FWW shop tip, marking saw blade

[EricU]

I think my reading comprehension is off, the FWW I just got has a shop tip where you mark common blade heights on your saw blade.  Anyone else see that and wonder what they were talking about?  Or maybe the person that did the illustration didn't understand it. The illustration shows drawing a circle on the blade, which seems to be worthless to me.

[Aram]

Agree, I stared at that one for a while, and then moved on. No clue.

[jteneyck]

I haven't gotten the latest issue yet, but could it be that if you draw a circle on the blade that it relates to how far the blade projects above the table when the circle is flush with the table?  Seems logical to me. 

John

[vespid]

They are marking the blade show you know how far to raise the blade to cut 3/4" boards without having to measure or place the board  next to the blade. Must have run out of tips.

[EricU]

they ran out of tips a long time ago,  they've admitted that in the magazine.

I think the problem is that the sharpie is drawn off center.  If you have the sharpie in line vertically above the arbor, then the technique almost works.  I don't see how it's possible to line the circle up with the saw top at the same height using a sharpie, it will be above the saw top at that height.

[Handplanesandmore]

The Methods of Work used to be good, but like its main magazine contents, the quality has gone downhill in recent years. That is also true of many other magazines tip pages. Wood and Popular Woodworking are now the stronger ones in the power and handtool field respectively.

Simon

[WaterlooMarc]

I saw that it too and don't get it. Seems like a solution looking for s problem to me. Maybe I'm in the minority of Woodworkers but I certainly don't obsess about measuring my blade height. Does it clear the wood? Okay great we're done. I can't imagine measuring everytime, unless you're cutting joinery or something obviously. If you can't tell from a quick glance if your blade is an inch above the table I'd hate to watch you pick out a wrench.

[mound]

indeed, I found myself scratching my head reading that.. I would never use such a technique for any precise height measurements.. I don't care about precision when just raising it high enough to cut a 3/4" board and have always just eyeballed it without any need to place the board next to the blade.  Nevermind that any marker lines drawn on the side of a blade will soon be smeared and worn off.

[Steve N]

Haven't seen a new FWW in a while, but all of the magazines are regurgitating the same info from years ago, and it's a constant cycle. Sometimes a writer says, hey I'm going to write about............

There you are, reading it.

Best you can hope for is something you never quite understood, and this guy uses different words, and then it's suddenly clear to you. Video is making all of the magazines pretty much worthless in that regard. The best video's the person showing you doesn't need to say much, just does it.

[EricU]

They have just enough articles that are interesting to me that I still subscribe.  LOML wishes I didn't, I'm sure. I'm not the sort of person to work from plans, but I will take one of their ideas and develop it myself.

They have most of their videos behind a pay wall, which I refuse to pay extra for because I'm already paying for the paper version.  I never  understood why they don't bundle the two, then I probably would pay for both. I like being able to hold a magazine in my hands, and I still enjoy looking at all the pretty pictures they publish.  

They just discovered the shark guard, or at least this is the first time I remember seeing anything about it.