Norm's Lathe101

[mjwallace]

Lou:

Recognized that Norm only had about 24 - 25 minutes (all those "ads" on PBS for the sponsers tend to eat into the show) to show what he knows about lathes. I agree that it was an introduction. My only question, not a point, was - his use of the calipers on spinnng stock. I have seen him use a table saw without splitters or a guard, joiners without push blocks, etc. all of these are safety "no,nos" and wanted to know if he was doing something that wasn't safe.

He says he's self taught. Not a problem with that, many of us are. But we all don't have a national TV show either. He has some obligation (no?) to show us safe habits. I would imagine this technique was cleared by the producer and Time-Warner - now the owners of the show. There's a local turner in our area who offers classes and if I can get the money to go, I'm going to take one of his classes so I get the ask the question again.

Anyways, I have always been a fan of his and my earliest rememberances of him was at the National Woodworking Show in LA about 10 or 12 years ago - he stood in the Delta booth and there was NO ONE around - he had yet to become the "beloved" figure he is now - then he was just starting NYW and was the carpenter on TOH. I wanted to go over and chat and didn't - sorry I never did. Oh well!

MJ Wallace

[John T]

The reason you see the lack of guards and other safety items on TV and mags is usual "to show whats being done better". Eh...I can see that in showing a special setup for a magazine, but for the actual cut? do you really need to see the actual cutting?

Isn't that kinda like watching paint dry?

John

[bole2cant]

Hey, MJ. I remember that. I was there too. I asked an official how much it cost to get him there and he just said, "A lot!".

[bole2cant]

Sort of like The Router Workshop where, when they have to rout the ends of four boards, and they show *all eight ends* being routed.

[Unisaw A100]

Ah yes, the HGTV Fill. First we're going to tell you what we're going to do. Then when we get back from commercial we'll re-tell you just in case you forgot. Then we'll start doing what we told you we were going to do with painstaking clarity ("Using a hammer, nails are removed from the studs"). Next we'll break for commercial but when we come back we'll tell you what we were going to do along with what we've done so far...

You get the idea. It's sorta like reading Bill Pentz's Cyclonic Verses.

UA100, one third the way through Cyclonic Verses and thinking maybe the reading of this tome should become a reality series where contestants read and the guy/gurl not ready to shoot their brains out at the end is the winner...

[Ralph E Lindberg]

Something they used to mention, but either they don't any more, or I don't hear it

[LRod]

Actually, that's DIY that does that so horribly. People can talk all they want about how wonderful David Marks is, but that very presentation you describe makes the show extremely difficult to watch...unfortunately, like a horrible accident...you can't turn away.

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[charlie b]

If you're intent is to provide clear, accurate, complete technical information - motivated by a desire to save someone their lungs - it's extremely difficult to ALSO make it Clancyesque - AND make it all accessible, FOR FREE. Bill has put in an incredible amount of time and money to study up on the industry's testing methods, buy the testing equiptment, set up the tests, run the tests, gather, record and analyze the data . . . With that data and the acquired knoweldge of how and why cyclones do what they do, he's also developed a design that works better than anything that was available to the hobbyist - at an affordable price.

BTW - Mother Teresa wasn't any beauty queen by Vogue standards but I wish there were more people like her around - if only to serve as an example to others of what goodness means.

rant mode off

charlie b

[Unisaw A100]

Absolutely no doubt to the word you said charlie b but I'm sitting there plodding along and thinking to myself, "man there's a whole bunch of repetition here" and then I comes upon a passage where Bill states that he'd gone through and edited a whole lot of the repetition out and damned if in the very next sentence he repeats himself about the repetition. ???

Seems that the whole thing could be funneled down into something less than 50 pages. Hell, it would be down to 75 if all he did was go back and remove the passages where he mentions CalOSHA.

Your Mileage May Vary/This isn't a dig at the message, just wishing it wasn't repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

UA100

[bridger]

a good editor is worth her weight in gold...

[Unisaw A100]

charlie b:

Start with a print out and a yellow highlighter. Whenever you see something that's been said before, highlight it. That's the stuff you want to 86.

Also, you might suggest that Bill take on a PayPal account and post the link somewhere at the top of the page above the links to the various articles and add a short blurb about up keep for the site. This would allow for editing out the numerous times he mentions how much it has/had cost him.

Don't get me wrong, I think Bill should be made a rich man considering everyone else gets to benefit but damn!

And last but not least, less is more. Especially with writing.

UA100