Normanitis nihilneanderitus

Long-memoried readers may be able to cast their minds back to the end of January and an airing of my more village idiot tendencies. I expect you thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?

You're right; I had.

But moving this 'n' that, the reasons for which shall be detailed below, revealed it in bits, half done, with the smallest parts immersed in meths to shift the age-hardened oil and grease (denatured alcohol I believe, if you live in North America - but possibly not Canada? Anyway, I digress...). I figured they might have soaked long enough by now, so I finished the job. A minor moment of doubt as I tried to remember which bit went where (it's a while ago since I took it apart after all) but it works so I assume I got it right:


After that moment of triumph it's all downhill from then on. Folks, I seem to have caught Normanitis nihilneanderitus. Or the dread disease of Tailed Demons taking precedence over Noble Hand Tools.

I know; I feel that shame.

First I finally tackled the sliding compound mitre saw's irritating habit of flinging dust to all corners of the globe. It's far from perfect; f'rinstance I'll have to remove The Device as soon as I want to cut an angle other than 90°, hence the nomadic tent appearance and copious numbers of spring clamps to hold it together. On the other hand it's a good first step, and who knows? Another three years and I may be moved to make an improved version...


As you can see, it even has built-in dust extraction and a custom-made "hole" for the sliding bars. Damn near killed me using the bleep bleep bleepity bleep bleep keyhole saw to cut the latter. But hey, it was at least some hand tool use in this Normite desert. Perhaps there's hope?


No, alas that was a mere blip in the downward spiral. Friends, I hope you're sitting down...?

No, really, I mean it.

I've disinterred the tablesaw half of the Maxi 26 combination torture device and got it working again. The ghastly evidence:


No, I don't know why. Possibly two-thirds of an expensive and bulky machine sitting there doing nothing grated one too many times? Yes, that hose is too long but I'm not cutting it up for the benefit of a tablesaur; I'm not that far gone. No, I have no project in mind requiring a badly-designed, barely accurate tablesaw. Yes, it is very worrying.

The only conclusion I can draw is it's my contrariness showing up in force. Everyone and their magazine editor is embracing hand tools like they're the newly first-born, so cross-thread here has to rush madly towards using machinery. Sometimes it's a real pain in the neck being me, I tell you...