Shopsmith Forums

[quote="Eric"Shop"Smith"]One doesn't need to be old to make those kinds of mistakes. At 27 without much shop experience, I probably have just enough time to go from being "inexperienced and stupid" directly to being "old and careless."

I know that at some point I learned not to try to screw on tiny nuts by hand, but somehow that slipped my mind yesterday when I was connecting wires to my SS motor. One twitch of the fingers and the nut dropped down a small hole into the innards of the motor. The next fourty minutes alternated between unsuccessful attempts to disassemble the motor and shaking it like a cocktail shaker before it finally spit the nut back out. Not how I intended to spend my time. [/quote]
I believe that is an old timers condition called dropsey.

Caused by old dried up skin that becomes slippery rather than 'tacky'.









Lord have I been there, done that!:(

dusty wrote:Incidents like those described become very common as one gets older.

I constantly relearn the "no liquids rule" and I am forever picking up something that I either dropped or knocked off.

One of my "decreasing" skills involves my feet. I am loving cordless tools more all of the time since these days any cord involved will surely find itself either under or wrapped around my feet. Not just once but sometimes several times in several minutes.
I had another similar episode yesterday evening while prepping a horse for my wife to go riding with a boarding client. This is a great horse but he was having a stupid attack and not cooperating at taking the bit in his mouth. The reins kept crawling under my feet every time I looked away for a second. Once tacked up he was fine.

I am finding that being clumsy has improved my work habits a bit. I used to just work around clutter but now I work a little harder at removing clutter because I know that I am likely to drop something tiny into it and spend a lot of time hunting it.
I am also working more at keeping the shop floor clean now that I am getting everything on wheels. If you can move stuff about easily you will move it often and snagging on a small bit of wood etc. is annoying. I work in "waffle-stompers" and with the wheels on stuff I notice more how bad they can be at carrying in little rocks from the drive. A pebble the size of a fat pea is enough to bring most tool casters to a quick stop.

I don't understand this thread as all. If you leave you fence on your Shopsmith doesn't your wife complain that she doesn't have any place to set stuff in the garage?

I always take my fence off and store it so she has the whole area to set the junk she brings out the house and stores in the garage.

You guys must really be more considerate of your wives.

Ed in Tampa wrote:I don't understand this thread as all. If you leave you fence on your Shopsmith doesn't your wife complain that she doesn't have any place to set stuff in the garage?

I always take my fence off and store it so she has the whole area to set the junk she brings out the house and stores in the garage.

You guys must really be more considerate of your wives.

Absolutely not. The wife and kids know that NOTHING goes on top of the shop equipment. I don't do it nor do they. I am annal about stuff being left on my shop equipment

They do clutter up the work bench and maybe that is the only reason why I have been successful in protecting the equipment. The work bench is equally convenient.

dusty wrote:Absolutely not. The wife and kids know that NOTHING goes on top of the shop equipment. I don't do it nor do they. I am annal about stuff being left on my shop equipment

They do clutter up the work bench and maybe that is the only reason why I have been successful in protecting the equipment. The work bench is equally convenient.

I have oft thought of getting those spikes that they put on buildings to keep birds off of stuff and laying that on the tools when not in use. Mostly for me to follow my own proposed rules to not put stuff on any semi-flat surface

If my wife puts something in the garage I assume she wants me to get rid of it and take appropriate action.

Ed in Tampa wrote:I don't understand this thread as all. If you leave you fence on your Shopsmith doesn't your wife complain that she doesn't have any place to set stuff in the garage?

I always take my fence off and store it so she has the whole area to set the junk she brings out the house and stores in the garage.

You guys must really be more considerate of your wives.

garys wrote:I learned that one a long time ago. ...
Some lessons need to be learned the hard way.

Huh. I know *I* would never do something like that.

.
(again)

dusty wrote:...
I have a second fence and I should probably be paranoid about it too. It hangs on the tool board on the wall near the router table. If it ever fell from there, it would likely be toast.

Yep, gravity sucks. Too bad everything can't be stored on the floor.
Remins me of that old TV commercial "Hep! I've fallen and I caint git up!". Should be "Hey! I've fallen and I don't wanna git up!"