the fact the install media can’t provide a working desktop by itself is pathetic.

BeOS/Haiku?

Diaper Retard Hitler will kill the Western world as we know it, and the only other option we present to you is a man who is too old and senile to hand out werther’s originals by himself.

Civilization is a lost cause.

A diminutive monochromatic quadruped.

I have one of those too, she’s asleep right now.

I’m fucking serious, one of the talking heads on the news said Biden needed to “remain upright” to come off well in this debate. That was said of the currently serving commander-in-chief!

Unlike the actual President Of These United States of America, the 24 hour news cycle probably expects more out of me than “can stand up straight for 30 minutes without incident.”

Remember when Trump made a point to demonstrate his ability to lift and drink from a glass of water?

Seriously next time these two appear on stage I want them to step through a hoop to prove there are no wires.

I’m running on an independent ticket. My platform: Unlike the other two candidates no one wonders if I can physically handle the journey from back stage to the podium.

I take it the title should include something like {Planter Box Contest]?

I have actually been planning to build a planter box this summer so I’ll submit it if I get it built in time.

Yeah I referenced Clickspring, when oxidizing a part for decorative purposes he would put the part in a brass tray full of brass shavings apparently to function as a thermal mass so that the color comes out evenly.

To expand on this, the rainbow of colors which start at a straw then turn yellow, red, brown and then that vivid blue, are caused by refraction. The oxide layer on the surface is transparent or translucent, and the thickness of the layer determines what wavelength of light it scatters. The hotter it gets, the thicker the oxide layer forms, so you can fairly reliably tell the temperature the metal has been heated to by eye, and you might use different amounts of heating to achieve hard-but-brittle or soft-but-tough.

I’ve even seen it done by Chris of Youtube channel Clickspring for decorative purposes. It’s how he made the steel hardware of his brass clock blue.

Exactly how you temper something the size of a sword using a forge is a bit outside my understanding; I’ve done it with relatively small bits of drill rod to make lathe tools with a gas torch, but that’s about it.

I spent enough time in aviation to know how much drilling it actually takes to teach people emergency procedures. If it’s different than what they usually do, it takes hours of practice. Even something as simple as finding and pulling a different door latch. If you’re stressed, even as stressed as “the doors won’t open the way I’m used to them otherwise everything is okay” your brain will just fail to pivot to the alternate procedures.

Cars got so simple to use in the 90’s. Sure they were simpler machines in the 60’s but fuel injection eliminated chokes and other carburetor issues, automatic transmissions became ubiquitous, children can handle vehicles of this complexity. And now we’re making them more complicated for no actual reason, with electric door latches with manual backups and such, and it’s causing problems.

At least one door should open via a mechanical key and mechanical handle from the outside, and I firmly believe the internal door handles should all function mechanically as well. There shouldn’t be “usually you use a button but in an emergency this thing that looks like a bit of trim is the actual mechanical handle” that shouldn’t be allowable by code.

I think you’re going to have to use trademarks for this.

Start a non-profit group promoting queer community rights, create a trademarkable logo (maybe a rainbow flag could be used, or you might need more unique symbology) and then you can license that logo only to companies that do actually support the cause.

Can anyone name me one that is a normal fucking car? With a little dial that tells you how fast you’re going that isn’t an LCD display that can’t be read in direct sunlight connected to an internet connected computer that will never get OS updates? With a gear shift lever that moves forward and back or up and down to select park, reverse and drive, not a nipple in the glove box to lick for “Forward,” a knob on the ceiling labeled “H” and to put it in reverse you honk the word REVERSE on the horn? Where the doors have handles that you pull on to open that look like door handles, and locks that have cylinders that accept keys?

As another comment mentiones together with a mitre saw and some jigs i think you could replace a table saw functionally, but its probably not the most efficient way of doing some things.

With a track saw and a miter saw, I think you can say “I can crosscut, miter and rip.” But I don’t think you come close to matching the capability of a table saw.

I think a track saw really comes into its own when handling large panels or slabs. If you hand me one of those 2 inch thick slabs you’re making one of those trendy river tables out of and tell me to cut the live edge off of it and square it up, I’m not going to even try that with my table saw. Same with cutting some arbitrary diagonal line across a sheet of plywood.

Your average sliding compound miter saw is quite convenient but I don’t think as good as a table saw for crosscuts, miters, bevels or compound miters. Now mind you as a carpenter I’d happily show up to build a house with my miter saw and a normal circ saw and leave the table saw at home, but for woodworking I want extra accuracy and precision that I can get from a table saw and a good miter gauge or sled.

Things I think you would struggle to get done with only a miter saw and a track saw (or: why you’re probably going to get a table saw)

• Ripping boards narrower than about 8 inches

• Resawing

• Non-through cuts such as grooves, dados, rabbets and tenons

• Multi-purpose jigs such as taper jigs, sleds, tenoning jigs, panel cutters and the like. Try tapering table legs with a track saw. Actually don’t.

• Job specific jigs and fixtures are possible but less useful.

• Coving. If you haven’t seen this done go check out a video of someone cutting a cove with a table saw. It’s a hoot.

Not to mention that table saws are just more practical to set up for repeated operations/batch work

Could you imagine the litter box that thing needs?

Nothing against track saws at all, they’re excellent tools. My point is, if I had no tools, and I was going to buy one powered wood saw, it would be an ordinary circular saw.

For instance, what’s it like cross-cutting a 2x4 with a track saw?

Yeah I don’t know why people do that.

