learning to write

[Gentleman Jim]

I have written and edited several technical manuals for electronic equipment and can share some of the lessons learned. Before starting you must decide what educational level you are writing to. This will drive word choices, sentence structure, and complexity. Use short sentences. Never use a more complex word or phrase when a simple one works. For example, Press the Start button not Depress the starting solenoid starter control. Develop an outline for each subject, chapter, or technical procedure. This serves as a review process. When the outline has been edited and works you have a writing guide in hand. Review, review, review. When complete have it reviewed by as many people as possible. Every good writer has an excellent editor.

Best of luck

[Hank Knight]

Is this thread about writing or about working to close tolerances? Hard to tell. If it's about writing, I have a few comments to add.

First, I applaud Tom for setting a personal goal to become a better writer. I think it's a goal we should all strive for. The purpose of writing is to communicate something. If your point is not getting across, then your writing needs some work.

I earned my living writing for many years (I was a lawyer) and I supervised others and edited their writing. I found that many people don't write well, regardless of their education level, and that a few pointers can make a lot of difference. Gentleman Jim hit the biggest point squarely on the head: make it simple. Unless you are a William Faulkner or a Shakespeare, the shortest way to express your message is usually the best. Often, when people pick up a pen or sit down at a keyboard to write something, they are overcome with a compelling urge to be impressive, to appear erudite. Lawyers are the absolute worst about this. They use 3 or 4 syllable words when a one syllable one would work just fine. They add unnecessary verbiage to make it sound flowery and "artistic." They have a shaker on their desk filled with commas, colons, apostrophes, semicolons, dashes and periods, and they sprinkle these liberally on their work as they proceed. The end result is almost always garbage, with their original point hidden under all the unnecessary blather.

The easiest way to correct these problems is to reread what you have written and see if you understand it yourself. Play a little game with yourself by seeing how much if what you have written you can omit without compromising your message. Use a short word instead of a long one. Be brutally critical and strive for the simplest sentence or paragraph that gets your point across clearly. Hemmingway was a master at this. His prose is so refreshingly clear and simple that it earned him a place among the greatest writers of all time. Strive to be a Hemmingway instead of a Faulkner, whose sentences sometimes run on for a page or more.

Try to use correct words. Google "common word usage errors" and study them until you learn the correct word usage. There are only a dozen or so words that are the most frequently misused, so it's not a daunting task to master them. If you accomplish this, you've taken care of 90% of the usage errors that we see every day.

Finally, remember who you're writing to. On this board, I'm interested in what you have to say, not so much about your artistry in saying it. I appreciate simple, to-the-point posts. I'm not crazy about spending time wading through a lot of unnecessary stuff to figure out what the poster is trying to say. I think most of us appreciate simple, direct prose.

Finally, as a consumer of information posted here, I've learned to remove my editor's hat and avoid being critical of what others write and how they write it. Not everybody is a polished writer, but that doesn't mean they don't have valuable information to share. It doesn't help to complicate the thread by criticizing the poster's writing online. If I find a post annoying or too difficult to understand, I just move on. No need to point out what is probably obvious to everyone else who reads the post.

My $.02.

Hank

[Admiral]

Hank:  +1.  I also write for a living, and worse, write for a multinational corporation with an international audience where for most of them english is a second language, so I have to keep it simple, direct and to the point without using words like "disambiguation" or "legerdemain."  Clear thinking in preparation for writing and clear and simple words that express those thoughts are the best.

Tom and Joe:  I've learned a lot from both of you in your posts, recognize your considerable experience, and value your individual opinions.  You each have a different style in expressing your opinion, and those opinions are born of your professional work/life experience, i.e., Tom predominately  with metal, Joe predominately with wood (and that is a generalization, as I'm sure you've both gone "both ways" from time to time in your professional life, as opposed to your "hobby" life).  The internet and forums like this have one real problem, that it is not like we are all sitting at a table having a beer talking about these topics, but rather, we all have a tendency to react to each and every word (and perhaps take offense), when in a personal contact context, we would judge what is said based on the flow and whole of the discussion, and the personal interaction of what I call "good guys."  You are both great guys, and great contributors here, and I'd love to have the opportunity to put away a case of beer between us over a long afternoon and evening just talking shop!  Maybe someday that might happen.  But in the end, we are left with blunt and sterile words posted on the internet to interact with and react to.  So I'd suggest when responding to posts, think about cutting each other some slack, understanding that opinions are like as*holes, everybody's got one, and more than likely each gets the job done enough that we don't get constipated and get our knickers in a knot.  Part of this is sublimating ego, and sometimes that's difficult when you have an opinion on something that - from your perspective - was earned by hard experience over time, with success and failures, and you want to pass it along to others.  But, again, we all have our experiences, and our solutions to recurring problems, and there's always more than one way to skin a cat. 

