How Quickly We Forget

francist

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H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Sep 5, 2013
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How quickly we forget. I’m working on a small project for a buddy and I needed to turn two wooden handles on the lathe. Now, my wood lathe was my first ever machine that I got when was a mere 22 years old. And the hours I put on that thing between then and now are beyond counting. I really like wood turning.

But now with woodworking taking second-stage in my interests I haven’t used the Sagar for a while. No problem though, I can do this...

Yeah well first thing after bringing it up to speed and taking a couple passes I realize I haven’t locked my tail stock quill. Okay, fixed that. More turning, it’s mahogany so cutting is mesmerizingly good, but why is my toolrest floating around here...? Good lord, I haven’t locked that down properly either!

By that time I took a serious look at everything until I could say... Okay, are we ready now? Sheesh.

My point is, it really didn’t take long for me to lose the practise and make a whole bunch of goofy mistakes right out of the gate. Nothing bad happened and the work came out great, but it could easily have not. And instead of checking myself like I should have, I was relying on past practise and muscle memory that was no longer as crisp as it used to be. A few cobwebs in the works, as it were.

So if you happen to find yourself in a similar situation, try to remember to run down the checklist like you should and give yourself a little extra time to check your setups. It’s funny how quickly things can fade.

Be careful out there guys and gals, and have a safe holiday season.

-frank
 
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