Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Should Cut Lists be Banned?
Popular Woodworking: "It is my opinion that a cut list is one of the most useless additions to woodworking project articles. Yes, these charts, or pages in some cases, do contain beneficial information, but many woodworkers rely solely on the lengths, widths and thicknesses of the cut list when they mill project parts. And they shouldn’t."
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3 comments:
I do not think that cut lists should be banished from the shop, but what I've gotten from this article is that you should just make smarter cut lists. Make sure all the information is correct. And if the issue is if the order affects the cuts, then you should say that in the cut list! While there may be some complicated cut lists, they are still necessary for those less-than-on-top-of-their -game carpenters.
Cut lists when made on the fly by a carpenter are absolutely essential, however, an article including a cut list in a how to project is a big mistake. A) The cut list might have a typo and B) the carpenter is not actively thinking about what they are building if they are spoon fed everything. Including a cut list in a project article also discourages adaption and promotes laziness on the part of the carpenter, two things you never want somebody with a saw and their hands to be.
For most of the theatre carpentry that we do, a cut list only necessary to remember what lengths you need to cut. Preparing a cut list ahead of time is just a waste of time, because so many things are liable to change, and it is just as easy to read off of the plan what needs to be cut.
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