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-MIKE-

On 3/27/18 5:55 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Mar 2018 15:22:06 -0700, pyotr filipivich
wrote:

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet on Tue, 27 Mar 2018 13:56:09 -0500 typed
in rec.woodworking the following:
On 3/27/2018 1:18 PM, Bill wrote:
J. Clarke wrote:
On Mon, 26 Mar 2018 20:47:18 -0400, Bill wrote:

RedAce wrote:
replying to Harv.sr, RedAce wrote:
I have a Shopsmith I am looking to sell if you are still looking for
one. I
would have to get my husband to get some of the details about it.

If they were such a "wonderful idea", someone would probably still me
making them.

Somebody is.

http://www.shopsmith.com/

Actually, its seems like a pretty good product for Festool to get
involved with.

All in ones are a PIA.

All in ones invariably find you needing the other setup without
changing this one, to 'fix' something.

And it's impossible to get the thing set up for the first operation
exactly the same way. I worked for a guy that had one. He was always
running up against this problem. OTOH, he lived in a trailer and
there wasn't a lot of extra room. He'd never own one, if he had any
other option.

I used to work at a university that taught media production.
The college ran the local PBS radio and TV stations.
They had a full-time set master who had been there for decades.
The set shop was up on the top floor, hidden away from everything. It
also had a locker room and showers... apparently for all the
non-existent carpentry crew. I swear the guy probably lived up there.

Anyway, the only shop power tool he had was a big ShopSmith and the
thing was pristine. I never saw any sawdust in that shop.
The TV studio's set hadn't changed in a decade or longer. I remember
when they did make a change, it took the guy the entire school year and
following summer to build the new set.

I remember going up there one time to ask if he could cut something for
me that I was using to build some shelves in my storage closet.
I stood there and watched him take about 20 minutes to set up the
ShopSmith to rip a couple boards. Then about another 20 minutes to set
it up to cut them to length for me.
He asked if I wanted him to bore the holes I had marked. I made some
excuse that I had a meeting or something. I didn't want to be there
another hour while he putzed around setting the drill press section up
and taking his sweet time wasting taxpayer dollars on his cushy state
government job.

Part of this was due to the fact that he had a permanent position in a
government that he was going to coast downhill through all the way until
retirement.

But the other part was that stupid ShopSmith. Since that day the
ShopSmith, for me, has always been a metaphor for people who get paid to
spend the most time possible to do the least amount of work possible.

Most people who owned them just enjoy to tinker around with them and
show them off to they neighbors. They rarely even build anything with
them.

--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
www.mikedrums.com