answer me this

[sunnybob]

I am the first to admit that my patience is not infinite. but I also dont quit easy. The air might well turn a deep shade of blue, enough to make my wife go out shopping, but I hate being beaten by inanimate objects.
i've very low expectations by my standards of what I want to produce. no thoughts of furniture here, but some worthless gee gaws would be pretty fine for me.

i just cant get past the inability of woodworking tools to cut wood. Thats it really. If I could get flat straight square cuts, i would stop moaning. The one tool I do like is the router table. Apart from one bent cutter, that machine does things I want it to.

I'll see if my son can set me on the right path.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"Apart from one bent cutter"... :shock:

I've been a serial abuser of a router and router cutters for 30+ years and I've not bent one yet.

 

[sunnybob]

I didnt bend it. It came that way. 3" straight cutter, 1mm out from top to bottom of cutting edge.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I am the first to admit that my patience is not infinite. but I also dont quit easy. The air might well turn a deep shade of blue, enough to make my wife go out shopping, but I hate being beaten by inanimate objects.
i've very low expectations by my standards of what I want to produce. no thoughts of furniture here, but some worthless gee gaws would be pretty fine for me.

i just cant get past the inability of woodworking tools to cut wood. Thats it really. If I could get flat straight square cuts, i would stop moaning. The one tool I do like is the router table. Apart from one bent cutter, that machine does things I want it to.

I'll see if my son can set me on the right path.

I've come into this thread late and not read from the start....is your son a carpenter then? Or at least someone who is skilled with wood? I do understand the frustration you express about the tools not working "properly". That's what I'm getting at with the point about changing your mindset. I find it helpful to come from the perspective where I expect things will need fettling because in truth that has been my experience broadly. If a tool can go wrong in the setting up...it often will and you have to become a bit of an all rounder with shaving bits of metal here, gluing bits of rubber there etc as well as working the wood in order to keep your workshop functioning and that's "before" you've cut any wood!

If your son has some skill in the area then I thoroughly recommend you do a complete project with him so he can oversee all the steps. You might find you've got into a bunch of bad habits that an experienced eye can correct quite simply. But it really sounds like your woodworking is at the stage where you need direct expert input or you're going to fall off the wagon. I guess on Cyprus access to more formal classroom based training, evening classes or some such is unlikely? I bet there's a few chippys at RAF Akrotiri

Another approach (somewhat radical given how much you've invested in machine tools) might be to go completely unplugged and do all operations with hand tools. Again to reconnect with the basics and in particular to get the feel of how the grain responds. Have you watched any of Paul Sellers YT videos? That's hand tool and fettling mastery right there.

 

[JimF.]

.... Employing a musical analogy: you probably wouldn't give up piano after such a short time learning and yet working with wood is infinitely more complex...

I'm pretty sure from past experience trying to bash out anything that sounds in the least musical from a variety of instruments that each activity offers up its own levels of complexity.

It's all about attitude, doing in a mindful way, making mistakes and learning from them. And if it's a hobby, having fun!

I just made a box and the number of mistakes I made (as it was my first small scale item) amazed even me. I had to change my plans for the lid because I got the alignment of the dovetails on opposite sides of the box not quite right. But in the end it all went together (though somewhat different and more fraught in the glue-up compared to the calmness of the dry test run!). And the Mrs loved it. As time progresses, I'm ceasing to focus on the imperfections and I'm starting to see it as a completed object. Next box, I shall remember (I hope) what I did wrong and it will be that bit better. Maybe I'll invent some new mistakes to learn from.

There may be a fortunate few who seem to have an inbuilt ability to do all this stuff. The rest of us have to slog and work at it. Hand tools or machine tools, there's a learning curve. No short cuts. And if you like truly working in wood, as I do, it's that which makes this thing called woodwork so delightful.

 

[sunnybob]

I am the first to admit that my patience is not infinite. but I also dont quit easy. The air might well turn a deep shade of blue, enough to make my wife go out shopping, but I hate being beaten by inanimate objects.
i've very low expectations by my standards of what I want to produce. no thoughts of furniture here, but some worthless gee gaws would be pretty fine for me.

i just cant get past the inability of woodworking tools to cut wood. Thats it really. If I could get flat straight square cuts, i would stop moaning. The one tool I do like is the router table. Apart from one bent cutter, that machine does things I want it to.

I'll see if my son can set me on the right path.

