I have a new saw/multipurpose machine to begin woodworking for a hobby. I am wanting to make a safety rail that is portable & lightweight to use when I am at the machine both to keep me safe & to lean against. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I'd be interested too. The portability is key! Would a walker be useful for the woodworking hobby?
dlc said:
I'd be interested too. The portability is key! Would a walker be useful for the woodworking hobby?
I do not have Ataxia, my husband does. We just moved to a house more manageable for when he gets worse. I admire the fact that you are able to use your hands so efficiently. My husband cannot. His manual dexterity makes it almost impossible - but he trys. When we moved to this house, I made it as handicapped proof as possible (still not finished after almost 6 months). We have a wheelchair ramp to the garage, even though he is not there yet. I had grab bars put in the shower where there was none and the one project I and the workmen are very proud of are the handrails. Anywhere there is a wide open space like a long hallway or comin up the ramp from the garage, I had rails put in. They were very tastefulllly done. Instead of round dowels, he used a dowel that is a bit round on top and flat underneath. He used beautiful gold brackets to hold the handrails in place that you barely see but if you do, they are pleasing to the eye. He asked if I wanted them painted to match my cupboards and I said no,. paint them the same color as the walls. And guess what? Because of this, they do not stand out at all. It was tastfully and beautifully done. I even find myself using them occassionally. As I said before, you are so lucky to be able use your hands for a task like this and wish you all the luck in the world. I am sure you will be very pleased with your work. My workmen are very special in that they know the situation and will even go so far as to make suggestions that will benefit my husband. I am being as pro-active as possible because I know what we will face down the road and want to make life as easy as possible for him.
Janet said:
dlc said:I'd be interested too. The portability is key! Would a walker be useful for the woodworking hobby?
My husband is a cabinet maker. He suggests posting a photo of the machine requiring the stability before he makes suggestions.He is very familiar with me wobbling about everywhere.However we live in England and systems might be different..
We have done exactly the same Janet.I am the one with the ataxia and all tthese aids really do help.
I used to do a lot of wood work and woodcarve but no more and I think I have more tools than the average. I think it can be enjoyable to keep on doing woodwork BUT you may have to really slow down and take your time and try to a better job than before medical problems and not to be afraid to say I cant do this any more and find someone else to do what you may not be able to do safely. It would help if you had someone to do the work with so family does not worry and they can see that you don't overdo it.
Here is a link to the machine.
http://www.shopsmith.com/markvsite/mark7_video_demo.htm
Marie Turner said:
My husband is a cabinet maker. He suggests posting a photo of the machine requiring the stability before he makes suggestions.He is very familiar with me wobbling about everywhere.However we live in England and systems might be different..
Nice machine, I was going to get one once and a fellow I worked with told me he had one at one time and got tired of switching it back and forth, If you have a smaller work space and not trying to have a production line speed this is great. Good luck in your endeavors. Jerry
Guarding a Shopsmith Mk7
After much consideration I believe that the best way forward would be a rectangle of constructional grade timber (say 3” by 2” PAR), reinforced at the corners with 8” by 8” plywood triangles. This frame would need to be about 10” bigger all round than the Shopsmith is at waist height (allowing extra room at the ends where the machine hinges to the vertical). You would need to fix this to the machine rigidly to ensure that if you fell forward towards the machine it did not give way, as I feel sure that any free-standing framework would not be safe enough.
I can see two ways that you could fix this to the Shopsmith, firstly you could arrange two cross-members to fix to the bottom tubes of the machine, one at each end of the machine going fore and aft. These would need plywood brackets at all four ends to raise the fixing point where it connects to the aforementioned rectangular frame up to waist height. Alternatively I see from the pictures that there are some fixing holes near the bottom of the two sheet steel legs, and these could be utilised, with plywood brackets going up to waist height again to fix on to the rectangular frame.
Finally – USE THE GUARDS (even though they are a complete pain normally), and also make some push-sticks as these are considerably more expendable than fingers!
Good Luck
Peter Turner
Did try drawing it all out but the drawings looked messy so I have tried to explain it by text alone
Thank you Marie & Peter. I had a lot of the same thoughts & I am grateful for the ideas. I also appreciate the input from everyone else. Bless all of you caregivers, you do so much.
Bob