OT - Social Security

[todd]

You seem to have a problem with reading comprehension. I've never said you were in personal control of the investment. In fact, based on your earlier statement, I inferred that it was being managed by someone else. My point, which still stands, is that whoever let an investment (I infer we're talking about money invested in the stock market, since that is how this part of the thread started)decline 70% in value wasn't doing a professional job. And heck, while we're talking about it, this 70% decline is based on what? The value in the 1st quarter of 2001? If so, the high point would be based on a number that was driven up on the same greed you're lambasting now. Was it OK as long as it was making money for you?

But now you've got me confused. If the government isn't qualified to provide oversight to the stock market, what makes you think they're qualified to manage the retirement funds of the citizenry?

You can have the last word on the topic. I've got a table to put together.

todd

[Swingman]

... and who said they were?

Good luck on the table ... if I don't get these tomato plants in the ground my SS ain't gonna stretch.

[todd]

On a kindler, gentler note...I'll post a pic when the table is complete. I've been taking a class here in Chicago on hand tools. The instructors did the cutting of the legs and aprons to size, but we chopped all 16 mortises, cut all of the tenons, and skimmed the pieces with a smoothing plane. I can see where one can get carried away using a plane. You make a really nice, long, thin cut and that just makes you want to make another and another.

todd

[Swingman]

You guys did the hard part. Your plane, or the schools? Not only the feel and sound, but the smell of fresh plane shavings .. almost like Napalm in the morning. :)

I'd be interested in seeing the final product ... let us know when you got it done.

[todd]

The plane was mine. I purchased it for the class. It's an ECE Primus Reform Smooth Plane #711. It has a lignum vitae sole and a fruitwood body. I looked hard at Steve Knight's planes, but being a plane dummy, I thought I'd have better luck adjusting the ECE. I haven't used a plane since junior high and have never chopped mortises or cut tenons, which is the main reason I took the class. I have all the main power tools at home, and chopping all those mortises makes me appreciate my mortising machine a bunch. Once I really got going, I could cut a pretty good mortise in about 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure I could have done them all in an hour on my mortiser. And cutting all the cheeks of the tenons wasn't exactly child's play. After a few, I was ready to call the bullpen and have them send in a lefty.

todd

[Doug Winterburn]

Just did the tenons for a dining table, and the RAS does make cutting the shoulders and cheeks childs play. You make the shoulder cuts first using a stop block.Rotate the bevel to 0 degrees (horizontal and place the work on an aux table with fence aligned with the cutting depth of the blade. raise the top edge of the blade to exactly the shoulder depth above the aux table. Align the shoulder cut just shy of the aux table left edge and pull the saw through. The waste falls off to the main table. I have an eight foot table on each side of the RAS, so tenons on any size stock are no problem. All I had to do was some very slight paring in the individual mortices for a perfect snug but not tight fit.