21 best circular saw hacks
OK I feel like I should issue a warning for this one-- at the time of writing, this person has 183 videos, and they're all pretty much like this, and almost certainly there's a dozen other accounts on this theme and with similar numbers. For your sake I'm asking you now, to decide. IF you really like this, you'll only watch... 2? more of these videos today, and then moving forward only 1 per day.
You saw it in the email heading, we're taking about "21 Best Circular Saw Hacks | Japanese Woodworking":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkd0yYmdJcQ
If you do click around for a bit you'll notice that Japanese woodworking videos are basically in two categories: there's insanely complicated joinery stuff with traditional hand tools, I could never do that, and then there's the power hobbyist stuff with circular saws, which is something I can just barely convince myself is something that I could work towards (if I wanted). The hand tools stuff is in a traditional workshop, rural, and the knowledge seems passed down through an apprenticeship system (internal). The power tools stuff seems urban, and it feels like these techniques are disseminated through hobby magazines (external). It's only in the power tools stuff that the magic is really explicated, which is why that's our focus today.
For me the big takeaway here is JIGS-- the structures you build to extend and guide the tool so you can do what you want with it. It's like a second order of tool use-- using the tool to build something to make the tool itself better. It's inspirational to see that even on this cool guy's nice saw the 45 degree mark on the saw isn't exactly 45 degrees, but we can use the saw to make a thing to fix the saw in that regard. Or maybe it seems like you can just eyeball a 90 degree cut but you can't. But you can if you take the time to glue two pieces of scrap wood together first. Thinking it's just going to work without any prep work: red X. Taking the time to build a jig: green check. Bell sound.
And I think it's important to note that the jigs add up-- you use the early jigs to make the later jigs, and that's really the only way to do it. It's almost like a geometrical proof-- first we figure out how to make a right angle using only a compass and a straight edge, then that becomes a tool we use to describe a heptagon. Or whatever. Or to put it another way, first you kill Guts Man, then you use Guts Man's Super Arm to defeat Cut Man. Then it's just three lucky hits with the Rolling Cutter to defeat Elec Man. Use Elec Man's Thunder Beams on Ice Man, the Ice Slasher on Fire Man, Fire Storm on Bomb Man. The monkey has a club before the human has a space station. The robot has a spooky voice and then it sings a song. Then the astronaut has a bedroom. He's eating dinner and he looks right at the camera. There's a bunch of flashing lights. And then the space baby... is... there? ...???
OK I guess this is already kind of far out now so I might as well say: sometimes in depression or some other time of crisis-level energy (low or high) you may feel like WHY can't I just CUT A NINETY DEGREE ANGLE like EVERYONE ELSE. A partial, limited, temporary answer is: "No one just wakes up in the morning and makes perfect ninety degree cuts. You need to eat some real food first, do your stretches, take your vitamins, build a jig, etc.". Dial back the urgency a little and build a little structure of support, only then can you expect to get anything meaningful done. That's what the pros do! And the person in the video isn't even building anything!!! They're just like "yup, that's ninety degrees alright" and they get a green check. A prayer, that we may all accept such grace into our lives.
Peace everyone :)
If someone sent this to you because you're a woodworker with a garage full of JIGS, or because you aspire to be one, you may also enjoy other things I write about. This is Pleasant Realms, an email newsletter about mostly unstressful YouTube videos. Read more and subscribe for free using the button just above this paragraph. I would love to hear any comments you may have but please save your theories on 2001: A Space Odyssey for a more appropriate forum.