David Burgess

I think that Fritz Reuter went pretty far overboard in his writings. However, I found both he and his brother to be quite pleasant in person.

And these alliances can change from one moment to another, depending on who buys the next round.

I use something very similar to that. Takes maybe a half-hour to make, and doesn't have the downsides of some other methods. Have not yet ever marred an endbutton with my similar, but much cruder version. I too have made experimental prototype tools, which worked so well initially, that I never got around to taking the extra step of beautifying them for the satisfaction of the "cork-sniffers".

Miraculously, I escaped this time.

Then whatever you cooked was probably not Fulton-type oxidized/polymerized turpentine distillate.

Same here. But I also go on what I feel I am most competent to accomplish on a particular day or time, and this can vary. Some days, I can execute a particular task efficiently and error-free, and other times, I am better putting it off to another day.

Gad-zooks, the woodworking shop alone would have sufficed!

Bill, you are welcome to joke around about my demise any way you wish. I do it too. If me 'n the ol' lady pass before our cat, will you be willing to take him on? He's a really spectacular dude. Arthur Toman's and Rene Morel's estate auction sales appear to have done rather well, and my potential heirs have been advised of this. So there may or may not be any screamin' deals.

Plus, "The Villages" already has a fairly-well-equipped woodworking shop, which I think residents can use without additional charge. And a woodworking club with about 600 members, if I can accurately recall what I read a little earlier today. Dang, I might be talking myself into joining Violadamore down there.

It is generally quarter-cut... the orientation shown in your photo.

It must be nice, living at "The Villages".

For a workbench, I don't see that it matters much which sort of pine or spruce is used. In my mind, it's better to focus on the fiddles you produce, than on the vanity-properties of your workshop or tools.

Most of my experience with estate sales has been that they were selling lifetime junk collections. Little or nothing of genuine value, and no genuinely good bargains. But had I been willing to spend $3000 worth of time to get maybe $200 in savings, perhaps I could have done a lot better. I may just have an attitude problem.

g Agreed.

What you quoted is actually pretty funny, and valuable, for what it displays about ignorance and posing, if one doesn't have anything better to offer. I could very much admire a workbench, well-made, from yellow pine. Heck even my main "go-to" workbench is mostly made from plywood, and tapered 2x4's, (the taper having no functional value, but it can make 2x4's appear to be more artistic). My other less-main workbench is an Ulmia "woodworkers" bench which I purchased from Bruce Carlson when he was moving back from the US to Italy. I can't say that it would be any better or worse, had it been made from pine rather than beech, but I will say that the traditional "woodworker" bench design can come in quite handy.