Paratrooper34

I agree, there is no such thing as "cheating". How you get from point A to point B is to use whatever method you want. By using the logic of the passerby at the show, a shooting board, a miter box, or even a fence on a Stanley 45 could all be considered "cheating". I will say that I used the setup Matt used to cut dovetails a couple of times and never once thought I might be cheating.

Your work is very nice, Matt.....you inspired me a couple of times. Keep up the good work!

Oops should say "absolutely amazing PLACE"

I am originally from Maine and last time I visited my folks, who live about 45 minutes from this place, I went there. It is an absolutely amazing plane. You can find some really nice user quality stuff there for fair prices. I bought a very nice Millers Falls-Goodell Pratt miter box with the saw (sharp) for 56 dollars. I cannot wait to go back there.

I started getting serious about woodworking as a hobby two years or so ago. I am stationed in Germany and we have a very nice woodshop available at the base where I am at. So I started using those machines in earnest. As I started developing my skills, I soon found that achieving the level of accuracy that I desired was not happening in the shop. I then started to think that if I had my own power tool shop, I could get better accuracy and better results. But my small garage will not allow me to do what I was thinking of. So I moved on to looking at hand tools to step up my work. This was a correct choice. I am able to get much better results with the small arsenal of hand tools I have obtained than I ever dreamed of in the power tool shop. I think I went about it in the correct way: I read, and read, and then read some more. I learned a lot about hand tools and their use. During my recent deployment to Afghanistan, I read many books during my off time. I bought a slew of used hand tools and from my reading, I learned how to tune them for optimal performance. The first "tool" for my small hand tool shop: a workbench. I watched the basic bench video on this site and I altered mine to fit my needs and materials available (can't seem to find MDF in Germany at a decent price). I then learned proper sharpening techniques and got my tools ready to use. It has been a joy all around. Hand tools also mean no dust removal system and no noise pollution. My shop vac is all that is needed to clean up the mess. And I can listen to my Ipod without the interuptions of noisy machines. And when it is 2200 at night, the neighbors don't get mad while I do my thing. I am a hand tool user and to me, it is a great experience.

This is another sad chapter in our seriously outdated legal system. Our country is slowly deteriorating to predatory lawyers seeking to line their pockets. Without a massive overhaul to our legal system, these lawyers will continue to find loopholes in that system and bring the country to its knees. On the current glidepath, there will come a day that no company will want to manufacture anything due to risk of litigation, cost of insurance, etc. We will continue to see manufacturers increase prices to cover devastating losses and huge insurance premiums. It will no longer be cost effective to make a decent profit and sales/manufacturing will drop off.

Common sense has long left the building in this country. There is no longer "personal responsibility" for anything. Everyone's failure to bear responsibility for their own actions has morphed into "not my fault, blame it on ....." Courts already blamed cigarette makers for lung cancer, gun makers for murders, and McDonalds for serving hot coffee. Who didn't see this case getting green lighted? It will continue to get worse long before it gets better. Relying on a system that is well over 200 years old is asking, no, begging, for failure.

Here is a dog who is ashamed of the hat we put on her. This is my dog, Noelli.

I was seriously thinking of buying a WR plane, but I am not a big fan of purchasing chinese made products. Guess I will save up for a LN. Being a native Mainer, it only makes sense to support a home-state business. I would have liked to have seen more data on a head-to-head test, but I guess that is coming in the future issue.