- Joined
- Mar 14, 2013
- Messages
- 443
The thing about "DIY" as a "thing" always seemed weird to me... I grew up (in the 1960s-70s) just assuming that people did things and built things, it's just what you did, not a hobby but part of life... at least Dad did. He was a business executive, but did lots of carpentry work at home, I don't remember him ever hiring a plumber or electrician or anything like that, he just did it himself, and naturally I learned all that from him. Later we got into R/C modeling together. Only thing he didn't do himself is fix cars.
We also had a cabin in a summer camp community. Up there, everybody was always fixing up their cabins-- themselves-- and to this day the sound of a skilsaw outdoors is the sound of camp to me. Today I have a cabin in the same community, and it's like a time machine... all the men (and some of the women) are still out fixing things as needed, we have neighborhood "roofing parties" when somebody needs a new roof, and the kids wander around fishing and catching frogs instead of being video game zombies, and "helping" their fathers fix things. It's a good thing, and all too rare today.
Regarding radial arm saws, sometime in the early 1980s when Dad was getting ready to retire he asked his chief cabinetmaker (his business was a commercial carpentry contractor in NYC) if he was to have only one, should he get a RAS or a table saw. The cabinetmaker (who also taught me a bunch when Dad hired me for a week to fill in for other guys on vacation) advised him to get the RAS as it was more versatile. He later gave the RAS (a 1980s DeWalt) to me, and I got a lot of use out of it before replacing it with a much older Delta RAS which was more rigid. For the kind of work I do, it's a lot more useful than a table saw, almost like a Bridgeport for wood. Yes, it can be dangerous if you're not careful, and I've scared myself a few times while being careless, but never gotten seriously hurt.
We also had a cabin in a summer camp community. Up there, everybody was always fixing up their cabins-- themselves-- and to this day the sound of a skilsaw outdoors is the sound of camp to me. Today I have a cabin in the same community, and it's like a time machine... all the men (and some of the women) are still out fixing things as needed, we have neighborhood "roofing parties" when somebody needs a new roof, and the kids wander around fishing and catching frogs instead of being video game zombies, and "helping" their fathers fix things. It's a good thing, and all too rare today.
Regarding radial arm saws, sometime in the early 1980s when Dad was getting ready to retire he asked his chief cabinetmaker (his business was a commercial carpentry contractor in NYC) if he was to have only one, should he get a RAS or a table saw. The cabinetmaker (who also taught me a bunch when Dad hired me for a week to fill in for other guys on vacation) advised him to get the RAS as it was more versatile. He later gave the RAS (a 1980s DeWalt) to me, and I got a lot of use out of it before replacing it with a much older Delta RAS which was more rigid. For the kind of work I do, it's a lot more useful than a table saw, almost like a Bridgeport for wood. Yes, it can be dangerous if you're not careful, and I've scared myself a few times while being careless, but never gotten seriously hurt.