Amish miter saw - photos

[Jon]

Amish miter saw.









Previously:

Amish Lamborghini
Amish pneumatic woodworking shop

[Philip Davies]

Why “Amish”?

[McDesign]

Because - in their weirdly skewed vision of the modern world, gas-powered tools or hydraulic tools are OK; it's electricity that verboten.
I've had wood sawmilled at an Amish place in MD - diesel powered saw, but the log handling was done with a diesel-hydraulic walk-beside handler - the operator walked beside with a hand-held cabled remote - he couldn't "ride" it.

I think when you start parsing the strictures of your beliefs for convenience, it points out the general stupidity of magic.

Yes, I'm an engineer.

[Jon]

The Amish don't exactly have a perfectly normal relationship with technology. Our interest is that this sometimes results in some unusual homemade tools.

AFAIK, part of the issue with electricity isn't electricity per se, but the concept of plugging into a grid. "Amish" is also interpreted varyingly, with different traditions in different localities.

[mklotz]

The Amish don't exactly have a perfectly normal relationship with technology.

And the Oscar for Best Understatement of the Year goes to... Jon. Congratulations, Jon.

During college I worked two summers in Lancaster County, PA, the home of many Amish, Mennonites, and others of the same ilk. The only movie theater in the one horse town in which I stayed had seats in front half of the auditorium but none in the back. Seems that standing to watch a movie is ok but sitting down to do so incurs the wrath of god.

Farming there is big business, even if done with horses. Big business requires communication and that means telephones. But telephones use the evil electron so they can't be permitted in an Amish farmer's home. So many farms had a small, outhouse-sized shack out by the road, just across the property line, which contained the phone. To make a call, you rode your horse out to the shack. In an era before answering machines I have no idea how they managed incoming calls. Perhaps pre-arranged comm times exchanged at church.

All this aside, they're good people. Clean and neat, pay their bills, and, most importantly, never proselytize their religion.

[Philip Davies]

I had the impression that Amish eschewed all modern technology, so this thread surprised me.

[davesrepair]

I grew up (some would argue) in Lancaster County PA, in a Mennonite family (we had electricity and my Dad was an electrician/motor repair expert, a telephone, but no CHRISTmas tree). I'm always stunned these days when I see Amish using, of all things, *cellphones*! Most of them I run into here in PA have them now! And a ton of them smoke in public now - another thing we never saw growing up. But, as has been said, there are different sects of them, with varying beliefs.

A lot of their equipment is run by air motors, from a gas-powered compressor out back. And they use solar quite a bit for recharging their battery tools and phones now. There's a market for new gasoline-powered auto washers these days. I used to buy the motors and other stripped electrical components from a co that converted them. And I've seen kitchen stand mixers and other small appliances converted to air motors. Interesting, decent folks.

I'd love to comment on Mennonite girls - dated a few 50 or so years ago - but it's likely to get me in some trouble here on the home front, so I'll avoid that. ;-)