"Square peg in a round hole...for starters..."

Humor has always been my default in life...each of us does something different and unique in response to unexpected 'moments', myriad in nature. I laugh easily and I especially laugh easily at myself. I love telling stories about stupid things I've done that I know better than to have done...we've all "been there, done that" too many times, I'm sure.

Yesterday was one such Homer Simpson "D'OH!" head slapper...

Yet once again, while the wintry winds of January were making an icy mess of the midsection of the country, with travel miseries widespread and unwelcomed...we had balmy low 70s here in the Carolinas. Shorts. T-shirt. Spring peepers out the wazoo chirping out their premature vocalizations along the edge of a small drainage pond. I was finally able to focus on some outdoor woodworking on some new flutes (I lack an indoor shop, *sigh*...), with the major power tools spread out from their outdoor "den" of a storage center. I decided that I was going to put the portable table saw up onto its portable folding legs and have it become less portable and stand by itself, living away from the tool den...all I needed was a cover for it..but what?

My outdoor storage "tool den" I made to keep my power tools; it has yet to ever look like this again...

Why, a grill cover, of course...logical, cheap, easy, a no-brainer (that was the first mistake...). Scurried over to Lowe's nearby and knew I didn't need one of those large covers...heck, my little saw was only a mere 24" by 28"...and then, my mind saw the perfect answer *cha-ching* before my eyes: a 30" diameter Smoker cover. Perfect. Cheaper than the others, too. Feeling good. No crowds. Quick check-out. Perfect solution to a minor conundrum. Riding with the windows down. Fresh air. Feeling good, even though I knew within 4 hours I'd have to go to bed to get up at 1am for work.

Get home. I then did the smartest thing of all...instead of pulling the grill cover out and tossing everything in the trash, I thought to myself, "Hmmm...better hang onto this just in case..." I went to unfold the cover with its aromatic polycarbon whiffs that only virgin vinyl can emit...and I quickly realized...it ain't gonna work.

Basics. ALWAYS know and test your ideas through the basics. I knew better, but thought, surely, the cover would be big enough...and it wasn't even close. Say hello again to the Pythagorean Theorum: (AXA)+(BxB)=(CxC) (sorry, I can't find superscript in Blogger to maker it more concise!)

Yep, at first unthinking thought, you would think a 24" x 28" table saw would fit under a 30" round Smoker grill cover...not - even - close, with round being the operative "D'OH!" maker...

The diagonal of the table (which would be the diamter of a circle needed to cover the saw) saw is easily derived by plugging in the above numbers into that simple ABC equation and letting the answer speak for itself. Ready, class?

Since the saw can be considered a rectangle, we can use the formula to determine the diagonal with A=side 1, B=side 2, and C=the diagonal:

AxA + BxB = CxC
24x24 + 28x28 = CxC
576 + 784 = CxC
1360 = CxC
(once again, no script for the square root symbol....)
C = 36.9"

As Paul Harvey would say, "And now ..... you know .......... the rest of the story .......... good day."