Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category
Confusing the Algorithms and Following You
Well over a month ago, this blog was featured on Freshly Pressed. That was an unexpected honor, and has led to many new followers. I am still trying to work my way through the emails I’ve received about those followers so I can, as the folks at WordPress suggest: “go see what they’re up to!” I apologize to those whose blogs I have yet to visit, but I also promise that I will get there.
There are many reasons to visit these blogs, not the least of which is common courtesy, followed closely by common curiosity. The review has been time consuming because I am trying to read the “About” page, the posts that they wrote at the time they began following me, as well as something recent. The vast majority of my new followers are legitimate writers who are sharing things that inspire them. You can find some of them listed in the sidebar, but I want to try to explain why I follow them.
Most importantly, I want to include other points of view in order to, as Lubor Placek said: “…avoid the social groupthink.” Lubor is a like-minded individual, so following him may not count but his advice was spot on. If we only read and listen to people who agree with us, we become more and more invested in those beliefs, and more narrowly defined. I started this blog because I was growing tired of trying to shoehorn a little bit of my story into two blogs that I write about Content Management and Microsoft SharePoint. I wanted a place where I could be me. Similarly, I have learned that I can’t grow as a person just by reading about technology and SharePoint. I enjoy hearing other peoples’ stories and I’ve discovered a few things.
I like poetry. When I was in college, I was forced to take two extra English courses, and the only class I could work into my schedule was Poetry. I started out with a goal of just getting through with a “C”, but I enjoyed the classes very much. WordPress is home to many poets, and some are quite good. Poetry is an art form unlike writing. Poetry is visual, it’s musical, and it’s precise. I try to find the right words when I write, but I can get by with any sentence that sends my message. Poets work hard choosing every single word, and when they succeed, the final product is a pleasure to read.
I am following a couple of bloggers who are writing about life in places I only see in the news. I follow a woman in Syria who shares truly scary stories along with passionate complaints about what is happening in and to her country. I followed her originally because we are connected by Syria, my paternal grandparents emigrated from their around 1900, but I continue to follow her because she provides information I cannot find anywhere else. I look forward to her next post, partly from an eagerness to know more and partly to know that she is still alive.
I follow people who are writing from places that I have lived. There is a special pleasure in reading a description of a place I have been to, or hearing a phrase that I won’t hear in New England. I also follow people from places that I will never live and may never visit, because I still value knowing something about those places. I follow a weather and photography blog of a friend in England because it makes me feel closer to him and his family. I follow people who are my age and older, and whose life story has been influenced by their experience growing up in a time I understand well, but perhaps not well enough. I also follow people who are much younger than me and I chuckle when some of them use the phrase “when I was a kid.” I follow a photography blog about Canada, and I marvel at how big our neighbor to the north is, and how little I know about it. I drove the width of Canada when I moved from Seattle to Connecticut, but that boiled down to six nights in six cities and the view from the road.
At a point where we have to guard our connections, because we have to guard our time, it is difficult to choose who to follow and who to just visit periodically. As Lubor suggested, I am going to try to confuse the filtering algorithms that generate the “do you know,” “you may like” and “your friends like…” links that social media sites provide. Just as the subjects on this blog are inspired by the eclectic mix of interests in my life, I am going to try and include a somewhat more random element in my consumption of other peoples’ stories.
Thank you for reading/following my blog – I look forward to reading your story.
No Turn On Red Unless You’re Special
A few weeks ago, I was stopped by one of our local policemen for going 47 miles an hour in a 25 mph zone. I seriously want to believe that he meant 37, because I drive on this street regularly and although I do sometimes see the needle hanging around the 35 point, I don’t ever recall seeing it cross the line into the 40’s. Still 37 is a problem since the street divides two very active parks. The officer gave me a warning, which I appreciated. About 15 years ago, I received two tickets in two days on an intersecting street for “failing to come to a complete stop” at a stop sign. Today, on my way home, I observed two of the most flagrant bits of driving I’ve seen lately. One was a man in a truck who blew through a red light without slowing down more than was necessary to make the turn, even though the intersection was marked with a “No Turn on Red” sign. Later, a second driver continued through a stop sign on the same street where I received my warning, without so much as tapping his brakes. Adding insult to ignorance, he tossed a cigarette out the window at about the same time.
