The Future of Woodworking?

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I was thinking of this the other day. As a Machinist, we work with some unique metals, and now more than ever, unique composites. This requires some new methods and new tooling to deal with these new challenges. Now we all know woodworking has always followed closely behind metalworking. From adapting lathes, mills and bandsaws, to realizing carbide was better than high speed steel, woodworking has "borrowed" a lot of metalworkings machines and tools.

So what lies ahead? What tools, what materials, what innovations will woodworking borrow from metalworking in the near future?

Do you see computer numerically controlled tools coming into the home shop soon (CNC routers, panel saws, etc)? What about new cutting materials such as the new ceramic cutters that are so super hard they make carbide look dull? Will they make it into the woodworking realm soon? What about these new rotational cutters that the metalworking industry is now using? Will they make it into woodworking.

Basically what do you guys and girls see coming more mainstream into the woodworking world? And while we are at it, what areas? Do you think Flatwork will always be the big area of tooling improvement, or will turning be targeted next?

And finally what about the wood itself. Will it even be wood? You laugh but how many decks are now made out of composites? In the marine industry I work, we use tons of sheetgoods that are laminated with plastic cores, and use other odd woods with strange metal, fiberglass, and carbon-fiber cores to make the wood better suited for boats. Trust me, if we are using it, it will soon make it into a big orange box store soon.
 
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Wood, being renewable and with an infinite variety of colors, figure, beauty, etc. will be used by craftsmen forever, IMHO. New materials will come along that add to the artistic dimension. This is evident with pens. Many penturners/makers work primarily in synthetics and get very innovative with their chosen materials. But wood will live forever.
 
I agree with Frank on this and sites like this and others will help make this happen. That said I think one of the main member surges at SMC is from CNC and laser users, at least their post numbers seem to be high when I hit "new post" As to CNC's making it into the home workshop...I know Crafstman came out with one a few years ago aimed at the homeshop, but don't know if many were sold, or if it's still available. Anyone know?
 
And finally what about the wood itself. Will it even be wood? You laugh but how many decks are now made out of composites? In the marine industry I work, we use tons of sheetgoods that are laminated with plastic cores, and use other odd woods with strange metal, fiberglass, and carbon-fiber cores to make the wood better suited for boats. Trust me, if we are using it, it will soon make it into a big orange box store soon.

Travis, you raise an interesting question, one which I'm already involved with. I have a customer that manufactures a polymer-type material that is used in place of wood in certain applications. For example, their white and off-white material is used to replace ivory in cue sticks. This customer approached me several months ago about turning pens from their material for complimentary give-aways, and supplied me with round and square bar stock to try. This material is as hard as it can be---and after several attempts, none of which were particularly satisfactory, on my inquiry and suggestion they agreed to manufacture the material in tubing with the ID and OD to match the pen barrel sizes for the kit I'm using. Now, I have the tubing already sized--just have to sand it down flush with the bushings--and I'm just about ready to put some pens together (after lasering). This material saws like wood, lasers like wood, is completely stable, and will end up being manufactured in standard sizes and available at the BORGs, like engineered decking materials. But it will take an entire new approach to finishing - no more French polish finishes on this stuff. The idea that someone can make a material from a few chemicals tossed into a vat, that will work like wood, to replace it is astonishing to me.

Nancy (14 days)
 
"But wood will live forever."

Um, actually, I'm not sure there *is* much of a future for woodworking as we know it. We're in the middle of a historical blip, where a thriving transportation system can bring us materials that are still available. But, as someone's .sig line says "Earth first! We will log the other planets later!" We are busily logging ourselves out of an activity. Are the forests truly renewable?

Well, it used to be said that a squirrel could travel from Paris to Moscow without ever touching the ground (forget that there are a few rivers he'd have to swim along the way). That was certainly true a few hundred years ago, but it's been a while, and it's unlikely that's going to happen again (unless, of course, we all disappear). The same thing is happening now, on other continents. Is wood renewable? Well, pines are. I'm not sure sequoias fit the term. I guess most other species fall somewhere in between. In our lifetime, this may not be an issue, except as costs continue to rise, but in our childrens' lives, or our grandchildrens', its easy to imagine they could be variously shocked, horrified, or incredulous that we once used wood this way... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
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Or maybe....

