How the Professionals do It
December 4th, 2008Beat Your Power Tools With a Hammer
Okay, the sensation of manliness has worn off, and I feel like an idiot again.
I’ve been watching Taunton’s Router Joinery DVD, with Gary Rogowski. He says he has been making furniture for 20 years, so I guess he knows a few things.
Remember all the BS I’ve been through with my router aspirations? I got a big-ass plunge router with a huge motor. I wanted to be able to use it in a table, and I wanted to be able to change bits and so on without reaching under the table, so I bought a lift and a router plate. For days, I’ve been agonizing, trying to get my old MDF/melamine desk perfectly flat so I could mount the plate in it.
Guess what this guy uses for a router table? A crappy sheet of melamine with a hole in it. I am not kidding. It’s like two by three feet, and it has NO attachments except for a router base. It has no dust collection hole. No cutesy fence. Is it flat? I very much doubt it. He sets it up by putting about four inches of it on a workbench and holding it in place with TWO CLAMPS. There is no way it doesn’t flex when it has weight on it. I can’t believe it hasn’t snapped.
His router? It’s a Stanley. I know; I didn’t know they made routers, either. It’s probably thirty years old. It’s such a piece of crap, he has to bang on it with a hammer to make the bits come out. He has other routers, too, but he seems to use this one just to torment people like me, who actually spend money on tools.
His fence is a piece of scrap held in place with clamps. This guy is a professional woodworker, and it appears he has invested about two hundred dollars in tools.
I want to kill him.
I haven’t gone all that crazy. Some guys buy $300 lifts and $900 tables. I have a router and a lift and a cheesy old desk; that’s not so bad. But compared to Gary Rogowski, I’m wildly extravagant.
I was considering giving my old Sears router and table away, but now that I’ve seen what this man does with horrible tools, I may have to keep them. Although I really hate that router. You adjust the depth by turning the router inside a plastic collar which gets stuck once a certain amount of sawdust hits it. I hate it. I HATE it. Maybe the table is worth keeping.
I need a band saw.
Look, leave me alone.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:04 PM
Bandsaw-wise, I’ve been looking at the 14″ Grizzly G0555X – inexpensive, but the reviewers like it.
What I’d really like is one of those top-of-the-line Laguna re-saws, but I have neither the cash nor the 220V circuit.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:14 PM
Next up: Steve buys a Power Adze.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:16 PM
Everyone, check out my amazing adze.
Would I really need a bandsaw if I had a mighty Roto-Zip?
December 4th, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Look, I saw a guy build an entire log cabin with a hand axe and a tree saw held together by rust. No measuring, just saw, hack, heave.
But I don’t think he had as much fun as the guys next door with all their tools.
-XC
December 4th, 2008 at 5:39 PM
The b est bandsaws are made by Do All. They rock, for wood and metal.
hence, you know, the name.
It’s relatively amazing how much a good craftsman can do with relatively crude tools. The guy who built my parent’s home addition did so with a handsaw, two levels, and a hammer. He had it under roof, working by himself, in a week. (this was a 20 x 28 foot master bedroom suite) he quoted the project to within $12 of the actual cost, and had less than a paper grocery bag of scrap wood leftover. Developing those skills takes a while, and those who are good at it are few and far between.
December 4th, 2008 at 5:41 PM
I wish I could have been there to see him do the painting and wiring.
December 4th, 2008 at 7:29 PM
He was a builder, not a painter nor an electrician. We did the wiring ourselves and mom painted. We would have built the addition but dad was working 12 hrs 13 days at the time, and we needed to get it under roof before winter.
December 4th, 2008 at 7:34 PM
If I got into carpentry, my son who was born on December 25 might get an inappropriate Brian-like following.
December 4th, 2008 at 7:54 PM
I have a small 3 wheeler band saw, dont waste your money, get as large as you can, check craigslist for used from closing shops.. If I had the space for a full size, thats how I’d go for it. if you can get 220 so much the better.
December 4th, 2008 at 8:23 PM
I have a Rotozip with a bunch of attachments. Although it is phenomonal for certain tasks, you still need a bandsaw so I can read about it.
