DanM

Dear Mr Killen

I got your Sketchup book which is really excellent. I've learned a lot in two days of more or less immersion. Doing well.

But I have a problem I just can't solve. I followed your directions for creating a template. Looked fine. But when I close and reopen SU, I get (mostly) the default original image with the girl in jeans and a sweater looking to her right. It's clear that it's my template because some bits of it are there (the closed windows for Scenes, Materials, Styles, Layers, etc are there, but changed back to their defaults). The units are changed back to architectural, font size is changed back to 12; The layers I created are gone. On top of that, I can't find the .skp file anywhere.

It's clear I'm missing something here, but I really don't know what it is. In part, I am really mystified about where SketchUp puts files. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

Any advise deeply appreciated.

Dan

. . . if you keep it nice and sharp, you can shave your head with it.

Hello all

Is anyone out there going to try to make one of these Windsor Rockers? I'm considering it, even though it's way beyond what I've ever done before. It would be good if others are considering it to have a place to compare notes. I mean, where do you get a wallpaper steamer? Can you use something else?

It would be good to have others available to discuss this project. This might not be the best place for it; if not, please someone at FW, help me out.

Best, Dan.

Fascinating. The archaeology of a chair. Beautifully done.

And the chair on the back cover of FW218 is absolutely magnificent. Beautiful.

Wow.

By the way, to see my version of the crosscut gauge several others have mentioned, look at the Jigs section of "Gallery" or use this url:
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/26315/crosscut-gauge

Very simple, very effective. I cut it exactly 1 inch wide which means I can still use the measuring system for the fence; just subtract 1 inch, and you are right on. Unfortunately, the pic was taken before I finished my Styron blade guard.

It's great to see so many people arguing for blade guards. I am on my third. The original equipment on my Ryobi 3000 was useless. I bought an Exaktor which was only marginally better. It was useless when ripping a narrow piece of wood -- the fence got in the way of the guard. Actually it was always in the way, and hard to see through. So I saved the top half (the dust collection part) and attached one of Lee Styron's custom made guards to it. It's not perfect, but it works a LOT better than anything else I've tried. (Google Lee, or contact leestyron@gmail.com).

Once a few years ago, I was cutting a 3 or 4 inch slice off of a piece of 1/2 inch plywood. I don't know where my mind was, but I got it just about an 1/8 inch off proper direction, and the larger piece came back at me at about 300 miles per hour with a slightly ragged bottom edge which caught me on the underside of the right forearm which ended up looking roughly like hamburger. Thank heavens the guy on duty at the emergency room was a real craftsman. He sewed me up with about 40 stitches and now it just looks like, well, white hamburger. That nice young man gave me the surgical kit as well -- scissors, scalpel, a few tweezers, a hemostat and a few other odds and ends (he would otherwise have thrown them away). That was the only good part of the story. The guard, the kickback pawls, the dust collection. . . They may be a pain, but it's the right kind of pain.

I also saw and pondered the ring. I don't take mine off when I work. I think I'm going to start doing so. This was a very useful discussion for me. Thanks FWW.

I have a Kindle, but no other such toys (I have a Razr phone, but it's a phone; it can do some other stuff, but I don't know how).

Kindle is terrific for reading fiction. After the first 2 minutes (with a decent novel) and you are "in it" just as you would be with a paper book. Besides that, the whole thing weighs about 6 ounces, and it can hold hundreds of books; it is thereby terrific for traveling. Load up those airplane/port novels and enjoy.

By contrast, Kindle is not good for non fiction; it's not good for anything where you want to go back and forth. In this history of the Civil War, there is a big map on page 26; on page 34 the text mentions a battle and refers to the map. In paper, this is trivial. On the Kindle, it's a nuisance. Although I haven't used the other technologies, my sense is that it has to be the same. Watch yourself the next time you try to follow the details of making a hall table, or a cabinet, and you flip forward and backward, looking again at the plan, then at the joint, then at the text, back to the plan, etc. And of course the color makes a big difference.

I think the "book," that is, stacks of paper connected along one edge, is one of the most useful and underappreciated inventions of all time. An amazing, easily used, random access devise. No instructions needed. Get a Kindle (or whatever) for fiction. Otherwise, stick to books.

Very interesting. Fascinating to see how different people lay out the same things!

You've mentioned dust control several times; how do you deal with dust from your miter saw. It looks to be a Dewalt similar to mine which sends dust to the 4 corners of the universe every time I use it. Any suggestions??

Very interesting. Fascinating to see how different people lay out the same things!

You've mentioned dust control several times; how do you deal with dust from your miter saw. It looks to be a Dewalt similar to mine which sends dust to the 4 corners of the universe every time I use it. Any suggestions??