Advice and guidance for new users

[Rob]

Dear all

It occurred to me as I was reading the threads giving advice to John last night that a useful resource for all new Tormek owners would be some kind of "starter pack" from this forum

I don't mean anything too onerous, just a collection of threads documenting the primary do's and don'ts. New users could be directed to it as a helpful knowledge resource

I appreciate people have the manual etc but let's be honest, user manuals are always a little dry to absorb and the Tormek one is about the best I've ever seen for any tool. As Ken so eloquently puts it.....the closest analogy to the correct approach to all things Tormek is akin to an apprenticeship.

I'm not sure what form this might take or even if this idea is a complete banana.  I just thought it might help to be able to point new users at one place....to begin so to speak

Almost inevitably they will start with either plane, chisel or knife so we could have the "ten commandments" for each of those processes. Obviously number one would be watch Jeff's DVDs and read the manual but beyond that, this forum is of such value.....how could we distill, summarise and permanently record these golden nuggets for the benefit of all?

I'm not a big forum user myself apart from this one so don't know the mechanics of how you store and retrieve threads etc

I'm quite prepared to be told I'm talking bollox by the way so feel free to shoot me down

Rob

[Rob]

Incidentally I would also add a "housekeeping" ten commandments which would include:

- how to grade the wheel properly, thoroughly and tests you can do to know you achieved it
- trueing, when, how often, how deep to go etc
- water trough housekeeping
- grinding towards or away from the edge, why, when, what
- honing, how, why, when etc

The danger is we just repeat the forum, the goal is to distill and document the best to avoid the search agony.

It could be "the manual you wished you always had" :-)

[Herman Trivilino]

What you're talking about is a Wiki.

[Elden]

As I mentioned in another thread, I am impressed with the capabilities of the "software" of this forum.

Yesterday I discovered that it is not necessary to go through an entire thread to catch up with the latest posts on it. Probably most of you were aware of that, but for the computer illiterate like me, that was a welcome find.

Discovery #1   By clicking on the page number you want instead of the name of the thread, you go to the top of that page. You still have to search through that page to find where you last read to, but that helps. Of course, Elden, you have to remember which page you were on!

Discovery #2    The question popped in my head, I wonder what would happen if the new emblem were clicked? Hey!! That software is smart! It took me to the first post I had not read on that thread. Alright!! That's great! 

The search capability is great. Take time to play with it.

I think a tutorial on the software capabilities would be great. There already may be one that I have not found.

I imagine there are other things about the software that I have not found out yet. Maybe I'll have some more of those lightbulb moments! 

[Rob]

What you're talking about is a Wiki.

Yeah I guess that's about it Herman

I know that intelligence already exists scattered all over the site, this idea would be to concentrate the best, most salient bits into a few well thought out posts.  It need only address the stuff new users would really need....to get over the first few hurdles. Again thinking out loud

[grepper]

While an organized, searchable FAQ type of document certainly could be helpful, this site does have a search box.

It's far from the best search algorithm I've seen, but it is somewhat useful.  It's scope seems to be limited to the thread that you are searching from.  So, if you are in a particular thread, it's result set will be only from that thread.  If you search from the top level General Tormek Questions page it seems to return results from all threads in the General Tormek Questions group.

Try clicking on one thread, and then search for:  grader curve
Then try the same from the top level General Tormek Questions page.

It also seemingly unpredictably will return zero results if one of the search terms is not found, even if the other is.  For example: "grader" returns many results, but "grader zebra" returns a null set.  So if you don't find anything, try different search terms.

"grader cup" returns lots of results, but "grader cupping" returns nothing, even though a search for "cupping" by itself does return results. 

Strange, huh.

If you think carefully about your search terms, and try a bunch of different searches it's pretty useful, even though it's actually a rather pathetic and homely search algorithm.