I’m not quite sure why I am outraged by some offenses more than others. I drive at around 70 mph on the highway to work. I’m not really bothered by the folks who are probably going over 80, unless they are screaming behind me, as I approach one of CT’s notorious left-hand exits. The people who, like I twice did, roll through a stop sign without having the car settle backwards, but clearly after making sure the intersection was empty, don’t bother me. The guy who cruises through without a thought seems like an idiot. The people who turn right on red without stopping first don’t bother me, unless I have to slow down to avoid hitting them, or when they are behind me and apparently expect me not to stop.
I don’t like people who think “yield” is French for “speed up now” and I don’t like people who refuse to move over to let someone enter the highway, when doing so would cause no problems. I don’t like people who block intersections so that they can turn left after the light has turned red, and I really don’t like people who encourage me to move up into that position. I think it comes down to the fact that I don’t like people who act like they are special, and I really don’t like people who want to make me complicit in obtaining their special treatment. I also don’t like rude people – anywhere.
When our daughter was learning to drive, I had her take me to the local hardware store. The route includes an intersection with a busy 4 lane road where the cross street enters at an obtuse angle. While you are allowed to turn right on red at this light, it is very hard to see if it is safe to do so without twisting your neck around. Faith was uncomfortable gauging the traffic, so I pointed out that:
“You’re allowed to turn right on red, but you don’t have to.”
Clearly the man behind us felt otherwise. When it turned out that he was going to the same store that we were, I took the opportunity to approach him and explain just what a jerk he had been. That probably wasn’t a wise move, but he felt bad when he realized that his actions might have intimidated a young driver into making a potentially fatal mistake. He didn’t apologize to my daughter, probably because of the gesture she had made.
If you find yourself behind me, you should know that I’m the guy who:
- Almost always stops at stop signs
- Understands the meaning of “yield”
- Lets UPS, FedEx, US Mail and other delivery drivers go ahead of me at 4-way stop signs
- Will not honk at the person in front of me unless they are clearly asleep at the switch
- Stops at the light before turning right on red and waits for the light to turn green if I can’t see the traffic coming from the left. And no, I’m not going to accept your honk as a signal that it’s safe to turn
- Stops for pedestrians
- Will not pass a person on a bicycle unless I can give them a lot of room (I also ride my bicycle on the road, and I very much appreciate your giving me enough room to avoid being hit by your mirror).
Yeah, I’m that guy. If you are frustrated because I am making you late, get up earlier tomorrow and think about switching to decaf.
Woodworking Part-6 – Vendors
For the final post in this series, I am going to move solidly into the world of my opinion. Sooner or later, no matter what tool you decide to buy or what project you plan to tackle, you have to find some place to spend your money. I’ll give you a preview, I am governed by “you get what you pay for” in more things than product selection. I will also add my previously mentioned view that you should never visit a store, talk to a salesman and then buy the item off of Amazon in order to save a few bucks. If everybody did that, there would be no local store – think about it and be fair. Also, please add comments regarding suppliers you like or ones located outside CT and the US.
Tools, Bits, Blades and Stuff – I have a lot of tools that were purchased from Lee Valley, and if you ever want to experience a serious drool-inducing hour, crawl through their catalog of Veritas hand tools. The really cool thing about Lee Valley is that if your tool breaks, they will fix it, or help you fix it. If your tool just doesn’t work, or if you think it would work better if… They will refund your money and, if they agree with you, they will redesign the tool. I also buy mail-order from Rocker. I have been buying from them since before they changed their name to Rockler, (I think they were the WoodWorkers Store) and they have always been very easy to deal with. They have almost everything a woodworker needs, and I really do believe that you have to support the vendors who serve the comprehensive needs of woodworkers as opposed to the ones who simply cherry-pick a few profitable items. Since I live in CT, I am fortunate to be able to shop at Coastal Tool. These guys are a large mail-order tool supplier that just happens to be located in a nearby town. They have good prices, and a good selection, but we’re talking tools, not hardware and supplies. Also proximate to me are two WoodCraft stores. I like WoodCraft because they carry a wide range of tools, hardware, stains, finishes and wood, and they seem to be totally staffed by woodworkers. You can discuss a project and get advice from someone who knows exactly what you are doing.
Brands – Most tool brands are good these days as long as you realize that a $29 orbital sander isn’t going to be as good as an $129 sander. In general, I like Delta and Porter Cable for the American-made history that they represent and for the fact that I have yet to wear out one of their tools, including the ones I inherited from my father. I like Bosch, although I wouldn’t say that I am loyal to them. I will say that with the exception of my very first cordless drill, every cordless drill, driver, etc. I have ever owned has been made by Makita. There are lots of very good cordless tools on the market, but I don’t think you can beat the feel of a Makita drill. I like Stanley tools and I am a total fan boy of the Fat Max brand. Your mileage may vary.
