Product Test - Emile Henry Bred Cloche

I love bread and was really excited to test the Emile Henry Bread Cloche.  The unit met all expectations and promises.

Initial impressions:  Upon unpacking the I was immediately impressed by the finish on the unit.  The exterior of the cover and the upper surface of the plate has an extremely smooth semi-gloss finish on it.  Mine is a beautiful black and I'm sure the red is equally attractive.  The finish feels like a quality finish.  It is smooth but not slippery.

First use:  I chose to use a recipe I was familiar with instead of one of the nice selection of recipes that came with the cloche.  The recipe was intended to make two loaves so I baked one in the cloche and one in the open oven per the directions.

I shared both loaves with our dinner guests and asked their opinion on the differences telling them only that I used two different baking methods.  The loaf from the cloche won hands down.  My guests felt the loaf had a more pleasing crust, a nicer texture, and better flavor.

Clean up was easy though I do have questions for the manufacture regarding care of the unit.  The inside of the cover is not sealed and I wonder about getting it wet or getting soap on it.

The plate is grooved and I found, per the instructions that came with the cloche, that a light coating of flour was sufficient to eliminate sticking.  I was able to wipe off the bulk of the flour with a dry paper towel and removed the remainder with a damp rag.

With a 10 year manufacturers warranty I can look forward to may years of amazing bread.  The homemade bread I used to make and love just got way better.

Product Test - WeatherSmart Pro

The WeatherSmartPro is part weather station and part sprinkler system controller.  The two components work nicely together to manage the amount of water delivered to your landscaping.

The weather station component is a wireless remote that provides temperature and rain amount information to the controller.  It comes with a sturdy aluminum bracket and mounting screws.  The bracket is designed such that it can be mounted in most any position you need.

The controller is well designed and consists of two pieces.  The controller and the base.  The base gets mounted to your wall and holds the connections to the power source and valves.  The controller slides on and off the base and has a battery backup.  This means you can take it to your easy chair to do the programming.

Programming is highly flexible and easy.  For starters, the controller can handle 6 circuits.  Add to that a ton of flexibility in when it cycles.  You have multiple start times with options to water on odd or even numbered days, every day, or selected days of the week.

Then there's one of the best features.  The controller uses the temperature and rain amount information from the wireless remote to adjust the amount of water delivered.  This provides easy and automatic water conservation.  As I think back to when I lived in California, this would have meant I didn't need to reprogram the controller between winter and summer.

The documentation for the system is well written being clear, accurate, and well organized.  About all you will need it for is the steps to establish the communications between the controller and the remote.  It's not that it's hard.  It's just easy to get excited and do things in the wrong order.  Programming the controller is intuitive and quick.

All in all, this is a great product that I would highly recommend.  And hey, the box came with labels that said it was next to nothing or free for some areas.  I don't think you can go wrong.

Shop Organization Projects

My shop cabinets have been on hold because there just hasn't been room to work.  With the addition of the longer table saw fence and the lathe, storage for the cabinet wood materials became a must.  A place for sheet goods and sticks has been in the plans since the early shop layout plans so it really just became time to build them.

Like my cabinets, I started by building what was in my head in SketchUp.  Below is the wall mounted stick storage drawing.

The arms are some left over 1/2 inch plywood.  The remainder is 2x4s.

Here is the finished product.

The sheet goods rack is 2x4 and 2x6 materials.  The three racks aren't attached to each other or the wall so when I don't have any sheet goods in the shop I can move them out of the way retask the wall space.  I think they would even work away from the wall.

New in the shop

It's here.  My new Jet 1642 lathe that is.

The lathe has a 16 inch capacity over the bed and much larger when the head is pushed to the other end bed and you turn off the end.  At 2HP it has the power to spin it too.
Manufacturer's website
Woodcraft website

My initial impressions of the machine are very good.  The machine arrived without a mark on it thanks to my friends at Woodcraft in New Berlin.  At 440 pounds that can't be easy to do.