[Rob]

And you've hit the nail on the head there.  The search is a little too much like hard work so I doubt people will persevere.  The wiki idea concentrates the knowledge into the smallest number of pages. Ideally printable. Then you just go to the wiki, quickly find the thread for...say.....chisel sharpening....print and take direct to your Tormek and go to work

When I was learning to sharpen turning tools on the Tormek I uploaded Jeff's instructional DVDs into my ipad and had that in front of the Tormek, literally live at the work bench. If I did work between centres I might just refresh my memory on what shows about roughing gouge sharpening, when I was bowl turning I would skip to the section on the articulated jig. I didn't even have to leave the bench

Now I know not everyone has that kind of technology.  I would have been quite happy with a written instruction. I do use the manual at the bench too, but don't ask me why....I just find them dry, hard going....basically dull. I just know the people in this forum could do a much better job of writing that first steps training material because of the value of the real life experience

[Herman Trivilino]

And the wiki would contain links to those forum threads so it would make it a much more relaxing way to find the information you need, or just want to see.

[grepper]

Please don't get me wrong here folks,  I'm in total agreement with the Wiki idea!   I think that a Wiki would be absolutely great! One would even think that the Tormek company would have lots of how to use the Tormek info too!  Umm.. Tormek???

Anyway, it still might be handy to know that apparently Google spiders the Tormek forums, so you can use Google to search them.  Search for "grader" on on Google like this:

grader site:www.tormek.com

For some reason, Google's search algorithm is superior to that of these forums. 

[Rob]

Great idea Herman.  I think the hard part to this would be organising the development of the content. If it were down to one person, it would be too much to ask. But if we all could contribute, it could get done with the power of teamwork, there's nothing like sharing a task to give it some energy and gumption

I have in mind a new main topic from the home page .....so the "chapters" have their own "book" if its possible to share edit rights to a given post that would be really cool because we could all collaborate on the same text. Maybe we could hold it back till we felt it was worth "publishing". I'm not sure of how to manage the minutiae yet. I just like the idea of all this collective experience collaborating on short, succinct, focused documents which capture the right way to use the tool.

[Herman Trivilino]

The way a wiki works is that you have registered wiki editors.  They are free to post or edit others posts.  All editing is reversible so if someone edits your article and screws it up you can revert it back.

These practices have a proven track record of producing useful and meaningful content.

[grepper]

If folks are really interested in starting a wiki, it might be interesting to contact Tormek and ask if they would be interested in assisting/hosting the wiki on their domain.  After all, it could only benefit them!

There are a bunch of options, including articles on Wikipedia itself, free wiki  hosting/creation sites and even the FAQ style "wiki" that would just be big posting on this site with links to other threads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Your_first_article

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/34248/how-to-create-a-wiki-without-any-technical-know-how-using-google-sites/

http://www.clickonf5.org/7599/10-free-opensource-wiki-software-engine/

[Rob]

I'm not sure how other folks feel but personally it seems right and proper that this forum should be the rightful home for this. To me, the value is in the experience of this group coupled with their generosity of spirit. That willingness to share.

Two other points contribute to that view:

- having Jeff's overarching perspective on anything we come up with is of immeasurable value
- all the threads we might point to are already here

I mean, this forum is kind of the home for all things Tormek right?  It wouldn't seem right not to be here

What I don't know of course is whether this site is capable of supporting the wiki style functionality Herman describes. But I think Hermans view is right on the money ie the editing approach. A truly collaborative way to develop content where all the distinctions we've made get aggregated and summarised

Maybe Jeff could chime in....is this making any sense Jeff?  Is it feasible, sensible.  Can the forum software support the idea?

[grepper]

Being realistic, I suspect Tormek would not be interested, or have the IT resources necessary to host a real wiki. I could be wrong, but I'll bet not.  I was surprised to see that they have: https://www.facebook.com/TormekSharpeningInnovation (At least I think that's run by Tormek.  I didn't spend a lot of time checking it out).

The easiest way, would just be to make a new top level on these forums (General questions, Wood Turning, Wood Carving... Wiki), and have all of the instructional threads there.

Then, have a top sticky in that group that is an organized bunch of links to those articles, like:

Wheel surface problems
    link to chipping
    link to not flat
    ...
Some other subject
   link...
   link...
   ...

I don't know how/if the forum can support public/group editing permissions.  It could be someone would have to be the official updater... Rob???   After all it was your idea.   (I've learned from too many years in an office environment that you have to be careful about promoting good ideas, as you might be "volunteered").

It is rather amazing, that with such a cool product as the Tormek, especially something that actually requires experience to get good at, that this information is not available already.

[Herman Trivilino]

The best way to proceed would be to first find out if the forum software we're using supports wiki articles.