For Lucia Colombaro, customer care manager for Tonutti, "we love American subsidies." She explained that European farmers are benchtop subsidized "not to produce crops", and that is not good for European farm equipment manufacturers. In the U.S., she said farmers are subsidized to aid them in marketing crops and that affords a better market for Tonutti equipment.Italian farm equipment mini drill press is marketed in the u.s. through distributors, but many of the italian manufacturers also have u.s. or canadian warehouses and offices to provide quicker service and technical support.one of those is maschio/gaspardo, which recently opened a warehouse/technical press center in rock island, ill., according to vincenzo abate, benchtop corporate export area manager. from there, the company services seven distributors throughout the u.s., and it is looking for more distributors.

this drill press triumph notwithstanding, when teetering on press a stepladder, "the benchtop [slotted] screw wobbles, the screwdriver slips, the screw hand drill press falls press to the ground and rolls away, the handyman curses--not for benchtop the first time--the inventor of this maddening device."the savior, drill in this case, was peter l. robertson, a young canadian traveling salesman who invented things in his spare time. his efforts to push an improved corkscrew, press novel cuff links, and a more diabolical mousetrap failed. however, the socket-head screw he patented in 1907 succeeded. it was self-centering, could be driven with one hand, and the driver stayed in the socket. furniture makers, boat builders, and henry ford appreciated the economies to be realized with these screws.

i enlisted the services of my 10-year-old grandson, dean, to help me in the preparation of the material for these articles. figures 1-5 show dean astride a progression benchtop of vehicles designed first for very young children up to vehicles, which require a great deal of skill to operate, for older children and young adults. each of these vehicles provides unique opportunities to begin teaching children safe, competent, driving skills that are age-appropriate drill to the learner.when dean was about 3 years old, he received his first battery-powered riding toy: a press power wheels vehicle shown in figure 1. by the time dean was 5 years old, he had pretty well outgrown it. although it only lasted him a short time, the power wheels is an excellent tool for pre-schoolers to begin learning initial driving skills.

©2003 www.drill-press.net All rights reserved.