Inadequacy in the shop

Re: Inadequacy in the shop

JohnV

for a small fee I can relieve your anxiety. Time to move on to the sark world of spinning wood.,

I know how you feel

Jack Guzman from Maine

When I get that feeling I grab my sharpest drawknife,head to the shave horse and take it out on a piece of unsuspecting wood. Works every time.

Surprised you have a computer Roy.

Dick Coers

Bet the guy that recently mangled 4 fingers in his tablesaw that posted on Sawmillcreek wished he had a Sawstop. Major safety improvement like that makes that purchase just plain smart in my opinion.

Some people have limited time in the shop, tools that speed up the process can either provide more time with the family, or make quicker money.

Re: Surprised you have a computer Roy.

William Duffield

…and some of us are getting old, and our eyes and hands and back and knees don't work as well as they used to, and we can't find an apprentice who will work for room and board, or who even wants to learn the skills that our machines do automatically.

Re: It doesn't pay enough to care.

CharlieL

I'm glad I didn't spend anymore money on tools and machinery then I have. And I sure as h--- don't need to hear another SawStop sales pitch.

poor guy,

Bruce, a MN Galoot

How have you been able to get anything done all these years?

BTW, my favorite tool is 150 years old,

It's not about the tools.....

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

...it's about the journey. Do you enjoy working with wood? If you do, that's all that really matters.

And for what it's worth, I know a couple of professional woodworkers who do very fine work with remarkably few, and old tools. One of them works in a drafty old barn. His table saw is an old Craftsman contractor saw that he built a table around with old scrap plywood. His shop has a dirt floor and terrible lighting. Yet his work is regionally sought after.

If you can find joy in working with wood without all the pricey tools, then good on you.

T.

^^^THIS^^^

Kneale Brownson

My woodworking (just like my skiing) takes me away from everything else in the world going on. Whether I'm running a tablesaw or a crosscut hand saw, I'm in the wood world hobby land. No worries, no stressing, just enjoyment.

You are such a stirrer

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Just think, Roy, you get to use your tools and never will be tempted to instead sit and polish them!

And you get to be reminded that a good workman does not blame his tools

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Inadequacy in the shop

Richard Long

Your lament made me think of something I have posted in my shop. don't remember where I got it.

Why I like wood working in a high tech world

1. My tools aren't upgraded on a regular basis, rendering the old ones useless.

2. Getting a new species of wood doesn't require me to purchase new tools and learn new skills (usually)

3. I don't have spiffy new terms constantly introduced. In the corporate/tech world, using a table saw would probably be known as "controlled kerf introduction".

4. When I learn to use a new tool, I don't need to relearn to use it next year.

5. My only deadlines are set either by myself or my wife, and neither are really all that important.

6. I don't have to be politically correct in my own shop. The tools don't really care how much I swear.

7. I may still have meetings about woodworking, but they are fun, and sometimes involve alcohol (as long as tools aren't nearby!).

8. I don’t have to hang charts and graphs to tell me if I am doing a good job or not

9. I can pay for my supplies and not have to deal with PO’s

10. If I get a splinter I don’t have to fill out an accident report or do a root cause instigation to see how it happened

11. If you want to buy something, you don't need to sit through a PowerPoint demo.

12. More than likely, there isn't a 15 year old kid who knows more than you do.

13. Ethernet and wi-fi are simplified to 110/220.

14. In woodworking, you can burn your mistakes. In the corporate world, your mistakes burn you.

15. I've never seen someone caress an RFP.

16. When you’re in the board room, there are really "boards".

Re: Inadequacy in the shop

Barry Irby

I Don't have a Sawstop either, but if I buy another TS, It will be one. Anyone making a political argument against owning one has never mangled a finger in the shop. I have. Sawstops are cheap insurance and excellent saws. I like my fingers too much to consider buying any other saw.

That said, I am sticking with the Contractor saw I bought in 1971.

I do have a planer and jointer, but not a combo machine. I like the option of a wider jointer, but I HATE combo machines. Don't feel bad about that.

Take care with the tools you have, be safe, enjoy. I am convinced time spent in the shop is not subtracted from your time on Earth. When IO go into the shop, I say, I am going to the gym.

read this article  *LINK*


Cousin Fred’s Wonderful Woodworking Shop

Re: poor guy,

Jesse Cloud

So, Bruce, what is your favorite tool?

As you saw, I do most of my work with machines, but most of the pleasure comes from hand tools.

Re: Barry

CharlieL

Perhaps you should find a safer hobby, other then the table saw there are plenty of other tools and machines in the shop that can take a bite out of you, and if they do, it's more then likely your own fault and need to wake up. For over 20 years I earned my living in meat shops, and for about 30 years I've been a woodworker, mostly a hobbyist because there is very little to no money in it. Out of all those years of working around sharp objects I needed five stitches once, and that was because the guy next to me slipped with his knife and ran it across one of my knuckles. You can have your SissySaw.

Re: Read his post and replies

MartinMJ

He notes he had a extension cord on the floor near the work area and that he stepped on it and lost his balance. Then in a later reply he also says the blade guard was off.

Re: read this article

Roy

Okay, you all have some good points. A word of advice to Richard Long-I would revise your no.5 statement before your wife sees it. Should I feel bad about not having a CNC?

Roy G

Re: Barry

Barry Irby

You are right, I should find a safer hobby. Maybe we all should. Golf? A friend of Dad's died on the golf course. Hit by lightning. But then you have to ask, was the hobby Golf or Lightning Rod. But it was his fault, he paused at the top of his backswing.