Getting it into the shop was loads of fun and took five people.  More on that when I get the pictures.  I need to thank Steve, Travis, Thomas, and Grace for taking a night out of their schedule to help me.  Also Barb for grabbing an baking pizzas for the lot of us.

The head stock has some great features.  A spindle lock and index, digital readout, reverse, and speed control are all in easy reach.  The power source for the machine is 220V single phase but it has a built in inverter that converts it to three phase.  According to the manufacturer that makes for smoother speed control throughout the range.  One thing I know, this thing is quiet.  No vibration, no noise.

Next up is spring cleaning and some racks to hold my supply of wood.

Shop Upgrade

This was a great weekend.

Arriving in the shop yesterday was the Saw Stop 52" fence and extension table.

The table and fence system was easy to install on my older Craftsman contractor style saw.  I was able to get it at my local Woodcraft.

I have to admit I was very impressed with the quality of the documentation.   I wasn't sure what to expect but the documentation is well written and presented well.  While I don't have immediate plans to replace the table saw, I will certainly consider the Saw Stop based on my experience with this component.

Wait until you see what's next.  It's on order but I don't have a delivery date yet.  Here's a hint:  "It will sure turn your head."

RoboReel Power System

I was recently selected to test the RoboReel Power System (portable version) through my membership in the Handyman Club of America.   Below is the results of my testing.

 The RoboReel is a cord reel with motorized retraction and several safety features.  It is replacing multiple extension cords in my shop.  The 50 foot, 12 guage cord has a 15 amp limit with a circuit breaker built into the wall plug. The unit is relatively heavy at about 20 pounds but in combination with the anti-slip feet on the frame, it doesn't slide around when you pull out the cord.  Just how easy does the cord pull out?  I set the unit on a piece of cardboard on my smooth cement floor.  Even on the cardboard, the unit didn't budge.

The business end of the cord has 3 receptacles.  Nothing unusual there right?  But there are other features there as well.  There are three LED lights to indicate whether or not the power is on. When fully retracted, there is no power to the receptacles.  As you pull out the cord, power is turned on when the cord is extended about 18 inches.

In the center of the receptacle ball is a dual-function button.  Pressing the button once turns the receptacle power off.  Pressing the button again retracts the cord.  With the power off, pressing and holding the button turns the receptacle power back on.  A button on the top of the base dome provides the same functions as the button on the receptacle ball.

The retraction is a two speed process.  Initially the cord is retracted at high speed.  At a user programmable point, the retraction switches to low speed to keep the receptacle ball from whipping around.

The RoboReel base unit has some nice features of it's own.  I've already mentioned the non-slip feet, the power/retraction button on the top, the easy deployment, and the 15A breaker.  It also has a 360 degree rotation feature that is very nice.  While this feature will see limited use in the units current location in my shop, it will be highly useful once my shop is complete and it has a more permanent home.









The rotation is very easy as is illustrated with the next video.

The RoboReel has some nice safety features as well.  Beside the circuit breaker in the wall plug, there is also over temperature protection with audible alerts.

The manufacturer also offers a wall mount for the portable version of the RoboReel as well as a ceiling mounted version.  The portable version lists at $279 with the ceiling mounted version $20 more.

There is only one thing I would change about this product and it really isn't part of the product itself.  I wish the wall mount was included and not sold as an accessory.  Other than that, this is a great addition to my shop and I'm glad I have it.

Cabinet progress

I finally got back to working on the cabinets for my shop.  The assembly of the carcass for the test cabinet is mostly complete and the final coat of finish has been applied.

On to the doors and drawers.

Daughter-Father Project

We had the pleasure of having Kymberlee, David, and the three kids with us for the holidays.  Kymberlee had this idea for a wall hanging so we headed out to the shop for the evening.

After a couple hours of sawing, resawing, jointing, planning, sanding, and finishing the project is complete. They started out as oak and walnut logs from our woods.  After processing the wood we put a couple coats of poly on them.  Then the words were applied with a paint pen then a couple more coats of poly.

It is so much fun to share my shop with someone.  I can wait until the grand kids are old enough.