On Monday, May 11, 2015 at 11:02:28 AM UTC-4, John Grossbohlin wrote:
"Leon" wrote in message
...

This could seriously be handy for a do it yourselfer.

http://youtu.be/GFnYRUyBQg4


This strikes me as the kind of thing you'd give to a teenager so he/she
could make things... same experiential learning bucket as Erector Sets and
Chemistry kits... I had access to a Shopsmith for that purpose when I was a
kid. In regards to both, they have no place in my shop today.

John

The key to giving this type of set-up to a beginner is to ensure (and hopefully to even show them) that for all of its versatility, it should not be considered a *real* tablesaw, drill press, scroll saw, etc. While the common saying is that a craftsman never blames his tools, we have to take that with a grain of salt.

When my daughter moved out, I wanted to get her some basic tools so she could tighten a screw, hammer a nail or bend a bracket if need be. Even though she is not really a girly-girl, I looked at some of the "pink tool kits" they make for women. All I was trying to do was soften the "industrial look" of the tool kit I was getting her. What I found was that the quality of those pink tool kits is extremely poor and not something that you want to use to teach a beginner basic repair skills.

For example, if my daughter was trying to fix something and the pliers bent or the screwdriver tip rounded over, what will she likely take away from the experience? "I can't do this. I hate fixing things." Since she has nothing to compare the quality of the tools to, she can only assume it was her fault. While I didn't buy her a set of Festool pliers, I also stayed away from those crappy 150 piece "everything a homeowner needs" bundles. I hand-picked some decent quality tools and built her a kit that could handle the types of repair jobs she might have to deal with. Now when she runs into something that her tools can't handle, she in generally aware that she really can blame the tools, not herself.

The same goes for the all-in-one kit we're discussing here. Without anything to compare the kit to (plus the fact that Dad/Grandpa/Uncle Bob gave it to the teenager) there's the chance the beginner will think that that is what a "real" tool is like, while the more experienced of us know that it is not.