4 ms·
Equipment cost amortizes to basically zero. My dad's 60s drill press is still making holes a half century later. I have some of my grandfather's tools also.
by VLM 12y ago
Equipment cost amortizes to basically zero. My dad's 60s drill press is still making holes a half century later. I have some of my grandfather's tools also. Its not like computer gaming where a $500 video card today is not even a decent paperweight in two years. It is true that modern Chinese junk is value engineered to fall apart quickly and profitably, but none the less I have a new-ish belt sander that refuses to break despite some pretty heavy use.
As for space, all houses north of a certain latitude have basements and virtually all of them have some kind of shop area however humble it may be. Even my mother in law has a folding card table with a 5 gallon bucket of abused hand tools. The standard of living is lower in some areas, but alternatives may be possible. Even today, I'll do major sanding jobs outside in my back yard to keep the mess out of the house, and I always do finishing outdoors for obvious chemical reasons.
Labor cost is less than zero in that I'm willing to spend money for recreation. Its a hobby, just like WoW or EVEonline or exotic cooking or ham radio or watching TV, its just that almost accidentally, some nice wooden projects escape the shop. That adds a grind game reward... if I had to burn absolutely everything produced in the fire pit as scrap, it wouldn't be as much fun.
I have looked into the saw stop and it scares me because its an active safety crutch and expensive both capital and ongoing (internet gossip implies they supposedly fire randomly in use, not just when you touch them with a hand).
I have multiple layers of relatively cheap passive safety measures which I couldn't afford if I spent the money on a single active sawstop.
From a safety culture perspective reliance on one active gadget is very much like "Oh, no need to patch those servers, we have a magic firewall".
- jlewallen 12y agoAgree on the cost of equipment. It's especially evident in hand tool community where 150+ year old equipment is going strong after some minor TLC. I've recently gotten into woodworking as a hobby in a large way. Space is a luxury and if you're serious about woodworking you can find a way no matter what. I moved from a house with a three car garage completely devoted to woodworking into a downtown two bedroom apartment recently and went from a fairly complete power tool shop to a completely hand tool one that's behind my desk (I work from home) As far as saw stops firing randomly... I'm guessing it's got more to do with the moisture of the wood the user is using than a technical flaw. You can touch the wood to the blade prior to turning the saw on and there's an indicator that will tell you if the saw would trip. I do agree though on them not being a replacement for best practices. I would be surprised to see any kind of teaching institution w/o one though.
- dfc 12y ago150+ year tools? That almost excludes the entire Stanley catalog.
- jlewallen 12y agoDefinitely not many tools that old :) You can find handsaws from the 1700's and get them working again, for example. Not that I do. I like to work wood, not tools (at least for now).
- saalweachter 12y agoDo you know any good references on old tools? I trawl a lot of yard and estate sales, but stay away from most tools because I don't know if they're still safe/serviceable (eg, chipped hammers I know are Bad). The only thing I feel comfortable buying right now are vices and clamps, because it's pretty easy to give them a spin and see if they still move freely, and you can always use another clamp.
- dfc 12y agoEquipment cost can amortize to zero in the long run. The thing you are avoiding acknowledging is that the table saw + chop saw + router+table+bits, planer, jointer, sander + misc hand tools do not cost zero dollars initially. Furthermore all people that live north of a certain latitude do not live in houses and this mythical card table is only going to allow you to glue up carcasses of a certain size--a size much smaller than most bookcases at IKEA/Target. The fact that woodworking would not be as much fun if you had to burn everything is essentially an admission that labor cost is not zero. As far as the sawstop strawman and FUD go, I have never heard anyone say "I don't need to drive safely and be aware of my surroundings and other drivers because I have a seat belt and and air bags." Similarly I have never heard anyone advocate working carelessly around a sawstop simply because there is a blade brake. People on the internet say a lot of things but all of the people that I have talked to that own a sawstop table love it and I have never heard them say that they have had any misfires.