Semi OT: Most Memorable Tool Experience

[Mark Jerde]

When you are relaxing, comfortable in your favorite chair, the fire in the fireplace providing ambiance and a glass of your preferred beverage in your hand, what are the tool memories that bring a smile to your face?

Here's my most memorable moment. When I got seriously interested in making sawdust I got a Delta bench saw. It was fine for a couple years -- my errors and problems were much larger than the Delta. But eventually I

*knew* the bench saw was holding me back. I was building things that the bench saw simply couldn't handle. So I cashed in my pop bottles and green stamps and bought the 2nd-from-the-bottom-of-the-line Grizzly contractor saw.

I was excited seting up the the Griz. Its surface was at least 4 times the size of the Delta! I had the space to start the saw with a 1x6" fully on the table in front of the blade! I put on my only carbide blade with its blade stabilizers. I started the saw for the first time and with the miter gate cut thin crosscuts of a scrap pine 2x4". After the end of the 2x4" was trued up I cut thin slice after thin slice off the 2x4. Many of them were almost so thin you could read through them! The Delta had too much vibration to cut slices anywhere near this thin! The Griz was outstanding!

Though I was over 40 years old I put some of the wafer-thin 2x4 slices in a letter to my parents. Maybe they put them on the refrigerater, I don't know... ;-) I recall that I wrote that I would have to spend a lot more $$$ to get a saw that had the accuracy to cut thinner slices from the end of a 2x4".

The Griz contractor saw is of course the prime tool in my small shop. Since I got it I've added other useful tools -- 6" jointer, 13.5" planer, three

1/2" routers, floor drill press, 14" bandsaw with riser, many hand tools and probably 40+ clamps. I have used these tools to make things I'm proud of. I have a "critical mass" of tools -- I can create anything in wood I want to.

Someday I hope to have a shop with a 12" or larger cabinet saw as the primary tool. But no matter how capable the "shop of my dreams" is, I doubt if I can ever have the thrill of the first paper-thin cuts from the end of a

2x4" on my brand new Grizzly.

Y'all??

-- Mark

[GTO69RA4]

GTO(John)

[J T]

Tue, Nov 9, 2004, 4:16am (EST+5) [e-mail] (Mark=A0Jerde)said a bunch of stuff, I snipped.

Probably when I got my new-second hand planer and tried it out. It nicely took a chunk of 2X4 down to about 1/2" that I used in making my planer sled. With the other pieces of wood I ran thru it, had about 6 inches of shaving on the shop floor. That was fun, and using it still is fun. Noisy machine, wood, big mess, fun.

JOAT Viet Nam, divorce, cancer. Been there, done that. Now, where the Hell are my T-shirts?

[Mark Jerde]

I've been a Minnesota Vikings fan since the early 1960's. "That ain't right" -- 4x times to the Super Bowl, *zero* victories, is part of "That ain't right." Manning just got the Colts another touchdown. Yeah, "That ain't right."

Back to you....

-- Mark

[Wayne K.]

Everytime I mill a piece of rough sawn lumber,flat,parallel,and square on all sides. I love my shop and the tools in it.

outstanding!

[mac davis]

Mine are 2nd hand... I remember going to my dad's sign shop after school and watching him and my older brothers cutting out letters on the bandsaw and smelling that sawdust... Couple that with the nehi (sp) green soda that was in the ice chest and as they say, it "takes me back" every time..

Probably the closest I've had to your saw experience was after having my Shopsmith for about a month, I decided to see what the"lathe thing" was all about... had never used or even SEEN one before... Followed the instructions and got a piece of 2x2 between centers, and just got lost in the spinning wood and flying shavings... I ended up with a 2 foot long fancy tooth pick but didn't care, it was such an interesting experience.. I call it my "horizonal pottery wheel" now..

[Silvan]

Swap Skil for Delta, Crapsman for Griz, and bottom for top, and you just told my story. I traded the Skil equivalent of that Delta for the second-from-the-top Crapsman, when they went on sale last spring, to make way for the in-with-the-new out-with-the-old models. Forty-four acres of cast iron, real miter slots, a real fence with a ruler that's actually useful, a tilt wheel (a tilt wheel!). It's 17,294% quieter, and off-cuts practically never vibrate into the blade and kick back at my head. (Exception being realllllly small off-cuts that don't have enough substance to anchor themselves to the table itself, and fall entirely on the insert.)

