# Question Of The Week... (2022 week 2)



## ripjack13 (Jan 9, 2022)

*What woodworking invention has done more harm than good?*





:drinks:

**Rules**
There is no minimum post requirement,
primates, woodticks, wood spinners, and leprechauns are welcome to post an answer.
And of course the  and the doc too....
The pain of using a cheap tool lingers long after the joy of saving money has passed.


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## woodtickgreg (Jan 9, 2022)

Cheap router tables.......

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 3


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## 2feathers Creative Making (Jan 9, 2022)

In the hands of the uninitiated, a belt sander... ask my grandmother about the front door refinishing....(true story) fortunately she really didn't care, so they painted it and went on.
In the hands of a pro, the firewood processor. I have seen it eat 1000 dollar trees to make 200 dollars of firewood.

Reactions: Like 6 | Funny 1


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## DLJeffs (Jan 9, 2022)

Has to be Wood Barter, right? If you read the posts on here, Wood Barter has caused more marital strife, financial strain, loss of residential and vehicular accommodation, misuse of property, violation of building use and home owner association rules, and increased general malingering more than anything else I can think of.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Great Post 1 | Funny 11


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## Brink (Jan 9, 2022)

DLJeffs said:


> Has to be Wood Barter, right? If you read the posts on here, Wood Barter has caused more marital strife, financial strain, loss of residential and vehicular accommodation, misuse of property, violation of building use and home owner association rules, and increased general malingering more than anything else I can think of.


I used to blame Jim Beam for those things

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Funny 5


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## JerseyHighlander (Jan 9, 2022)

DLJeffs said:


> Has to be Wood Barter, right? If you read the posts on here, Wood Barter has caused more marital strife, financial strain, loss of residential and vehicular accommodation, misuse of property, violation of building use and home owner association rules, and increased general malingering more than anything else I can think of.


Nah, I'd still be doing all that stuff, just the rest of you guys wouldn't know about it.

This is a tough one... I could take the easy way out and say; electricity. though it's technically not a woodworking tool. I'd say CNC routers, the ones that let any monkey that can press a button produce an elaborate "carving" that once required a master carver.

Reactions: Like 4 | Agree 2 | Funny 2


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## 2feathers Creative Making (Jan 9, 2022)

Amen to that

Reactions: Like 1


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## trc65 (Jan 9, 2022)

Aldi's chisels.....

Reactions: Like 1


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## Arn213 (Jan 9, 2022)

JerseyHighlander said:


> Nah, I'd still be doing all that stuff, just the rest of you guys wouldn't know about it.
> 
> This is a tough one... I could take the easy way out and say; electricity. though it's technically not a woodworking tool. I'd say CNC routers, the ones that let any monkey that can press a button produce an elaborate "carving" that once required a master carver.



Ouch! Those “monkeys” need to be certified. I use to wrestle with the same idea as I consider myself more of a traditionalist, but It is a skill and additional tool in a shop. But, you gain respect once you see that their is a lot of background work that is implemented, including fine tuning to get to the end result. The magic doesn’t happen in just pressing a button- you have to have clear understanding/experience/knowledge of CAD and CAM to be able to program the CNC to do what you want to do. The advantage is the result is repeatable and much more consistent.

Very hard to tell a guitar that sounds well that it was CNC build or hand built. CNC in guitar production is basically for rough routing and cutting- the other 50% is still aided by human hands: assembly, finishing, buffing, electronic/pickup installation, etc..

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 1


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## JerseyHighlander (Jan 9, 2022)

Arn213 said:


> Ouch! Those “monkeys” need to be certified. I use to wrestle with the same idea as I consider myself more of a traditionalist, but It is a skill and additional tool in a shop. But, you gain respect once you see that their is a lot of background work that is implemented, including fine tuning to get to the end result. The magic doesn’t happen in just pressing a button- you have to have clear understanding/experience/knowledge of CAD and CAM to be able to program the CNC to do what you want to do. The advantage is the result is repeatable and much more consistent.
> 
> Very hard to tell a guitar that sounds well that it was CNC build or hand built. CNC in guitar production is basically for rough routing and cutting- the other 50% is still aided by human hands: assembly, finishing, buffing, electronic/pickup installation, etc..


