This is Why I Was Put on Earth

Today I’m doing the unthinkable. Making strawberry cheesecake and Champagne chicken for the second time in a month. A friend of the family lost his wife a while back, and my dad and my sister and I wanted to get him out of his house for a while. Naturally, the cooking fell to me.

I made the cheesecake last night, except for the topping. That’s in the works right now, and I’m brining the chicken.

I wish I could find Lucerne brand cream cheese here. A reader says it’s better than Philly, and that the cheesecake doesn’t crack as much. but I guess I’ll be okay. I also wish I had a Tupperware container big enough to hold the remains of a 10″ cheesecake.

I keep Googling lathes. I’m learning all sorts of stuff.

First, you can rehabilitate a lathe by scraping the bed ways. This costs over a thousand dollars if you have someone else do it. All you have to do is buy some obscure hand tools–not power tools, believe it or not–and get a book and practice for a long time. Weird. I have no interest in doing this, but it’s an interesting topic. I would have thought there was some kind of giant milling machine jig for this purpose. And I can’t understand how you can do this accurately with a blade on the end of a stick.

Second, Atlas lathes aren’t all that great. People who own them complain a lot about flexing and cheap parts that break. Right now, I can get a Craftsman lathe built by Atlas, within two-hour drive, for $850. But it’s only worth maybe $350, and it will never be a good lathe. Atlas did not apply its usual standards when making stuff for Sears, so this thing is a step down from Atlas, which is a step down from South Bend and so on.

Third, Rockwell and Sheldon made really fantastic lathes, but parts can be hard to find and/or expensive. I can’t understand why Delta wouldn’t continue making parts for Rockwell lathes, but that’s the way it is. These machines are supposed to be stiffer than other lathes, and the ways on the Rockwell models are very hard and resist wear. But if you can’t keep them running, what’s the point?

Some retired toolmaker not far from here is selling a huge toolbox full of machining stuff. Maybe I should check it out. I assume it’s things like tooling and calipers. But I really don’t want a freezer-sized toolbox in my garage.

This dinner is going to be TOO good. I really don’t know how food can get any better than this. I just put the goop on the strawberry topping, and I wish I could climb into the refrigerator and swim in the cheesecake.

Lathe?

The more I look at machine tools, the more confused I get.

I think a mill is a necessity, if I ever expect to think of myself as a man. But I was hoping to avoid buying a metal lathe.

Well, look what I have learned.

You can use a metal lathe on wood. Also, really good used metal lathes sell for very low prices. Finally, you can get a 9 x 20 Chinese job that will do a lot of stuff and teach you a great deal…for $700. Now, I realize you can get a used South Bend for less than that if you watch the ads. BUT, unless what I’ve read is nonsense, it’s a very bad idea to buy a used lathe unless you have some experience using this kind of tool. So this may be an example of one of the rare occasions when buying small, cheap, and Chinese may be a great idea. What do you lose when you resell one of these things? No more than $700. Probably more like $300. For that, you get a course in using a lathe. My cheapness gene is alert and ready to pounce.

I believe it should be possible to make pulleys on a machine this size. The “9” refers to the diameter of the largest possible object you can turn. You can’t really go that high, but you can get close. So 6″ should be no problem. HF sells a metal cabinet, but I have a bunch of two-by-sixes I need to get rid of, and this thing only weighs 300 pounds or so, which means wood is way more than adequate.

Dang, I may do this. The local HF could get it for me, saving me money on shipping. I could learn a little bit about machining, and I could get smart enough to evaluate a real American used lathe, and then I could upgrade for a few hundred bucks. Maybe this is smarter than farting around with mills right off the bat. Right now, there are some really fine machines on Craigslist. It’s too bad I’m not competent to buy one.

More

Let’s say I have a spiffy HF 45861 lathe, as well as a pulley that is 6″ wide and 6″ across. Can I use the lathe to drill a hole for an axle, centered correctly in the pulley and going from one side to the other?

Warning: This Blog Does not Conform to the Fairness Doctrine

In the morning, I always look at Drudgebart.tv.com to see what’s happening in the world. Today a headline says one of the morning news shows is dedicating a whole day to the guy who landed the plane in the Hudson River. Let me get his name right. Okay, it’s Chesley Sullenberger.

Now, I don’t want to diminish this man’s achievement. He pulled off what is supposedly a very hard maneuver. He landed a big jet in water without breaking it up or harming the passengers. He kept a lot of people alive. That being said, can someone please tell me what all the fuss is about? Why are people calling him a hero?

Think about this. If he had crashed the plane, he would have been the first to die. The pilot sits right up front. If the plane had been totally empty but for the cockpit, he would still have worked very hard to land the plane safely, to save his own life.

Is every person who saves lives a hero? Shouldn’t the term be reserved for people who subject themselves to special risks, or who help others with no expectation of reward? I’ve seen film of the plane that went down in the Potomac a long time ago. It was winter. People driving by got out of their cars and walked into the freezing water to save crash survivors. Cold water can kill you in a very short time. Those people are heroes. They risked their own lives, saved other human beings, and got nothing in return.

