Pure Madness or Pure Genius

The guy certainly is a mechanical wizard and loads of fun to watch. I don't know if he plans on using his contraption often but it seems to me that jointers are made form cast iron and weigh a ton for a reason. I wouldn't want to stand too close to it for very long:eek:
 
I say pure genius and someone that had to make do with what he had. It's amazing how he can make a band saw that cuts just as good as a high dollar cast iron/steel one does!

I think I'll be keeping my lunchbox planer when I upgrade to a 15" planer and will use the lunchbox planer parts in the same way he does.

He effectively made a $2000 joiner out of something most of us would classify as junk!:thumb::thumb:
 
Steve i have been reading about this guy for years. He is pure pure genius in my view.

I think he has such natural mechanical engineering talent that he is totally wasted doing these kind of projects. I would love to see what a guy like this could churn out if he was given the resources to really set that ability free. My bet would be their aint much that could stop him. He should be scooped up by some skunk works kinda outfit then hi tech secret drones would not go missing.:)

Personally i think we tend to forget that messing about with old stuff like this was something many of us did when we were way younger and gained one heck of a load of imperical experience from it.

Now you cannot take stuff from a junk place or recycle depot to repurpose at least around here. I can understand the whole liability concept in this regard but its gone too far. You learn pretty much zero if things you dabble with always work. Kinda like doing a lab at school and having everything just work. Yeah you complete the lab but if the equipment has some loose connections or is a little dicky then you get to think and use the noggin to determine if the result you getting is even in the correct ballpark, to do that you need to understand the whole concept not just how to connect it up.

For me in woodworking its kinda like tuning up an old plane. Once you done it and succeeded your knowledge and understanding of planing is very different to just taking a premium one off the shelf. Yeah both just plane but when you come up against an issue you need to be able to know you got a wood problem or a plane problem and neither object is going to tell you that.Never mind the greater appreciation you have for the quality plane once you had to fettle an old one.
 
I've been seeing his work off-and-on for the past few years. He comes up with brilliant ideas, and is also a good teacher.
I do question some of his safety practises, and I think he doesn't do much for dust collection. But the engineering is awesome.

I think his "panto-router" is perhaps the most intriguing tool of his...
 
Isn't he a programmer by profession.
And Rob I'd hate to see a skunk works ruin him...

I am amazed at what he does with plain old construction lumber....
And he isn't bad at Sketchup either.
No question as to which of Steve's two categories he fits into.
 
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