More on safety ...

An image of the fence on my table saw, with the assembly for holding the various hold downs. Wood faces have been added to the original fence, so that either side of the fence may be used. The bar for the spring hold downs has been added by drilling and tapping, and then adding a set screw to prevent the bar from moving.

This image shows a closer view of the spring hold downs. There is a large amount of adjustment available, ranging from position, to amount of pressure applied to the stock by the springs. The only problem with them is that with all of the variables, they can be time consuming to set properly.

Devices aside, and I've alluded to it in the previous post, one also needs to apply some thought. Someone coming into the studio before an unusual run, would see me slouched into my work bench, dreamily staring at the saw, day dreaming and loafing. No, no, because I'm actually very hard at work, thinking through the actual cuts, all of the cuts, and all of the sequences. Get the a,b,c, wrong and there isn't enough support for the next cut. If I were a better bidness man, this wouldn't be a problem, but no, I seem to revel in pushing the limits of what I can do with the tools that I have, with not much thought to profit. Make the tools do what is needed, fix the ghastly blunders, and keep going ... on.

The current economic downturn has been ...  difficult, financially, but the quality, the creativity of the work has been at a very high level. Very high. It has been a nice revelation, that doing what is needed to survive might bruise and hurt, but it is DOABLE, it can be done, and the art, the craft, that is there, regardless of what I'm doing. It's surviving, thriving actually. It has been an affirmation of my true belief, that art, and artists, true artists, can work in anything, any medium, and produce great work. Illustrate a story, design a rug, build a brick wall ...  whatever. At a point in time when I should have been contemplating retirement, I, due to the vagaries of life am raising a teen and a preteen, have wiped out what retirement funds I have, but ... retirement has never had any charms for me. Heck, I'm just getting good at what I do, I can't quit now. And, I really can't see myself as another fat, gray, pony tailed old fart riding around on a too noisy Harley. Hey, that's what I did in my gloriously misspent youth.

Well, it's a good thing that this is my blog; as that last paragraph ... well ... probably my most personal post ... that last bit ...

Bron