When I look at something that’s commercially available that I would like to build, I try to see if it can be made in a more simple way. I figure that during the initial design stage, there are steps taken to solve particular problems that may or may not be ideal, but are ‘settled’ for, since they work. A more efficient way of doing a certain aspect of the design may become apparent, when seen as part of the finished whole. I guess the tricky part is seeing these things while you are designing it. It can be good to wipe the board clean and start from the beginning with a different plan of attack, just to see where it leads.

One (of many) example for me was my band saw build. I got the idea that the blade tension could be located on the lower wheel. My logic was that the motor assembly would help put tension on the blade, since it is heavy and gravity…

When I look at the overall design now, I see how much extra work it was to do this and that this far outweighs the assumed benefit. I was guilty of short-sightedness, blindly following a flawed idea. What I should have done, and what I’m trying to do more now, was step back and examine the potential problems with the chosen path, and be prepared to take a different one.

When I came up with the blade tension idea, I thought it was clever, that I was thinking ‘outside the box’ (this is such a grossly overused expression – mainly used by people who are very likely incapable of anything other than linear thinking), and this stopped me from seeing (or looking for) the problems this would create.

To be honest, when I first thought up the idea, I was just trying to do something different. Different is good if there is something to be gained but sometimes, the established way is the best way.

So, that leads me to the other topic of this entry: my progress on the new box joint jig. I have fleshed it out in SketchUp and here’s the result:

Looks similar to the other, but there are key differences. Changes were made to effectively simplify and improve the design.
More soon…