I've come into this thread late and not read from the start....is your son a carpenter then? Or at least someone who is skilled with wood? I do understand the frustration you express about the tools not working "properly". That's what I'm getting at with the point about changing your mindset. I find it helpful to come from the perspective where I expect things will need fettling because in truth that has been my experience broadly. If a tool can go wrong in the setting up...it often will and you have to become a bit of an all rounder with shaving bits of metal here, gluing bits of rubber there etc as well as working the wood in order to keep your workshop functioning and that's "before" you've cut any wood!

If your son has some skill in the area then I thoroughly recommend you do a complete project with him so he can oversee all the steps. You might find you've got into a bunch of bad habits that an experienced eye can correct quite simply. But it really sounds like your woodworking is at the stage where you need direct expert input or you're going to fall off the wagon. I guess on Cyprus access to more formal classroom based training, evening classes or some such is unlikely? I bet there's a few chippys at RAF Akrotiri

Another approach (somewhat radical given how much you've invested in machine tools) might be to go completely unplugged and do all operations with hand tools. Again to reconnect with the basics and in particular to get the feel of how the grain responds. Have you watched any of Paul Sellers YT videos? That's hand tool and fettling mastery right there.

Heres some irony for you, I have worked with metal and machinery all my life. My 37 year old son left school for a carpentry apprenticeship, and won best of the year at college. He has worked on shop fitting and old building restorations for many years. We never had much in common.
Now, in retirement, I have taken up woodwork, and this month he has left the shopfitting to start installing new gas and electric equipment in new build houses, which I did as a gas fitter for many years. Our paths have crossed 180 degrees.

Another example, I have worked here for 6 years, in the Mod bases, with full access to all the workshops. Now, retired, my pass is gone and I cant get past the gatehouse.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

LOL....you couldn't make it up could you!

So maybe this is God's way of telling you it's time to make it up with the boy....Jack sprat would eat no fat etc. he gives you his carpentry knowledge and you, vice versa the plumbing /sparky expertise. Between the two, you'll lick the platter clean. And maybe a few old wounds to boot

 

[RobinBHM]

Maybe woodworking as a hobby and the Cypriot climate arent good bedfellows! You just need some more rain!

I wonder what moisture content timber is in Cyprus? 2%?

Regarding the jigsaw -I think the marketing of these tools gives the wrong impression, they are not tools for accurate cutting. For straight square edges, jigsaw then use a router trim and straight edge.

 

[sunnybob]

LOL....you couldn't make it up could you!

So maybe this is God's way of telling you it's time to make it up with the boy....Jack sprat would eat no fat etc. he gives you his carpentry knowledge and you, vice versa the plumbing /sparky expertise. Between the two, you'll lick the platter clean. And maybe a few old wounds to boot

We're not estranged in any way, just no common ground for conversation. I did say I wanted first dibs on his tools now, but he's hanging on in case this job doesnt pan out profitable enough.

 

[sunnybob]

Maybe woodworking as a hobby and the Cypriot climate arent good bedfellows! You just need some more rain!

I wonder what moisture content timber is in Cyprus? 2%?

Regarding the jigsaw -I think the marketing of these tools gives the wrong impression, they are not tools for accurate cutting. For straight square edges, jigsaw then use a router trim and straight edge.

I've advertised for hobby woodworkers and got nowhere. there are lots of furniture makers here, just no hobbyists.

and despite the sun (temps have been 35+C for about 3 weeks now, with higher to come) its actually very humid here because youre never more than a dozen miles from the sea.

The readings this morning were 34c and 70% hunidity

Somewhere during this rant, somebody mentioned blade drift. I have battled blade drift on my bandsaw from day 1, but I had never considered it on a jigsaw. i checked today, and the blade is definitely not parallel to the body. Again, Why is a tool made so badly? Even when this is a Makita!
So tomorrow I shall see if that can be altered. See? a step on the staircase of knowledge

 

[Phil Pascoe]

70% humidity?? Drier than Cornwall, then.

 

[sunnybob]

shaft city? camborne?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Carharrack - Redruth. Close. We live on top of a honeycomb.

 

[RobinBHM]

Carharrack - Redruth. Close. We live on top of a honeycomb.

From tin mines, or bees?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Copper and tin. No honey.

 

[sunnybob]

dont worry about the shafts, concentrate on the radon. Far bigger risk value.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Our last house was 8x over the safety limit. We don't worry about things like that. We all grew up in houses with it.
No shafts directly under mine - it's on an elvan outcrop. Only a nuclear holocaust will shift that.

 

[sunnybob]

theres no smart answer to that.
good luck. (g)