Interesting site

[Chris Knight]

Came across this link on Woodcentral - the guy seems like some latter-day Leonardo!

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/workshop/index.html

 

[chiba]

I'm coming to the conclusion that there less than 100 interesting sites on the Internet, and they're all in my bookmarks. I came across this guy about 2 years ago - he'd build a scanning back for a large format camera (my other passion) out of wood and rubber bands. Amazing, as the real deal costs over 10 grand. :shock:

 

[Anonymous]

part of my day job is supporting the wireless pagers this guy's company make. Having seen his "pager rotation machine" I'm starting to get an understanding of their mindset, and just a little worried

 

[Adam]

I thought the site was superb, some people are naturally able to just "realize" a solution to any problem they have using any materials to hand. Sort of "scrapheap challenge" in wood type stuff.

A

 

[Neil]

I agree Adam - things like the gear cutting jig are particularly amazing. The guy is a genius.

I can't help thinking that maybe he doesn't have many commitments outside of work though!

NeilCFD

 

[Anonymous]

Hi all

loved this site - my kind of bloke. I have developed loads of microcontroller based stepper driver stuff in my various jobs and have now been inspired by the site to motorise a few things.
If there is enough interest I could possibly produce a stepper and/or DC motor driver system using a microcontroller in stand alone mode or linked to a PC for forum members to tinker with.

How about a mod to the woodrat to extend it to a sort of CNC machine?

cheers

Tony

 

[Aragorn]

OK OK there's a lot of admiration going on for this guy, but I've only had a brief look through and I'm amazed at the huge dangers he's introducing to the woodwork.
Don't do this stuff at home!

In particualr - never stack regular saw blades in your table saw to make a dado. This is incredibly dangerous. Dado sets have outer blades with teeth that all point to the outside. This is essential for safety, as the forces of the rotation of the blade can cause the teeth to come together making a very nasty mess of your machine, blades and fingers. The inner "blades" in a true dado set are "chippers" that have just 2 or 4 teeth. Please folks don't try this at home.

His fingerjoint jig requires the removal of the blade guard the dangers of which have been discussed lots of times here before. Use a router. (Besides Norm's fingerjoint jig is more accurate and easy than this one anyway!)

Several of his other jigs require the blade guard to be removed. Lots of us do this, but make sure you know the dangers. I strongly recommend reading some of the disaster stories before you remove the guards for the first time. If you feel you must regularly work without the riving knife or guard, re-read these stories often! Keeps you on your toes. :wink:

Sorry to be "preachy". Just couldn't let that dado "disaster waiting to happen" go by without comment.

A

 

[Adam]

Yeah, so some of it's unsafe - but he seems to be having fun - and I mean a wasp vacuum? or an apple juicer for cider making? Jenga Pistol!

A.

 

[Neil]

Yep, I'm with you 100% on this one, Aragorn. I can't understand why he doesn't use a router table instead. Dado cutters are scary enough, but home-made dado cutters? :shock:

Personally, I've never removed the riving knife & blade guard on my TS (admittedly I hate it and avoid using it as much as possible anyway) and I honestly can't think of any instance that I would want to - router-based methods just seem so much better.

NeilCFD

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, I'm with you 100% on this one, Aragorn. I can't understand why he doesn't use a router table instead. Dado cutters are scary enough, but home-made dado cutters? :shock:

NeilCFD

Well..

Router cutters are more expensive and not adjustable - dado is
Router cutters cut much slower than a dado blade
Router cutters have much shorter life than a saw blade (assuming neither is sharpened by user)
Routers use brushed motors and T/S uses induction so less noisey
T/S usually have superior dust extraction to router table
I would guess that more peple own a tablesaw than a router table
Most table saws I have seen have superior fences and mitre slots than router tables do and so cut more accurately and repeatedly when using the mitre

I use a router table for these cuts and have NEVER fitted a dado to my TS

I do not agree at all with the idea that dado blades are necesarily dangerous, a fact bourn out by their sale all around the world and use in many workshops.