Wood – I prefer buying wood at one of the few local lumber yards that maintain a good selection of hardwood. Lately, I have purchased wood for two projects at the WoodCraft store in West Springfield, MA. I can’t speak for all the stores in this chain, but these guys manage to stock some nice lumber. I generally stay away from the big box stores because their hardwood is bland, expensive and no straighter than the pine, poplar and birch that they stock. I have also had good luck ordering wood from Niagara Lumber. You have to be careful, because your wood is coming via UPS and you get lengths that will ship and will be easy to package. I like the quality of the wood I’ve bought from them, but I usually buy a bit more than I would locally because there might be more waste. I have also had good luck with reclaimed and repurposed wood, so keep that possibility in mind.
Information – There are hundreds of blogs, twitter feeds, Facebook pages and websites dedicated to woodworking. Search, bookmark, Like, subscribe, follow etc. I have a charter subscription to Woodsmith Magazine and the companion Shop Notes. They also have a pretty nice show on PBS. I periodically read Fine Woodworking and Fine Home Building, and I have purchased some of their specialty publications addressing specific techniques.
All of the vendors and products I have mentioned throughout this series have websites, white papers and cyber resources to draw on, but your best bet in some cases is to search the web for that guy who does often that thing that you are about to do for the first time and who shares that experience in a blog.
Woodworking Part-5 – Shop Accessories
If you try to justify your woodworking by saying that it saves money over buying furniture, you are going to lose. Woodworking, like growing your own vegetables, is a passion that you should never attempt to do the math on. Like eating your own tomatoes, filling your own bookcase, writing at your own desk or eating on your own table are things that you enjoy beyond their monetary value. With that in mind, we turn to the category of shop accessories with an eye toward both practical additions and creature comforts.
Looking back over my lifelong hobby of woodworking, I think that the first shop accessory I would buy today would be an air compressor. Honestly, I would buy a compressor before buying a shop vac. I was fortunate in that when I bought my compressor, I was also still maintaining a pickup truck and a Triumph Spitfire, so I could “justify” a large upright model. However, I began my love affair with air tools when they were hooked up to a relatively inexpensive portable compressor. The first foray was when I needed a very narrow profile drill in order to repair a set of cheap dressers a friend had bought by installing drawer slides. I had nothing that would fit, so I bought an Ingersoll Rand 3/8” air drill and I was hooked. That was in 1984, and I still have that drill and I still use it often. In addition to an air drill, I would add a brad nailer, a ¼” crown stapler and a pin nailer. None of these were very expensive. My nailer and stapler are from Sears, and I’ve had them for over 20 years. My pin nailer is a Porter Cable and it came at a reasonable price. Until you have built a quick jig, pinned the corners of a picture frame together or temporarily attached a template to your stock, you will not appreciate these tools.
Turning our thoughts to safety, I would invest, at least in a minimal way, in trying to get every extension cord, power cord, airline and vacuum hose off of the floor of your shop. Take the time to wire outlets in/on the walls near your power equipment and find a way to drop extension cords and airlines in from above. When working with tools, hand or power, you want to pay attention to the cutting edge of the tool, not the placement of your feet. In the same vein, consider permanent and portable task lighting to supplement generous overhead lighting. Personally, I can’t wait until LED shop lights are affordable. Fluorescent lights fail miserably in unheated shops, i.e. cold start situations, and Halogen shop lights suck up an enormous amount of electricity and give off way too much heat in the summer. If you are going to add heat, make sure it is compatible with what you are going to do while using it. I use a Big Buddy propane space heater, but I never use it while sanding or finishing where something in the air might explode. Speaking of the stuff that is in the air, dust masks and respirators should be available for you and anyone who might be helping. Of course, it goes without saying that safety glasses and push sticks need to also be available. If you wear glasses, prescription safety glasses are a necessary investment.
The other things that I use often enough to put them on the A-list include:
- Shop vac – You need to clean up the mess you make. If you can’t afford a dust-collection system, get a strong enough vac to work with your stationary tools. Or, get cheap small vacs to work with smaller contributors. I have a $39 shop vac attached to and sitting inside the leg-set of my band saw and it works like a champ.
- Tool Cabinets – You will always appreciate any effort you make toward keeping your tools organized, available, clean and rust free.
- Pegboard or Slot-wall – You will also appreciate keeping a subset of your tools handy.
