Panel Glue Press: An Argument for Calculated Risk

This blog is devoted to the professional aspects of design and engineering applied to the art of fine woodworking. I make that statement in its header. The entries are written to describe the evolution of engineering that I employ increasingly to design and build functional objects primarily from wood.

Today someone referenced a short story written years ago by Arthur C. Clark. You could say that it argues against the desire that a lot of us have to employ any advancement in technology to achieve better results as we engineers often do.

Clark's short story can be found here.

My last entry was about the time I just took from a client project to assemble a new panel glue press that promised to produce wide panels that came out of the press flat rather than more typically bowed. I took a risk by taking time from that client project to build something that promised a better result. Yet I had no experience with gluing panels with this method or tool. It could have worked against me, but tonight I found that it worked for me. The panel shown here in the glue press is perfectly flat across its width.

I am not afraid to attempt something new with risk involved when I think that the probability of that risk is worth the potential result gained by taking it. Failure has to be an option though because sometimes failure occurs. But I feel that an opportunity for success is often worth the risk taken if you do your homework, and trust yourself, your experience, and your skill set. It all came out well in this case.