Interesting thread about combination machines. It's an obvious lead into to an underlying topic U.S. vs Euro woodworker approaches to woodworking and their expectations.
As stated previously, I've got a Robland X-31 combi and I'm an American so I'm a Tweener - tween the U.S. ways of doing things and the Euro ways of doing things.
Let's compare stock preparation
- one face flat (joiner),
- one edge flat, straight and square to the flat face (joiner)
- second face flat and parallel to its opposite face (planer)
- second edge flat, straight, square to the face and at the desired distance (width) from the opposite edge (table saw rip)
- one end flat and square to both the faces and edges of the board (cross cut on table saw or chop saw or miter/mitre saw or compound miter saw or sliding compound miter/mitre saw)
- second end same as first end BUT at the desired distance from the first end [length] (see above)
- New hobbiests/amateurs probably don't do stock prep but go with "cut to length" and maybe "rip to width" because they're using primarily ply and store bought "kiln dried" boards.of the desired, or close to the desired, width. Only when they get beyondlag bolts, screws and biscuits and begin playing with traditional joinery does stock prep become an issue.
So let's talk about the approaches and expectations once one begins to get into some "real woodworking" - rabbets/ rebates,dadoes, half laps, splines, mortise and tenons, dovetails, half blind dovetails, triple miters/mitres, frame and panel,etc..
Proper stock prep is essential to making good traditional joinery for solid wood furniture making, or even box naking. You just can't make rectangular objects out of trapezoidal parts (ok - it is possible but you've got to be a really great woodworker to do it and if you are good enough to be able to do it you do it anyway)
So back to the differences in the approach and expectations thing.
Group "A" - The Instant Gratification Group
"I want to buy a machine or several machines that will allow me to make pieces that would otherwise require a lot more knowledge and skill than I have time to acquire or are willing to learn."
This huge and growing market that is being fed by clever marketing teams.
"With our Super Deluxe Blurfle, YOU can be making our patented Fantasmagoric Wonder Joinery System furniture - over the weekend! NO adjustments necessary, perfect and effortless heirloom quality furniture making right out of the box. Just follow our simple, step my step instructions and you'll have a house full of heirloom quality furniture in no time! AND if you act NOW, we'll even GIVE you our Space Age material, precision Drill Gauge!"
This is the instant gratification "microwave" thing
- a delicious six course gourmet meal - in minutes! ( Wine not included, void where prohibited, consult your state attorney general's office for details. Batteries not included , side affects may include nausea, head ache, cavities, neuritis, neuralgia and flatulance - consult your doctor if an errection lasts longer than four hours.
Offer good for only as long as we can make money offering it).
This group wants a "cabinet saw" with a "precision fence" that lets you set it for 16 and 63/128th of an inch and rip a board that's EXACTLY 16 and 63/128th of an inch
- preferably with digitalread out but a maginifying, vernier window which compensates for parallax and micro-adjust- ment fence positioning will be acceptable. AND if it's motorized AND remote controlled! No test cuts or calibration if you buy the expensive machines- right?
Of course this requirement also requires that you don't ever change saw blades - thin kerf/normal kerf, or teeth patterns and that you replace your dulling blade immediately
- with exactly the same type of blade you calibrated your fence to (you did calibrate it right?)
This group tends to work from plans,either purchased or that they created themselves.
The novices in this group typically make ALL the parts, EXACTLY as the plans show and only THEN assembles them. This subgroup is identified by ground down teeth (gnashing your teeth a lot has consequences), furrowed brow (now why in hell is there this gap right here?) and is often surrounded by not quite square, not quite flat, not quite right PAINTED furniture which, for the most part, works OK.
The intermediate checks the plans more thoroughly, looking for gaps and errors and then makes ALL the parts, EXACTLY as the corrected plans show and THEN assembles them. This group is calmer, has a calculator that can work with fractions, a pocket protector with colored pens, a 0.5mm pencil and carry a small pad of paper with them at all times. The furniture they make is EXACTLY like the original the plans were made for - and looks EXACTLY like the ones done by all the other people who built their piece from this particular plan - assuming they checked for gaps and errors - and made the necessary corrections.
The advanced guy/gal may start with someone else's plans, goes through them looking for gaps and errors, modifies them to suit his or her personal preferences - or does his or her own, thorough and detailed plans, and then starts to make the parts, in phases / assemblies - building as he/she goes. Along the way things often get modified to make the final piece more personal. EXACT dimensions aren't so critical - as long as all the parts that MUST be the same size ARE the same size. If the final piece is an eighth of an inch taller or wider or deeper
- it don't matter.
