Missing the forest for the trees on the internet...
A while back I built a little shed to house my lawn and garden equipment, and perhaps some beekeeping stuff that was taking up too much space in the workshop. It was mostly made of scrap wood, left over posts that once held clothesline and parts from a deck that we tore down. Once it was together and the outside was closed in with OSB I purchased a roll of house wrap from Lowes and decided that although it would not serve long term without some kind of siding, it might just help in the short term.
So I don't know how anyone else puts up house wrap, but what I did was start at the bottom nearest the back and stapled the edge to the wall then rolled it out to an opening and stapled it again, cut it off and went back and added more staples. I then repeated the process with another piece slightly overlapping the previous one. Because there is a giant hole in the middle (the door), I started again from the other side, repeating the process in mirror reverse fashion. Now it is significant that I bought the house wrap from Lowes because it was their own brand and carried their name all over it in big letters. Wait for it.. When you roll it out from left to right the letters are upright and readable as normal. When you roll it out right to left the letters become upside down, and are read that way as well.
I didn't think anything of it, since I assume the reason any company puts their name on house wrap is to get some free advertising while the space is being built but before the final siding is applied and it is never seen again. When I shared a picture of my work-in-progress on the internet for all to see, I didn't expect much except perhaps a few attaboys or maybe questions about the construction, or even the door, which I made completely from scratch rather than trying to buy a manufactured door. What do you think the comments were? "YOU PUT THE HOUSE WRAP ON UPSIDE DOWN!"
Well, just recently I took up wood turning. I have done some in the past, and am trying to get back into it, but want to get deep into the heart of it so I am consuming everything I can find and trying all sorts of things. That said, I do many things at once. I want to be able to make tools as well as use them, and the tools involved in wood turning are quite "simple". That's not to say they are easy to make, or even inexpensive to make. But rather, that for the most part, there are no complex moving parts, or crazy interactive angles involved. A gouge is a gouge. It starts out as a piece of round stock and has a groove cut that creates a flute. The size and depth and overall shape of that groove can be a little precise but for the most part you can be off my a significant amount and still have a working tool.
One of the simplest of these tools is a parting tool. It is used to make a straight slice across the grain of the wood, usually for removing your finished piece from the waste at the ends. They come in all thicknesses and have some additional features or abilities because of those sized. One of the most popular DIY suggestions I see for turning tools is to make your own "Thin Parting Tool". This is usually done by modifying a kitchen knife. It usually uses the french blade or santoku blade, and simply removed the sharp part, and cuts an appropriate cutting angle (like 45° or so) for use as a parting tool. There are some different techniques for using the parting tool, but the latest suggestion were to present it to the wood at a negative angle so that it "scrapes" first then tip it up until the blade engages the wood and then finally move it forward in an arcing motion to follow the shape of the disappearing wood.
I was a bit dubious, trusting a random questionably hardened/tempered piece of dollar store or thrift store steel being presented to a piece of wood spinning at a couple thousand rpm by a 1hp motor. But I kept it in the back of my head as a potential project. Then I came across a stainless steel BBQ fork in a thrift store for $0.99. It was thick and rigid, and had nicely sharpened barbs. It just called out to me, so I thought I might try this instead of a knife. At least it felt more rigid, and gave me less fear than the thoughts of a thin flimsy blade. It also had a 7" handle, which for some reason instilled a little more confidence.
I posted an image of it and suggested what I was intending. Of course I got lots of people saying that it wouldn't work because it was too soft, and would fold up like a lawn chair, wouldn't hold an edge, or even I think suggested it would explode into millions of shards and frag me. But I would not be deterred.
So I rushed out to the shop and hack sawed off the fork part at the wrist bend. Then I randomly cut an angle that looked pretty good, and ground it relatively flat and sharp enough. I figured no one would believe me if I just showed the tool and the resulted cut off wood, so I set up the camera. I then fought with the tool, adjusting the rest, tilting this way and that, trying to overcome the poor cutting edge/angle and finally got to the point where I could pretty much get through a cut. I took a few <1 minute videos me me cutting off 1/4" wide slices of a 3/4" thick blank. Took a still shot of the resulting disks and the edge of the tool.
The initial conversation from the fork post left me feeling that people would be interested in seeing the results. So I posted them up to Instagram and back to the Reasintper Maker web page on FB, and shared them to the same groups that I had shared the fork picture earlier. Unfortunately, not everyone reads FB from top to bottom. As a matter of fact, due to the algorithms that they employ each person is presented with stuff differently intentionally. I hadn't considered this, and many people saw these videos without being privy to the initial fork conversation. It would be nice if there was a good way to share something to a group, and make it a response to a previous thread, but I have yet to figure out a good way to do that either.
Long story short, I got a whole bunch of comments telling me "Your Tool Rest Is Too High." and a good many more telling me about how poor my technique of using this tool was. As well as at least one that wanted to know why I was making wooden nickels. :)
It was the house wrap all over again!! Like an idiot, I tried to respond and explain the whole point. How I was adjusting the rest up and down, scraping more with the tool to see if it would dull the edge I put on it, and so on and so forth. But they were like a collective dog with a bone.
I feel like I should have a summary, moral, or conclusion to this, otherwise it just sounds like I am complaining. I think the point is, when you interact on the internet, you will be misunderstood. Be it either in the voice of your statements, or the intent of them. You will be taken out of context, and people will run with whatever they think they want to respond to. The more you try to correct it, the worse it will get, until, if you let it, it devolves into some kind of weird argument about the inane. Have some thick skin, don't try to explain yourself to people that don't want to understand what you meant. Sometimes you just have to hit "Like" and go on, or simply just go on.
If you dig deep enough you can also find my shed somewhere. :)
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