Thread: [Need Help! ]I want to know most problem about woodworking.

Can we possibly get a bit of context on the research project? Are you a student? A university academic? A marketing director?

In other words, why do you want to know this information?

I am student in Chulalongkorn university in Thailand, yes this is research of my subject.

I want to know information because I will make the thesis and find the solution for fix problem of woodworkers.

I research in Thailand, Lao, Myanmar, Australia, Canada, U.S.A...
for some reason in my table of content, I just comparing the different of woodworking in different country.

SO.. I don't want to spam or selling any products to you, because I'm real student and want to doing my research.

Thank you.

Best Regards,
Diego

In Australia and NZ many if not most people do woodworking for a hobby. Do you want to hear the 5 top problems from hobbyists or the 5 top problems from professionals or both?

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Good luck with your thesis.
To help us help you what is your thesis title.
Do you want 5 topics on
Safety
Finishing
Obtaining equipment spare parts etc
Costs of workshop eg labour costs insurance etc.

So many areas without us knowing where to give you the best ideas.
You will need to try and be a bit more specific.
Lyle.

One of my personal frustrations is that many tools are still sold in imperial but everything else in Australia is metric. Also things made in South East Asia are only availble via USA at great expense. Smart manufacturers would supply things to Australia directly and in metric.

Another issue for hobbyists is the expense of this hobby. However it should be remembered that we are demanding. We want great quality but since it is only a hobby we struggle with the costs.

I agree with Lyle that you need to be more specific. One of the things I enjoy is working with my hands to solve a design or process problem or learn a new skill to do something better. These kind of 'problems' are part of the enjoyment of woodwork.

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My major problems won't help I don't think, however if you find a solution then my guess is you'll be able to retire on the royalties.

1. Time (or lack of)
2. Procrastination (standing in my shed thinking of all the projects I will eventually get round to)
3. Motivation (when time permits)

One of the major problems I see, is the manufacturers of Machinery. The dust outlet ports are a bare minimum, 100 mm, when ideally they should be 125 mm or even 150 mm would be better, and in a suitable position to be more effective. The makers of smaller dust extraction equipment put guards in front of the impeller, causing blockages, by large chips from a lathe as an example. The design of the dust extractor leaves a lot to be desired, the inlet port finishes square, instead of a bell mouth shape being a proper design, I can't see that making a proper bell mouth would add a lot of extra cost in the manufacture. There is a lot of good reading in this article by our resident Guru BobL, which will explain things a lot better.
Improving machine cabinet dust ports
If someone was to be able to manufacture a bell mouth inlet similar to what Bob has suggested, at an affordable price, I'm certain that there would be a lot of people requesting one.
Hopefully this is the sort of thing you're able to base your research on, and good luck.
Kryn

I'd say noise is an enormous problem which is hardly mentioned. Hearing aids cost from about $3,000 to $7,000 a pair, or more, need replacing every few years, are a nuisance to wear and are only a partial solution. My ears are shot because I spent my youth in ships' engine rooms, not so much woodworking, but now I'm old it is degrading my quality of life. But I can't recall any discussion about ear protection or ear protectors in this forum, or in woodwork magazines - there are, rightly, animated discussions on dust but nothing about hearing.


The second problem is woodworking without annoying the neighbors. That must keep a lot of people out of the hobby, or annoy a lot of neighbors. When I was on acreage I could use my saws, thicknesser and dust collector without worrying anybody, but it wouldn't be fair to do that in the suburbs.


I'm told that the spiral blade thicknessers are a lot quieter than the straight bladed ones, and that's great. But a lot of machine noise is caused by simple things like fans which could be made a lot quieter for a slight increase in cost, if it were a marketing advantage. But in the meantime I'd urge everybody to buy a good set of ear protectors, not the cheapos you get in the big box stores, and wear them conscientiously when they are using noisy machines.

Originally Posted by Glennet

But I can't recall any discussion about ear protection or ear protectors in this forum, or in woodwork magazines - there are, rightly, animated discussions on dust but nothing about hearing.

Have a look through the safety forum, it's in there. I actually started one a couple of weeks ago as well.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Have a look through the safety forum, it's in there. I actually started one a couple of weeks ago as well.

I'd like to see more mainstream awareness of industrial deafness. I had a routine hearing test about 30 years ago, the doctor looked at the chart (it was paper and ink in those days) and said "I see you were a ship's engineer". I asked him how he knew and he showed me the characteristic dip in the chart. He said "you won't notice it at all now, but you'll be deaf in twenty years". It didn't seem important at the time, but it does now, the deafness and the tinnitus.

You will find dust control discussions more common because noise in the workplace is pretty well covered. The employer has to do a bunch of stuff to reduce the noise, and if all that fails he/she then needs to supply appropriate hearing protection (though a lot of cockroaches I have worked for didn't or chose not to know this). In personal home shops, it's an easy fix via a $45 pair of earmuffs. But with dust control you can spend $1000's and still end up sucking in dust all day because the system is just wrong. Personally I wear earmuffs all day, even when hand planing. People love the sound of a well tuned hand plane, I say it's just noisy!

I think Glen means that not as much emphasis is put on the long term effects of noise, especially if you think your exposure is lower than it really is; if there's lots of dust and you can't breathe it's a clear problem, but sound is less immediately obvious unless it's actually hurting your ears

Hand sanding is the noise that gets me... feels like i'm sanding my eardrum.

Originally Posted by DiegoCosta

I am student in Chulalongkorn university in Thailand, yes this is research of my subject.

I want to know information because I will make the thesis and find the solution for fix problem of woodworkers.

I research in Thailand, Lao, Myanmar, Australia, Canada, U.S.A...
for some reason in my table of content, I just comparing the different of woodworking in different country.

SO.. I don't want to spam or selling any products to you, because I'm real student and want to doing my research.

Thank you.

Best Regards,
Diego

Hi Diego

Problem No. 1 -- dust control that works for a hobbyist shop and is affordable.

Problem No. 2 -- economical spray finishing. equipment, spray booth and ventilation.

Space. You can never have too much of it.

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