What's in a handsaw?

24" Rip-Cut Hand Saw

When it comes to tools, the saw is all about helping to reduce large materials to smaller, more useful pieces. At Mick Design, the majority of our sawing and cutting is actually done by robots. Using computer-guided controls, the employment of robots saves resources and contributes to our product consistency by making perfect cuts every time. While the robots are fantastic, a working knowledge of proper board-cutting techniques is critical to anyone involved in woodworking.

22" Crosscut Hand Saw

The classic carpenter is experienced and confident with the hand saw. There are two basic types of cuts when sawing a board: cutting with the grain & cutting across the grain. There are plenty of different types of hand-powered saws and two most common type are designed to handle these two basic cut types: the Rip Saw and the Crosscut Saw.

The rip saw is designed to cut along the grain of the wood. The teeth of the saw are sharpened to be perpendicular to the blade and behave like small chisels to shave away wood fibers throughout the cut. The teeth work effectively to maintain a straight cut by preventing the saw from following the winding grain lines. Think about chopping wood with an axe and the wood splintering down the grain lines; the rip saw works along the same plane, but produces a clean cut. Rip hand saws are much less common today, with heavy machines taking care of most rip cuts. 

The crosscut saw employs angled teeth that are sharpened like knife points in order to slice the wood fibers. This type of saw is designed to work perpendicular to the wood grain. The teeth of a crosscut saw are much finer, smaller in size and closer together compared to those of a rip saw. The power miter saw, a dedicated crosscut tool,  is the modern offspring of the classic handheld rip saw.

Rip-Cut Teeth

Crosscut Teeth

Xbox Kinect for Merchandisers

Dance Dance Revolution

Here at Mick Design Group, I do business with brand managers, marketers and merchandising people on the regular. These people are equipped with a wide variety of useful tools for understanding as they can about consumers. Determining how long shoppers spend in stores, what path they take through the store, which aisles they spend the most time in, and most importantly to me: which displays catch people's attention.

It's neat to learn about shopping habits and gain insight into which type of displays (regardless of the product) can't help but captivate the eyeballs of consumers.

I was online the other day and came across this video that profiles a great little application for the Xbox Kinect video game system. A creation from the development company Agile Route, this app is called Shopperception and simply records the movement of shoppers within its tracking zone, and gathers useful analytics about shoppers including: time spent per zone/display, SKU touch counts and more.

I guess there's more to these new video game systems than simply becoming an expert at Dance Dance Revolution.

Reaching out to the next generation.

Woodworking has always been a passion for me. Creating something useful with ones own two hands provides a unique sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. For many individuals, their first woodworking experience occurs in junior high and high school. I believe that the more resources our industry can provide to practical arts programs in schools, the more exposure younger generations will have to our work! Read a great article excerpt below.

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Effort Aims to Educate Next Generation Carpenters

Vancouver, WA – TigerStop LLC, supplier of linear positioning systems, and WoodLINKS USA, an organization dedicated to the educational development of incoming woodworkers, have joined forces to support local middle- and high-school wood shop teachers. 

“TigerStop is the perfect partner for WoodLINKS,” Dave Anderson, Northwest director for WoodLINKS, said. “Support from TigerStop for the woodworking program at local schools is one of the primary goals of WoodLINKS."

“The vital, engaging woodworking programs … are a very important link to the success of wood manufacturing in this country,” Anderson said. “I’m confident this support will bring many benefits.”

Saw Gear Donated

TigerStop recently donated a SawGear portable length-measuring tool to Kelso High School in Washington state. The tool was presented to Cory Torppa, wood shop teacher, who said it will allow him to teach decimals, fractions, production, and precision in a simple way that would not be possible otherwise.

Source URL: http://www.modernwoodworking.com/article/effort-aims-to/3653

A brief history.

The beginning of Mick Design.

It was the early 80's and denim was everywhere. Pants were worn high and hair was worn low. Shoulder pads were essential. Mick MacIsaac was a young man, working hard as a machinist. He learned the art of Vacuumforming at his job and quickly became confident using aluminium molds to create plastic displays.

Now shake it on baabay!

 

Skip ahead to the late 80's. Ferris Bueller was influencing youth everywhere, kids were rebelling against principals and Mick was restless. He decided to learn something new so he started spending time with bandsaws, wood lathes and sanders. He focused his energy on developing his woodworking skills, continuing to expand his knowledge.

Fast-forward to Y2K.  He continued to work with a commercial fixtures company, The nature of his work had shifted; CNC (computerized numerical control) software had the ability to cut materials with extreme precision using to computerized robots.  At this point, he decided to push his talents towards sales.  From cold calling from the Yellow Pages to knocking door-to-door, discouragement was not an option; he would prove himself to be the salesman who got the "impossible" clients.

Robots make perfect cuts

In 2005, Mick took a chance. He took out his savings, took out a loan, bought some equipment and started a business. He was confident in his skills with plastics, woodworking and metal. He was self-assured in the experience he had gained in design, organization and production. He had been working with displays since 1981 - at the very least, he was definitely an expert. He called it Mick Design Group. He didn't have a plan but he knew where he wanted to be.

Tired of paying someone else to do his drawings, Mick decided to go back to school and enrolled in a drafting program. His class taught 2D only but he could see in 3D on a 2D plane! He started using AutoCAD to do modelling and became familiarized with different design processes. He gained a good understanding of metals and how to use the drafting software for a variety of purposes. 

Nearly seven years later, he's still working hard, but now the business is his, and it's amazing to see all the work that's coming in...

Mick MacIsaac

Mick Design Group - The Art of Merchandising

Mick Design Group is a world-class provider of customized displays, along with merchandising and marketing point-of-purchase displays. We are a true one-stop service provider with capabilities that span design, manufacturing, delivery and marketing services for the beverage, snack foods and consumer goods markets, to name a few.  Mick Design utilizes state-of-the-art computer technologies in both design and manufacturing to serve our customers effectively and efficiently.

Our wood displays are the finest in the industry. Quality craftsmanship, precision cutting, and the use of quality wood products are our trademarks.  We can custom build wood displays for any project, big or small.

We produce Slatwall displays, spinner racks, wine/liqour displays, pharmaceutical displays for retail, pegboard displays, combination plastic wood displays or metal wood displays, bins, 2-3-4 shelving units, bookcase, CD racks and much more

Visit us today at www.mickdesigngroup.com