Avenger Tools

A New Company With High Quality Products
That The Common Boatbuilder Can Afford

How many times have you looked at the new hi-tech blades in your local tool store and wished you could afford the newest additions to a company's super blade lines. Even the Dados that are out today are far beyond the reach of most everyday Joes who own a table saw with a small router table and some hand tools. I know. It has taken half of my life and some sacrifice to outfit my wood boatshop. Some of the Dados that companies sell cost more than the table saw that our average Joe has purchased in his price range.

Lets face the facts, the saw blade that came with the table saw we just bought is an awful compromise. The saw maker wanted a cheap blade that could rip and cross cut with the lowest possible price. Boat making is making a well constructed cabinet that floats and sails. Boat building requires careful construction and joints that fit perfectly so no water gets inside of the boat. It takes saw blades that can make perfect cuts time after time. Stock blades have a four minute warranty or two 2”X4” crosscuts. Most Dados that can make the type of quality cuts needed in Boatbuilding will not cost $29.99!

I have found a solution for Mr. Average Joe! Avenger Tool Company has a line of blades, Dados and measuring tools that will make you jump for joy. The real proof is the pudding. The great crew at Avenger gave me some sample to test that I could not believe. The first blades I tested were a set that Avenger has custom made to the highest standards for ten and twelve inch saws. This custom 10” set has a ripping blade, an ultra smooth crosscut blade and a superb combination blade. All of these are placed in a great wood carrying case and protected with foam spacers.

I tried all of these blades and they were what the crew at Avenger told me about them. A custom quality set that ripped, crosscut and if you must have a combination blade cut as smooth as possible. In my tests I used hard and soft wood and closely checked every cut to make sure the blades left the best possible surface. They performed at and above some premium blades that cost nearly a hundred dollars each. Yet the Avenger blades cost only a fraction for the three blade set! The set includes a 10” X 80T Miter saw blade that can be used on your 10” table saw and a 10” X 24T cross cut blade that works very, very well and finally if you are so busy you can’t change blades a 10” X 50T crosscut blade. Prices vary from supplier to supplier but in their nice wooden storage box they are the best working least expensive blade set you can buy.

Dado’s

I tested their lowest cost dado and their premium six and eight inch sets. Their width adjustable wobble dado will work on those inexpensive table top table saws that are sold so frequently for near one hundred dollars. Their shaft lengths prohibit the use of a staked dado set so if you're tired of being left in the cold if you own one of these inexpensive machines Avenger has the fix. It even comes with a shaft extension that should fit most of the inexpensive brands of saws.

To the uninitiated, a wobble dado is loud, vibrates and the sides and bottoms of the cuts are rough, but if you plan on using epoxy and screws to hold the joints together they will work just fine. These are not meant for building custom interior work on a cabin. If you plan on building a boat with a cabin that could have cabinets please invest in a better saw system. For the first time boat builder that has to shave corners to get his boat done with a small cash outlay this dado from Avenger is a good choice.

Avengers high end dado’s are inexpensive but work very well. I was very surprised at the smoothness of the cuts on the three table saws I use. I tested them on a Ryobi 3100 a Ridgid TS 3650 table saw and an old Delta ten inch saw. The Avenger 10” X 42T stacked dado set even fit the Ryobi BT3100 saw that others told me it would not work on. The Avenger stacked dado set must be adjusted by using thin metal plated between the stacked sets but you can adjust it from 1/8” all the way to ¾” and above with ultra smooth side walls and bottoms in the dado cuts.

The same holds true for their premium 6” dado set that’s a little less expensive but still yields the same superb results at a fraction of the cost of high end dado sets (without mentioning brand names) that sell for over two hundred dollars and may give an only very slight improvement in smoothness of the cut. In my opinion it's not enough to suffer the added strain on the pocket book unless you value product names over performance.

So my friends out there who read my scribbling, you can have quality cuts from your saws without breaking the bank. These blades and dados will help you build better seaworthy craft in your own shop. The less you spend on tools the more money you can invest in high quality fittings, wood and epoxy to make better boats. From reading through Duckworks some of you have built some very nice craft. The more people who build their boats at home the more the tool companies will take our hobby seriously so I urge all those sitting on the fence to get in there and build a boat even if it is small and your first.

Now what do you do if you have a piece of metal to cut and you don’t have a cutting torch or plasma cutter like the high end shipwrights do? Avenger even makes a line of metal cutting blades but be warned you must wear heavy clothing or even a set of leathers like welders have because the chips from the metal cutting blades will burn little scars everywhere they touch your body and do not wear nylon clothes or jackets because the metal chips will sink right trough that material and still hit your skin. Wear a hat and face shield with your safety glasses also. The metal blades are meant for good quality saws that have better bearings because it does let your saw take a lot of punishment. My only wish is that Avenger would start making carbide tipped band saw blades or any band saw blades. Then they would cover a full spectrum of quality wood and metal shop products for the average boat builder.

I almost forgot to mention one of their best products that will turn your older miter saw into a state of the art laser tool. Avenger has an add on laser guides for even DeWalt saws. Now you can have single or even double line laser guides for the fraction of the price a new saw would cost you. So step up to the twenty-first century with a laser tool that will make your radial arm saw, drill or miter saw a laser guided accurate tool. It does not get any better than this.

They also have dial indicators, calipers and almost every type of high quality measuring tool you might need. These are not Harbor Freight specials that are made for $.05 in China. These are tools that can mean the difference between your boat having no lee helm or having so much because one rail is two inches higher than the other that you have to sit in the way of the tiller to keep it from wearing out the muscles in your arm. You can’t skimp on measuring tools if your boat is costing you a grand in materials alone. Make sure you build it right and make sure every angle is perfect the first time. Avenger has many tools to help you so look over their line of quality tools.

From Johns Tool Crib and moaning chair

John