How about:

A water stream saw where an extremely high pressure stream of water cuts the wood instead of table saw 100 year old technology. It is already in use in other industries.

A jointer and/or planer where the blade is stationary and is powered by ultra-sonic vibrations. No moving blade.


Fuzz-stool: You can get better, but you can't pay more.:D
 
Tool & Die . . .

Dad is a Tool & Die maker so grew up with it but I went the wood route. As far as metal work tools and methods getting in my shop I'm already half way there. 'Bout half my shop is " inherited " from Dad along with measuring and set-up techniques. I take methods and tools from most all diciplines. Its kind of like watching 'Ol Norm . . . I'll probably never build a table but I can scale down his methods to fit a 13" missile launcher.
 
One of my pieces of shop equipment has a laser guide and two digital scales. A router does the cutting work, and the setup gives me the 'feel' of doing machining work. I would imagine that there will be more of this stuff. Such as DRO scales on tablesaw fences and blade adjusters.

The impact-hardened teeth on sawblades, along with improved metalurgy might be another trend. But these things just appeal to the ego. You know, my tool is better than your tool.

Of more importance is the growing appetite for better safety features. General saw is going to release cabinet saws with riving knives soon. And probably 'above-the-table' dust collection as well. It is scary when I was told by the sales rep of a large machinery maker that most of his customers run their tablesaws without either a splitter or a blade guard. Lots of room for safety improvements.

Gary Curtis
 
"But wood will live forever."

Um, actually, I'm not sure there *is* much of a future for woodworking as we know it. We're in the middle of a historical blip, where a thriving transportation system can bring us materials that are still available. But, as someone's .sig line says "Earth first! We will log the other planets later!" We are busily logging ourselves out of an activity. Are the forests truly renewable?

Well, it used to be said that a squirrel could travel from Paris to Moscow without ever touching the ground (forget that there are a few rivers he'd have to swim along the way). That was certainly true a few hundred years ago, but it's been a while, and it's unlikely that's going to happen again (unless, of course, we all disappear). The same thing is happening now, on other continents. Is wood renewable? Well, pines are. I'm not sure sequoias fit the term. I guess most other species fall somewhere in between. In our lifetime, this may not be an issue, except as costs continue to rise, but in our childrens' lives, or our grandchildrens', its easy to imagine they could be variously shocked, horrified, or incredulous that we once used wood this way... ;)

Thanks,

Bill

Bill I just can't agree with you on this. I know what you are saying, but the facts just don't support what you are saying. At least here in Maine. I don't know much about other parts of the country, but as a logger and large landowner here in Maine, I know its not true here.

Maine today has more wood then is has ever had. Yes EVER had. Despite some population growth, since the 1930's, Maines agriculture has been in a losing proposition. What once were fields are now forests...a lot of forests. As a kid I could remember seeing all the way to Waterville from my house. Now, the woods are stopping that view.

All it takes is a walk in the woods to see old rockwalls. The settlers did not put those there for the fun of it. They were old fields at one time, but now have returned to woods. Myself I have planted 12 acres of old farm fields into woods. Those trees are high-breds to, growing to a foot in diameter and 40 feet high in just 11 years. That is phenomenal growth. That equates to 30 cords per acre in the last 11 years. That is not counting the other 1 cord per acre that grows on the average woodlot here in Maine. If you do the math you will see that my 300 acre woodlot produces 300 cords of wood per year, yet I harvest at most 10 cords. Forest sustainability is not only possible, its happening on a huge scale!!

Of course its one thing to grow the wood and another to waste it. Yet sawmills today waste little wood. In fact the only thing wasted on a tree cut today is the roots. The stems are used for lumber, the tops used to make paper. The bark is seperated out and used in landscaping, and the leaves and other twigs are ground up with the sawdust and burned to make electricity...for the mill itself and sold to the grid. Heck a sawmill by me even uses the off cuts and turns them into building blocks for children...there is nothing wasted in that mill. More trash is generated from the lunch pails of workers then from the mill itself!!

