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Comment by timzaman | Hacker News Reader

Decent analogy. I wonder how many techies have ever used a belt sander. Or have one. I think very, very few.

I have not used a belt sander! I prefer to start with a planer, then use an orbital sander! Generally work from 60 grit up to 220 depending on the surface. Popping the grain and covering the whole surface in pencil marks in between each!

For anyone seriously interested in how to get a great finishing with sanding here’s the guide I follow:

https://www.blacktailstudio.com/blog/how-to-sand-wood-proper...

Thanks for posting it! Good point about adding the right lighting rig, haven't thought about.

I use a planer a lot but I'm still struggling with making multiple passes down a wide piece of wood. I often end up with grooves. I've gotten better over time but I'm still not happy with the results.

If it’s a particularly wide piece of wood you could try a router planning jig. I think these are used with slabs

Otherwise you could try and get access to a CNC or a large industrial belt sander

Your assumption is quite wrong.

https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/why-software-engineers-like-wo...

What does this suppose to prove? The OP said "very few" not none. Of course there will be a few anecdotes of overlap.

A better way would be to compare the size of Stack Exchange boards at https://stackexchange.com/sites . It's not perfect but it's as good as it can get. Stack Overflow has 26 million users. Woodworking has 17 thousand. A fraction.

Further still, not every woodworker will use a belt sander. It's used for a specific purpose (large flat surfaces) and it's not a beginner's tool. So the fraction gets smaller. I'd say the assumption stands.

You and him are incorrigible. Him for the naive assumption and stereotype that “techies” don’t do any manual trades or crafts, you for looking at the count of activity on stack fucking overflow for woodworking.

That's not the assumption I got from the OP's comment. What I got was - and I agree - that the intersection between the members of the technical field (specifically those responsible for apps UI) and the members of the woodworking field who also use an advanced, single-purpose tool is tiny. The assumption will be the same if you replace the belt sander with a guitar amplifier, a lawn aerator, or a pressure canner and woodworking with their respective hobbies.

If you have better data that shows an overlap between those in the technical field and those that do woodworking with highly specialized tools, I'm all ears; I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

In the meantime, here's another anecdote for you - I do woodworking (and gardening and constructions) and I don't own a belt sander.

Woodworking is a popular hobby where it's possible.

But the tech market is centered in cities where owing a garage with tools in your 20s isn't possible.

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