I also instruct at a trade college where I live and today a co-worker showed me a video he was reviewing on rafter layout and cutting.
To start he was cutting with a worm drive without the guard. Not wedged… removed! I don’t think it was for picture clarity either.
Second his instruction for layout was to get the measure out of the book. I may be taking this statement out of context and he may have gone on later to explain further but I couldn’t watch any further at that time.
I don’t recall right now what the name on the video was but I’m sure that it was not from Taunton Press. I’m sure that he is not the only one putting out what I would call garbage. I may not be perfect in my instruction 100% of the time but showing someone to cut a birds mouth on a rafter with the blade 90 deg. to my shinbone (even using a saw with a guard) is not my idea of professionalism. Accidents can happen even when you are trying to employ safe methods but they will happen when you don’t.
Scott T.
Replies
My favs are the outside items build with untreated wood and using non galv nails.
Scott,
Thank you for the link.
Yeah I think I have met some of these people inbetween there stints of rehab.
If I am going to work faster it will be because I am working smarter. I'm all for gang cutting. In fact, I don't teach it but, I do gang cut joists and some rafter parts with a chain saw. I would rather one sharp chain in some good hands than a wild man on a wormdrive. For some reason those visits to the E.R. tend to slow everyone down.
Scott T.
if it is the same video that we have in our library, later the guy is holding two rafters together and has his friend shoot a 16 penny at the boards, toward the person holding them an no further then 2 feet from his chest
Just got me thinking of two X-Ray pictures we have on the door to the shop.
One has a nail in the top of his head from a framing nailer.... the second has an auger bit through the eye socket that exits out the back of the head. Yes both survived according to the articles. From day one my framing nailer had a sequential trigger to reduce the chance of near fatal errors. What you posted reminds me of the Dennis the Menace movie where Joey is holding the nail for Dennis to drive home with one mighty blow. Joey's only job... pull his hand out of the way so Dennis can hit the nail. I still laugh at the thought of it. After about the third rewind my kids took the remote from me to finish the movie. My point is there is the potential for a little Joey in all of us if we fail to comprehend the potential pain and suffering in store if only once we forget to let go.
Scott T.