Gloat, I was only 31 when I bought that. I guess among this gaggle of geezers being young is probably gloatable. My joints don't ache much yet, and Ol' Dickory is as hard as hickory without the aid of these geezer lady pleaser pills the punk pill purveyors pimp all over the place.

#2 is when I traded my baby 10" DP for a big'un. No more swinging the table out of the way and stacking up blocks of scrap to try to bore that hole that just won't quite fit. I only use about 1/3 of the elevation normally, and I only increased the useful range of motion by 10% or so, but it's a world of difference nevertheless. It also has a much better chuck.

Bah. You need more power, more floor space, and bigger everything. I got to play in the woodworking factory again, and I'm all jaded. 14" saw with a 300 acre table, and a fence that weighs 16,000 pounds. A bandsaw that runs at about 75 surface miles per second, and could probably saw up pretty good sized trees (probably 24" between table and guide, and I'd say more than 4' from the blade to the edge of the blade housing), a shaper with cutters the size of a tall boy beer can whirling at 16.7 million RPM, running on 440V. Yeah baybe, it's hard to come home after that.

I guess I have to say the biggest thrill ever was my first real piece of walnut. I didn't have very many planes yet, and all I had was planes. (No power flummies. Actually, I have a baby benchtop jointer now, but otherwise I still don't have any power flummies for this kind of work.) Until I had the planes, I couldn't begin to imagine using semi-rough lumber, so the world of everything that wasn't S4S (ie grossly overpriced red oak and poplar from the BORGs) was out of reach. Then that lone new not very good #4 and that first piece of walnut... Magic.

[jo4hn]

My older brother sold me his 1940ish vintage Craftsman/King-Seeley scroll saw (nee jigsaw) in the mid-50s for $25. I went from Neander (coping saw) to Normite in an instant. I could crank out those toy pistols and animal cutouts for sale to the local kids in an instant.

Still have the saw with its original motor AND the original belt. The belt is a bit tattered but if it ain't broke...

mahalo, jo4hn

[VRadin]

Hasn't happened yet, but will in a few months... When my father passed at 58 his machinist's tool chest, tools, and 1952 edition of Machinery's Handbook were given to his first grandson- my then 4 month old. I've been holding them "in trust" since 1987. That 4-month old will be 18 in March, and will finally get his inheritance from Poppy. He's been using the tools for years but soon they'll be passed along to their rightful caretaker for the next generation.

It always brings a smile to my face when I see my son working in the shop using Pop's tools, knowing that another generation keeps the skills alive.

vic

[Swingman]

Neither of my two daughters are "country girls" according to them, and only the youngest (now 19 and at college) did any work out in the shop with me, but I'll never forget teaching her to start a crosscut on a board with the very same hand saw my grandfather taught me on at the age of 5.

Great feeling ... and since you mention it, you're obvioulsy cherishing it properly. ;)

[max]

We were working in the shop late one night. Deadline long past, trying to get a bookcase finished for a store display. I was using my very heavy 4 inch belt sander and it got away from me with the motor locked on. It went across my 7 foot bench turned to the left and hit the floor. Still running, it did a u turn and came after me. It scooted across the floor right at me. I was very tired and my partner and I just froze. It went by me and I grabbed the extension cord and finally unplugged it. The cast handle broke as did the belt guard. That was enough warning that we were tired. I welded the handle back together and it is still running 10 years later. max

[Nate Perkins]

The first time I ever used a sharp and decent quality handplane (an old Stanley #3 SW bought off of Ebay). It gave me an appreciation for how good some hand tools can be, and how good the old craftsmen must have been.

[patriarch]

"Mark Jerde" wrote in news:RwXjd.97$z_4.88@trnddc07:

I was maybe seven years old, in the late 50's and my uncle, a finish carpenter, left his tools with my dad, while he went off to Kwajalin (sp?) to work for the military. Exploring in that wooden tool box, and 'helping' my dad build stuff for the house was really magical.

There's a couple of those old hand saws in my shop now...

Patriarch

[Grant P. Beagles]

The day I was jointing a 7 foot length of 12/4 maple and was able to get a full width, full length, thin enough that I could read a newspaper through it curl!

Nate Perk> > When you are relaxing, comfortable in your favorite chair, the fire in the

[mac davis]

I haven't used a full sized hand saw in years, but my dad's old "carpenter's" saw is on the rack in the shop.. kind of like part of him still being here..