Goodbye to the table saw

Timbuck

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As part of my clearout..I have finaly put this on e-bay..I've never used it in uke building and I can't even remember why I bought it in the first place ...If it don't sell the scrap man can have it...it's got to go :)
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Funny, that. I have 2 table saws and access to a nicer one at H&D, and I use them for instrument work all the time. Ripping guitar scraps into uke & banjo neck stock, slotting fingerboards, resawing uke wood, making binding, cutting the wedges for block banjo rims, making end grafts, ripping lining, and more. We must operate in very different manners. If I was your neighbor I'd snatch up your saw in a heart beat.
 
I don't use my tablesaw anymore for much more than jig making, fret slotting (and there are many other ways to do this) and mitering blocks for banjo-type pot construction. I used to use it for everything; I even used to drool over bigger better saws.

Most of the time now I keep it unplugged with the blade cranked all the way down and actually use it as a table - nice known flat surface (I don't have a surface plate). The fence can also come in handy to register an edge against and maintaining square.

It is certainly true that we all work differently. If someone had told me four or five years ago that there would come a day when I would use my table saw as a table, and not so much as a saw, I would have laughed.

But since I like it so much as a work surface and there will probably come a time when I want to run dadoes for something or whatever, I just can't see getting rid of it just now.
 
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Must be a Brit thing. I use mine all the time for building ukes. Fret slotting, brace ripping, dadoing, all nice and smooth. Can't imagine life without it. (Of course I've had the same one for 40 years!)

Bruddah Chuck,
With your talent, you still can manage wit one Buttah knife,hehe..............Bo.......
 
A few years ago I decided to build a guitar from a kit and needed to shape the headstock. I thought well, I can spend all day with a hacksaw and file or I can just go to the local woodworking shop and use the bandsaw.

Before I could do that tho' I had to take a 4 hour safety class. So me and hubby signed up and went one Sat morn and listened as the guy explained all the machines and tools and such, it was pretty facinating for me as I had not ever set foot in a WW shop before, hubby had experience so he was familiar with everything.

Well, at one point they moved on to the big saws, and the guy turned on the table saw........and explained how if you're not careful the wood can be flung across the room and various other ways of being horribly injured or worse from this monster.

We moved on and at the end he went around and asked everyone what they thought ...... (class was 4 guys and me the only girl) I looked at him and the others and was like "I learned that when I hear the table saw go on I'm leaving the room." Well, of course the guys thought I was just being a girl and laughed and such but I'll tell ya'.....whenever I'm there, if someone turns that thing on....I'm outta there....:eek:
 
I love my old table saw and use it all the time. Table saws are no more dangerous than any other tool. You can cut your thumb off with a good shape knife or band saw as with a table saw. We all have our own way of working. I don't own any planes and have any use for them. I also don't use chisels for shaping braces, way to slow. I don't own or have any use for a milling machine. I also don't tap wood or tune tops, but that's just my way.
 
I love my old table saw and use it all the time. Table saws are no more dangerous than any other tool. You can cut your thumb off with a good shape knife or band saw as with a table saw. We all have our own way of working. I don't own any planes and have any use for them. I also don't use chisels for shaping braces, way to slow. I don't own or have any use for a milling machine. I also don't tap wood or tune tops, but that's just my way.

That sounds exactly the way I work.
BTW, I almost took off a thumb husking coconuts a while back. It's not the tool, it's the fool.
 
It's not the tool, it's the fool.

Actually its both. The chances of a serious injury with powertools is much higher than with handtools. Likewise, your chance of a serious injury with a Sawstop is much less than with a typical table saw that does not have a similar blade-stopping mechanism.

I work in healthcare quality and safety where medical devices and information systems are often so poorly designed that we are harming and killing patients despite extremely experienced users. For decades the nurses and physicians using the tools were blamed, but this never solved the problem. As long as people have the attitude that its the fool and not the tool, this harm will continue. In the US 98,000 inpatients die each year due to preventable medical errors. The rate is similar in the UK.

I mostly use handtools because I honestly don't enjoy the noise and danger of powertools. Some operations are much better and easily done with powertools, but we often use powertools when handtools would be easier and faster if you know the right technique and have the appropriate skills. Paul Sellers (http://paulsellers.com/) can cut a dovetail by hand or cut an edge bead using a slotted screw stuck in a piece of wood faster than most of us can set up a router. But even with decades of hand tool experience, he uses machines for dimensioning and squaring lumber. Ultimately it is up to all of us to decide what's best for ourselves and take the precautions necessary for safety.
 
Big routers scare me much more than the table saw. All the tools have potential for their own sort of gruesome trauma. It is up to the user to be AWARE at all times.
 
Actually its both. The chances of a serious injury with powertools is much higher than with handtools. Likewise, your chance of a serious injury with a Sawstop is much less than with a typical table saw that does not have a similar blade-stopping mechanism.

I work in healthcare quality and safety where medical devices and information systems are often so poorly designed that we are harming and killing patients despite extremely experienced users. For decades the nurses and physicians using the tools were blamed, but this never solved the problem. As long as people have the attitude that its the fool and not the tool, this harm will continue. In the US 98,000 inpatients die each year due to preventable medical errors. The rate is similar in the UK.

I mostly use handtools because I honestly don't enjoy the noise and danger of powertools. Some operations are much better and easily done with powertools, but we often use powertools when handtools would be easier and faster if you know the right technique and have the appropriate skills. Paul Sellers (http://paulsellers.com/) can cut a dovetail by hand or cut an edge bead using a slotted screw stuck in a piece of wood faster than most of us can set up a router. But even with decades of hand tool experience, he uses machines for dimensioning and squaring lumber. Ultimately it is up to all of us to decide what's best for ourselves and take the precautions necessary for safety.

I actually meant it the other way around. Coconuts by themselves are harmless unless you act the fool and get in their way.
 
last time I was in Costa Rica I saw a barefoot girl about 7 years old chipping cocos with a machete half as long as she was tall. She was not just playing around either, she knew what she was doing...
 
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