Seriously, the table I am making is a piece of 3/4 MDF on folding legs with a hole for the router. I got fancy and made a fence for it with AJUSTMENT SLOTS! Your table will allow you to do bigger pieces more easily I suspect.
One last thing, get rid of your Craftsman router. Any tool that makes a job more difficult is not worth keeping around – especially if you have a better replacement. My Dad once threw a pipe wrench that slipped one too many times on him into the pond behind the house while telling it to go “back to the indians”. Not too sure what he meant by that…
December 4th, 2008 at 8:57 PM
Now that we have a bandsaw (actually, 2 of ’em), I can’t imagine getting along w/o one. The big Powermatic is variable speed, and we use it more for metal cutting than wood, but it’s great for that, too.
You NEED a bandsaw, Steve.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:37 PM
You are no longer the king of the tool users
December 4th, 2008 at 9:59 PM
Oh dear. Yeah. I commiserate. You ought to see my knitting needle (stop laughing) collection. I have other collections too. Its an illness.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:12 AM
I honestly learn more about how routers and sawing techniques work from the guy on The Woodwright’s Shop. Or as I like to call it, Old Yankee Workshop. I’m not sure why, but that dude with his planes and handsaws has shown me more about the concept of a tool, as well as the proper use of tools than that Norm Abram guy.
December 5th, 2008 at 9:03 AM
Required quality of tools is inversely proportional to experience. One of the reasons people don’t learn to use tools is that they buy cheap crap thinking, well, I’m just starting out… but cheap tools slip and break and can’t be adjusted properly, and the new tool user gets disgusted and stops trying. If such a person bought high-quality tools it would be a lot easier to learn to use them.
Once a person’s been doing it for years, old, worn-out, or low quality tools are less of a problem; the user knows how to compensate for the tool’s deficiencies, and which qualities are important and which can be let slide. It is far more important that a router bit be sharp and not wobble in the bearings than that it come in and out easily.
Regards,
Ric
December 5th, 2008 at 9:17 AM
I hate to break it to you, but I am experienced wood worker. Sort of. I once, in my younger days, built cabinets that were 8 ft tall by 8 ft wide on a wall behind my kitchen table. I wanted them there. I cheated slightly. I knew I did not have the equipment to cut the doors in a plumb way so I took them to the neighborhood lumber yard and they cut them for me. I did all the finish work myself. My husband was out of town and boy was he surprised. They looked great. I took great pleasure in telling people I built them. They perfectly matched the original cabinet work we had done when we built the house. I used a Sears router to trim the doors. I love to finish wood, it is beautiful artwork created by God. I have too much arthritis now and lack the energy to do any fine finish work so I just don’t do any at all. It is a most satisfying hobby, and when you finish you have something to be proud of. I would not recommend getting a Sears router nowadays. We have a different brand now but I don’t use it, my husband does.
December 5th, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Look, you’re not going to be happy until you have a drill press, so why keep tormenting yourself?
December 5th, 2008 at 10:37 AM
I have a feeling the Steel City drill press will cost about $400 in February. Deflation seems to be upon us.
December 5th, 2008 at 11:25 AM
A true craftsman can do a superb job with minimal tooling in a surprisingly short time.
My grandfather was a carpenter. He built his own house (two stories, 4 bedrooms, about 3200 sq. ft. himself, with nothing but hand tools. The house is about 90 years old and has needed practically zero repairs. The fit and finish of everything is nearly perfect. He built all the mantlepieces and the staircase to the second floor, and the bannister and newel post is still rock-solid.
The guy Steve mentions knows what he’s doing through experience, so he doesn’t have to depend on his tooling so much.
Take a spin out to Colonial Williamsburg sometime and watch REAL craftsman build things with nothing but hand tools.
For the novice, good power tools speed things up a lot. It makes it easy to get true surfaces and square cuts. You don’t need to learn the skills needed to do it by hand.
Learning to do good work with hand tools before going to power tools makes you a much better craftsman.
My $0.02, YMMV