If you find there is any copyright abuse, contact us as soon as possible, thanks.
The Odyssey
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Skiving OffI wasn't even in my shop when I realized I was in this spot of bother. I was at my desk at work.
It was the space bar that got me.
As my right thumb hit the space bar the electrical grid of my body communicated that something was rotten in the state of Thumbsville. Yep....little splinter in my big right thumb.
I don't think I visited the shop yesterday morning so somehow a sliver of cherry had spent the night with me, living just under the surface of my thumb.
Normally, Gail is my splinter removal girl. However, less than 24 hours before this she had flown to San Francisco to visit her baby sister. It is interesting, because in our 12 years together this is the first time we have been apart for any reason other than my business travel. In other words, although we’ve spent weeks apart with my travels to Viet Nam, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Canada, and all over the States….July of 2008 will mark the first time I’ve spent a night alone in my own house. Of course I have Peyton.
So, staring at the splinter yesterday, and realizing Gail is gone, I considered options. Gail's middle sister is a nurse with keen eyesight, but she was leaving for San Francisco that very day to join up with her two sisters. Calling her was not an option.
I thought of calling on one of my friends in the office. Except I've been married so long I think I forgot how to "hook up" with a new woman....even for splinter removal. Am I supposed to take in the results of my most recent blood test. Even then, how does the conversation begin? "Excuse me , Gladys, I know you successfully raised children, so I know you've done this before...would you mind going after some wood I have here for you????" (Wow...that would have landed me in HR... PDQ.)
So I decided I was own my own. Naturally, the situation followed the Right Hand Rule. I remember learning about this in Calculus. It means if you are right handed, you will always have to do one handed tasks with the left hand, and vice versa. My tool of choice was a thumbtack/pushpin. As I took that pushpin between my left thumb and forefinger I thought of an interesting paradox:
I'd give my left arm to be ambidextrous....
Like General Eisenhower who signaled the go ahead for Operation Overlord, fully realizing that this necessary step would still require the death and destruction of many Allied forces, I plunged the pushpin into my own Omaha Beach...my right thumb. I dug, I pried, I levered, I cried. The tears served as little magnifying glasses that easily improved my vision ten fold.
At times I pushed it deeper. At one point the delivery turned breech. Still, through the agonizing pain, I continued the pushpin torture. Suddenly, like a prairie dog in the desert or a Whack-a-Mole at Chuck E Cheese....a tiny portion of the splinter popped up. Because I am a committed nail biter, I didn't have the option of pulling it out with finger nails. My choice was to scrape and pray.
I scraped the pushpin against the side of the splinter fully expecting to see it shear off like a whisker in the graphics from a Gillette commercial. Yet, to my great joy, it did indeed pull the splinter fully out of my body.
I looked at that splinter laying on my desk in its own little biohazard containment area. And I was left wondering, "How do single guys deal with splinters?" Then the flood of memories came into my head of the woodworking adventures Gail has shared with me. They all came back...the wound scrubbing...the bandaging...the drives to the Emergency Room... scrubbing the shop floor with bleach...Gail has been an integral part of my woodworking.
So until she returns I am left with the dilemma...
Time in the shop is the perfect way to pass the time while I am alone. Yet being alone subjects my tender body to injuries that may require the assistance of trained professionals.
Finally, the solution came to me.
The Life Alert system (I've fallen and I can't get up) is on its way and will arrive tomorrow. Soon I will be able to maintain my shop independence and can stave off the attempts of those who believe I should move my work to a Group Shop.
Thank you, Life Alert.
Getting in Touch With Our Inner Europe
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Popular Woodworking
I think I was in the DeWalt booth when I suddenly felt the tide turn.
One of the company’s product managers was explaining the new guard on the DeWalt jobsite
table saw. It was one of the new riving-knife-based guards that all the manufacturers
are installing on their machines to comply with new government standards.
“This guard is so easy to use,” the product manager says, “the user won’t have any
excuse or reason not to use it.”
And with that he installed all three components of the guard on the saw in less than
17 seconds (I timed him).
