Am I Normal???

[ash]

I am a recent convert to woodworking and have already received valuable advice on this site. The problem is however, that I am more an addict than a convert. I exhibit new symptoms daily and am now a little worried. Missus and my mates think I am weird.

Symptoms include:

1. Having pizza delivered to the workshop so that I can continue working whilst eating at the same time.
2. Removed my "no junk mail" sign from the letterbox in the hope I will receive hardward catalogues and get depressed when they don't arrive.
3. Been thrown out of Bunnings for loitering.
4. When I'm not working I'm cleaning my powertools over and over and over again.
5. I save matchbox sized cutoffs because in my mind I know I will use them again one day, although this day hasn't come yet I'm sure it will soon.
6.My wife is due in April and likes the name Ryan. I prefer Ryobi.
7. I build a set of shelves and then sit in front of them for hours just admiring my workmanship.

Is this normal??

Should I expect other symptoms to rear their lovely head??

Have no where else to turn and would like to hear from other warped individuals.

Regards
ASH

[Barry_White]

That sounds normal for a woodie to me.

Except I live 55 klms from the nearest pizza shop and they wont deliver.

[Gumby]

That sounds normal to EXCEPT............number 7 .

You forgot to say you had a coldie in hand at the time :D

[outback]

What symptoms?

All sounds perfectly rational behaviour to me.

[ozwinner]

Ya cant be normal, your here....:D :D :D :D :D

What about Festool for a name, its a manly name.

Cheers, Al the deranged

[DarrylF]

You forgot one:

8. Spending more on new tools than feeding the kids.

Just wait 'till you discover hand tools :)

PS: Stanley is my suggestion.

[macca2]

Buy a lathe. It will set your head spinning. A whole lot of new symptoms awaits you, making sawdust and decorative firewood.


Oh what a feeling.!!!!!!!!


Macca

:D :D :D

[fxst]

and if its a girl Makita is a nice finnish name :D

[Zed]

IF you want to send your kid to one of those wanker private schools you could burden the little bugger with "Lie-Neilsen"

otherwise quite rational. One additional observation is the "I cant finish this particular project unless I purchase <Insert tool here>... May I buy this pleae darling SWMBO ?"

[craigb]

You forgot: "Spending more time surfing woodwork web sites than working"


How about Clifton for a boy's name. Cliff for short. Nice and
blokey.

Delta for a girl.

Or if she has twin boys you could call them Spear and Jackson.

:) :)

Craig

[DaveInOz]

Ash you are an addict.

But admitting as much is a big first step in your recovery.

Next you must find a very good friend or sponser to help you by removing the temptaion. Once anything to do with woodworking is in my shed I will help your will power by not giving them back under any circumstances.

So just PM me and I'll pop over and collect your tools, mags, wood, ......

:D

[Wongo]

Ash,

you are normal mate! As long as you don't start collecting clamps.


Aslo I'd like to call my son Mu jing fang. (No sorry honey it is your department!:eek: )


Scott

[Hugo]

How about plain old " Woodie " for a fella or " Dusty " for a gal. Have your hands gone black from hardwood yet?

[forunna]

Hey,
good post.
Now I know I'm normal too.
I cop heaps of flack for #7. (and the improved #7 too)
But try being addicted with a cast on your hand for 10 weeks (and counting).
Sooooooo frustrating. still, managed a few shelves for the kids and partway through a "fire truck" toy.
I hate that Timbecom catalogue, so much stuff I cant buy.
:(

[fran]

I would like some help
Ihave recently retired and I would like to replace the contents of my woodworking shop, there is so much great stuff about these days compared with what used to be I am contemplating purchasing :-a sliding compound mitre saw
a good sized band saw
a woodlathe
a thickneser
a vertical drill press and some dowell and dovetail jigs etc.
I have been looking at a variety of good outlets incuding
Carba-tec;Herless;Total Tools,Woodworking machinery specialists,etc and so on.

I would like to know what brands are considered to be good value for the hobbyist considering that a lot of the very attractive items offered by the above stores, are manufactured in China and sold under the stores own name. The quallity is unknown to people such as I who are still using our 30 year old docking saw

I see that Riobi seems to have become cheap and nasty as does a lot of Black and Decker and the green Bosche. De-Walt is too expensive for people such as me.
on the surface Carba-tec seems to offer very good choices as does Electra Beckam. But I am uncertain as things have changed so much since I was last in the market

[ozwinner]

Hi
I would stay clear of Chinese stuff if possible, Tiawanese is good stuff.
Haveing said that, a lot of board members swear by GMC, which is Chinese. ( I think ).
The green Bosche stuff is ok, not as good as their stuff used to be though.
It sound as though you need to go to a woodworking show to look at all the options.
They hold them every year in each state.

Cheers, Al

[ash]

Jees Wongo, now I am worried, I do have a clamp collection, mind you only a little one, but it does seem to be growing.