What Chesley Sullenberger did was wonderful, and by all accounts, he demonstrated real courage and character as well as skill. But a purely selfish person in the same position would have been just as determined to land the plane safely.

For contrast, consider another man who lost a plane in the water. I refer to Bush I. He joined the Navy as a volunteer, fresh out of high school, instead of sitting around waiting to see if he would be drafted. He became a bomber pilot, which is a high-risk job. He was shot down while flying a mission for the benefit of his countrymen. He didn’t have to be there. He exposed himself to machine gun fire and flak and so on, when he could have been safe at home, minding his own business. By the time he was finished, he had served 58 missions.

That’s a hero. Maybe not the greatest hero in American history, but certainly, a hero. His actions beat anything I expect to do in this life.

What else is going on? I’m still rethinking my tool strategy. I am convinced that my life will be complete if I have a milling machine and a belt grinder (and an acetylene rig and a Bobcat*), but it’s hard to decide which way to turn first. I would very much like to have a mobile base for the milling machine, and if I get a mill before I build a base, it will be mighty hard to get it onto a base later. A mill will weigh 1000 to 2000 pounds. I can’t hoist it. I’ll have to come up with another answer.

A belt grinder would be very helpful while I build the mobile base. I’ve built one base already, and I used a 6″ bench grinder to clean up the parts, and it was pretty slow, and it wasn’t always possible to get to the surfaces I wanted to fix.

The conclusion so far? Belt grinder first.

But wait. A belt grinder has a lot of holes in it. And I would have to make metal parts for the thing that tensions the belt and makes it track correctly. At the very least, a drill press is called for. A mill would be perfect.

On top of that, if I want real freedom in the design of the grinder, machine tools are a must. For example, I’d like to have 4″ or 6″ rollers, so I could use the machine for a wide variety of belts. For metalworking, I would only have enough juice to make use of a 2″ belt, but for woodworking, you can easily run a 6″ belt with 1 1/2 horsepower. I know of no reason why you couldn’t use the same machine. You’d have to have a couple of different tool arms, that’s all.

It’s my understanding–correct me if I’m wrong–that a milling machine can also be used as a lathe, provided you stay within certain limitations. It must be true; people use drill presses for turning small bits of wood. If I can turn small metal objects on a mill, I can make my own pulleys. Think how much easier that is than trying to make them with a welder and a plasma cutter. I can make pulleys by cutting pieces of 6″ tubing to length and welding hubs into them, but imagine how hard it would be to get them centered correctly. I can buy other people’s pulleys, but then I have to live with whatever hubs they have in them, and they may be a pain to match up to the other stuff.

I suppose, then, that a milling machine would be a good first step. Maybe I’d end up with a less-pretty mobile base, because I wouldn’t have a grinder to make it beautiful, but having an ugly mobile base is better than suffering for two weeks trying to make pulleys with, as Spock put it, stone knives and bearskins.

I was thinking about getting a Bridgeport, but I don’t know if I want to utterly destroy a whole corner of the garage, and I’m a little nervous about pushing a one-ton machine around on wheels. Supposedly they like to tip forward. I was considering a Bridgeport because it seems like all mills cost roughly the same amount of money, and you might as well go big. But now I’m thinking Millrite again. I can get one locally, and it’s considerably more compact than a Bridgeport, and–here’s the best thing–I should be able to sell it without losing much, if I get tired of it.

The fun thing about all this is that I am still not making anything not related to tools. I’m starting to wonder if anyone ever does. Has anyone ever really made a bookshelf or a dresser? Okay, I know they have. My great aunt did. So did my great-grandfather. But from reading my comments and checking out forums, you would think every job mechanically inclined people do is something intended to help them use tools.

By the way, I appreciate the suggestions that I try McMaster-Carr and Grainger and MSC for parts. But if you can think of a place I should try, don’t be surprised if I’ve already been there.

* And a hydraulic press.

Nothing Matches

Man, it’s impossible mating motors to drive pulleys.

Here’s what I have. I can get a nice motor with a 7/8″ shaft. But the best drive pulley I’ve found is right here. As you can see, it has a bore larger than 7/8″.

I guess this would be a big ol’ joke to a person who owns a mill and a lathe. You pop your metal into the lathe, make yourself a cylinder that fits around the shaft, and then mill a keyway in it. For that matter, I guess you could make the pulley itself, with the right size hole.

Irritating.

I’ve had other ideas. One is to get a go-kart drive wheel with a 5″ diameter and weld it inside a piece of steel pipe with a 5″ ID. The pipe wouldn’t be crowned, but I have a theory about that. You put it on the motor, bolt the motor down, fire it up, and put a crown on it. You use the motor as a lathe to turn the pulley while you shape it. Would it work? I’ll never know, unless a source of 5″ ID pipe falls into my lap. I think go-kart wheels would be good for idlers, because the bearings are made to put up with high speeds and heavy loads over long periods of time.

The idler pulleys are not a problem, regardless. I can get 4″ belt sander pulleys and bearings cheap. If they’ll work on belt sanders, surely they’ll work on a grinder. The big challenge will be to get them mounted right.