I don't have a Sissy Saw. I have a almost fifty year old Delta Contractors saw. I just looked up a new one, abut $1000 at Lowe's. A similar Sawstop is about $1700. A Sawstop Cabinet saw At Lowe's is actually cheaper than Sawstop's entry level cabinet.

Is your argument since every tool in the shop does not have the feature then no tool should? More people get hurt on table saws that any other tool in the shop, maybe most of them combined. That maybe because in many shops the ts gets more use that most other tools.

Never wear a seat belt because some people don't have them or somebody told you about a guy that got hurt because he wore his. Don't talk to the thousands of people that have been injured on their TS. Especially don't talk the dozens of people that have direct experience with the Sawstop.

You only have to be wrong once. A friend of mine cut off all four fingers on his right hand. He and his wife panicked and raced to the hospital, without the fingers. They couldn't put them back on. Guess what his job used to be......Dentist. His life style took a hit too. He will tell you he was wrong.

Meat cutter? I know of a guy who cut his own head off with a meat cutter's bandsaw, on purpose. Please be careful.

Re: Inadequacy in the shop

DocJim

A couple years ago I upgraded my old Craftsman contractor saw for a new cabinet saw and went with a Saw Stop. It is a great saw, well made and I have enjoyed using it. One of the reasons I went with it is that at 68 within the not too distant future one of my three kids will be inheriting it and I was concerned about their safety as well as my own.

Re: Want to talk about saw dust ?

CharlieL

And how bad that is for you ?

Re: Want to talk about saw dust ?

Barry Irby

You are right again. The state of California has determined saw dust can cause cancer. And other terrible diseases. So I live in Virginia.

And, I have dust collection on all my major tools and two Air cleaners. And I wear an excellent dust mask. And when working with woods that irritate me (walnut) I also wear a Tyvek suit and other gear and take a shower when I leave the shop.

Wouldn't be worth it, but I call working in the shop "Going to the gym" and any time in the shop is not subtracted form my time on Earth.

I watched Parkinson's take my Grandfather and Cancer take my Dad. Neither of them had anything that looked like a good retirement. I am Enjoying mine. You got to die somewhere, The shop would suit me fine.

If you are not making money at your woodworking, you need to rethink. I have made enough out of mine to pay for all my tools and materials and I generally don't work for anybody that is not family. I am making furniture for my sons and grandchildren. That's my goal and plan. I don't charge them a cent. But, over the years enough outsiders/friends have insisted I make something or repair something, they have paid enough to cover everything and more. Find a niche, something you enjoy, woodworking is a vast hobby. Make fine reproduction furniture, or pallet furniture, or carvings, or bowls, or inlaid pictures or cutting boards. Enjoy first, selling will come.

Re: Inadequacy in the shop

TomD

Festool track saw might be useful if you broke down a lot of plywood. The other stuff is junk:

- Domino is a better biscuit joiner in narrow circumstances, and if you have money to burn, but is not a better tenon.

- Over under J/Ps are kludges, except some of the better one like the German 24 inchers that allow full width jointing and planing. I got rid of my 10 incher the moment I go a wide lunchbox planer. Now I just use a standard set of stationary machines, when I can find them under the projects.

- And Sawstop is clearly an important innovation for people who don't know how to use saws. And I mean that constructively, that is a lot of the market, both amateur and "professional". But if you have made it 50 years without cutting yourself, you may be in that niche market of people who know what they are doing. Of course it isn't wrong to take chances with machines if that is your objective, then a ballistic brake might be a good thing to have. I just impose safe limits on my use.

At the end of the day one might wonder what inadequacies one is discussing.

Re: Barry

TomD

I just don't understand how they do stuff like cut 4 fingers off. Sure the saw can do that, I just don't get how people put their hands in the way of the blade in the first place. To me it is like licking a metal pole in winter. I can see the attraction, but you can just not do it. There is no circumstance where you have to put your hands anywhere near the blade. If you do, you are doing it wrong.

Cars and belts are a very different situation. Belts are great safety equipment, quite cheap:

They save lives in a situation that is orders of magnitude more dangerous and variable than a set-up on a saw;

They help the driver maintain control of the vehicle in extreme situations;

They stop bodies in the car from becoming ballistic objects that harm others.

Re: Barry

Barry Irby

You are correct about seat belts, but remember it took years to get them into cars and then years and laws and threats from the government to get people to wear them. And still people resist. In about 1968 I was hitchhiking (remember that? It was before Uber) And caught a ride in a Beetle. First car I ever saw that had lap belts and the shoulder strap and a sunroof. Far Out Man! The guy drove about 100 yards and at the exact moment my belt clicked, out of the road and tumbled down the side of a mountain. We must have rolled over at least six times. We scrambled out of whichever door would open and about a hundred yards back up to the road. They guy asked if I was OK and then said "You should get out of here, that was not my car." I caught another ride. No doubt that set of belts saved me a terrible beating, maybe my life. I don't even get out of my driveway without them.

I don't know exactly how the guy cut off the fingers. I thought it was a TS accident, but I asked him today and he said no, it was a chop saw. You can be right a thousand times or a million, you only need to be wrong once.

I did a stupid thing......

Barry Irby

About a week ago at a freight auction there was a sawstop contractor saw and a cabinet saw. I bid on them but stopped at $900 and $1250. (My Rule of Thumb at these auctions is to never pay over half of retail.) They went for $1250 and $1700. Maybe I should have bought one of them. It had not occurred to me that I could be passing the safety down to my son. The stupid part was that what held me back was I hated the idea of sell the saw I have had for nearly fifty years.