Saturday, September 29, 2012

Slow and Steady Pace

It has been a while since I have last posted but do not fret....I am still working. Slowly and quietly behind the scenes. I have been cutting out all the bulkheads and frames over the last few months while putting in a little overtime at work, (most importantly) enjoying my beautiful baby girl (and future engineer/scientist/philanthropist/athlete) and trying to avoid the Texas heat. I have also been doing a little behind the scenes research on epoxies and table saws and would like to share some of my findings...

I'll start with table saws. I will soon need to rip a lot of wood for my stringers and I think I would like to accomplish this myself with a table saw. I have always wanted to own a table saw and think that it would be an excellent tool to have in the garage. I do not have a lot of room left in the garage (with the boat and the Volvo) so I have decided to go with a portable table saw. I am not an expert by any means and I am hesitant to pull the trigger. I decided to do a little research first to calm my nerves. If any of you have nay additional suggestions then please chime in and email me...

I am leaning toward the Dewalt 745. It has a 15 Amp motor (seems to be standard for these size saws) and a 10 in. blade and comes highly recommended. Here is the Dewalt site...

 http://www.dewalt.com/tools/machinery-portable-table-saws-dw745_2.aspx

I found a few interesting articles comparing this saw to the Bosch GTS 1031 and they are definitely worth checking out if you are also interested...

http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2012/01/20/portable-saws-bosch-or-dewalt/

and

http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2011/11/18/dewalt-portable-table-saw/

The new guard systems are quite appealing considering the first thing I think of when I think of table saws is (kick back) safety. I had a professor in graduate school who cut off his thumb using a table saw. He had it reattached and I watched as he made progress using his thumb throughout the semester....I would like to avoid this if possible.

And the research continues...