No insult intended. I was once one of those monkeys myself. Actually enjoyed cad drawing & I understand there is a lot to the preproduction but once that is done and the machine is set, it can just churn out finished pieces one after the other, no skilled labor needed. Maybe I'm just bitter as sometimes I feel like my finer skills are being made obsolete...

Reactions: Like 1


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## barry richardson (Jan 10, 2022)

JerseyHighlander said:


> Nah, I'd still be doing all that stuff, just the rest of you guys wouldn't know about it.
> 
> This is a tough one... I could take the easy way out and say; electricity. though it's technically not a woodworking tool. I'd say CNC routers, the ones that let any monkey that can press a button produce an elaborate "carving" that once required a master carver.


I agree, robots take the soul out of woodworking

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## Lou Currier (Jan 10, 2022)

JerseyHighlander said:


> No insult intended. I was once one of those monkeys myself. Actually enjoyed cad drawing & I understand there is a lot to the preproduction but once that is done and the machine is set, it can just churn out finished pieces one after the other, no skilled labor needed. Maybe I'm just bitter as sometimes I feel like my finer skills are being made obsolete...


And nowadays you don't even need to use CAD. All a person has to do is find a site that shares the CAD files and reproduce them without having to do all the design work.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Herb G. (Jan 10, 2022)

Gas powered chainsaws. Just look at the rain forests these days.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Gdurfey (Jan 15, 2022)

Not sure I want to post this, but here goes. These have not so much “harmed” but they popped to mind instantly: carbide turning tools. Now, before I am flamed, I have a full compliment of them and even use them start to finish depending on project. 

But I wonder if turners are least understand traditional tools if they become better turners. Don’t know. 

My personality drives me to learn the traditional tools, which maybe some of what I’m calling traditional aren’t…. Due to knew metallurgy and machining. 

Just my thoughts

Reactions: Like 5 | Funny 1


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Jan 15, 2022)

Blasphemy Garry Blasphemy. Lol just kidding. I started using them on an old lathe I had at one time. Cheap junk tools and lathe. Later on when I get a bigger lathe and shop, I want to get a nice set and really "learn" them.

Reactions: Like 2


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## 2feathers Creative Making (Jan 15, 2022)

If I were a betting man, I would put money on most of the designs that aren't carbide having been tried at some point in the past... there has always been that one odd fellow who used that weird stuff since the days they were chipping flint and that guy melted a rock instead...

Reactions: Like 2


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## trc65 (Jan 15, 2022)

Gdurfey said:


> Not sure I want to post this, but here goes. These have not so much “harmed” but they popped to mind instantly: carbide turning tools. Now, before I am flamed, I have a full compliment of them and even use them start to finish depending on project.
> 
> But I wonder if turners are least understand traditional tools if they become better turners. Don’t know.
> 
> ...


You know what funny about that Garry? I've never even seen a carbide tool "in the flesh" but I find an myself wanting to try them (at least for hollowing) but I'm not willing to spend that kind of $$$ when I've got HSS tools that do the job.

Reactions: Like 2


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## TimR (Jan 15, 2022)

Gdurfey said:


> Not sure I want to post this, but here goes. These have not so much “harmed” but they popped to mind instantly: carbide turning tools. Now, before I am flamed, I have a full compliment of them and even use them start to finish depending on project.
> 
> But I wonder if turners are least understand traditional tools if they become better turners. Don’t know.
> 
> ...


I've got to agree, in part. And that's coming from a guy who makes and sells carbide tipped tools for hollowing as a side gig. Now, hears the caveat...I first started exploring carbide tipped tools when I was hollowing a lot of vessels that often times was slowed down by frequently having to stop and resharpen the HSS insert. Enter the carbide tipped variant and now I can hog out the innards much quicker and in many cases use the carbide tipped tool to achieve the final interior finish. All that being said...I'm most comfortable using a 1/2" or 5/8" HSS or cryo bowl gouge where the shape allows, as the finish with a gouge is much better than typically achieved with an Easy carbide scraper. All that being said, I do have and sometimes use my big Easy wood scraper to get majority of wood off to near final shape and then finish with bowl gouge.

Reactions: Like 3 | Great Post 1


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## Mike1950 (Jan 15, 2022)

Herb G. said:


> Gas powered chainsaws. Just look at the rain forests these days.


They got rid of the great temperate forests of Europe long before chainsaws. Comment more appropriate in tree huggers group.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 3


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