Power Tools

Rain today, so not much got done. Instead, here's a photo of the compound miter saw Pat lent me -- one of the three power tools that are making this project possible.

The little piece of wood on the platform will be the "capstone" for the tower rafters, where four of them come together at oblique angles. It is precisely cut, 28 degrees x 62 degrees, accurate far beyond what I could have done by hand even if I'd spent all day trying.

My father -- who built two real houses in his forties, not the children's version -- had more of the old-fashioned tools. A brace-and-bit, not a cordless drill; a maple miter box and one of those rectangular saws. Did the chop saw even exist back then? And my grandfather did EVERYTHING by hand.

I'm no craftsman, but these power tools cut years off the necessary apprenticeship.

Oh, the third one is the circular saw. I never could have cut the plywood cladding without it.