On Sun, 20 May 2007 17:20:32 -0400, (Arch) wrote:

Trusting that I won't get spit at here, I'll resume the ramble.

Could it be that in addition to the comfort of grandad's tools and the
fear of lawyers, some 'tried and true' tool designs do not change as
better materials become available because of rigidly dogmatic turning
instructions that are repeated over and over in books, posts, demos,
articles and club meetings.

Of course, that could be a factor, but there are an awful lot of *new
and improved* turning toys in the catalogs. Usually, that seems to be
a matter of just slapping a different celebrated turner's name on the
same old stuff, but I haven't tried them all (or any of them,
actually) so I can't say with certainly that they're mainly the same.

No doubt that in many turning shops turners are grinding, fabricating
and successfully trying even truer tools and techniques that take
advantage of newer materials. Could it be that most don't see the light
of day and remain untried by most of us because their owner feared being
scoffed at or ignored by an unelected hierarchy?

Probably a combination of both, depending on where they're at. I've
largely given up on innovating anything at work, and keep most of my
stuff to myself. There are any number of things that get in the way
of new ideas ever seeing the light of day- from poor communication, to
simple turf protection. Nobody's supervisor wants to let a guy one
step below them come up with a good idea unless they can take all or
part of the credit for it- it's a somewhat misanthropic view, but it's
true enough.

One of the funnier examples of this that I recently was party to was
when I was cutting a bunch of rectangles out of 1/4" plate on the
laser cutter. At $100 an hour to run the laser, the little suckers
cost over $1 each for parts that are probably actually worth less than
10 cents. I went to the guy who *ahem* "runs" the shop floor, and
suggested that we cut the things out of bar stock on the bandsaw, and
save not only money and material, but more importantly, laser time.
He absolutely *had* to have his 2 cents in there, though- and told me
to write up a rev change, with my idea signed by me, and his idea
signed by him. His idea was to punch the parts out on the big CNC
punch. Kind of bloodied his own nose, though- the punch's rated
capacity is less than half that thickness.

The point of that, if anyone missed it, is that he hadn't thought
about the problem for even a moment until I mentioned it, and then
blithely assumed he could steal the idea that is saving the company
about $25,000 a year because he outranks me... (though not by much,
and not for long...) Most of the time, that works out for the guy in
the position of authority, and the guys on the floor just give up even
bothering- why make someone else wealthy when it doesn't get you
anywhere?

I am not paranoid, but I am inconsistent, some say perverse. There
may not be any unwritten rules propagated by an unelected hierarchy.
Maybe every genuine improvement in tool design gets its day in court.
That said, why am I thinking about posting an updated list of what I
consider useless and unnecessary new tools and devices I find in
catalogs?

Because apart from the problems involving genuine improvements that
come from the bottom up, there is pressure on those near the top of
most companies' structures to constantly innovate. It's a rare person
that can actually come up with a long string of good ideas, and so we
get a whole lot of senseless junk along with the occasional real
improvement. If Bob has a good idea one day, and gets labeled the
"idea guy," he's going to be expected to come up with more, whether he
has any or not. If he doesn't have any good ideas, he's just going to
whip up some bad ones.

It's a natural function of how society, and more specifically
capitalism, works. When the first guy who came up with the idea of
sticking a laser pointer on a miter saw got a big bonus and a
promotion, everyone else and his idiot cousin tries to come up with
yet another thing you can stick a laser pointer on, until you end up
with a tape measure with a laser on it for precision hook placement.
And the marketing departments love it- after all, a cheap laser
pointer is not only apparently more "modern" than most things, but it
doesn't necessarily raise prices the way a real improvement like using
cast iron handwheels rather than plastic, or adding some other
well-designed and manufactured feature that might actually be more
useful than novelty.

I'm not really grousing that much about it- it's just my observation
on the subject. I don't see that there is anything that is going to
change the status quo regarding this anytime soon- that's why I spend
so much time and energy just learning to make the things I really want
and need myself. Then, I don't have to care whether or not company A
takes away all the metal in a tool, and decides to compensate by
adding a beeper, a laser, and a bigger battery.

And of course, technology marches onward whether anyone likes it or
not- it could well be that today's junk is simply the newborn great
innovation that hasn't had all the kinks worked out yet. Time will
tell, like it always does.