- Shop rags – Yeah, you can use old tee-shirts and bed sheets, but a sack of 25 shop rags is usually cheap enough to treat yourself.
- First-Aid Kit & Fire Extinguisher – I have never needed the latter, but more than once, I have needed the first-aid kit. In its absence, the shop rags are also useful.
Once you have the basics in place, build yourself a workbench, build jigs and fixtures and figure out all the ways you can use/develop your woodworking skills in the pursuit of the perfect shop.
A word from the editor: This series has been difficult for my wife/editor to read without commenting. Almost 30 years ago, I made her a maple trestle kitchen table and six chairs. When we moved into this house, I wanted to make the table more functional by making it shorter but adding extension leaves at each end. During the conversion, I sat a circular saw on the table without noticing that the blade-guard was stuck open. The damage was irreparable, so I made the table into a workbench (and the sliding extension into a dual threaded end-vise). I need to replace that table.
Woodworking Part-4 – Clamps
Note: If you follow this blog, you are in for a bit of unusual activity. The next subject is spread over six posts, and I am going to upload them over the course of the next six days. If you like woodworking, it’s a great chance to express your opinions in the comments. If you don’t like woodworking, hang on until next week – thanks for following!
I was going to include clamps under hand tools. When I ran out of room there, I thought I would include them under shop accessories. Then I realized that clamps deserve their own entry so this five-part series evolved into six parts. Clamps serve two main purposes in your shop, holding things together while the glue dries and holding parts to a work surface while you work on them. I’ll tackle the second subject first, and I’ll talk about things that are clamp-like, vises.
Every shop needs at least one woodworking vise. These differ from machine or metal working vises in that they have wide, usually wood-lined jaws and they aren’t just mounted to a workbench, they become part of your workbench. Woodworking vises normally include a retractable pin in the moving jaw that can be used in conjunction with dogs that are let into your workbench to grip large items like table tops or panels while you sand them. If you don’t have this option available, you will spend hours rigging up work-around solutions. Vises can range in price from cheap and useless to somewhat expensive and generally helpful to outrageously expensive amazing devices. Generally, you get what you pay for as you invest in a vise. I use the word invest, because you will have a good vise forever. If you’re starting out, start with a 7-9” vise from the middle of the price range, or consider buying a vise in kit form that might be fun to build. Either way, buy one that is good enough to keep.
Clamps are portable vises; they come in an ever-widening variety of shapes, mechanisms and materials, and you will probably be buying new clamps as long as you practice woodworking. But, if you are just starting, there are a few clamps you should have, and there are some economical ways to acquire them.
Pipe / Bar Clamps – These clamps are long and exert their pressure along their linear dimension between one fixed and one adjustable jaw. The fixed jaw includes the screw to apply pressure; the adjustable jaw allows you to accommodate varying width material. For case work panels, table tops and for aiding in assembly, I would start with 4’ clamps in groups of three. You can make relatively inexpensive ¾” pipe clamps that will hold most anything without deforming under pressure. If you need more pressure than this to close the gap on two boards, you’re not done preparing the surfaces to be mated. Buy these in groups of three so you can alternate top and bottom and keep your panels from bowing under pressure. You can also buy much more expensive parallel jaw clamps, but… For assembly work, I would add some lightweight aluminum bar clamps because they are much easier to hold in position midway up the side of a bookcase.
F-Clamps – These are ok for lightweight assembly, but great for holding things to a work surface. Split your money here; buy a few high quality F-clamps in the 12-18” range which will be in near constant use in your shop. Then buy some longer ones as you can. Generally, I would say that you should always buy good clamps if they go on sale, because you can never have too many clamps! I like the age-old standard Jorgenson F-clamps. You can spend more on other brands, but I have a hard time justifying the extra expense. I have some Jorgenson clamps that are over 30 years old with no problems to report.
Spring Clamps – Many years ago, I would have included these in the next section, but these days, I don’t know how I lived without a wide selection of spring clamps. These are great for holding things together during assembly. My favorite use is to hold perfect 90° angle braces in place during drawer and case work assembly.
Hand Screws and Band Clamps – These are both clamps that you won’t use nearly as often as the ones listed above, but when you need these, there is no substitute for the real thing. Again, for hand screws, I like Jorgensen, but the first set that I owned were 12” ones that I built from a kit. That is a fun project that I would recommend. I have 8” and 6” hand screws, and I bought them all while they were on sale. A very nice use of hand screws is to fasten one to the bottom of a panel and then clamp the hand screw to your workbench with an F-clamp to hold the panel upright. This is why you can never have enough clamps. Band clamps are for holding irregular shapes together, and for holding case work that is joined with box joints or other decorative joints like through-mortises where direct pressure is impossible. Band clamps are inexpensive, so buy yourself a set of four.
