Freddie

How are those Harvey machines? I have never heard of them until today. Of course, I have also been living under a rock for the past few years so you must excuse me.

Yes, just set up last weekend. Got the electric run on sat morning while I was at work, came home and pulled everything out of the garage and organized, threw away what was junk. Got all the cast iron clean since it was sitting for about 7 years. Gotta do some tuning up, then start a project to knock the cobwebs off.

Figured I would stop in and say hello.

Hello?

If you don't want to learn the skill, I guess that is up to the person. The thing that irks me is people who own all the fancy hand tools and can't use them properly. Might as well be a professional tool polisher. I've been out of my shop for about 2 years and I guarantee you I can still cut a dovetail that you couldn't squeeze a fart through.

Nice job Eric, digging dem Gumby legs.

I feel like the TS75 is also grossly under powered. I own the track saw and the domino. The only other tool I would consider from them is the barrel grip jigsaw because it is super lightweight and would be a lot easier to cope moulding than my heavy bosch jig saw. I like my festool toys, but I am not a flag waver, so I proudly say out loud that I think they suck in the power dept. I got more use out of my track saw on job sites then in the shop. Portable, accurate, dust free and easy to load and unload. For that factor alone, these tools kick ass out in the field. For the shop, they have kind of become more of a fad and a status symbol than anything. Bring on the hate.

I prefer my japanese saw over my lie nielsen saw for a half blind or a sliding dovetail. For these I saw slow, it's not a race. In some cases I might leave room after sawing to do some chisel work, depends on the joint. For a through dovetail, if the stock is 5/8" or thinner, I will cut fast with my lie nelson saw. One the saw plunges square the rest happens naturally. Anything thicker and I will take my time to ensure the cut stays square and I don't bind or stress the blade.

The lazy way to do hand work is get it good enough to reference a machine surface. If you're going this route then don't settle for anything less than good enough. Make sure you incorporate this into your workflow so you can tell people you hand milled your lumber. Be sure to leave out the part where you used machines, nobody wants to hear about that. Also, be sure to take plenty of pictures with a hand plane sitting on top of the board, it makes for ultimate authenticity. In all seriousness, this was a twisted board that I made stable enough to pass through my industrial lunchbox planer.

I'd have to say technique over tools for me is what made my woodworking experience better. Over the years I had upgraded tools, but never set my shop up to utilize the new tools to their fullest. I got a cabinet saw, but never built an outfeed table. I invested in hand tools without a proper bench. Basically, I was always fighting myself in the shop, but I never let my work suffer from that. At my day job however, my tool box is about as organized as you could possibly imagine. OCD to the max. My wood shop on the other hand, a disaster!

Shop fridge is a game changer!

No it didn't, and sorry to waste your time by making you open this. But since you're here, what "tool" really raised the bar in your shop?

Notice the existing garage door in the pic Coop. As for the thursday, it was either that or one of the other 6 days in a week.

Das effin nice man!