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Thread: Request for brutaly honest Creekers

  1. #61
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Algonquin, IL
    Posts
    303
    Aaron,

    How about a saw replacement/upgrade for $275. Seriously this is a great price and an upgrade from what you have. (Not a Unisaw, but not a Uni price either!) You could sell your current for $75 and upgrade for very little $$

    From Craig's list in your area:

    http://savannah.craigslist.org/tls/1168576549.html

    Enjoy the hobby. It gives me much fulfillment and fun, I hope you enjoy it too and take all the "advice" given here with the positive flavor it was meant.

    M
    Last edited by Mike Circo; 06-04-2009 at 9:47 AM.
    “Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity”

  2. #62
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Prosper, Texas
    Posts
    1,474
    Aaron - I'm not too sure about the "attitude" thing. I've got to tell ya man, I think you've got a great attitude. It takes a lot of guts to post on an Internet forum asking for criticism.....and then opening the door for those that are "brutally honest" to boot. Wow. Kudos to you.
    Regards,

    Glen

    Woodworking: It's a joinery.

  3. #63
    Aron,

    I think it is great that your son is there with you. Just make a rule that he must stay put while the machines are on. Just watching the video he was a distraction to me as he darted around.

    Making this cut on a table saw is fine. However if everything is not executed just rite and the saw in tune and capable of the cut. You will need to run it threw again to clean up the cut. This is why I prefer to use a guided circular saw to break down the full sheet first.

    This is not a cut for your current set up in my opinion. I had a Delta contractor saw that every time I put a significant load on. I would have to spend an hour getting the saw back in alignment. Not only that but there is no way that your fence is going to stand up to the leverage of a full sheet of 3/4" ply. My recommendation would be to jump on that Craig's list Rigid saw now. As in drop what you are doing. Then if you still want to up grade you can sell it for what you paid for it.

    My $.02

    James
    Last edited by James White; 06-04-2009 at 10:07 AM.

  4. #64
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Southern Minnesota
    Posts
    1,442
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Circo View Post
    Aaron,

    How about a saw replacement/upgrade for $275. Seriously this is a great price and an upgrade from what you have. (Not a Unisaw, but not a Uni price either!) You could sell your current for $75 and upgrade for very little $$

    From Craig's list in your area:

    http://savannah.craigslist.org/tls/1168576549.html

    Enjoy the hobby. It gives me much fulfillment and fun, I hope you enjoy it too and take all the "advice" given here with the positive flavor it was meant.

    M
    This saw Mike has found would solve alot of your problems right away. I wouldn't worry about that big honking grizzly now. Learn some more about your hobby first. This ridgid saw will bring in about what you paid for it in a few years so you are out next to nothing.

    I did alot of things like you did during my first years, on second though I still do alot of dumb things. I once tipped over a craftsman saw I was using while ripping a 2x12 in half. It was a little tiny craftsman saw with a cast aluminum table, the table was about 16x20, and it had a 7 1/4 blade in it. When ripping stock it would pinch and stop the blade occasionally. This was probably 5 years ago. Since I have moved on to better tools and have learned alot from all of the great people on this site.

    My other advice would be, get rid of the darn gloves. I have personally talked to 2 older guys that are missing digits because of wearing gloves.

    I think it is great that your boy is in the shop helping. I can't wait until mine is old enough to be out with me. But I think I would ask him to stay still in a certian location while I am cutting. That is one less distraction you need. You can be the safest wood worker in the world, but distractions and complacency are what cause accidents.

  5. #65
    Quote Originally Posted by Aaron Berk View Post

    ....My son has a specific stool that he's allowed on when I'm at the table saw.

    Aaron
    The problem was then that he wasnt using it.
    John Lucas
    woodshopdemos

  6. #66
    I know every other Creeker has already weighed in, and I'm not posting to simply piggy pile on top, but here's my 2 cents:

    A standard sheet of 3/4 weighs about 75 lbs. It is unwieldly at best. Even if everything goes right, you are always on the brink of losing your grip or body position, feeding it just a hair off square into the blade (binding it), or struggling on feed end (at beginning) or outfeed side (on end) to keep 2 heavy pieces from hitting the floor.

    If you get half way into the cut and things go awry, you are dead meat. Can't let go of material to turn off saw, probably can't even reach or find the Off switch, no time to yell for help, etc. You are at the mercy of the torque of your saw and whatever it decides to do the with material you are now married to.

    Start a post asking for horror stories dealing with table saws and you will quickly re-
    think your next attempt at ripping large pieces on the saw.

    Measure twice, cut once? How about, Think 10x, do safely 1x, be able to do again another time.
    Last edited by Kevin Godshall; 06-04-2009 at 10:19 AM. Reason: spelling , d'oh.

  7. #67
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Glenmoore, PA
    Posts
    2,194
    Aron, you are getting a lot of comments on the kid in the shop and I was one that made a comment about it so I kida feel a need to add a clarification to my specific remarks.

