OWS day 12,251 plus or minus...

Today I am making boxes again. It is a usual thing for me this time of year. These are being secured at the corners using small dowels, so they have a bit of texture added in the corners for accent. To drill the holes for the dowels I am using my 1948 model Shop Smith as a horizontal borer. This gives me more accurate placement and depth of the holes than I could attain with either a drill press or hand held drill. You can see that I also use a story stick for this operation to exactly position the blocking that holds the box in place for drilling. Without the story stick things could get really mixed up. With it things are still complicated. But this is all about hand and mind. Not one or the other. You can see in the photos above and below, the process of drilling and the story stick used to define where the holes are to be drilled.

And so while my younger OWS brethren are sleeping in tents, or were recently evicted from tents, I have the luxury of wood shop. I started a fire in the wood stove this morning using scrap wood, and it is now toasty and ready for a fine day of work.

At one point, it seems to have been decided that greater wealth would be deserved by those who manipulate markets and values than by those who actually produce real goods and services for others. My point is not that woodworking should be selling for more than it does, but that we need to re-cultivate a society that has its values placed on productivity rather than manipulation.

The OWS movement has been criticized for not clearly expressing what it wants. As one who has spent so many hours and days in the wood shop, I know exactly where they are coming from. Most would like to work at something that offered a sense of dignity and a sense of security about the future. Between American corporations and their paid minions in the US Senate and House of Representatives, American productivity has been held hostage. Few of the demonstrators would know of their own potential as their educations did not include wood shop.

Readers will find value in this blog post by Nicholas Carr, People in glass houses should throw stones.

Make, fix and create...