RLWJr

Nice jig, but the web people ought to correct the link. This is described at the link to the page as a PLANER jig. I was wondering how I could use a planer for this joint! It is, of course, a tablesaw jig. But a much nicer one than what I have been using for years!
Bob Wilson

There is a perception that band saws are inherently safe, table saws much more dangerous. I can't quantify how much more or less dangerous one is than the other, and comparing how many accidents there are with one or the other is misleading, different people use them and for different purposes.

But I can say the only serious injury I got from a power saw was from a band saw. Trip to emergency room, stitches, etc., luckily nothing worse.

I am always worried by this attitude, it can lead to being careless at the band saw. It is still a power tool that can cause real injuries!

Bob Wilson

It would be great to have a good show on woodworking, one which did not talk down to us as much as some do. But I am definitely turned off by the "he is a personality" message. I have quit listening to what was my favorite classical music station because they decided their program hosts needed to "be" personalities: They already had great personalities, but now the move is to make them central rather than the content. If the cute name "T Chisel" is any indication, I will be turning this off also.
But in any case there is little chance I would get to watch it! My local PBS station, part of the Wisconsin Public Televison system, has removed almost all real do-it-yourself programming from their main channel, and even on their Create subchannel most of what they carry is cutesy stuff amounting to going to a craft shop, getting something pre-made, spray painting it and saying you have made something.
Bob Wilson

Here in Wisconsin, our statewide public television system had already dropped Norm from easy access. And even when NYW was supposedly being telecast on a regular schedule to their main audience, Wisconsin Public Television would jerk it off the air to run a program like "doing your business taxes in Wisconsin". When I would complain, they would say that the shows would be rerun in the spring, ignoring the community of woodworkers who would be discussing them right away. Virtually any programming that involves viewers maybe in actually doing something has been removed, replaced by purely spectator-oriented shows like Antiques Roadshow that they run all the time.
I fear that our whole country is turning its back on "do it yourself", and whether WPT is leading or is just following its viewers I can't tell. America was once proud of its people who did things. Now the key is to use Twitter or Facebook to talk about doing things, not to do them. Would we win WWII again without soldiers who could figure out a way to improvise? Will we ever again have the national will to do things like Apollo?
So sadly I just see this as one more symptom of a country that has turned its back on so many of the things that made it great.
Bob Wilson

As others have said, "it depends". But in part it depends on the support from the manufacturer. I had a Milwaukee angle drill I loved. The gear built into the end of the armature shattered. I checked on a replacement part (which had to include the armature, is that good design?) and it cost more than a replacement drill would have just for that one part. Clearly Milkwaukee did not really want me to fix it. On the other hand, and a name many sneer at, Grizzly is great at supplying parts at great prices, has the complete diagrams and order info online. So now I buy from Grizzly but not from Milwaukee. Manufacturers should think about how we react to things like this...
(Not that this is enough to make me buy from someone I otherwise distrust. Sears is pretty good about supplying parts but I will certainly never buy another power tool from them!)

One thing that needs underlining is that spontaneous combustion does NOT mean just that they are easily ignited!
I remember lots of posts on the old UNIX newsgroup rec.woodworking where it became clear that people thought all they had to do was to keep the oily rags away from fire.

The point is that the oxidising reactions that are the heart of many oil finishes curing are the same as very slow burning, and that if heat cannot get away fast enough the temperature will build to the point of bursting into flame, with no external ignition required. I have almost had this happen: I left some rags for just a couple of hours for a project I was going to get back to, and when I did get back they were beginning to smoke and were so hot I could not touch them. And I have seen a dumpster at a home construction site burst into a really big fire: They dumped in sanding dust from new floor, then some sort of oil on top of it. The flames shot 30 feet out of the top of the dumpster...

Bob Wilson