    I have two young guys and I love for them to be in the shop with me. My personal rule is that they are not allowed to be in there when I am running power tools as I find it distracting to be thinking about where they are / what they are doing. That said, this is MY rule and I get that different people have different rules. That's great - their shop, their kids, their rules.

    I think in this particular case that the kid should not be there for the simple reason that you are making a cut that you are already questioning your ability to do properly and are thus "experimenting" with so to speak. This intruduces quite a bit of distraction and uncertainty into the situation.

    I agree with others though - takes stones to put yourself out there for critique.

  8. #68
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    SF Bay Area, CA
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    15,332
    Quote Originally Posted by Aaron Berk View Post
    Gloves.... mixed emotions here. I wear the 3 finger type that fit tight and velcro on the wrist. I feel I get improved stock control with these. I would think a loose apron would have been a bigger issue. Which by the way I don't know if you caught it in the video but my apron string caught on my feed roller while moving through the cut.



    Ok let me know if I missed one, I'm here to learn.
    Aaron
    I think gloves are fine...especially snug ones. If you're cutting a "decent distance" from the blade, even baggy ones are likely fine. If they make you feel like you have better control over the wood, go for it.

    Nice on the apron string...no one caught that and bashed you over the head for it! LOL....

    I'm new to wearing aprons but I love them. I have the Festool one and it has more strap/belts than strings and they all click together with those plastic quick connector thingies so nothing to get loose....
    Wood: a fickle medium....

    Did you know SMC is user supported? Please help.

  9. #69
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Kapolei Hawaii
    Posts
    3,236

    Kudos for volunteering to get bashed.

    I agree with everyone here that says it takes extreme guts to post this thread. Takes more guts than I have.

    That being said, I really really think you should rip that sheet down with a circular saw and good guide, as mentioned before. With a good blade/guide/saw, you can even cut it to near final dimensions and joint it to your final. You should joint after cutting on a TS anyways...... Managing a 35 pound panel is MUCH easire than 75.

    I just keep thinking on that first post where you are dead set on using the TS to rip the panel. Why punish yourself?

  10. #70
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Portsmouth, VA
    Posts
    1,218
    Aaron, I'll start with echoing a few things...the biggest that I agree with is you asking for brutal honesty and then taking it all VERY well. It takes a big man to ask for help, even bigger to ask for brutal honesty. Kudos to you.

    I too was dead set on ripping ply (and recently melamine) on my Jet cabinet saw. But I saw the light (or actually the pain in the lower back) and decided it wasn't the best course of action. If you're only going to do this occasionally, it might be OK. But eventually all the balancing and man-handling is going to take it's toll on you. I bought an EZ system and absolutely love it (gloat and review will be coming soon). But you don't need that - just use your circular saw and break the sheet down into something more manageable. And that applies even if you get a better saw.

    For the longest time I had a saw just like yours. Realizing I needed to upgrade it, I built 4x4 table with the saw set 1 foot in from the front and 1 foot in from the left edge. This gave me an infeed and outfeed table along with left and right support. Worked great. I also added a Vega fence. I did this because at the time there were no "cheap" upgrades available from that little Craftsman tabletop. I used that saw that way for many, many years and produced a lot of nice pieces. So your's can be salvaged, but that CL Rigid is a "cheap" upgrade and you'll notice a dramatic difference with using it. And in a year or two when you hone your skills and out grow it, you can easliy recoup much of it's cost to apply towards a cabinet saw.

    Lastly, the son...again kudos to you for having him in there. My four year is glued to me when he knows Daddy is heading for the shop. He's my "little workshop helper". My PPE (personal protective equipment) is right at the door. He grabs his eye and hearing pro before he even steps out of the door way. Then up on the computer stool. Before I start any tools I look to him and he gives me a thumbs up! He knows if he moves while the tools are running he's out of the shop for the rest of the day. It only took a couple of "evictions" for him to really understand. When I'm laying something out or working with hand tools, he's right with me. The only additional caution is that I installed a dead bolt on the door and it's locked anytime I'm not in the shop to stop him from being curious and going in by himself. I also have the entire shop wired to a subpanel that gets cut off (and locked) when I leave.

    Again, congrats on taking the hits so gracefully.

    Be well,

    Doc

  11. #71
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Allen, TX
    Posts
    2,017
    don't know if someone else said it but you never push on the left side of the blade. you're binding the blade that way. and being a crappy blade that's way underpowered, it probably binds easily.

  12. #72
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Northfield, Mn
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    1,227
    Quote Originally Posted by Neal Clayton View Post
    don't know if someone else said it but you never push on the left side of the blade. you're binding the blade that way. and being a crappy blade that's way underpowered, it probably binds easily.

    huh? If he was pushing in front of the blade, then yeah I agree. But if you're behind the blade you always push towards the fence first, then worry about forward. If you do that you don't need those gimicky rollers on the fence.

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