Now it would seem that since the population has grown here, there would be timber losses from houses and stuff. So it only makes sense that when my family landed at Plymouth Rock in 1609, there was more wood then then there ever could be today. Unfortunately that was not true. Over the years, the Maine Forest Service's efforts at stopping wild fire has been so good, that its limited to a few hundred acres of wild fire loss every year. Back before we came, fire would often go unchecked, burning thousand upon thousand acres of forest.

The trees today are smaller, because the harvest rate happens sooner. Still the wood is there, and we are learning to use species of wood that several years ago were considered inferior. I've seen this in my own lifetime, from Yellow Birch that was pretty much a weed, to a viable woodworker sought after wood today. The same can be said for Popil (or popular as you guys call it outside of Maine). That was once considered a weed too, but now is used a lot in furniture and stuff. Of course there is also engineered woods too and they to have their place.

Wood is here, and its here to stay.
 
More and more Whiz Bang tools that people think that they have to have because ______ used it on TV.

The more experienced and serious craftsman will keep on doing things MOSTLY as we do now. These few realize that that old ways are not that bad. The wanna-be's will be still be supporting the economy buying up new things to make it easier.

Not say there are not good thing coming out that will adopted and useful. Just a lot of useless tools out there and in the future they are just going to be higher tech useless.
 
Travis is certainly correct about the amount of land in North America that has trees on it. Bill, if you had ever been up in the Northern part of Canada, and had flown in a helo for hours and hour and hours over totally virgin untouched timber, you would have a very different perspective. Sure, the areas closest to the large cities have been logged, but they have also been replanted. Trees have a lifespan that is longer than wheat, but they are bot harvest crops, and both are renewable. :wave:
 
Hmmm... a solar power generator for 99 cents a watt. At that price, in a couple years, maybe we'll all be powering our shops differently. Looks like they shipped their first orders. Right now, they're building whole power plants with these things... and they're less expensive than coal plants. Amazing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/technology/18solar.html

Thanks,

Bill

Just like computers, as soon as you buy one they come out with faster/cheaper! We just installed 4.5 kw at quite a bit more than $2/watt :eek:
 
I wish Jim King frequented FW more often. He could give a great perspective on renewable wood sources. According to him, the scare stories about clearing in South America are just that. Scare stories exaggerated thousands of times. Wood harvesting is an ongoing industry in Arkansas. This has been the case for about 200 years and probably will be forever, or as long as there is a need for wood.
 
Stu,

You're right, the farthest north I've been in Canada is central BC and Alberta. Lots of trees up there... holy smokes. Lots of em... ;) What I found particularly striking was the farther north I went, slowly the trees got a little smaller, just like in the sierras... as you get closer to timber line, the trees gradually get smaller.

And Travis is right too... I haven't to Maine, but I spend a fair amount of time in Vermont and New Hampshire. Lots and lots of trees up there. Cut one down myself this summer... ;) I've got some turning blanks in the shop to prove it! :thumb: The wierd thing? We tried to find some beams for the fireplace mantle here. Believe it or not, African mahogany was cheaper than the local hardwoods.

And if you talk to the old timers there, they'll tell you the forest is changing. The maples just aren't doing as well as they used to. That's not just an impression, either... it's getting warmer, and some studies say there will be no sugar maples in vermont in James' lifetime. I'll spare you all the links... but google has much to say on the subject... ;)

Then there's Colorado. Now, I prefer the sierras to the rockies, but for the last ten years I've been going to an educause conference in snowmass. I like to fly to denver, rent a car, and drive up the great divide, through the forest. Most people fly, but I actually enjoy the drive. But over the last several years, the change has been stunning. Miles and miles and miles of dead trees. In some places, the summer landscape has gone from green to brown. I'm told things have warmed up a few degrees, which has let some insect thrive where it couldn't before, and it both kills and spreads disease.