Woodworking Part-3 – Power Hand Tools
In between stationary power tools and the classic hand tools that date back to our ancestors, we have power hand tools that we reach for at an ever-increasing rate. There’s a lot to cover in this group so I’m going to dive right in.
The first portable power tool that most woodworkers encounter is a drill, and today, that is likely to be cordless. For most woodworkers, a 3/8” variable speed reversing cordless drill is a shop staple that will soon feel like an extension of your arm. These tools are used for spinning screws into your project as often or perhaps more often than they are for drilling holes. The other two important features found on most of the popular drills are a keyless chuck and a variable torque setting. Variable speed lets you start slow, and prevent skating all over the piece; variable torque lets the drill stop before twisting the head off a fastener. While it might be tempting to buy these tools from a mail order source, if it’s your first drill, spend a few dollars more and go to a place where you can hold several different brands. This tool will spend its working life in your dominant hand – make sure it’s a perfect fit.
After a drill, and by ‘after’ I mean “the next place you should stop your cart,” you’re going to want a router. Eventually, you will own more than one router, unless you decide that you don’t like woodworking. There are two schools of thought here: 1) buy the least expensive router that will let you do everything you need to do and buy specialty models later. 2) Buy a powerful, expensive plunge router now and back your way down through lighter weight routers later. I would go with the first option, because you use a router often, and plunge routers are heavy. A 1½ hp router with a ½” collet will let you take care of most fabrication and detailing tasks in your shop. Also, when you buy that 3½ hp plunge router, the 1½ hp model can be left permanently under the router table you will have bought or built by then.
There are two or three essential power saws. It’s two or three because the third is essential only if you plan to remodel your home in order to install or make room for more of your woodworking projects. The first saw is what some of us older woodworkers still refer to as a “Skill Saw.” I’m talking about the 7½” portable circular saw that you need to have in your shop. I don’t have many requirements for this tool, but since I use mine mainly to cut sheet goods down to size, I’d opt for one that will hook into or rest against a guide system easily. A jig saw is also essential, and it’s where you have to start matching your needs to your budget. If you plan to do the type of woodworking that will involve a jig saw often, look for variable speed, variable orbital action and blades that are easy to buy in a crisis. If the saw you choose uses proprietary blades, make sure you always have ready access to a good selection and buy them in packs of five. If you do plan to tackle home renovation jobs, buy the third saw, a decent quality reciprocating saw. You will never use this for woodworking, but it’s essential for removing walls, door frames and other obstacles to installation.
The last tool(s) in the essential category are sanders. I would suggest a good belt sander and a good random orbit sander. Like all the essential tools, remember that you are going to use these tools often and forever, so buy the best you can. I was fortunate enough to receive a Porter Cable palm sander (predecessor to this) as a gift from my father in the early 80’s, and it still works. Whether you go for a random-orbit disk or pad sander is your choice, but make it carefully; they each have limitations, they feel different (one vs. mostly two-hand operation). Disk sanders work faster but buying disks can be more expensive than cutting sandpaper sheets, especially when you need an odd grit.
Other than drills, I would opt for corded varieties of all of these tools. You can buy cordless, but unless you need that, it’s not worth it and I guarantee that the tool will outlast the availability of batteries. I would also avoid the 92-part kits that run off of the same battery. Until someone promises in writing to a Congressional committee to always make batteries that will fit that series, I’m not interested.
OK fellow woodworkers, what’s your favorite power hand tool.
Woodworking Part-2 – Hand Tools
Note: If you follow this blog, you are in for a bit of unusual activity. The next subject is spread over six posts, and I am going to upload them over the course of the next six days. If you like woodworking, it’s a great chance to express your opinions in the comments. If you don’t like woodworking, hang on until next week – thanks for following!
