Thinking about shop class when I was in school

[HSTurning]

I was just posting in another thread and it made me hink about when I was in shop in school. I went to a Voke high school and took carpentry. Once we picked the shop we wanted the gave use this speech. "We are going to teach proper use, how to sharpen and care for hand tools. You will also learn how to use, change blades and mantain the power tools in this shop. We are going to show you how to work in the real world"

Now it is the last line the I have been thinking about. Who and where in the real world works on 22" direct drive 7.5hp or 10hp carbon steel (could have been carbide forgetwhat we were told) slid/tilt table saws, 36"-42" wheel bandsaws, 24" grinders, 96" oscillating edge sanders, 60" lathe, 36" surface planners, a central vac system that had 96 (if I remember right) 5' long bags 6"dia bags and other crazy good quality tools. I have not seen many workshops with tools like this and talk about setting me up for dissapointment in all tools I buy for my home shop.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

If there's one thing that you don't want, it's to have high school kids working on a tablesaw that kicks back because the fence won't align, and spews dust into the air because the dc is too small..

I think it's a good thing to learn on a cadillac...the only time I hate woodworking is when I use my own tools!

 

[HSTurning]

There was one kid a couple years ahaed of me that was a hazzard.
He was cutting a 3/4" dado in a 4' x 8' sheet of 3/4" plywood. Drifted off the fence, sheet started to vibrate, he ducked under the table and a 3/4" 4' x 8' sheet of plywood flew across the shop. Luck no one got hurt.
He also was told to cut a large post in haft. It was somewhere between 9"x9" -12"x12" about 42" long and not square. How every big it was with the 22"-24" blade raised as high as it could go it was going to leave about 1/4" -1/2" short of making the full cut. He raised the blade as high as it would go and tried to make the cut in 2 passes (one on each side). Even as a freshmen I new this was a bad idea. There was no way the 2 cuts were going to line up with out making something flat and sqare. The first cut wasnt all that bad, a good amount of smoke but all in all not horrible. I was about 15' away and could see the blade was now black and didnt look right. He didnt care and just started the next cut. The blade was the blade way over heating. About half way thru the second cut is when it all went bad. The Shop almost filled with smoke blade had warped severly and started hitting the table. Carbide teeth hitting the carbon steel table made for alot of noise and sparks.

 

[wdcav1952]

I learned a bit of flat work at the Wood Hobby Shop at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico many years ago. Yes, it had equipment I can only dream about now. The concepts learned stick with you (hopefully) and help you to deal with the equipment you can afford now for your shop. Damn, I still wish I had started there when I first got to Puerto Rico!