When I say the tide turned at that moment, I mean that at that moment I realized how
many times I had heard that same speech – and almost those same words – used by other
manufacturers as they introduced their new European-style guards during the last 12
months.
Bosch, Delta, Steel City, Grizzly and Jet have all been eager to show off how easy
their new guards are to use. Whereas during the last 13 years I’ve covered the industry,
usually the guard was discussed like this: “And there is a clear plastic guard.”
Those old guards, which were required by government regulations, were practically
useless (as we all know). And they’re rarely used. Heck most people probably couldn’t
find their table saw’s guard hiding somewhere in their shop.
But now suddenly a safe saw is a selling point. Wow. That’s a big change. As I began
to look around a bit, I realized that many European-style tools are now infiltrating
our American shops. Don’t believe me?
In the last three years Festool has gone from being a niche toolmaker to a company
that makes the tools that everyone wants to beat. The Festool Domino, a feat of European
engineering, is probably the most visible evidence of this. But you also see other
clues: DeWalt is introducing two
plunging circular saws to compete directly with the Festool TS 55 EQ.
Last year Jet Tools introduced a new European jointer/planer – and this year is introducing
another version of that machine with a helical cutterhead. SawStop has always used
European guarding on its saws and has successfully used safety as a selling point
– and the company just continues to expand.
Even Grizzly Industrial – long a mainstay of Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturing –
has been putting down some Teutonic and Italian roots. Parts of some of Grizzly’s
sliding table saws come from Germany and Italy. And right now, there are four Grizzly
products that are made in Germany, including a sliding table saw and a wet sharpener.
Plus the company is introducing more European-style machinery that is designed in
Germany but built in China.
So what does this mean for U.S. woodworkers? Good things, for the most part. I’ve
seen what Festool is planning on introducing to this country in the coming years,
and a lot of it is exciting stuff. Plus, I’ve been in European workshops and can say
they are safer and healthier places to work.
But the tools are more expensive (usually because of the quality). And I find that
many of their machinery setups are more complex than ours (mostly because they use
the guards properly).
So as the DeWalt’s new table saw guard clicked back into place onto the top of the
saw I concluded a couple things: American woodworkers are due for some changes in
the way we work. But I also bet that as Americans, we’ll find a way to mix the Budweiser
with the Beaujolais to suit our tastes.
— Christopher Schwarz
New Festool Kapex KS 120 is now available at Highland Woodworking
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Highland Woodworking Blog
The Festool Kapex KS 120 Miter Saw has shipped in North America and is now in stock at Highland Woodworking. The culmination of years of testing and engineering, the Kapex KS 120 was developed with one goal in mind: to be the best sliding compound miter saw ever manufactured. The Kapex KS 120 is the first miter saw with variable speed, enabling the user to match the speed of the blade with the requirements of the material for perfect cuts, every time. Finally, a sliding compound miter saw that combines a large cutting capacity with a compact lightweight design. The Kapex delivers 12" miter saw capacity in a revolutionary 10" miter saw design.
Festool, founded in 1925 by Albert Fezer and Gottlieb Stoll in southern Germany, has constantly set new benchmarks for innovative tool design and development, and the Kapex KS 120 Sliding Compound Miter Saw does so again. The innovative twin-column forward rail design gives the Kapex saw greater precision in an extremely small footprint. And Festool's meticulous engineers designed the saw to capture 91% of the saw dust when used with a CT dust extractor when using a 36mm hose.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Power Consumption: 1600 Watts
- Speed: 1,400-3,400 RPM
- Cutting Depth 90°/90°: 12" x 3-1/2"
- Special Cutting Depth: 4-23/32" x 3/4"
- Crown Nested Capacity: 6-5/8"
- Max Bevel: 47°/47°
- Miter Range: 50°/60°
- Dimensions: 28" x 19-3/4" x 18-1/2"
- Weight: 47 Lbs
Highland Woodworking is located in Atlanta, Georgia USA. Call 800-241-6748 for sales or visit www.highlandwoodworking.com for more information.