Although my MHLF accessory for the CRB7 arrived about a week and a half ago, I didn't get to do much more than look at it when it first arrived. So Wednesday I had a few hours in the shop and decided to learn more about the MHLF and make certain that it was ready to use..
The first thing that I noticed was that there were only two long and two short flat head screws included in the MHLF package. I quickly also discovered that since my CRB7 was a Mark 2 model, that two needed holes were missing from the plastic base of my CRB7, but instructions were included in the MHLF package that showed the location and size of the holes that were needed, so I drilled and countersunk these holes quite easily. The two short M4 .7 flat head screws that came with the MHLF were then used to attach it through these two new holes. It was then that I discovered that the holes in the MHLF were only threaded about three threads deep, so the provided screws bottomed out way before the heads of the screws reached their proper positions. I wouldn't want it attached with only three threads anyway.
A quick check with a piece of wire showed that the holes in the MHLF were plenty deep, just not threaded deep enough. I also figured out that the other two provided screws were intended for attaching sacrificial wood strips to the side fences of the MHLF, but I would need four screws to attach the sacrificial boards to both fences, and they had only provided two of these with the MHLF.
None of this is a real surprise to me, because this is not the first time that I have bought English made tooling with untapped or only partially tapped holes and missing metric hardware, but in my more immediate part of this World it's sometimes difficult to find the right Imperial hardware, much less Metric.
So off I went in search of an M4 .7 tap and long flat head screws. Lowes had the needed flat head M4 .7 bolts, but they weren't truly flat heads, more like slightly round tops on flat heads, but I bought them anyway, and they didn't offer any taps inImperial or Metric. Fnding the M4 .7 tap took me the rest of the afternoon, and five more stops before I finally found a Chinese made M4 .7 tap for just under $5. So that used up most of the rest of my available Wednesday afternoon and almost 60 miles wear on my truck, but I did manage to spend a few hours in the shop yesterday afternoon threading and fitting all of the MHLF parts together and getting it attached to my CRB7 OK. I even made and fitted some 1/2" Baltic Birch sacrificial strips to the side fences of the MHLF, but I had to run the same tap through every one of the brass inserts in the MHLF to clean out the burrs before the M4 .7 bolts would screw in all the way. So my CRB7 and my MHLF are now finally together and complete with the shop made sacrificial fence pieces attached, but I ran out of time yesterday, and expect to have no shop time today, so it's still waiting for me to try it out.
I hope that the rest of you who buy the MHLF accessory for your CRB7 have better luck than I had. It seems like a useful tool, once it fits the CRB7. I'll get to try it out some day soon.
Still fuming a bit yesterday afternoon about the need for me to have to spend much of my Wednesday afternoon looking for the Metric tap that I needed, I went on Amazon and bought a 76 piece Imperial / Metric American Made Irwin Hanson tap and die set, which showed up today via FedEx during my lunch. So hopefully, this tap and die sourcing problem that I had should never happen to me again. I hate Chinese made cutting tools, but that was all that I could find locally. Having lived here for 34 years I should have done this years ago. I'm also about to buy an assortment of Metric nuts and bolts "to have on hand" for the next time.
Charley
