It Makes Perfect Sense

When I set up my majestic Harbor Freight miniature wood lathe, I needed some wood to test it. I used a mop handle from Home Depot. Past experience had taught me that these handles turned well, and they’re very cheap.

When I cut into the handle, I got a surprise. It was made from multiple pieces of wood glued together. There was an inner piece that was red in color, and it was rectangular in cross section.

Why would the mop handle maker in China work so hard to put a mop handle together?

Somebody had to plane and joint several pieces of wood, glue them together precisely, wait for the glue to set, and then turn the result on a lathe. How can that make good economic sense?

I can’t figure out how they did it, unless they made a big rectangular blank to start. That would waste a lot of wood, though.

I just finished making a file handle from this stuff. Here it is. It looks fantastic, considering what it is and how much I paid for the wood.

I bought the brass ferrule online. I got two bags of them. File handles are not as cheap as they should be, and they’re not that good. Making your own produces better results for less money.

Youtube woodturners are gung ho about making handles, but they don’t seem to discuss the big problem with it: you can’t mount a finished handle in a wood lathe in order to drill a straight hole for the file or chisel or whatever. Wood chucks aren’t made for holding long objects, and even if they were, chucking a finished piece would mar it. Unless you have a different tool or some kind of jig, you have to drill the holes by hand and hope for the best.

Today I tried to put my handle in the metal lathe. I wrapped thin aluminum around it to keep the chuck jaws from scratching it. I couldn’t get it to run true, so I quit and winged it on the drill press. I think it would work if I had a sheet of rubber to wrap around things.

I don’t know why I’m using the wood lathe. I made a banjo for the metal lathe so I can use it to turn wood. With 7.5 horsepower, I would not have to worry about bogging the motor down, which is a big concern with the Harbor Freight lathe. I still need to make a good arbor to make the wood chuck fit in the metal chuck, but I can turn things now if I don’t mind holding them in the metal chuck.

The Harbor Freight lathe is a totally legitimate tool of good quality. Things like that do happen. It belongs to a class of weak tools, however, so even though it’s a good machine for what it is, what it is is a tool without a lot of power. You have to be careful about applying too much pressure to the wood, because the spindle will stop turning and the belt will slip.

I don’t know what would happen if I applied too much pressure while using 7.5 horsepower. I’m afraid to find out. I guess the wood would fly out of the lathe.

That reminds me; I forgot to use a face shield today.

My shop finally has air. I was relying on a 4-CFM compressor until yesterday. Now I’m up to 17.3, which, while somewhat less than I would like, is much better. Most people get by with small compressors from Home Depot and Lowe’s, so I should not complain.

I opted for a Maxline system from Rapidair. This is a prefab system that comes with tubing made from polyethylene, which is the plastic used in 5-gallon pails. The plastic has a layer of aluminum in it, and I suppose this is why it stands up to high pressure.

When you watch big-time Youtubers who get free tools install this stuff, it seems about as hard as decorating a cake. In reality, the job was very unpleasant. I had to install the lines 12 feet up, so I had to move a ladder all over the shop. The tubing comes in a 100-foot roll (which isn’t enough), and it’s very stiff. Straightening it is not easy for one person. Finding ways to get long segments of tubing up over my trusses was not fun, either. I had to use the ladder to climb on top of my giant storage shelf unit. The kit comes with plastic clamps to hold it on the wall, and the clamps are pretty bad, so I had to buy 1″ conduit straps and use them instead. I had to buy a number of additional fittings because Rapidair doesn’t give you enough, and I also had to buy 50 additional feet of hose.

I had long periods when I couldn’t work on the system because I was waiting on additional parts to arrive. If you install a Maxline system, and your shop isn’t tiny, budget one month to get the job done. You will run into delays, believe me. I hoped to get things working in a couple of days, but I was dreaming.

If you’re a free tool guy, the system will install itself while you drink beer and watch TV.

It’s amazing how great tools are when they’re free. The guys who get free tools never seem to have problems. Everything they receive is wonderful. A cynical person might say they’re gushing over the free stuff because they want more of it, but I would never say such a thing. That’s just not me.

Now that the system is installed, it works beautifully. I have an air dryer, three drops, and two hose reels. Compressed air is all around me. I think the Maxline kit is very good, even if installation is harder than you may expect at first.

I’ve learned a few things about air systems. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that Rapidair and copper are the best choices. Many people have systems made from iron pipe, but I have read that iron pipe (now Chinese) is not what it used to be. The quality gets a lot of criticism. Copper doesn’t seem all that much more expensive than Rapidair tubing, but it comes in straight 10-foot lengths, so you have to deal with that instead of bending flexible tubes with your bare hands. You have to be willing to solder the fittings, and these days, solder is leftist garbage made without lead, so you may be in for some frustration. I assume you can get solder with lead if you look around. I have not checked. The lead-free stuff is a pain to use. Maybe it’s great after you’ve done a hundred practice joints. I don’t want to go through the learning experience on a ladder.

