This weekend I placed an order for a big tool that I’ve never used before: a band saw. Specifically, it’s a Grizzly G0555LANV 14″ Deluxe Bandsaw Anniversary Edition. As I’ve gotten more into woodworking, I’ve realized that it is an incredibly useful tool that will open up a lot of builds that just aren’t feasible right now. This is sort of a middle of the road model. It’s not a smaller benchtop unit, but it’s a fraction of the price of some of the big name brands. Grizzly makes great tools with no frills. No, it’s not the same quality as a Powermatic, but it’s also going to be a quarter or a fifth of the price. For a home woodworker like me, even the Grizzly is probably overkill.
I struggled for a long time about whether to buy this new or used. I know that I could have saved money buying a used one, but since I have almost zero experience with a band saw, I did not believe that I could accurately evaluate a used model to know if I was getting a good deal or not.
I’m lucky to be located pretty close to one of Grizzly’s three showrooms, but I still chose to have it shipped from Bellingham. I was able to get it shipped for $35 (had to pay for curb side service since I don’t have a forklift to unload it myself) and for that much money, it was hard to justify borrowing a truck and making the ~2.5 hour round trip drive.
If you’re not familiar with a band saw, you might be wondering what it is good for. In general, pretty much anything you can do on a table saw, you can do on a band saw and it’s arguably a bit safer for some tasks such as cutting dove tails or box joints. Additionally, you can cut curves and you can resaw thick lumber and save wood. When I built Tyla’s jewelry box, most of the pieces were 3/4″ thick so that’s the stock that I bought. But a couple of the pieces only needed to be 1/4″ thick. If I had a band saw, I could have cut the board in half to make two thin pieces. Since I didn’t have one, I had to run it repeatedly through the thickness planer and turn 2/3 of the board into expensive saw dust.
I’m excited to get this thing set up and learn how to use it! Stay tuned for my first projects. I have a big stack of ideas waiting for me!
I’ll say up front that I’m from Indiana. There’s not a lot of seafood in Indiana. It’s not really my thing and I know next to nothing about cooking it. But every once in a great while, I cook some salmon. Meat Week seemed like a good reason to try it again.
Earthquake Hysteria
The other night I got curious as to why the impending earthquake is all of a sudden big news. Why is everybody freaking out about this all of a sudden? There are articles every year about this, so was there some new revelation or scientific discovery?
Nope. It can be traced back to a click-bait article in the New Yorker. This got picked up and went viral. News flash: There’s a fault line under Seattle. News flash: There are fault lines everywhere. Yes, any fault line could be the source of an earthquake, and yes, you should be prepared for the possibility, but seriously, settle down. You should also be prepared for a house fire, a car accident, a volcano eruption, measles outbreaks and missile attacks from North Korea.
Three local earthquake experts got together to do a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) and it’s a much better source of actual science related to the possibility of a Seattle earthquake. If you’re really concerned about this, note that three LOCAL experts wrote this. They study this stuff as a profession and yet they still happily live and work here.
So yes, it’s possible that we could have an earthquake tomorrow and yes, it might be devastating, but this possibility has existed for a very long time, and lots of data says that it’s not likely to happen for another couple hundred years. There are also threats of disasters. Do some basic preparations and get on with your life.
P.S. Luke 12:22-31
P.P.S. If you want to watch a good interview about this, check out episode 12 of The New Screensavers. That link will take you right to the start of the interview.