Marc Hills
07-31-2003, 9:25 AM
Not really. I just get frustrated with them. If the building is the journey and the finished project is the destination, hand tools allow me to savor the trip, while power and hand tools alike reward me at journey’s end.
But the real kicker is that power tools, in an instant, allow me to make mistakes that are abrupt, catastrophic and irreversible.
Case in point. I’ve been rushing to finish a rocking doll cradle for my daughter’s fourth birthday (August 2, tick, tock). It’s all my design and I’ve been having a blast making it. All hand cut dovetails and M&T joinery. I’ve been doing most of the shaping with planes and spoke shaves, but last night I decided to use my router (for speed and consistency) to round over some of the parts. I was rounding over the first of two “runners” that the cradle rocks on when the roundover bit’s guide bearing encountered one of the mortises I had chiseled. Said guide bearing followed the cavity created by the mortise and the roundover bit, spinning at 22,000 rpm, dutifully followed. In less than a half a second I had routed a huge divot in an otherwise beautiful piece. My neighbor thought I had sawed off a finger when she came rushing up to my driveway. Only then did I realize the string of expletives I had let loose into the evening air.
I’m not saying the project was perfect up to that point. Far from it. But going the neander route has meant that mistakes creep up gradually, with lots of warning. When I realized I’d taken off too much with a spoke shave, it was really only a little too much and there was ample opportunity to gradually correct, or at least minimize the problem.
With my router, power saws and sanders, I need to be mindful of the potential for any sort of mistake.
The further I go down the slippery slope, the more that I realize that using tailed tools isn’t just less satisfying; it requires a completely different mindset.
But the real kicker is that power tools, in an instant, allow me to make mistakes that are abrupt, catastrophic and irreversible.
Case in point. I’ve been rushing to finish a rocking doll cradle for my daughter’s fourth birthday (August 2, tick, tock). It’s all my design and I’ve been having a blast making it. All hand cut dovetails and M&T joinery. I’ve been doing most of the shaping with planes and spoke shaves, but last night I decided to use my router (for speed and consistency) to round over some of the parts. I was rounding over the first of two “runners” that the cradle rocks on when the roundover bit’s guide bearing encountered one of the mortises I had chiseled. Said guide bearing followed the cavity created by the mortise and the roundover bit, spinning at 22,000 rpm, dutifully followed. In less than a half a second I had routed a huge divot in an otherwise beautiful piece. My neighbor thought I had sawed off a finger when she came rushing up to my driveway. Only then did I realize the string of expletives I had let loose into the evening air.
I’m not saying the project was perfect up to that point. Far from it. But going the neander route has meant that mistakes creep up gradually, with lots of warning. When I realized I’d taken off too much with a spoke shave, it was really only a little too much and there was ample opportunity to gradually correct, or at least minimize the problem.
With my router, power saws and sanders, I need to be mindful of the potential for any sort of mistake.
The further I go down the slippery slope, the more that I realize that using tailed tools isn’t just less satisfying; it requires a completely different mindset.