These folks have a cabinet saw with 52" cross cut fence - that locks both fore and aft, an 8" wide joiner with three foot or longer tables, probably a 20" planer AND an18/36 drum sander. You'll probably also find a LEIGH DT jig, a LEIGH FMT "device"with ALL the bits, guides etc. , a router table with a precison fence and precision router rasiier/ lowerer and a 12" sliding compound miter/ mitre saw with six foot long tables and multiple flip stops.
Members of this group will be quick to point out ALL the mistakes in each piece of furniture they've made
Group "B" The Mechanically Inclined/ Close Enough Group
"What do I NEED to make the furniture I WANT to make? I'm pretty good at figuring things out and I enjoy the 'making' part of the hobby/addiction more than having and using the pieces I make."
This group is identified by the fact that they own, or as part of their initial purchase of tools and equiptment include, some basic set up tools - a pseudo machinist straight edge, square, dial gauge and a feeler gague set. They probably already had a metric and/or imperial socket set, set of allen wrenches and box/open end set of wrenches.
The novice in this group uses a hand held circular saw and maybe a chop saw, a hand drill and dowels to make garage benches and shelves out of some wood left behind by the previous owner of his house, or from pallet wood he scrounges. He doesn't care what the final piece looks like, it just needs to do its job. Often it will not only do its job, but probably could support a car or small truck. Shims fix any wobbles.
The intermediate may find a set of plans to study, not to build from and will spend time looking at and understanding the joinery and the structural concepts used. The book he/she buys on joinery will no doubt stress the importance of proper stock preparation, layout and marking tools. If he/she is lucky, it will also have a stock marking sytem and stress the importance of using reference faces and reference edges and ends.
He/she will get a good table saw, perhaps a hybrid initially, a 4 or 6 inch joiner and a bench top planer, the former probably found in the newspaper or on line, maybe inherited from a woodworking relative. And there will also be some hand tools on the list of things to acquire - initially a block plane, some bench chisels and a dovetail saw, western back saw or japanese dozuki.
The intermediate's pieces may not be the most aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but every thing will fit together squarely. Parts that are exactly 1/2" or 3/4" thick will be rare, flat, square and straight - and of the same thickness is what's more important than a specific thickness. This is the genesis of the Close Enough approach, the importance of specific dimensions will, for the most part, diminish, replaced by the understanding that what's needed is to have ALL parts that are supposed to be the same length or width ACTUALLY BE THE SAME length or width.
The advanced "close enough" woodworker sketches ideas, does one he/she likes and goes and looks through his or her wood stash for stuff that go with his/her idea of the piece. A fare share of that wood stash will be rough cut wood with a wainy edge or two, perhaps even some bark.and thicknesses measured in "quarters" - four, six, eight and maybe even twelve "quarters".
More time will be spent selecting the wood than spent on any "plan" and a great deal of time will be spent doing the "rotate, flip, shuffle and slip" process for deciding what's going where so that the grain patterns in the finished piece go together nicely. This is NOT an "optimization, minimize waste" thing. If the desired piece of wood is in the middle of an 8 foot long,
12" wide board then that's what gets used. There will always be a future project that will use most of what's left.
And the machines and tools this person uses to make parts for pieces are old friends whose little quirks are familiar and accomodated for. If a "close enough" part is a little wide then a pass or two with a hand plane will take care of it.
This person's stuff will be crisp and clean and, at first glance, simple and unassuming. But if you think about it and look more thoroughly you'll notice that EVERYTHING goes together, not just the parts, but the proportions, the grain, the hardware and the finish - a whole, integrated piece rather than a few interesting components /elements held together by other "stuff".
Two approaches to woodworking, two sets of expectations. Me- I'm somewhat in the middle, being a self confessed tool phreak. In the U.S., there never seems to be "enough" time. The "time is money" thing spills over into time that has nothing to do with money. And so we get into buyig "time savers" and marketing folks exploit our "need for more time". Europeans and Latin Americans see time as just time - time for work, time for family and friends and time to play. You'll find few Europeans or "latins" who brag about regularly putting in 50 and 60 hours a week at "work".
Life is not a race to the finish line - the finish line is death.. Take your time, develop some skills and appreciation of things - and enjoy the trip - it's a one- way ticket. The stuff you make are just post cards of the journey.
(babble mode now being set to OFF)
charlie b