Shopsmith Forums

I can't find my way back to nuhobby's recent post about his watch-tinker's tray, but in his photo was a shop stool sitting by his SS. I've been wanting to get/build a shop stool because when I get tired and plop myself down on the shopvac, it's probably hard on its little caster feet...and not really useful for working at the bench. Anyway, seeing a stool next to a piece of power equipment got me wondering...what tasks can you safely do while sitting down?
Lathe work?
Table saw cross-cuts?
Bandsaw stuff?
Would an armrest help or get in the way? I saw a stool at the dentist office that sort of had a back that extended as a one-side-only arm rest.
Does it help to get down closer to the work and take it easy, or like chain-sawing, do you need a very clear path to escape?

I definitely use a stool to sit on sometimes when I do woodturning on my Mark V. Depends on how long of a session it is and how I am feeling...

I too sit down for some work I do on the Shopsmith tools. Lathe Turning is one I may sit down for. I do a lot of my restoration work cleaning and polishing parts on my Mark 7 and generally sit down. I have back problems that make it preferable to sit while working for a longer time. When using the Table Saw function that IS a standing operation. I stand while using the Drill Press. Sawing and drilling are not usually long operations so standing is tolerable on my back. I feel working while comfortable is safer than stressing your body. There are exceptions. For me, short time operations I stand and longer operations I generally sit.

Something to note on this subject is we have a member here who works from his wheelchair. He hasn't posted here for some time now, but I have direct contact with him. HIs Mark V has had some adaptations and he does things a bit differently. Doing his woodworking is great therapy and keeps him going. Doing operations safely is very important to him which is something we talk about. When needed his wife helps out.

Setup, drawings, filing and sanding little pieces by hand, assembling small things, sitting on a stool is fine for that. With the machine on I always stand. I'm hoping I can learn to turn on a stool. I guess I could do other things while sitting, and it would be great to lessen the pressure on my back from standing, but it will take a while to change habits.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate your feedback. Safety isn't something you experiment with in order to perfect. It's no risk to try out handcarving, hand planing, etc, just to see what's feasible while sitting down, but I wouldn't want to find out the hard way while spinning up a power unit.

CreekWood wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 11:03 pm Thanks, guys. I appreciate your feedback. Safety isn't something you experiment with in order to perfect. It's no risk to try out handcarving, hand planing, etc, just to see what's feasible while sitting down, but I wouldn't want to find out the hard way while spinning up a power unit.

The bottomline is you always want to be in control (and feel in control) when doing any woodworking operation, irregardless of whether the operation involves a power source or not. Some would argue that it isn't "safe" to sit while doing certain non-powered woodworking activities, e.g. hand sawing, hand planing, etc. The problem lies in the intended body mechanics of the operation versus what you create by sitting down, e.g. there could be unintended twisting and/or other strain put on the back to attempt to do hand tool woodworking while sitting versus standing. I still say that if you feel in control and don't feel any body alignment or pain issues then most woodworking operations can be performed while sitting and as Russ pointed out there is a forum member here that uses their Shopsmith equipment from a wheelchair.

MelissaBecker wrote: ↑Thu Oct 20, 2022 9:03 pm If you're performing any kind of woodworking, whether it's with a power source or not, you want to be in control (and feel in control). When working with non-powered woodworking tools, such as a hand saw or a hand plane, some could argue that it isn't safe to sit down. Attempting to undertake hand tool woodworking while sitting rather than standing might cause unintentional twisting and/or other strain on the back due to differences in the body mechanics required for the activity versus what you create. I still maintain that most woodworking tasks can be accomplished from a seated position provided the worker is confident and doesn't have any pain or alignment problems, and as Russ mentioned, there is a member of this forum that operates their Shopsmith machinery while seated in a wheelchair.

MODERATOR,

Can you investigate the post above and the account that posted it? It looks like a fairly sophisticated chatbot to me. It is essentially a re-ordered version of what has already been posted by myself and perhaps others above. There is SIGNIFICANT plagiarism in this post above and nothing new added to this thread.

There’s link spam at the end of it.

HopefulSSer wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 1:09 pm There’s link spam at the end of it.

Thanks for pointing this out.

Wait...so a MODERATOR edited it so that the URL won't show on viewing the post (because I can't see it with Chrome browser), but yet the offending link is still available in the code of the post if you go to quote it? That really makes me question now why are we leaving these spam posts in place at all??? Shouldn't they be deleted entirely? This spam post copied many of my phrases verbatim and I think many of you agree that having one of me on the forum is more than enough! Now, I have my own chatbot spewing my posts back to me!

P.S. Two of my prior posts were plagiarized today by two different spammers. Looks like the spammers/chatbots have gotten more sophisticated, i.e. they change out some words for synonyms to make it appear to be different, but the message is exactly the same as what I wrote before. Link below to the other one.
viewtopic.php?p=302914#p302914