Now. east of the divide, there's a pretty good amount of rain and snow. The farther west you go, the drier it gets, the more it starts to look like the great western high desert: lots of scrub, way fewer trees. When all those dead trees finally fall, and there's nothing to hold the soil for a few years, the east side will look more and more like the west side, even above 8000 feet.

Which brings us back to those canadian forests. What do they say about elevation? Every 1000 feet is worth ten degrees of latitude? That's wrong, but it's something like that. What if those conifer forests, stretching forever north, start to look like those forests in colorado, times ten? It could change a lot. If I hadn't driven that same road from denver to aspen for each year for several years, I would never have believed it. Now, I can't predict anything anymore. And things are happening faster than anyone thought possible. Seen pictures of the arctic sea ice lately? Yikes!

As I type, I'm looking at the forest outside my window. Lots of sycamore, cherry, walnut, birch. I myself have cut several of those trees down for turning blanks. I just hope james will be able to do the same. But I grew up in a much different world than my father did, and he grew up in a different place than his father did (His name was Julian, and he was born near Ken's part of Idaho, but I suspect he wouldn't recognize the place now... ;) It's probably a vain hope that James will be able to experience the same world I did, and it makes me a bit sad, but there you are. I guess I should just be thankful to be making stuff during the golden age of woodworking! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
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I think the future of woodworking is very bright and it isn't from the sunlight in the clear cut forest section! A hundred years ago cutting wood was just that, now it is treated as a renewable resource. Plans are in place for wood to be harvested years in the future. The internet, aka, Family Woodworking site, is the biggest boon to me for a bright future. I get to drop in on Stu or Marty or whomever and bounce an idea off of their noggins. Plus in doing that, thousands others with as much or more or less experience get to chime in and help me improve my work/project or spend my money wisely on tool purchases. The internet/FWW has provided me with friends I may never meet face to face but treasure all the same. I know my skills have greatly improved with the information gathered at this site. The project ideas/list I have for myself, probably outnumbers the days on this earth I have left, but I hope to instill this love of craftsmanship be it metal or wood in some of my students and grandchildren so they can maybe find an unfinished project or an idea on my list and complete it.
 
Wood is, as far as I can work out, the only infinitely renewable building material that exists anywhere. Most of the others are infinitely recyclable but sometimes a geological timescale gets a bit inconvenient.

On that basis I cannot see the dissapearance of working wood into useful objects ceasing until mankind does. How it is done will surely change as much in the future as it has in the past. Looking backwards always tends to engender a rose tint but in my opinion now is better than then and tomorrow will almost certainly be better than yesterday.

Will we be using the same species, being logged from the same locations in a thousand years time? Almost certainly not. The climate is changing. Nobody in their right minds would expect that a climate that has been changing for the last 4 billion years or so should suddenly stop because we happen to like it the way it is at some particular time. The climate changed in order to be what it is today and will change in order to be what it will be tomorrow. To believe the we can "freeze" the climate at some arbitrary point which happens to suit some geographic location or social structure is arrogance at a breathtaking level.

I'm sure that the trees do get smaller the further north that you go. Lower temperatures and shorter daylight hours almost certainly affect the growth rate and growth potential of the timber. And if the trend in climate change is to make these areas warmer then it is only reasonable to expect that temperature change to also change that rate and potential. And bear in mind that since the "global cooling" scare didn't work and the "global warming" scare looked a bit shaky we have now moved on to the "climate change" scare. The beauty of which is that any change in the climate can be appropriated to support the theory. We are therefore told that the changes will be unpredictable. Unpredictable change might bring about increases in natural growth potential equal to or greater than the decreases elsewhere.

As you may have picked up, I am not completely convinced by the mongers of climate doom but am a firm believer that wasteful and profligate use of any finite resource is unwise. When I reduce my carbon footprint it is for economic reasons, not political ones.
 
The internet/FWW has provided me with friends I may never meet face to face but treasure all the same.

Truer words were never spoken, Jonathan, at least from my perspective.

The project ideas/list I have for myself, probably outnumbers the days on this earth I have left, ...

My list is as long as my forearm and growing by the day!!

Nancy (2 days)
 
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