Popular Woodworking Magazine: A toolmaker I met at WIA, Tim Manney, showed me something interesting that got me thinking again about visual alignment. Tim makes a tapered reamer for chairmaking. It’s a unique tool that serves a single purpose – accurately reaming the holes for chair spindles, which is complicated due to the compound angles involved.
4 comments:
I usually assume that much like in drafting, carpentry and fine work is as empirically based as possible, with little to no guesswork. I do however understand that depending on where you are looking from, putting a board or ruler on "a" line is not always the same thing. Some of the time when i am freehanding a cut, especially when using a center mount chop saw, i find that even with long lengths of wood, I am able to bisect the board to within an 1/8 of an inch of so just by the way it feels resting on the guards. I can only do this when in a comfortable position with no obstructions. It is nice to know that there is a recommended method for body and eye usage.
This is an interesting article especially because I now know that I am cross-dominant. I am left handed but my right eye is dominant. I had no idea that was a thing and I never noticed any negative effects from it. I have definitely noticed that body position and visual alignment make a difference when making a cut or drawing a line. I will definitely keep this new information in mind next time I draft or cut anything in the shop. I would be interesting in learning more about cross-dominance and other effects it might have on every day activities.
This was a simple but interesting article. Not only did I learn that my right eye is dominant (crazy cool), but I was reminded of the importance of positioning yourself correctly when marking and taking measurements. Even in drafting, sometimes my lines will be off 1/8" or so because I positioned my head differently and was looking at the measurements from different angles. Even when measuring fabric, It is extremely important to be making and marking precise measurements. It could be the difference between a costume fitting or not.
My cross-dominance is something I've been fighting since I was a young boy. When I was 7 and first learning to shoot my BB Gun and bow and arrow as a wee hunter in training I grappled with the misalignment caused by the left eye being more dominant than my right, and after some training with the help of a homemade eye patch I was able to train myself to correct the problem. But my natural reaction is still often the stronger one, I'm just able to also close my left eye now when aiming or aligning something. It certainly makes a difference though, and the more one can do with both eyes wide open is better. Your depth perception is stronger with both eyes open and that's when you're most accurate.
Post a Comment