Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1999 - 62

New

Product 'i?eviews

Elbin Cleveland

ed/lor

The Handy Helper
The Handy Helper is a pair of injection-moulded plastic
housings for sLx
slightly
textured
plastic
spheres
which rotate easily
in the housing.
Each housing has a
3/16"
mounting
hole at each end,
and are a bright orange color for high visibility. According to the manufacturer, the housing is "high impact.. .for years of service"
and the spheres are "self-cleaning.. .for virtually maintenance free use." Each housing has one rounded end and
one square end which may be a useful feature in some applications or if you want to install the pair end-to-end.
We have used the Handy Helpers as an out-feed support on the table saw for about three months. So far they
are working very well. We have found that the spheres
work much better than the straight rollers commonly used
for this purpose. If the straight roller is not mounted precisely perpendicular to the saw blade, it can cause the
work to drift laterally. Such drift can cause crooked rip
cuts and binding or pinching at the blade or the rip fence.
The larger and heavier the work piece and the further the
out-feed roller is from the tool, the worse the problem becomes. All that drift is eUminated with the Handy Helper
because the free-rolling spheres allow the work to move in
any direction. Even poorly seasoned wood which has internal tension and thus warps badly as it is being ripped is not
a problem. Consequently, we have retired our old out-feed
rollers to the corner of the scene studio in favor of Handy
Helpers.
The only problem we have had so far is with narrow
strips of wood. The spheres are mounted on two inch centers so anything narrower than two and a half or three
inches can fall between the spheres. That can cause the
work to twist or to shift laterally into one of the "valleys"
between the spheres. Carefully positioning the Handy
Helper so that the blade line of your saw is exactly between
two spheres reduces the problem except for very narrow
pieces. Perhaps the company can redesign this one or
make another version with more closely spaced spheres
for installation directly behind the blade for narrow rip
cuts. The existing versions could then be located further to
the sides to support wider work pieces such as plywood or
other sheet stock.
You should know that steel ball roller strips are also
available from other companies. They cost from $14.00 to
$19.00 a piece, depending on their length and the number
of ball rollers per strip. We have not tested them but we
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suspect that steel spheres in a steel housing may be more
durable than the plastic Handy Helper. We haven't seen either of the steel versions at our local home center but you
may find them at yours. If so, be a wise consumer and compare before you buy.
We acquired our Handy Helpers through a mail order
woodworking catalog for about $22.00 per pair. If you
can't find them in your catalogs, you can contact the manufacturing company directly.
Kellog Plastics, Ltd.
Smelterville, ill 83868
Reviewed by Elbin Cleveland,
Theatre Design Professor,
University of South Carolina, Columbia

Mehron Celebre Professional Kit
This review
was done during the performances of The
Cl'llcible at
University of
Southern
Califorrua's Workshop Theatre.
The box for the Celebre kit is made of good sturdy cardboard construction and should withstand many uses. It also
comes with a sleeve in willch to slide the box to keep it from
opening up after the irutial use. I found tllis a nice, neat way of
keeping the makeup kits orderly.
Cream foundations were well received by the actors.
The colors mixed well together although they seemed a bit too
monochromatic. There was not much to choose from for creating a variety of skin types. Shading and shadow liners
were also well received. I would like to see more colors included. I would like to see some primary colors included for
stippling and color mixing. Pressed powder blushes were
difficult to use over cream foundation. Perhaps it would be
better to use a creanl style blush with the cream kits. Colorset
powder is too willte and tended to washout the monochromatic foundations. Actors found that their makeups tended to
not show up clearly after using tllis powder. It seemed to be
baby powder and not translucent neutral powder. Hair whitener seemed to work okay on small areas such as sideburns. I
used it on small areas and for streaking and it seemed to hold
up well. It washed out easily. Liquid latex was also used in
small areas and it seemed fresh and worked well. I used it for
scarring and aging a woman's hands and it held up well. Stage
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