I am please you have used them..
On the replacements out of OVER 14000 units in the EU (where
I represent the HOLD & FOLD) I have replaced 4 bases and 6 tool
heads in 4 years....that is good for me. Never a quibble and never a
problem. And I think even you would say that's a fantastic
record. As for movement, without a grove, who cares ?? You
fold the metal against the
edge of the tool head
NOT the base. In truth, if it were not for the unique need for us
modellers to use the outside edges of our folding tools, there would be
no need for giude dowels either, the base is just to leaver against.
Unless you stick on a grove, I cover why we do not below.
All PE alinemend and presure/folding lines are to/against the
head
edges and those forces we know need to be horizontal. If they are you
can have finer edges and thus tighter folds. We TOTALLY dispute that
the grove gives tighter folds. This has been dis-proved many times.
Please correct your pricipels of metal folding here.
The BUG was launched at LAST years Trucks&Tracks show, you have
seen the old 2inch MICRO ?, which is not the same as the BUG and is an
old design , as old as the 4 inch, the EM came out just after the old
"extended-head" design. Please get your facts correct on
our products..
The BUG is a massive improvement with major a
redesign to the way it works, shape and rotating head and other features. A totally new tool.
The 4 inch tool was
replaced at the beginning of THIS year by the 5-Speed, a TWIN clamp tool...again
the biggest improvement is the head design...so please compare like with
like.
An upgraded 4 inch tool is still made in the USA, basicly thinner edges
and a rotating head unit that gets rid of the need to remove the head
from the base to use the long egde on the inside. Esp usefull for the
ship guys with thier mad masts !! :)
On the
folding grove, as your friend is an engineer
he should be able to follow the basic principles of his profession.
Folding metal with "bending breaks" is an art in itself which goes back
many many many years. The Hold & Fold and all the clones out there
are all following that orginal principal.
Pete Forrest (USA) the H&F "inventor", has stated this many times. Remember nothing is new, not even in modelling :).
The
reason we do not and never will apply a grove is as below.
The basics are as old as sheet metal itself. As is the design basics of
all folding tools on the market. Ever wondered why all the other tools
have not coppied the grove ??. Sure it works for light etch, but try it
on heavey railroad etch and you will understand. The basics tell us
that it is horizontal pressure that folds tigntly, not leaverage.
from
here
http://www.precipice.co.uk/article1.html
We also belive that the folding grove limmits the design function. You
cannot move the tool head back to widen the working bed. There are 4
positions on the hold and fold, two on clone designs.
Note this review was based on
the old 8 inch twin clamp, the twin clamp design was used for the New 5-Speed, however ALL
tools now have the new micro edges for even tighter folds and better stress
transfer as well..
ALL single clamp tools are "weak at the edge", There is a
massive drop off in the clamp force with
any single clamp tool at the
outer edges. This is physics and cannot be improved on without extra down force
which would damage the tool by bending. Also fingers could nor tighten it that
much. We have moved to twin clamps for these reasons.
The twin clamp
tools work better in the hand as well, you hold it with your fingers between
the clamps and operate the sprung head with you thumb...dead easy . Both the 4
inch H&F and the "other" single clamp (4 to 6inch wide tools) have clamps
screws in the centre which makes hand holding less easy than the twin clamp
design. You cannot get around that either, so we did the twin design.
ALL
single clamp tools suffer from the head plate guide dowels blocking larger parts
from passing between these. Hence twin clamps and no screw or dowels in the
way. A Big + for 1/16th Aber Tiger sets and other large scale stuff. As well
as Ship rails and masts, railway etc. etc.
We believe this is a basic
formula, we regard it as such. MM do it their way, we do it ours.
All tools made in the UK(EU) have etch bending beams, some have the new
pre formers as well ( 5-Spped and 8 inch MkRv2). These to do Aber
German clamps, Head Lamp guards ect. These features are NOT found on
ANY other tools on the market today and are another inovation found on
our tools. Again the Small Shop invents, again I am sure others will
follow and we will need to make better tools all over again :)
That said without the "clones" we would not of been drive to
improve...so bring it on :)
On the
ME thing
Basically most of us that are on this site know
1, what you sell & 2 who you are.
I do NOT hide who I
am , as you say all the members know me, please do not even infer what you are
trying to infer.
Hope this covers the reasons we design the way we do and
is informative to the other members.
BTW, I think you know, I am personal
friend with the guy at WW2MM, I do not refer people on this forum to another
forum. I generally refer to the PMMS site which is run by the most respected of
reviews. Mr Terry Ashley. I remind you that ALL tools are covered there and in
some depth.
PMMS site
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/misc/tools.htm
Choice is choice, info is info, let the buyer choose based on
full info and not massive marketing and massive adverts alone :)...BUT remember,
the world IS FULL of Hold & Fold clones, we just improve them more often
than the others.
All the best, and if your at the IPMS Nats, come over
and see the new tools, you will be most welcome, honestly, we are modellers
after all.
Alasdair
Small Shop EU
(On this post as its about our
products)....normally Ali1kj....when I post models etc.