Continuing this little series on woodworking, I think that I need to focus on hand tools. I use power tools in almost every woodworking project I work on, but I love using hand tools. Hand tools let you connect with the piece of wood you are changing. You can feel the wood talking back to you, giving you little hints about the grain and warning messages about knots and hard spots. I have a repurposed microfiche cabinet in my shop for hand tools, and all it takes to know how I feel about them, is to run down the first three drawers. The drawers are labeled, so let’s take them one-by-one:
Measuring and Marking – It all starts with these tools, and it all goes off the rails when these tools aren’t as good as they should be. Rules, tapes, squares, striking knives and pencils; the drawer is full of these things but they all have one thing in common – they are woodworking tools. By that, I mean, these are not used for construction, home maintenance or laying out the garden. In fact, next to this drawer, I have a drawer labeled “construction measurement” which holds similar tools, but heavier duty varieties. A good 10-12’ tape measure is essential. I prefer Lee Valley’s 10’ tapes that are printed for left or right handed reading. This makes layout a breeze from either side of your piece. A folding rule with an extension is useful for its designed purpose of inside measurement, and it works well as a depth gauge for mortises. A tri-square is good for marking cuts and checking corners and a combination square handles most every other 90° & 45° layout need. I like a steel rule for fine measurement and drawing lines. For the latter, I prefer 5mm pencils which I buy at a wholesale club in packs of 25. I have a marking gauge, and I should use it more than I do; it’s great for laying out mortises and bevels that you plan to cut by hand.
Chisels – You simply cannot start woodworking without a set of chisels. You can buy cheap chisels, but you will regret doing so. A mid-range set of 4 (1/4″, 1/2″, 3/4″, and 1″) give you the tools you need to clean up the most common mortises, rabbits, dados and the shoulders and cheeks of most tenons. You can also use a chisel to cut some of those joints by hand, but most of the time, you will be tweaking a joint. Get them sharp, and protect the edge by not using them for construction. Match these up with a mallet; wood works, but I prefer rawhide. Expand this set by adding at both ends 1/8 (maybe curved) for cleaning grooves and 1 ½ for wide clean-up. Your second set of chisels should be mortising chisels. These are heavy and ground at a steep angle for easy use. Also in this drawer is a small selection of dovetail saws, which are small back saws designed for precise cuts on small stock and joints.
Planes – The Stanley Jack Plane was the first tool we learned how to use in Wood Shop. We were given a block of wood, a marking gauge and a plane and the assignment to bevel the edges. You need one of these, but the first plane I would buy, and the plane I use most often is a block plane. Block planes are easy to use with one hand, great for cleaning up end grain and superior for easing the edge on just about anything. The other plane I would not be without is a Spokeshave. Spokeshaves are great for working on curved stock, narrow edges and tapers and they are pure fun to use.
Miscellaneous – No, I don’t actually have a drawer with this label, but I have some other tools in these three drawers that are worth mentioning. First is a utility knife. Again, these are cheap enough that you can afford to leave one with your woodworking tools – when you need this tool, you don’t want to start looking. I prefer the Stanley FatMax, because its slight curve makes it comfortable to hold, it contains its own blades and it doesn’t require a tool for blade changes. I keep a selection of Scrapers in with my planes. These are a fantastic addition to your hand tools, but plan on practicing sharpening (truing the edge), burnishing and using these on some scrap. Nail sets, in a variety of sizes and a small claw hammer to smack them are necessary, as are a good pair of diagonal cutting pliers for removing the things you bend over with the nail set.
I could go on and on but I’ll stop here for today. Please, if you have some suggestions, or favorites, add them in a comment.
Woodworking Part-1 – Power Tools
Note: If you follow this blog, you are in for a bit of unusual activity. The next subject is spread over six posts, and I am going to upload them over the course of the next six days. If you like woodworking, it’s a great chance to express your opinions in the comments. If you don’t like woodworking, hang on until next week – thanks for following!
The thing I love about writing this blog is that I am free to bounce around a lot. While I was working on my next post, I received a question via Twitter that is sending me off on a tangent.
Mr. Woodworker, what would you recommend to a weekend warrior looking for a good table saw, miter saw and drill press? P.S. I’m cheap..ish
That is a very hard question to answer, but I tried. Then I decided that 3 or 4 DM’s weren’t really enough, so here’s my attempt at a better answer. Just so you know, I have been a woodworker for almost 50 years, I once owned and operated a cabinet shop and my opinions are no better than those of any other woodworker on the planet.
A Table Saw is an item where you can try to save money, but cheap is not a good idea. This is perhaps the most versatile tool you will ever own, and certainly one you will use at some point on every project. If you want to start at the low-end of the price scale, look for a good quality contractor’s saw, but not one of the portable deals. Get something with some weight; preferably with some portion of the table made from cast iron. I would want a saw with a 10” blade and a 5/8” arbor that can accept a dado head. I would also want a saw that came with or could support a good rip fence. Pick a saw with a guard system you can work with because a) you will never want to spend money to upgrade the blade guard and b) you should work with a blade guard whenever you can. I can say that with authority, having run my left index finger through the blade of my table saw. I can still count to 10, but there was some fancy sewing involved.
