Caleb Strockbine wrote:

to build a kitchen full of cabinets including a dozen or two drawers,
being skilled with router and dovetail jig would be very important.
It's not that you couldn't do them by hand, just that you could do them
faster and cheaper with router and jig.

Faster maybe. Cheaper is a hard case to make, since I'm already cutting
dovetails without buying anything new. I'll get better at it, so I expect
to waste a lot less wood in the future.

I take your meaning though, and I'd probably feel differently if I were
working on a huge project with lots of similar parts, or if my shop time
had any monetary value.

That sounds a little self-defeating. You've never really learned to use
your router, and yet you don't think you'd like it? A router is like any

Well, that's not quite right. I've never really *bothered* to use my
router. It's slightly different. I tried a lot of things when I first got
it, and I have several of those "50,000,001 Inspiring Router Ideas" books,
but over the course of time the thing has definitely collected more sawdust
than it has made, and most of the "inspiring" ideas have gone untried.

I won't say I mastered any of the techniques, but neither did I do such a
bad job that I was disappointed and discouraged beyond hope. A better
router would definitely make some things easier, but I keep pushing it to
the bottom of my priority list. It isn't really defeat so much as
ambivalence. I find I don't really care whether I get a better router
some day or not. There's just not much allure there.

I guess that's what it comes down to. For a one-off, or a two-off, the
router is more of a PITA than it's worth to me. The jigs, the setup, the
noise, the mess. (A DC is something else on the list ahead of a new router.)

I don't mass-produce things, don't make *big* things, and repeatability is no
big concern. Everything is a one-off, and I'm not in a hurry. My shop time
is a lot more relaxing and enjoyable when I don't flip on the banshee.

So there's another self-defeating behavior. You don't use your router
table because it's "too much bother," yet you make it too much bother by
making it difficult to get to. Honestly, putting a bit in your router and

Nah, it isn't that. I have stuff there because I rarely use it, not the
other way around. All of my horizontal surfaces become item collectors at
some point. The difference with the router is I almost never have a need
to move stuff off of it.

Anyway, I'm not really looking to figure out what's "wrong" with me. I'm
comfortable being me. I've just been mulling over some thoughts, and I was
wondering if I'm the only one to realize one day that he doesn't find
routers particularly magical.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/