So, how about a group hug, huh??  Again, love you guys..... (but don't start rumors of a "bromance" now....)  :-)

[Arlin Eastman]

you are welcome to disagree if you wish Buddy 

Some of us have better things to do with money , and for the cost of a One way gauge I can own enough lumber to build something  

So buddy the next time you go wishing for whatever think about  the ability to do something with a simple cheap solution, it may be the difference between owning a nice machine and one you constantly are working on 

Personally I  would rather spend money on wood to make something rather than mics that gather dust.

Joe

Are you wanting to be Contrary?

If so I do not know why you are posting what you think and I am posting mine.  Do you not like someone to disagree?

[JGrout]

Excuse me? 

you want to disagree that is fine. 

it is mighty hard however to live on champagne when you have a beer budget 

I know this to be true, I lived it starting out.

If you have all the money you need and want to go in a direction different than mine 

go for it

In fact I encourage it and am waiting for your reviews

[Downwindtracker2]

Joe,after I picked up a General 130 planer, I looked for the planer set-ups. I found a good one on OWWM.There are 4 rolls so we have 8 points to check and adjust, then the knives 3 of them. Knives should be checked all along their length, say we do it every 3" or so. 6 x 3 knives = 18. 18 + 8 = 26 points to both check and adjust. Since I'm a Canuck I familial with Canadian retailers , Princess Auto, a Harbor freight type, has dial indicators on for $16,and the BusyBee, a Grizzly type, has indicator points for $6.45. You need a flat one. Plus a board foot of hard maple and a 8x32 tap. so it's $22.45 plus. A Oneway Multi Gauge is $95. I think I'll order one. It makes sense even to a beer drinker like me.

While a new General 130 was over $5,000 last time they sold them , mine is project that I picked up for $100. The feedworks needed a rebuild and General doesn't stock parts any more so they gave it to me for a piazza lunch.

[JGrout]

Until I actually see someone physically using a one way gauge to set a planer knife based on the table I am skeptical that one can do this and do so accurately let alone the time factors involved in working upside down.

The physical roadblocks to accomplish this (gravity being #1 ) tells me all one can accomplish with a One Way gauge is to determine after setting the knives from the top any  differences from one side to the other which could be accurately measured  by other means. So this in turn would be only an accurate secondary check to tell one how much to raise or lower the bed (or the movable head in some units) to bring it parallel to the planer head or bed as the case may be. 

Knives have to be set in relation to something and that something is the head. This is accomplished with the planer setting gauge supplied with the machine not a One Way Gauge. There is no reference for the gauge to be utilized from on the top of the head accurately.  Even the shop built DI Bob Vaughn uses to set knives is based on the same setting gauge the manufacturers supply and used from the top

Now for feed roll and bed roll adjustments it would be handy, but not required. As Marc alluded to earlier a block of wood and a feeler gauge is the suggested method by the manufacturers 95% if not more of the time. 

I am going with KIS and this is as simple as I have found to be accurate and relatively painless 

this goes for every single planer I have worked on and so far that list runs to nearly two dozen machines with 12 or more manufacturers names on them Granted it is not every one ever made but it does cover enough to say maybe there is some validity to keeping it simple 

Joe

[Arlin Eastman]

Joe

I do not have a one way gauge and the VA bought me a Grizzly 15" planer and 6" jointer with the carbide cutters so I do not have to deal with that.

Also I do not have a beer budget but a water budget since the VA does not pay a 100% disabled vet very much but thank goodness I am now getting SS and with that I am quite sure I make less then you every month.

I do not wish to argue just saying that I think calibrating tools are needed maybe not the most expensive just ones that will do the job.

[Downwindtracker2]

Joe, after two years of university, I dropped out and became a carpenter for 10 years then blundered into millwrighting which I did for 35 years. As a retiree, I've been puttering away my own shop for the last two years.In Canada we have trade tickets at the provincial level then above that, the Interprovincial Red Seal. I did apprenticeships in both trades and a have two Red Seals. I've repaired and set up machinery from huge paper machines to small nail ringers. I'm likely more qualified than Tom to speak on machinery set up.

Well set-up machinery is both easier to use, operators like that, and produces a better product, QC likes that.

You are assuming your cutterhead is parallel to your table, that is what you are trying to achieve when you plane a board. That's not a safe assumption with those Chinese made tools. Certainly not at their prices they charge.

Believe me, a gauge is easier than a straight edge and shims. Dial indictors have springs so gravity is not a problem. The problem is bending over and peering inside the machine.

I'll say it again ,cabinetmakers are generally not good millwrights, nor for that matter good electricians either. Machinists don't make good electricians either.

[JGrout]

You are assuming your cutterhead is parallel to your table, that is what you are trying to achieve when you plane a board. That's not a safe assumption with those Chinese made tools. Certainly not at their prices they charge

 I most assuredly am not assuming any such thing. I am stating that using a One Way gauge from the table to set a loose knife that gravity will force to fall ( gravity sucks or pulls as the case is) is not possible with the OW gauge. One can only determine fact that the head, knives and table are in plane or they are not after the knives have been set providing you use the knife edge a your reference; you could use the head in the same manner.

IOW show me differently (as in pics or a video would be better yet) and I will gladly acquiesce.