Walked into my local Makerspace and saw someone using a $3000 bandsaw to cut a single piece of pine for a birdhouse

I swear, I walked into the Portland Makerspace last Saturday and this guy was firing up the big Laguna bandsaw just to cut a 2x4 into a rough birdhouse shape. It was like watching someone take a semi truck to pick up a loaf of bread. Meanwhile, I'm over here trying to figure out how to sharpen my dad's old hand plane without wrecking the blade, and he's got the machine running at full speed for maybe 3 seconds of actual cutting. I get that it's there to use, but maybe grab a handsaw or a jigsaw for small stuff? The noise was ridiculous too, and the dust cloud settled all over my workbench. Has anyone else noticed people at shared workshops going way overkill on tool choices, or am I just being grumpy about it lol.

2 comments

2 Comments

diana_king11d ago

My buddy Dave saw a woman at the Seattle Maker Hub break out the CNC router to carve her initials into a cutting board. That thing was running for like 45 minutes, sounded like a jet engine, for something a wood burning kit could have done in 5 minutes. He said the whole room was glaring at her, but she just had her headphones on zooming away. I guess some people think the fancy tool is the only tool, lol.

olivia_murphy10d ago

That thing could've taken her 45 minutes just to set up the toolpaths and zero the bit, not just the cutting time. Isn't it possible she was learning the machine, not just trying to make a cutting board?