From the outbox of Meyer’s inbox:

Although not exactly a trade resource, the following op-ed piece from the Los Angeles Times is certainly preaching to the choir. And by choir I mean all of us who believe in the importance of training our next generation of trades men and women. Give it a read.

“If You’ve Got a Trade, You’ve Got it Made” by Mike Rustigan

One repeated theme in President Obama’s education agenda is that he wants the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. As he put it in an address to a joint session of Congress, “We expect all our children not only to graduate from high school but to graduate from college and get a good-paying job.”

Although I applaud the president’s strong commitment to higher education, he is seriously neglecting the importance of vocational training in school. Not every student needs to go to college. There are plenty of high school kids who find college-prep classes boring and irrelevant. Many drop out because they feel school is not preparing them for anything practical. Most of these kids are not lazy or defiant; they just want to work with their hands, learn a skill and pursue a solid, honorable, blue-collar trade after high school.

For too long, academic elites and politicians — both Democrats and Republicans — have oversold us on the necessity of getting a college degree. We have reached the point at which it has become almost un-American to admit that for a sizable number of our young people, college is a waste of time.

According to a growing number of demographers and labor experts, the U.S. soon will be experiencing a severe shortage of skilled workers. Blue-collar baby boomers are retiring, but schools aren’t preparing the next generation to take their place. Our nation needs blue- collar workers — skilled mechanics, machinists, welders, carpenters and electricians, as well as computer, solar and cable technicians, etc. — just as much as it needs college grads.

As one retired plumber told me: “No one is going to outsource your local repair guy. If you’ve got a trade, you’ve got it made.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

CIRCULAR SAW SAFETY AND PROCEDURE by Bob Johnston, Cloudcraft, New Mexico.

I have been a carpenter for over 50 years. My website is Carpenterbooks.  I’m also an mrW Tradesmen. I help instructors, students, contractors, carpenters, do-it-yourself women and men, homeowners, volunteer church members and home builders by posting projects and procedures, free for them to print out and use. The foremost reason for the website is power tool safety and procedure.

The circular saw is the most dangerous, misused, and abused tool in the construction business.

In this article I am going to tell you the procedures I have learned from using a saw for over 50 years. When they made the first portable, electric circular saw they put the motor on the right, the blade on the left and the handle was above the blade. When you made a cut and got to the end, the weight of the then big and heavy motor would naturally make the saw fall off to the right and butcher the end of the cut. So, an individual came up with the bright idea of putting the motor on the left and the blade on the right.

This left the main weight of the saw and the majority of the base on the stable member of the cut. They didn’t realize that with the blade on the right, a right handed person had to lean over the top of the saw to see the line of the cut. Read More...