Good online store for affordable woodworking tools?

[rwkeating]

Speaking of drawing lines, I personally never got into using marking knives. I have a couple somewhere in the drawers, but I never liked scratching lines in the wood. They are hard to see, and you can't erase them. I use fine 0.5mm and 0.7mm mechanical pencils ...

Hmm. I am not questioning your advice @Bruce Johnson, but in order to get this idea out of my head this might just have to be a live and learn experience for me. That's even more reason to spend little money on a marking knife.

My idea is mainly using it for marking fret slots. I use a plastic LMI fret template to mark a point on the board for each fret. Then I use a right angle metal square to mark the full line of the fret slot. In the past I've used an awl to mark that line and I thought it would be more exact to use a marking knife. I then slowly widen that line until I can get the fretsaw in it. I don't trust myself to just start sawing on a pencil drawn line (I don't have a fret sawing miter box so I like to establish a groove to set the saw in.) I know that is not ideal, but by taking such "baby steps" I can eventually get good results. Yes, it does take forever

 

[mapleglo]

I'm reviving this thread to give a shout out to StewMac. There's been several comments about how they are overpriced, but I just had a wonderful customer service experience with them, which I'd like to share.

At some point last year, I purchased a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. It was $57.70, which may be a bit much for this type of tool that's made in China. But it features a selectable readout, switchable between millimeters and inches, and the inches can be switched between fractions and decimals. I found it quite useful.

Over the last few weeks, I noticed that the display was starting to fade, until last week, it wouldn't turn on at all. A replacement battery was supplied, so I swapped it. No change - it still wouldn't power up. I happen to have had a small number of Duracell batteries of the same size, so I tried one of those. Still no function. Pretty frustrating.

This experience made me angry enough to go on the StewMac website, and leave a one-star review for the caliper. One year of service is pretty poor durability for a $57 tool. Well, StewMac responded to the review, and told me to call them for a replacement. So I did.

They sent a replacement, free of charge (no shipping either!), and told me I didn't have to even send them the defective unit. Well, it arrived today.

So while their prices may be a bit high, it appears they use that larger profit margin to provide exceptional customer service. I don't mind paying a bit more, with the knowledge that they stand behind their product.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Stewmac definitely gives great customer service. They've shipped me a lot of replacments over the years with no questions and no fuss.