Thanks
With the last weekend in November on tap, we give thanks for many things right about now. I have a few that are woodworking related. If youre like me, youre…
With the last weekend in November on tap, we give thanks for many things right about now. I have a few that are woodworking related.
If youre like me, youre probably thankful whenever its merited. The thanks can be for anything from everyday mundane stuff (like dropping a workpiece and having it not fall, for once, glue-side down on a nearly completed project), to the truly important things (like when youre driving a load of lumber home, your mind on the shop work ahead and a ball suddenly comes bouncing into the path of your car and its not followed by a running child).
Im thankful for lots of things in the shop. The last piece of plywood in my rack turning out to be exactly enough to finish a piece without going out for more is a minor thankful moment. So was running out of a particular stain I had planned to use on another piece, leading me to use a different stain that worked better. I made a mistake on a simple project a few weeks ago, and as a result had to do a bit of on-the-fly redesigning. The result turned out much nicer than what my original design would have been. Things like that.
But Im most thankful that Ive never had a serious shop injury. Sure, Ive messed up a few times in the shop where an injury could have occurred. In those cases, an injury would have been my own fault for carelessness or whatever, but Im still thankful I dodged the bullet. And there have been times when carelessness on my part did lead to an injury, albeit a minor one. The time I dropped a (not-plugged-in) router on my head springs immediately to mind.
But its the times when something was genuinely accidental and unexpected like this past summer when I had a power blackout and was plunged into total darkness just as my fingers were scant inches from a spinning table saw blade during a rip cut that I really have to stand back and think long and hard about what could have happened.
I havent had a lot of moments like that, but Im thankful in every case that nothing serious happened. If youve had similar experiences, hopefully you had the same result I did. If so, then as we approach Thanksgiving weekend, Im guessing that you have similar reasons to give thanks.
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.