Tools To Help Overcome Disabilities

[custard]

Something that came from another thread (a marking gauge with a large ball shaped handle above the cutter) prompted a discussion about tools, jigs, fixtures, or machines that might help woodworkers with arthritis.

Here's another couple of ideas,

The Glen Drake Two Handed Saw,

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/tools ... -in-sawing

A Plunge Assist mechanism for a router,

http://www.woodrat.com/downloads/PlungeBar_Guide.pdf

If anyone has any other ideas or suggestions on ways to overcome disabilities then please post them. If there's enough suggestions maybe this could be made a sticky thread. I hope I'll never need any of these, but if I do it would be useful to know where I come to find them!

 

[Droogs]

I don't need them personaly and hope I never do, but it is a very goood idea Custard

 

[NazNomad]

Something as simple as a bow-sander will help if you have weakness in your hands.

 

[Benchwayze]

I don't consider myself 'disabled', but I have had to accept my limitations. Over the last five or six years my arthritis has got worse, and I have been finding difficulty in stooping over the bench for certain jobs (Dovetailing especially). This finally prompted me to go for a Moxon Vice. This is going to lift the work just a few inches, and this really does make a difference. I could raise the work in the bench-vice of course, but most of us like the work as low as possible for certain tasks. I know there are other solutions. For instance, I could sit down to work, but I just don't feel comfortable woodworking from a bar-stool. So, the Moxon seemed the easist approach.

The machines, just in themselves, are also a big help, especially with the grunt work. Thankfully, I can still manage to operate them; albeit in shorter spells.

So far the only other serious limitation is the tendinitis I have in my hands. This bothers me most when I pick up something heavy. I have to remember not to try lifting things using the normal 'claw' action with my thumb and fingers. So far so good!

John