Yeah I would recommend a regular, good quality, Skil pattern circular saw over a track saw (which I believe is what you mean by “plunge saw”) as a first tool along with a decent straight edge clamp.

Track saws increasingly come with things like riving knives, anti-kickback features etc. but a beginner is unlikely to start with large slabs of lumber but rather plywood, which is less likely to pinch in the kerf and cause kickbacks. And in the event that “woodworking is not for me” a circ saw is perfectly viable for carpentry tasks as well.

I do suggest avoiding anything that purports to turn a regular circ saw into a track saw. Just learn how to run the foot against a straight edge.

It’s not that difficult to find plans available either for free or for sale on the internet, though I have yet to build a furniture project straight from plans. I’ll usually come up with something I want to build, and I’ll look at pictures, watch build videos, maybe find plans, and then I’ll design my own version in FreeCAD.

I tend to start in the spreadsheet workbench and list things like stock dimensions, pertinent detail dimensions and such, derive certain dimensions, I like to keep as much math in the spreadsheet as possible, and then I use the sketch > Part Design workflow to create the parts and the A2Plus workbench to assemble them. Creating a 3D model is often a sanity check to make sure all the parts fit together, I sometimes don’t bother to model all parts or I’ll only do half of a symmetrical assembly. I used to make drawings to print with the TechDraw workbench but for my purposes in the shop I stopped doing this as I would just work from the spreadsheet. If I was sharing my plans with others I would make more careful drawings.

This of course allows you to tailor the work to your space and you.

Welcome to the community! I’m gratified and flattered that my project sent you over here, so I’ll try to point you to some good resources.

Information/How-To

As others have said, your local library likely has an entire shelf of woodworking books, that’s definitely worth checking out.

Youtube is a great resource here. There are lots of great woodworkers of all stripes posting useful and fun videos. Some excellent channels include:

• The New Yankee Workshop. The classic PBS TV show starring Norm Abram is being officially uploaded to Youtube.

• Stumpy Nubs. A tool tips sort of channel that offers quite a bit of practical advice.

• 3x3 Custom. The host, Tamar, tends to post project vlogs, things like “here’s how I built this bed frame.”

• Wood By Wright How To. One of them hand tool purists who relies almost entirely on hand powered saws, planes, chisels and files to build his projects, occasionally allowing himself to use a modern power drill. He has a fun dad-joke style sense of humor and a lot of great videos on technique.

• Woodshop Companion. Craftsman Nick Engler, author of many woodworking books, shares fun and practical tool techniques and projects.

Among many more, those are just some of my favorites.

Another great place for woodworking information is your local makerspace. Makerspaces come in all shapes and sizes, I was a member of one with a very complete wood shop, along with a membership full of craftsmen of all stripes who were excited to talk about their work.

Finally, of course, there’s this Lemmy community and its members.

Tools

You would be amazed what you can get done with a good hand saw, a few chisels, a block plane and a file or two. Though it can also be a pleasure to work with a garage full of power tools. Which way you go is up to you.

You can of course go spend a few grand down the tool aisle of your local home center, but that kind of outlay can be a bit much if you’re just starting out and aren’t sure if woodworking is for you or which direction you want to take your new hobby. Markerspaces/friends who are also into woodworking are again great resources here. You can find pretty good deals on tools at garage sales, estate sales, pawn shops, swap meets, thrift stores, hell your local library may have tools you can borrow.

Some of my tools I bought at Lowe’s, some of them I bought on Amazon, some of them have been in my family for generations, some of them I made myself.

The first thing I want you to put in your cart when you go shopping though is a good pair of safety glasses, and some hearing protection for power tools. If you’ve still got those cloth masks everyone had during the pandemic, I find those can be nice when sanding or otherwise creating a lot of dust.

Wood

Some folks break down pallets to get wood. Some folks buy 2x4s from the big box store and chop those up. An aisle or two over from the construction lumber you’ll find “project boards” which are a little better, but still not wonderful. I don’t want to steer you away from these sources of wood, because newcomers are often more willing to take chances, make mistakes and get messy with lumber like this, and the lessons you’ll learn the hard way from barely dried yellow pine are hard to teach otherwise.

You’ll want to find a proper lumber yard or sawmill in your area. It can be intimidating to walk into what seems like this huge, professional B2B operation and ask for three boards but they usually love to help. They usually stock wood that is rough cut with the idea that you’re going to surface it yourself, but for a fee they’ll surface it for you so you don’t have to invest in those tools or learn those techniques as you just get started.

It can be really intimidating to learn about all the different species of wood and their characteristics, but start with a few, learn to compare and contrast them, and then go from there. Pro tip: there is a type of maple that takes on these grey streaks that some people think are unsightly, so it’s sold for shockingly cheap as “paint-grade maple” or some such. This stuff is very nice to work with, a lot better than construction lumber, and very affordable.

Starter projects

You may have an idea for what you want to build, but if you’re thinking “I want to build [thing] but that feels complicated, what are some more beginner friendly projects to get me started?” here are a few ideas:

Repair or restore existing furniture. Find a crappy old dresser at a thrift store, clean it up, fix it up. Great project for learning about stain and finish, to practice sanding techniques etc.

Bookshelves. A lot of my earlier projects were bookshelves made of plywood. A great project for practicing with the table saw.

Cutting boards or coasters. Great projects for practicing jointing and panel glue-ups.

Work benches, jigs and tools. You can buy a workbench but it’s probably good practice to build one. You’ll need lots of jigs and fixtures that you can make yourself better than you can buy; I would never buy a taper jig, for example.

Keep in touch, let us know how you’re coming along. I hope you have lots of fun.