I would guess I have $350 in the Rapidair tubing and fittings. That is acceptable. I am guessing because I didn’t add everything up. I had to buy it, so why add it up? It would just make me feel bad about something I was going to buy no matter what.

Now that I have air, I am tempted to muffle my compressor. I’ve learned a few things about that. Compressor noise comes from air intakes. If you can muffle the intakes or relocate them, you can cut your noise way down. You can put hoses on your intakes and run them outside your shop. This is kind of mean to your neighbors, but it works. You can also run hoses to a simple container with baffles or even a car muffler. Factory-made compressor mufflers are ridiculously expensive, but you can make one yourself for a few dollars, so I can’t really see myself buying one.

Thing is, the compressor isn’t that loud. I put it in a corner of the shop, and it’s almost never closer than 12 feet from me. I have to decide if killing what little noise there is is worth it.

I hate noise.

What air tools should I get, now that I have air again? I’ve asked myself this. I have a pencil grinder, a stapler, two needle scalers, an air hammer, a planishing hammer, an air gun, an inflator, an impact wrench, and one or two other things. People have suggested a sheet metal nibbler, but I bought a cheap swiveling electric shear from Harbor Freight, and it’s great. I’ve considered getting a die grinder, but electric ones are really good now, and they don’t require the hassle of using a compressor and hose. A blast cabinet would be good, although most of the time, blasting is the bubba way of cleaning things. Generally, it’s not the best approach. It damages things.

I like the little narrow belt sanders they sell. That could be useful. An air ratchet might be good, but I have a Ridgid Jobmax ratchet. It’s not great, but it would do 95% of the work of an air ratchet, and it can be used with batteries, which makes it convenient.

Someone recommended a 90-degree air angle grinder. Sounds nice, but I have an attachment for a corded angle grinder that turns it into a 90-degree grinder. The electric grinder runs at 16,000 RPM and seems to work fine, so I’m not sure why I need an air version. I was planning to buy a grinder and leave the attachment on it all the time. You really can’t get by with a single angle grinder. You need at least 4.

Look how hard it is to think of useful air tools. Maybe I should just get rid of the compressor!

I kid.

The blow gun alone makes compressed air worth the hassle. There is nothing like blowing crud out of things with a blow gun. Not that I need a large compressor to do this.

I’m sure I need the big compressor. I’m sure of it. I’m taking it on faith.

Installing my big hose reel on the wall was a surreal experience. I am going to guess that it weighs 45 pounds with the hose attached, and it’s very awkward to handle. I had to climb up a ladder with it on my shoulder and screw it into the wall while holding it in place. Access to the screws was very bad, so I couldn’t just line an electric screwdriver up with it and shoot the screws into the wall. I had to turn them slowly with a wrench while trying not to drop the reel. Then I broke the reel’s swivel, so I had to fabricate a new stud and buy a swivel online. That meant I had to remove the hose and reinstall it…on the ladder. I had to do this at least three times. I can’t even describe how unpleasant this job is.

I need to put an extension on the compressor’s drain valve so I don’t have to crawl on the floor to drain it every day. The existing valve is really glued in there, so I’m not looking forward to trying to remove it. People have suggested I get an automatic valve, but it sounds like overkill. These things open periodically to let water out, and my guess is that the noise scares the life out of people. They cost something like $200, and turning a valve by hand isn’t really that hard.

With the compressor more or less fixed, I now have to get my tool grinder off the pallet it arrived on. The grinder saga is so long, complicated, and horrifying, I want to leave it for its own series of posts. I assume I already wrote about it here. I bought a Gorton 375 grinder. It’s about 4 feet tall, and it probably weighs between 250 and 300 pounds. I thought I might try to send it back, because it had bearing issues, but now that I have decided to be a man and fix it, it’s time to commit to removing it from the pallet. I just ordered casters so I can make a mobile base.

The pallet is sitting in the workshop doorway, and it’s about 4 feet square, so it’s a major obstacle.

I also need to make a base for my mini-lathe (metal, not wood) or take it to the dump. I never use it. I converted it to CNC, but I never fixed the step-loss problem, and it really needs to be converted to ball screws. It’s sitting in my shop, in the way, on a Workmate I now can’t use. Maybe I should just buy a Harbor Freight 26″ tool chest and put the lathe on it.

Anyway, once the grinder is mobile, I should have a shop again. It’s the biggest problem I have at the moment.

Things are going well. If I ever stop working on tools, maybe I’ll get a chance to use my tools on a real project.