My advice on the Miter Saw was to “buy the best one you can possibly afford” and I can’t emphasize that enough. If you are going to be doing woodworking, you are going to want to be able to cut perfect 90°, 45° and 22 ½° joints. You are going to want to be able to mount a stop or a stop system so that you can make repetitive cuts and you are going to want to switch the setup on that saw quickly, knowing that when you switch back, you are good to go. I have a very early entrant into this market, a 9” Delta miter box that cuts through a 1 ¼” MDF “table.” The saw dates back to my cabinet shop in 1984. It was an expensive saw back then, but it is still accurate. I have a lessor quality Delta miter box that I use mainly for home improvement construction, but I wouldn’t try to make a picture frame with it. I also own a Bosch 10” sliding head compound miter box (older version of this saw) and it is an amazing machine.
As for a drill press, I’m not sure what to recommend. The first one I owned was inexpensive, and I quickly realized that the ½” chuck and quill assembly wouldn’t support a mortising kit. It drilled accurate holes when properly set up, but setting it up was a chore. Drill presses are actually more versatile machines than I like mine to be. You can drill, sand, polish, etc. with a drill press, but I don’t like operations that put sideways pressure on the quill. I figure that sooner or later, that will work to make the movement a little sloppy. Get one that will handle the stock you plan to drill, that has a good speed selection and a good depth-stop mechanism. Check the vertical movement of the table and make sure you can get the table locked down solid. Whatever machine you get, bolt it to the floor or bench before using it even one time.
If I were working with a limited budget, the tool I would buy before buying a drill press is a reasonably powerful router. Then I would either buy or build a good router table. Like most long-time woodworkers, I have several routers now, but for the longest time, I ran with a 1 ½ HP Rockwell (now Porter Cable) router that my father gave me almost 40 years ago and that machine is still going strong. I’ll bring this up again when I talk about power hand tools. Stay tuned.
News Flash – I’m not Always Optimistic
About a year ago, HVAC technicians added dye to the coolant that was leaking out of the air conditioning system that cools the server room where I work. Tracing the dye stains to their source is a common approach to locating leaks in cooling systems. The technicians scheduled a return visit, but within a few days, we had a much bigger problem. It seems that the dye reacts with water to create a waxy substance. The water, in our case was the condensation that forms at the cooling end of the system, i.e. above the ceiling of our server room. The condensate is normally pumped to a central drain line, but the wax clogged the pump and the water poured into the room.
Was this an unintended consequence of the technician’s actions? Well, I’m sure it was unintended, but this was actually the discovery of a previously unknown property of the dye, albeit with disastrous results – there’s a difference.
About six months ago, I was having dinner at the bar at Jacob Wirth’s in Boston, when I stuck up a conversation with the guy next to me. We started talking about cars, and about the difficulty one has trying to maintain one’s own car these days. I told him that at least I had been able to mount a trailer-hitch receiver on my new Jeep, but I added that I had to ask my mechanic to torque two of the bolts because I couldn’t maneuver my way in while lying in the driveway. He said “I’m impressed that you understand the importance of the torque setting.” Somewhat embarrassed, I said: “…actually, I don’t but I’ve always figured that they gave you those specifications for a reason.”
It turned out that he was an automotive engineer. He explained how a bolt really acts like a spring. For each application, you want to be able to tighten a bolt until it stretches a bit, enough to hold tight, but not so much as to deform the things it is holding together. He went on to tell me how most people, and sadly some engineers, will opt to replace a failed bolt with a larger one, only to damage the items being bolted together. Apparently, a smaller bolt that can be properly stretched is a better choice than a larger bolt that can’t be stretched at all.
Could this lead to a series of unintended consequences? No, you would file this under people acting without a thorough understanding of the facts available to them. This happens a lot, and while the results are clearly unintended, they usually aren’t unintended enough.
Between 1917 and 1919, the people who drafted the Treaty of Versailles spent considerable time arguing over the possible unintended consequences of forcing Germany to accept the treaty. Were the terms and conditions too hard? Were the requested reparations too costly? Apparently, one possibility that they didn’t even consider (perhaps, because they couldn’t yet imagine it) was Germany’s research into rockets. German engineering advances in this area eventually boosted both US and Russian space and missile programs, but I’m not sure the British would agree that there was a benefit to that oversight. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that almost 100 years later, there still doesn’t seem to be complete agreement on any of these issues. Some argue that the oversight encouraged the research while others point to the fact that Germany violated the terms of the treaty in other areas so it really wouldn’t have mattered. The latter argument bolsters the opinion of those who think the treaty was too harsh, and the debate goes on.
