choose to research this further, keep in mind that this information has been circulating on the internet for a half-dozen years or so. In addition, the concept of lock bumping has been around for decades. An annoying voice inside my Forrest Gump brain tells me this is something that the fine folks of he Drivel Starved Nation would find interesting.
–John
Maybe this explains how my computer went missing from my office with no breakage of the door or windows…
He certainly explains things well. I’m betting that I’m going to wish I’d never seen that video. You know – when the police question me…
– Peter
Peter;
Just find out when Fred is going on vacation…
Did I just say that?
The sad irony here is that the more expensive lock sets are the easiest to violate this way.
John
John,
I actually have a book on lock bumping and while it is pretty easy, I do not think that I have ever heard of anyone actually using it. Wall mounted for me please. I need to think about the expansion capabilities.
Fred
John,
Interesting story; WIA was actually created as a way to get Fred out of his house so everyone could take his cool stuff, but it turned out so well that everyone stayed and forgot why they organized it! I had heard about the lock bumping, but never saw it demonstrated untl now. I just can’t see too many “jack booted” thugs going through the internet and doing the filing of the teeth when they can just break a window or kick in a door. Anyways, I keep all my best tools in a safe, mostly in case of fire, but should really slow down an amateur trying to get meth money!
I’m pretty excited about the case for the HP-6, I’ll get my ideas together and send an email. I’m liking the wall mount idea though.
-Rutager
John –
Like the new site design, but cannot log-in. I have yet to receive a reset password from the new site. I’ve tried it maybe six or eight times over the past week.
Can you check into if this is working or not?
neil
Neil-
Can you call Brenda today? Sounds like you really screwed things up!
-John
Yeah Neil you really screwed things up… 🙂 I made a couple of small purchases and my founder’s circle savings were a big fat 0 displayed in big bold green letters, LOL.
Jorge:
Not much I can do about your order today (Sunday) but will look into this first thing in the AM. It is not LOL to me.
– John
Not to worry John, I was going to e mail Monday and ask you to fix it, I know you guys will take care of this, I have had nothing but great service from you and your staff.
Hi all,
Hard to be safe any more….
It is really great to see the HP-6 family grow! I love this little plane. I do find myself using it for more than just “little boxes” though. I like the radius irons for softening corners – I have other tools which can do it, but this is a really easy and consistent way to do it. The problem I’m having is the diamond paste isn’t keeping up with the rate I am wearing down the iron. I was wondering if there is perhaps a more agressive compound which can be used to “catch up” when you are using the tools harder than “small project scale”? Once I get the edge back, I would go to the normal diamond paste to polish it up for the next job…
A while back you had a blog on this chest – I thought there were some really great ideas thrown out on that one. It seems the chest needs to be sectional though (to fit the most customers needs). I have 4 HP-6 / HP-6v2 bodies with the attachments for each and one full set of soles. I think a section for at least two planes + depth stop, rails, etc. would be good (you could get two sections of this if you have more), and also an arrangement for 4 soles / section since many of the soles come in “fours”. How to connect them? Not sure, but that surprise would make it “bridge city” quality. It would also be nice to have a small container for each sole set for the screws and allen wrenches, and a spot for spare irons. Someone also suggested a set up block on the lid. What would be great is to have one which would allow you to set the plane body on and quickly align irons like the round overs so that the guide rails could be quickly aligned with the profile of the sole. Just a few suggestions John.
Dennis
A security suggestion from a fellow worker when he was a college student at a major university and living off-campus in a hovel:
As he was leaving for class, the flimsy lock broke on the entrance door to his abode. Knowing he didn’t have time to fix it before he left, he penned this note and left it on the door:
Jim:
Sorry ’bout the snake getting loose. I tried to find him, but couldn’t and I know by the sound he is making he is hungry and that usually means a foul mood.
See ya in a little while.
John
Needless to say, his abode went untouched.
Cheers,
Wayne
Dennis,
There are different grits of diamond paste but we have not done testing on them all.
Good to see you back here!
-John