The most un-neander wood working products

[Sean Hughto]

I was checking out LV's what's new page and saw this product. It just struck me as the total antithesis of neander woodworking. Many ways to skin any cat, no doubt, but it wouldn't be much fun for me persoanlly to use stuff like this to size my stock. With the "why are you a neander" thread in mind, I thought I'd start a thread for folks to show any wood working products that came across as farthest from the neander world.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=67042&cat=51&ap=1

[Jim Paulson]

Sean,

I hear you, but honestly it isn't much different than using an electronic caliper to check details on a hand carved duck decoy. I say that while not having carved a duck decoy, but I know that decoy carvers can be that focused on proportions. Bottomline, in my mind whatever helps us to do fine woodworking is on target.

Those are my thoughts on a snowy windy winter day any way.
Jim

[john brenton]

You poor souls in the NE and Midwest. I woke up this morning, went outside, and took my sweater OFF. I was like, dang, it's kind of warm today. Seriously.

I agree with both of you...as would any reasonable person.

[Bob Strawn]

No joke, real galoots use dial indicators! (http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32525&cat=1,43513,51657)

Bob

[James Scheffler]

It isn't neander, but it's certainly a good idea if you have a TS.

[Chris Vandiver]

This probably fits the un-neander bill;

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=25376&rrt=1

[paul cottingham]

I believe that is for "checking or setting blade or fence alignment." As such, It looks pretty handy. But I may be misreading it....

[Patrick Beabout]

How about vernier calipers?

[Niels Cosman]

pretty unneander i suppose, but looks really useful and a super cheap alternative to dial indicator set.
if i had to think of the MOST unneander i would pick something CNC like a billion axis lathe or milling machine. something where the hand is out of sight and out of mind.

[David Weaver]

I would pick the "carvewright".

I was in rockler last year, and I heard several guys talking about things they "carved". Odd thing was that the way they talked about it, it was as if they had carved the things and not the machine.

I saw a couple of the sample pieces coming off of the machine - talk about tacky!! How many obviously machine-made wooden lion faces can you possibly need?

[Jim Belair]

+1 on any of the CNC machines. Is it possible to get ANY kind of satisfaction using one of those things?

Jim B

[Charles Goodnight]

Hmm, the hand held tool that seems most non-neander to me is probably the hand power planer. It just seems wrong to call it a plane, seems to take a wonderful tool in exactly the wrong direction, and doesn't seem to offer anything that a real plane doesn't offer. I actually imagine that if you were a professional builder where time is money it might actually be useful for fitting doors and what not, but for a woodworker?

180970

[David Weaver]

I can understand the virtue of them when you have a paying customer who is looking for exactly something and you can get the machine to make it and then you sell it to them and make money.

That makes sense to me.

I sound like an old fart when I say this, but unless i had a business, i want nothing to do with that kind of stuff at all.

My mother paints, she makes money, she does pretty well compensating herself for her time. I will not give my full opinion on what she paints to make money, but she has done a very good job of determining what the customer wants, and she does exactly that, she's learned to do it quickly with very reasonable material cost, still do it by hand and offer it for a low price. What she does now is miles different than the drawing and painting that she used to do before she realized she could use her hands to make money. that's what the difference is to me, either doing what you want, or doing what you feel like you have to do.

But the recreational use of something like a carvewright (and spending money on something that will be worthless as soon as it breaks or when it is quickly outdated) just leaves me dumbfounded.

[David Weaver]

I don't have a hand planer, but I can see the attraction of one for a hand tool woodworker (one who doesn't have a thickness planer). The only fuction hand tooling that i really don't get that excited about is thicknessing boards. I think something like a large thick table top that needed some roughing would be a great candidate for a power planer, get it close, and then move over to hand planes.

They're just so loud, though.

[John A. Callaway]

You poor souls in the NE and Midwest. I woke up this morning, went outside, and took my sweater OFF. I was like, dang, it's kind of warm today. Seriously.

I agree with both of you...as would any reasonable person.


Out in Pooler, we have the windows open, the box fans blowing air down the stairs today.... Its like spring on groundhog day.

[Sean Hughto]

Your right. I think I just skimmed the text and was imagining it being used to somehow set the width of a rip or something. With that misunderstanding, It seemed a strange way to get to a certain width board as opposed to taking the last few thousandsths off with a plane. My bad.

[Jonathan Spool]

http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/k148665_m.jpg
Is this neander enough?

[Sean Hughto]

oooooh! I want one!

[Bob Strawn]

Hmm, the hand held tool that seems most non-neander to me is probably the hand power planer. It just seems wrong to call it a plane, seems to take a wonderful tool in exactly the wrong direction, and doesn't seem to offer anything that a real plane doesn't offer. I actually imagine that if you were a professional builder where time is money it might actually be useful for fitting doors and what not, but for a woodworker?

180970

To me the ultimate non galoot item is the Longtailed Screaming Wood Goblin. Otherwise misnamed as a router.

Here is the non-galoot check list.

1 Screams so loud, you want to or should cover your ears.
2 Throws chips and dust with abandon.
3 Much less functional during a power outage or stops working if you pull it's tail.
4 Not as good or as cheap as the new model coming out next year.
5 Requires a jig to do anything but the simplest operation.

Most of these qualities would knock a tool out of galoot status by themselves. A router does all of these and ignores galoot aesthetics. I suppose a steampunk looking router might avoid this, and be kind of cool in a way, but color schemes executed in plastic tend to invalidate even the most likely galoot tool.

Bob

[John Coloccia]

I'm comfortable using any tool used to make my tools. That leaves it pretty wide open, doesn't it? :)

But the least neander-like tool in my shop is my ShopFox pin router.

[Gary Hodgin]

My candidate is the belt sander. I've heard of hand sawing and dovetailing contests, but this takes the cake. What's happening to this country?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmVpvr-a4uQ