Discussions of possible unintended consequences can be a useful exercise in designing products, but they can also be a debilitating and unending march into the weeds of worst case scenarios. We can justify the research when the cost is “just right” as Goldilocks might say. Pharmaceutical companies search and test for possible side-effects. Engineers of all sorts look for the ways in which systems might fail under everything from 100-year storms to routine wear and tear. Governments of all sizes weigh the costs and benefits of economic, social and judicial strategy in seemingly unending debate. In any case, we move forward, taking our chances with nature, random events and our limited understanding of how things, like the dye in the AC unit, interact with other things.
Today, debate is raging over what may prove to be the worst unintended consequence of all – climate change as a result of human activity. As we argue back and forth over whether this notion is science fiction or scientific fact, we build worst-case scenarios that demonstrate economic disaster if we act now and environmental disasters if we fail to act. Who is to blame? Who is to decide? If the historians haven’t closed the books on the Treaty of Versailles, what’s the likelihood that we will build a uniform response to climate change and that that response will be a net beneficial thing for mankind?
If we can’t kill email, can we please fix it
During the last year or so, I listened to several speakers at content management and social media conferences suggest that business email will soon be a technology of the past. Judging by my inbox, and recognizing that people are still sending faxes, I think it’s safe to say that I will be getting email throughout what remains of my career. If that’s the case, I would appreciate it if the people who send me business email would take it upon themselves to improve the quality of the email that they send. If I thought everyone would give this topic the thought it deserves, and change their behavior accordingly, I’d stop writing after making the following statement:
Consider that regular business email, the stuff that I will read simply because you sent it, comes with an implied contract based on mutual respect. Then remember that once my respect for you has been earned, that you have to prevent me from losing it.
Since I get so much email, from so many sources, let me offer a few general guidelines to make those emails better:
Size matters – I had a chemistry professor who required written lab reports but thought they should be factual. In warning against long explanations in lieu of facts – he used to say “remember, the longer the wronger!” It’s the same with email. A single paragraph business communication will be appreciated. A couple of paragraphs will be tolerated and a multi-page monologue will probably be ignored.
Don’t be a jerk – This sounds like so much common sense, but it’s easy to look like a jerk in email. Unless you want to look like a jerk, reread your message before you click send. Think about whether what you wrote will be understood in the absence of facial expressions, tone of voice and that precious act of reaching out to touch my shoulder. By the way, if you don’t want to reread it because it’s so long, refer to the previous paragraph.
I have an inbox – After you send your email, continue not being a jerk by not calling me, texting me or visiting me to ask me: “Did you get the email I just sent?”
Some subjects are better left out of the inbox – If you are dancing around a sensitive issue, delete the email, walk down to hall, or pick up the phone and make personal contact.
Stop crying wolf – Remember that I can sort my email by sender, so I can see if there are patterns in the email that you send. If 2/3’s of your subject lines include “Important” or “Must read” maybe you need to think about the way you organize, schedule and prioritize your work/day/life.
If you find yourself saying “this is good advice for most people, but it doesn’t work in my situation,” maybe you need to think a little harder about your situation and about the nature of email.
One subject – one thought – I know it’s not a text message, but email shouldn’t be a sermon and it absolutely shouldn’t be a lecture. If you have three complex points to make about a subject, schedule a meeting to discuss your thoughts. This works better because I can communicate my boredom with my facial expression and I can point out when your first assumption is wrong and therefore you should stop blathering.
Email is not a presentation – Forget the “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them” mantra that is supposed to set you up to make a great speech. Just tell me what you want me to know in short, grammatically correct sentences – preferably less than 5. If you are thinking about including graphics, drop the “s” – limit yourself to one graphic.
Note: I added this next rule in response to Microsoft’s addition of the Screen Clipping tool into Outlook.
Remain in media – If you are reading my document, reviewing my presentation or testing my spreadsheet, use the features built into Office on the Review Ribbon instead of artfully crafting a treasure map of arrows and text boxes for me to follow. This should also help you comply with the ‘one graphic’ rule.
Oh, one last thought, particularly if you are still clinging to the notion that you or your emails are somehow special and should be exempt from these rules: If I wouldn’t need to be in the room when you told somebody this critical information in person, please leave me off the CC line.
