Case of the overgrown insert?

[Robatoy]

nope

[-MIKE-]

I'm with both of you.

I wonder of there's a correlation between the skill level/experience of a woodworker and how many shop-made (as opposed to store bought) jigs they have.

I can find arguments for both sides, but I still wonder.

[Morris Dovey]

I think there might be a stronger correlation between number of shop-made jigs and size of the tool budget. :)

[-MIKE-]

That's probably much more accurate. :-)

Personally, if time isn't the first motivator (as in, I don't have even ten minutes to go buy this thing), price is.

Just about every jig I see in the shop was built because I looked on-line or in a catalog, and my first reaction was, "HOW much!? Geez, I can *make* that."

[Nonny]

I never tossed out a jig, unless it was just cobbled together for a single use and then taken back apart and tossed back in the bucket with other pieces. If the jig was something I would reuse, such as one I built for over the table sander to bevel the edges of coasters, then it was stored on a shelf for reuse. Those are the ones that built up over the years.

[whit3rd]

It's the custom-kitchen effect! When a task intimidates (like, cooking for a critical audience), it's easy to put it off by claiming one needs a six-burner gas stove, or marble countertops, or somesuch.

So, the building trades grow a tumor that caters to high-end kitchen afficianados. The customers don't have to perform in the cookroom until the renovations are "complete" ... and completion, magically, doesn't happen quickly. The custom-kitchen builder caters to his audience by working slowly and avoiding completion (but the check-cashing part has to be quick and final, of course).

If woodwork isn't intimidating, you get a knife and a block of wood, and have at it. Then you add chisels and a bench, and saws are too useful to do without. The unintimidated woodworker always has a knife nearby. He's comfortable watching Roy Underhill, but could learn a lot from Norm Abram.

The intimidated woodworker needs an extra horsepower and deeper bandsaw throat, and often treats the wood as if it was homogeneous (he didn't do a lot of knife work, so doesn't completely understand grain). He's comfortable watching Norm, but could learn a lot from Roy.

[-MIKE-]

Good stuff.

When I look back on the stuff I've made using inferior and fewer tools, I feel some pride and accomplishment for having done such a good job manually and using some ingenuity instead of technology.

But I also like the sense of "being there" I get from having and using a great tool. One appreciates having nice tools and what they do for you much more, when one has had to do it with less.

[Robatoy]

I like a tool that dims the lights at turn-on....of the whole town.

[-MIKE-]

"Clark Griswold Woodworking"

[RicodJour]

You mean the air within the insert perimeter is shrinking with the cold, and the metal around it is expanding to make up the difference?

R

[Bill]

That's reminds me of a pretty big mallet that I have that was made from a wooden hammer handle and a branch of a tree (directly). The unidentifiable person who made it probably did not have a Rochler nearby, but clearly knew what they were doing. It looks like a museum piece to me. When my shop is finished I may hang it on the wall for inspiration. :) If anyone would care to see it, I'll take and post a pic.

Bill

[Steve Turner]

Yes, but did you think to *write* on the jig a description of why the hell you built it in the first place? I can't think of how many times I've pulled some old jig out of storage and have no earthly clue what I used it for... :-)

[-MIKE-]

LMAO!! I started laughing before I finished reading your first sentence!

Bought the t-shirt. :-)

[-MIKE-]

Do you have to even ask? sheesh. :-p

[Robatoy]

The metal wouldn't be expanding.

[RicodJour]

Exactly my point. So if all of the metal around the hole is shrinking, why is the hole getting smaller? The shrinkage takes place in the cast iron, right?

R

[Morris Dovey]

Yup. As the cast iron shrinks, every atom gets a little closer to every other atom - and that includes the atoms around (and on opposite sides of) the hole.

[dadiOH]

Me, me...I do :)

[dpb]

Like so you mean we should be cooling those bearings to help get them off a shaft like getting bigger, like... :)

--

[dadiOH]

Beats me. I had a brass ring that got smaller when I heated it. Or did it get bigger? No, smaller...I wanted it bigger and it wouldn't do what I wanted. My brass and OP's saw are in the twilight zone :)