Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Gone... January 15, 2007

One year ago today I lost someone I loved with all my heart.

I miss him, and it hurts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow. that's a sad statement. sorry for your loss. it's never easy.

perhaps i can distract you with a question.

i notice you have a rikon bandsaw. i have the cashola, and i need to spend it on a bandsaw. i have heard mixed reviews. do you care to chime in? i am a garage woodworker, but i'm starting to get it. thanks for letting me know about your take on the rikon; model and such. thanks, tablesawed

ps, i work in IT support for a CPA firm, so we're share some weird interests.

Jeff Skiver said...

Yes, I have the Rikon 18" bandsaw. Mine is the first version that came out, and it has the 2 hp motor (2.5 hp on the newer version) and they also beefed up the trunnions (I think). I got this one because somebody rated it high (FWW, maybe??) and I thought I was going to be doing a ton of resawing veneer like my TV mentor David Marks. So I bought this massive 18" bandsaw with its 12" resaw capacity two years ago. That paduak veneer in the photo of today's posting is some of the very little resawing I have actually done. Honestly, knowing what I know now I would rather have a 14" bandsaw that would let me use a 1/8" blade than this big monster. For me, if I were shopping for a bandsaw today...I would now consider one of the 14" bandsaws with the 12+" resaw capacity. Yeah, they might struggle to actually resaw 12" with their smaller motors, but how often does one actually need to resaw 12" boards????

Really, I am the wrong person to ask about bandsaws because I just don't have experience with too many different ones. However, I believe a shop needs a good 14" bandsaw, and if one needs more power and massive resaw capacity, then an 18" could be added as a second bandsaw. When I used a 14" bandsaw to cut dovetails during a joinery class at Marc Adams School of Woodworking is when I realized how much easier it would be to have a bandsaw with a small blade (1/8") capability. The same thought applies when one looks at bandsawing boxes. The 18" bandsaw is just not the machine I need in my shop, but two years ago I thought bigger was better.

As for this 18" Rikon machine, I like the roller guides. The dust collection is fabulous. I find this machine easy to change blades and I have never had problems keeping it in tune. I don't like the fence, but I keep thinking it is my fault...perhaps I just don't know how to get it aligned. However, when I get it aligned it seems to move around.????

As for career similarities, I have nothing to do with accounting. For some reason, when I click on "AUTOMOTIVE" for industry in my profile...it comes up as ACCOUNTING. This is another one of those Blogger WHAT THE (*&^*&%*?!?!?!?!? things that makes me want to get a refund of the zero dollars I am paying for this blog. I would be interested to see someone else experiment and see if their profile turns up as ACCOUNTING when they attempt to state they work in the AUTOMOTIVE industry.

Perhaps I am really an accountant down deep and the Engineering Degree from Rose-Hulman is just a facade I use to hide the true bean counter counter personality that I am keeping in the closet. Obviously, Blogger knows something I don't.

However, I am glad there are accountants in the world. It's just that I am not one of them.

Sorry for rambling. Mark Duginske...if you are one of my secret readers, please chime in and help this fella. You owe it to me, man. I own all of your books and videos. Besides my wife and I quote you every time something goes wrong....we always summarize problems by saying, "This probably even happens in Central Wisconsin..."

Jeff Skiver said...

OK...I changed the profile back to AUTOMOTIVE at 6:36 PM on 15JAN08. Let's see if it will finally stay that way, or if it is going to do the Blogger Gremlin thing and change me back to an Accountant.... Let the public experiment begin.