Thanks for your comments guys, I now feel reassured, but shees I am now struggling with the idea of putting a bed in my workshop.

FRAN, I'm only new to the game but I use old power tools that my father used. A bit of a clean and oil, a blade change here and there and they are priceless, as well as being built like tanks. Being a new guy I am continually dropping, headbutting and running over power tools but they keep on keeping on.

Not sure what you have already but it may be worthwhile looking into getting your old gear serviced and done up for the dance.

I have only bought one new power tool, and that was a GMC sliding compound mitre saw (2000w). I won't go into the trouble I've had with that since I got it. Give me my 25 year old Ryobi circular saw any day.

Good luck mate, and congrats on you retirement.

ASH
:)

[fran]

thanks for the input boys
but I need to know what to buy at reasonable prices. What does every one think of carba-tec, electra beckum. Jet, etc as the basis of a good semi- professional home workshop?

Thanks

[soundman]

Fran. remember you female instincts.

Go shopping girl. Shop like a man!!!

[Bob Willson]

Fran
Buy Jet everything and you won't regret it. :)

Buy GMC and you will.

[fran]

Dear soundman

Fran is short for Frank not Frances, thanks mate

:( :)

[fran]

bob wilson, thanks mate: jet seems a bit dearer and a bit further away is it worth it, in your opinion I am open to experianced opinions,
:) :(

[Bob Willson]

Jet is a bit dearer yes. Jet is a LOT better yes.
Spend the little bit extra .. never regret that you bought quality instead of price. I smile whenever I see my Jet products.

[DarrylF]

I gotta second Bob on that one. Buy cheap and you buy twice. If you can afford the bit more they cost, Jet and Delta are both damn good choices.

They're nowhere near the Rolls Royce's of the woodworking world - more like a nice new Commodore or Camry. GMC however is the Hyundai Excel (on a good day) - better than nothing if that's what's affordable, and for some people/purposes they will do just fine - but if you can afford better, you'll never regret it.

I have both Jet and Delta gear (and the odd GMC etc). Jet is probably nicer than Delta overall IMHO, but it's worth looking at both.

It's also most definitely worth looking wider according to the strengths of each brand in a particular type of machine, and how much you're going to use it. For a lathe for instance, IMO you can't go past a Nova DVR at the top-ish end if you're reasonably serious about it - or the Carbatec version of the MC-900 lathe at the bottom end. My Jet dust collector & air filter both do a terrific job, but so does my cheap-ish Total Tools drill press.

fran - in short I don't think there is a 'best' brand for everything, assuming you don't have an unlimited budget - and probably even if you do. Do the research on each machine - here and elsewhere - and make a call one by one as you need them and as your needs dictate is the best advice I can offer.

BUT - I have never once regretted stretching a little to buy something just a bit better than I think I might be able to get away with.

Good luck :)

[fran]

darryl

thanks; good information; I think I will have to get down to braeside to look at JET I don't want to have to do this twice
:) :(

[soundman]

sorry frank, a bit of a bugger that.

any way get in touch with your feminine side then go shopping. retail therapy work just as well for men!!!
cheers

[derekcohen]

Don't undersell "Carba-tec"-badged equipment. As far as I can tell it is off the same assembly line as Delta and Jet, and is usually just a rebadged something-or-other. I am not sure what my tablesaw might be badged elsewhere in the world (just never bothered to explore this) but I know for a fact that my bandsaw is the exact same as the Ridgid, and this one received as equal or better rating than both Delta and Jet in a USA mag last year. I also find it very interesting to come across American reviews of Carba-tec equipment - yes, there are such. It seems that the exchange rate has been in the USA's advantage for so long that many American tool buyers shipped equipment from Oz. I have come across reviews where these owners have preferred the Carba-tec equipment to many of the USA brands, Delta and Jet included.

Now I'm not saying that Carba-tec is the bees knees. I am saying that it provides very respectable performance at a significantly lower (but not cheap) price compared to the "heavy-weight" brands.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[echnidna]

Cheap isnt necessarily nasty.
My old B&D 5" handy man bench grinder just died.
Its over 40 years old.

Was thinking of getting an 8" grinder. But the little ones can be fitted to a baseboard base & held in a ww vice when needed so they dont clutter the workspace.

Yesterday I was in supercheap and got a 5" bench grinder for $39 with a 2 year replacement warranty. Hope it lasts as long as my old B&D.

[outback]

echy, I wish you the best of British luck with your new purchase.
Unfortunately these days, cheap all too often means nasty. Now before I get hung drawn and quartered, some of these cheapos offer good value for money, however, many don't.

My dad bought a B&D set probably 30 years ago, it contained a drill on which you could attach a small circular saw blade, orbital sander, and buffer and sanding disc.

The drill was used abused, and tortured, it could never run the saw, the orbatal sander fell to bits, whilst it was no hammer drill it drilled a series of holes ('bout 20) 6" deep into solid ironstone. the drill died about 4-5 years ago. I reckon thats pretty good value for money.