I do however completely agree with Aragorns statement about placing two saw blades side-by-side. How dangerous? :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Are there any statistics to support the idea that dado blades and use of a table saw without crown guard is more dangerous? Are there any studies of injuries to support the arguments?
Most American table saws do not come with a riving knife or guard and the use of dado's is widespread. Do most users of American tablesaw users have injuries because of this?

I do not really see the need to point out any safety issues with the guy in the link's working practices. He is inventive and creative and this should be acknowledged rather than critising his choice of working practices. The risks are his alone - we all chose the level of risk that is acceptable to us

Now please help me down from this soapbox

Tony

 

[Aragorn]

I do not really see the need to point out any safety issues with the guy in the link's working practices.

Well, I just thought it would be a good idea to point out some of the safety issues around his practice in case anyone reading this decided to do his dado trick without fully appreciating the danger.
Of course we all have to make our own choices about the risks we take, but there's nought wrong with making informed choices!

A

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Tony

Why bother with taking bits off a tablesaw when you can do the job much more safely with a router.

All you do is make some simple jigs and away you go.

OK it might take you a little longer, but does it really matter?

Cheers
Neil

 

[Alf]

Children, please! Can we not get into the old d*d* argument again? It's not just been done to death, but buried, exhumed, post-mortemed, cremated and had its ashes scattered. :roll: I think Aragorn was correct to point out the dangers, just on the off-chance someone decided to give it a go without bothering to read up some more on the subject (marble-firing crossbows would also come under a heading of "what a foolish idea" in my book, but there you go). So we can now move on, yes?

Incidentally; "igloo building tool"? :? Yeah, right up there with Mrs Da Vinci's little boy... :roll: :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Anonymous]

Of course we all have to make our own choices about the risks we take, but there's nought wrong with making informed choices!

A

True

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tony

Why bother with taking bits off a tablesaw when you can do the job much more safely with a router.

All you do is make some simple jigs and away you go.

OK it might take you a little longer, but does it really matter?

Cheers
Neil

Hi Neil

As I said in my post, I don't use a dado cutter. I cut nearly all dados using a hand held router and either a guide clamp or a plywood jig I made a while back. Rest cut on router table against fence

Wouldn't touch a dado head cutter but do not know of any evidence of injury caused by such a device and so unwilling to condemn them

Cheers

Tony

 

[Steve]

Children, please! Can we not get into the old d*d* argument again? It's not just been done to death, but buried, exhumed, post-mortemed, cremated and had its ashes scattered.

Alf - it seems 'done to death' by you because you moderate the forum. My point is that as new people join forums, they don't usually bother to go back too far. To regulars, it will seem done to death, but to new people (eg: the people Aragorn was writing for because I hope to hell he wasn't writing for us!) it's still perfectly valid.

Steve
(I'll pop down the shops now, shall I?)

 

[Aragorn]

To regulars, it will seem done to death, but to new people (eg: the people Aragorn was writing for because I hope to hell he wasn't writing for us!) it's still perfectly valid.

Exactly!
Look - anyone can set up a website showing their work and practices. It doesn't mean it's safe just coz it's on a website. The regulars here will be bored to death of the dado threads, but new forum users and new woodworkers might not appreciate the dangers.

I think this thread's gone off topic for too long! If there's a dangerous suggestion made by a poster here, or in a link to an external site, how about we just quickly point it out and move on?

So how about his workshop? Do you reckon he sweeps up at the end of each day!

A

 

[Steve]

I love the smell of Alf-baiting in the morning... it smells like victory.

Steve
(back from the shops and with apologies to FF Coppola!)

 

[Anonymous]

for the last word on dados see here

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/ida ... it1-me.pdf

 

[Adam]

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/sawmill/sawmill.html

Hmm, even safer! (not) - just look at that sawdust :shock:

Adam