Do tool engineers & designers ever bother to try and USE the tools they build?

Armitage

Banned
Feb 23, 2001
8,086
0
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I bought one of these to help finish off a hardwood staircase I'm building: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-MS10...bbs_9/002-8366651-5696814?ie=UTF8&s=hi

Yes, it's a black & decker against my better judgement, but I've heard some decent things about it. And so far it does work pretty well except for two stupid, completely avoidable design flaws.

1. The pad that holds the paper isn't tapered back hard enough, and is made out of a black plastic that rubs off and mars adjacent surfaces if you get it to close. I've trimmed it back a bit with a utility knife, but would it be so difficult to pick a better material that didn't leave black marks on everything???

2. You can reverse the iron shaped sanding pad so the square part is forward. They even show it on the box like that for getting into corners. And I bet it works great if the corner you're getting into isn't more then about an inch high. But trying to get it into a higher corner, and the front of the case sticks out about 1/4" to far. Idiots. I may try taking a dremel to the front of the case if I can figure out that there isn't anything important behind that.
 

Kadarin

Lifer
Nov 23, 2001
44,296
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Originally posted by: OrganizedChaos
looks like something designed by a women.

"but won't it be cuter if we shape it like this?"

There might be some merit to your observation, given that it looks somewhat like an iron... ;)