The old question..how flat is your tablesaw top, jointer top etc.
I was pretty happy with the ones I have (SawStop, Griz etc). When I got then I checked them with a long so called machinist’s straight edge.
Then my Swiss machinist buddy gave me a tool to measure stuff. Its primary function is to set height on tools. As you can imagine it works very well. For the hell of it I set it to the calibrated zero and ran it across the tops of the aforesaid machines. I went into a funk. It seemed that they were all, well, not so flat.
We had him and his wife over for supper this evening and afterward went into the shop where I showed him the sorry state of my tools. He laughed. Told me that what I was reading was perfectly understandable for woodworking machinery. The tool he gave me was designed for metal work where tolerances are, hmmm, quite a bit more exact. This from a guy who made one-offs for parts that went into satellites.
Thought I would pass that on.
Cheers,
Peter(who shouldn’t take things too seriously)
Better life through Zoodles and poutine…
Replies
To put things into perspective, set a piece of wood down and figure out a way to measure it precisely at different times of the day/week/month. It'll put your tool shame to shame, I'm sure!
*sigh*
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
Peter,
Check this out: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/heads/opHeight-c.html
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Wow!
BruceT
Cool.
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
Now consider what can happen when you walk about with a switched-on laptop. One little jolt, one brief contact between the head and the disc and you've lost data.The wonder of it all is that this doesn't happen all the time.Have you backed up today?
Got that right-- it's a waste to build to a thousandth when it's going to grow or shrink a sixteenth between the tablesaw and the finishing table.
No matter how much you improve something, somebody else will devise a more accurate measure for it. Somebody else will then demand that you improve further even though there is no point in doing so.
What my saw top is not perfectly flat? Oh my GOD, I must do something! How will I face that stack of cherry this week-end! Especially since the medium I cut can move at a whim and change of humidity. Cool post.
I was married by a judge - I should have asked for a jury.
George Burns
Peter and All ,
All the talk and worry about thousandths of an inch have little to do with what comes out of our shops as long as we use wood as our medium.
It is so un important especially when you are not having any problems even if my machines may be off an amount I can't even find on a tape measure it really will not make a difference ,just more calibrating and measuring tools to buy.
These minute increments of error will not prevent perfection in our works
regards from Oregon dusty,boxmaker
"For the hell of it I set it to the calibrated zero and ran it across the tops of the aforesaid machines. I went into a funk. It seemed that they were all, well, not so flat"...
Tell your Swiss buddy that you love having he and his wife over for dinner but to never bring his measurement devices for metal-working over to your house again with WW'ing machines so you don't fall into the common trap these days of thinking WW'ing requires machining tolerances.
Final answer.. lock it in... >)
Sarge..
Woodworkers' Guild of Georgia
Sound advise indeed.
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
I think so, Peter. Off to the shop (noon clock-in daily) to work not perfectly flat machines but results that are extremely close to square. And if not the human eye will never notice. :>)
Have a good day Peter...Sarge..
Woodworkers' Guild of Georgia
Peter,
Flat machine tops are for sissy's.
Don
:-)
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
machines are for sissy'sJust use your pocket knife: )rocGive me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. Abraham Lincoln ( 54° shaves )
Edited 8/15/2009 8:22 pm by roc
If I had to worry about "machining" my WW parts to within +/- .001 tolerances, I'd be so wrapped up in the numbers that there would be no enjoyment in it.
I've got a buddy on the fire department who is a machinist. We go back and forth about this topic all of the time. Its fun to wind him up.
He can have his tolerances. As far as I am concerned, in woodworking, the eye is the final judge. If it is pleasing to the eye, then it is probably accurate enough.
-jason
I remember as a kid reading in Readers Digest about a group of American engineers who produced the smallest drill bit ever, so small it could barely be seen with the naked eye. With a little too much pride, they sent one to some Japanese colleagues, who sent it back a few days later. Upon closer inspection, they saw that the Japanese had drilled a hole through it!
Pride goeth before the fall.
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