So, payday has hit, so it's time for me to stop gabbin' and start building.
I will be going out for supplies later, and I was looking online to check out some tool ideas, and I found this...
http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-mighty-mite-table-saw-93211.html
I live in an apartment, so I can't really have a full table saw, so I was hoping this could work for some things, such as trimming up a fret board from a 1/4" thick board.
Since many of you here have vastly more experience than I with woodworking, I thought it would be a good idea to get you opinions.
I am not under the impression that this will be anywhere near as powerful as a normal table saw. I am just hoping that. with my limited space, and the smaller lumber used in CBG, that this could be a decent option for me.
Thoughts?
Replies
Good thing, too. I just ruined my first attempt at a scarf cut with the back saw.
I think the bottom line is that there are many ways to skin a cat. I have made things entirely by hand and will probably do so again. I see power tools as a convenience, not a need. As well I can be more precise when I use them. Can I rip down a board by hand? Sure. Would I rather run it through a table saw and know the cut is true? Yes. I've shaped a bunch of necks with a hand rasp (I don't even have a draw knife), but running my trim router over them with a 1/2" roundover bit saves me a lot of time. Also since my day job is being a computer nerd I have a bit of carpal tunnel so I find any way to avoid repetative stress that I can.
I think my guits have some pretty good mojo, regardless of whether I've used power tools or not. I was joking around when I posted about riding a horse instead of a car. I very much appreciate non-machine hand-crafted items. But if I carve a rod piezo bridge using a dremel I still consider it hand-made.
The backlash against power tools is funny.
Do you crank up your car before you can start it?
Car? Hell, I use a horse! That's the old-school way to do it!
I hitch my horse up to my sledge (wheels are new school bullcrap) and head down to the telegraph office if I need to send a message. I used to hammer my own papyrus but I'm getting older and had to make some concessions.
OK, OK...I'm the one who kicked off about power tools. It's not backlash, just a different take based on experience. If you look in my workshop you'll find some serious stuff - drill press, bench sander, planer, thicknesser, table saw, band saw and more, but this is my living, not my hobby: it's grown out of being a hobby. Some weeks I make several guitars and dozens of guitar kits, and I couldn't hit that work-rate without the help of my workshop power tools. For most people this is a hobby, a pastime - making low tech instruments the low tech way seems to fit in really well. Some technical assistance in the way of powertools is great, but I still hold great store by learning to use hand tools. When you rip down a piece of wood for a neck with a handsaw, plane a fretboard by hand and slot it with a handsaw, you instantly understand what the nature of the wood is, how the grain is running, how hard it is, which way to work it to get the best result. That's practical useful stuff, not some philosophical spiritual BS about being at one with the timber. You can feel under you hands the nature of the wood, stuff like interlocking grain and runout, you can feel that with a hand tool, but run the timber through a power saw or planer, and you learn little. As for the transport analogy - I've travelled across countries by plane, train, car and bicycle...they all give you a different perspective and depends on your motivitation and needs what method you choose, but I know that from experience, exploring a country by bike is entirely different to making the same A to B journey by car. By all means buy powertools, but always think carefully about why you think you need it. Is it really impossible to do the job by hand, or is it just a bit of "boys toys" self-gratification?
John, I am going to quit giggling at this point and say I get it. I know exactly what you are saying. Without getting shrouded in term like "spirit of the wood" and other zenlike references, there is an intimate connection to be made with whatever material you are working with.
I had the fantastic opportunity to work 3 years under a master woodworker who had built a reputation as a door and chair maker. Yes, the center of the shop floor was the home of a table saw that appeared to have been built by NASA, but the shelves and drawers were filled with all manners of planes, boring apparatus, chisels, and handsaws. Some were decades old, and all well used and cared for. More significant is that none of them were new.
As we worked, things were said like "I guess this piece doesn't want to be a chair leg.", or "These two won't get along well." It may sound silly to some, but the fact is that a piece of wood is not a piece of wood. If you don't want to grow your hair out, eat bean sprouts for lunch, and begin speaking to your wood, that is great. However, there are things that really shouldn't be ignored.
Wood is cut year around, and from a wide geographic area. Red oak cut during the fall in Northern Michigan is much different than the same species cut during a North Carolina summer. Was it a dead fall? How long was it dead? Limb wood or trunk wood? Kiln dried? Air dried? You go to the supplier and it simply says "Red Oak"
I can hear the keyboards chattering now, so I will put in my disclaimer. NO I cannot sniff a piece of wood and tell you how many kids the guy that cut it had in public school in Ohio. I am just saying there are different characteristics that, while they can be ignored, offer rewards if they are not.
As far as what apparently came across as an attack on the word "Newbie", maybe saying I hate it was too strong. There seems to be an outpouring of support for the term. Support so vigorous that the meaning of the OP may have been lost. I was simply trying to convey the feeling of welcome I had when I first joined this site. I never felt like a "noob", but like a fellow lover of CBGs. Yes, the advice I have received has sometimes been convoluted, self-promoting, and even slightly condescending. More often than not, it has been freely given, extremely helpful, and reflective of the advisors deep knowledge and experience. If I got on some toes, that wasn't my intention. Just a poor choice of words I suppose.
Not a problem ChickenboneJohn, I too have power tools of various sorts and spent a good part of my working life as a tool and die machinist, follower by over a decade working as an aircraft mechanic. All of my life I have been a hotrodder, building several race cars and enjoying drag racing over the spectrum from street cars through modified motorcycles and I have even had the opportunity to drive a dragster with two Chevy V8s in it. Have driven cars since a couple of years before I was legal as I had an enabling big brother, ridden and owned motorcycles since I was 18 and owned and flew my own vintage aircraft for over 20 years before I closed that chapter in 2009.
"More Power" has been my way of living for as long as I can remember, definitely a "boys toys" type of guy, but that said I still enjoy working with my hands with simple tools and as you so lyrically word it, "the philosophical spiritual BS about being at one with the timber". When I meditate I chant "OHM" as I am also trying to find the philosophical spiritual side of being at one with the electromechanical side of our hobby involved in home built pickups and amplifiers.
In a way, I think you will find that there is a mystical, spiritual side to all of the things that we do in our lives and if we take the time to appreciate it and embrace it our lives are richer for it. Power tools make our work easier, but however you cut the tree the sawdust still has a wonderful smell and we need to stop and smell the wood as we work or we might as well become machines ourselves.
Have a nice day.
Ah yes Grasshopper, but what do you do when the power goes out? Crank up the generator? Change over to the battery powered tools? Just go out in the woods and find a nice 80 grit rock and massage the wood to size. It's therapeutic without needing to pay for a psychiatrist and you will have piece of mind in knowing that you are protecting the environment and lowering your carbon footprint.
Be at peace with the world and feel the consciousness of the wood before you cut it. Boards have feelings too.
I suppose I could be converted to a pocket knife.....if it was one of these :O)
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