Insane

I’m going to do it. I’m going to order me a 2 HP Baldor 3-phase motor and a VFD. Sometimes you have to jump into a job on the assumption that a miracle will happen and you’ll succeed. Surely I can build a belt grinder if I try hard enough. I need the motor before I can set up the grinder; the motor’s measurements will affect everything. I could just download the blueprints from the Baldor site, but it’s way easier to plop the motor on the grinder base (2 sheets of plywood glued together, I think) and go from there.

WHOO HOO.

Tell me I’m not crazy. I dare you.

Now I have to go back over the motors I’m watching on Ebay, to figure out which one is right. I’ve decided I need 3450 RPMs, 2 horsepower, 3 phase, TEFC, and 230 volts. Oh, and a 5/8″ shaft, if at all possible. For fifty cents.

Some guy at Practicalmachinist made his own belt grinder. It’s amazing. It’s mostly rust and clamps, but he says it works. He has a 2″ belt on it, but the idlers are at least 6″ wide, and he says he can use different belts on it. THAT got the wheels turning. What if I get a couple of pulleys from a 4″ portable belt sander and use them as my idlers? Presumably, I’d be able to use 2″ belts for metal and 4″ belts for wood. The pulleys and bearings aren’t very expensive.

It’s nearly impossible to find suitable idlers 4″ wide, unless you steal from existing products. I guess I’d also need a belt sander drive pulley.

I also found a guy who built his own drive wheel. He found a piece of 7″ steel pipe, cut it to length, welded a hub into it, and stuck it on the shaft of a Baldor motor. Seems to work. No fancy machining needed. Incredible.

Make it Stop

Okay, another VFD question.

I want to be able to run my belt grinder at 5000 fpm. I have two choices. I can get a 3450 RPM motor and a 6″ drive wheel and get roughly 5000 at 60 Hz, and I can slow it down for low speeds. OR I can get a 1725 RPM motor and speed it way up to get nearly 5000, and I can run it at lower speeds for normal use.

It looks like the KMG people use 1725 RPM motors, and they remove stock in a hurry. But they use pulleys that double the speed at the drive wheel. So I guess 3450 is the way to go.

This is Why Engineers Shoot up Their Offices

Once again, I am finding selecting tools harder than using them.

I want to make a belt grinder. I read up and found out that the biggest motor I could conceivably need would be 2 horsepower, so that’s what I’m trying to buy. I want 3-phase, so I can use a VFD. I thought a 1750-RPM motor would be good, because it would run cooler and last longer. And I figured I’d get something like 2500 fpm on it, which would be sufficient.

BUT WAIT!

Turns out speeds of up to 5000 fpm can be useful. That rules out a 1750-RPM motor. I’d need an 11″ drive wheel. I think. Hope I didn’t make any careless errors. Now I’m looking for 3450-RPM motors, and good ones aren’t that easy to find.

It gets worse. There is almost no hope that I will be able to find bearings that will work with a shaft bigger than 5/8″. And a lot of 2 HP motors come with bigger shafts. If you can’t have mounted bearings on your shaft, you might as well kill yourself.

So I have to put all these factors together. Now that I think about it, don’t I need a super-long shaft? Man, that didn’t even occur to me. It will have to go through two mounted bearings plus a thick drive wheel hub. Is there such a thing as a shaft extender for an electric motor?

Excuse me while I breathe into a paper bag.

More

I guess my brain was malfunctioning again. Apparently there is no reason why I can’t put a drive wheel directly on the motor shaft and stick the motor next to the frame. Other people don’t do this, because they have elaborate pulley systems to get around the lack of a VFD.

Whew.

They All Look Alike

Okay, tool people. I have lost my mind again. Even if I can’t make the wooden frame work, I am determined to build a belt grinder with a 2 HP motor and VFD. If for some reason I fail, I should be able to put the motor on my bandsaw, which would be highly amusing.

Tell me if this VFD will do the job: LINK. I want good torque at low speeds.

There are a whole bunch of TEFC Baldor 2 HP 3-phase 220V 1740-RPM motors on Ebay for a hundred bucks or so. They all look exactly alike, but I figure any one of them ought to work, as long as it doesn’t have a weird shaft or anything.

Wood is the Answer

I actually used my bandsaw yesterday. Unbelievable, isn’t it?

I didn’t really make anything with it. I drew lines on a piece of scrap and tried to follow them. I just wanted to see the silly thing work. It turns out a bandsaw requires a little skill, which is a bummer, because I don’t have any. But I’ll work it out.

I fixed one of my last major tool needs by ordering a pneumatic orbital sander that collects its own dust. That pretty much leaves a belt grinder and a milling machine to round out the workshop.

The belt grinder quest is frustrating. It looks like a nice new one costs maybe $900, and if you make one yourself, it costs $850. Another irritation: there are a number of free sets of plans out there, but as far as I know, they’re all “no weld” plans. What the hell? Who has a drill press, cutting tools, and the skill to assemble a grinder, but NO WELDER?

I would much rather weld than buy 400 pieces of thick metal, spend 300 hours drilling precision holes in them with a drill press which I don’t have yet, and then bolt them together.

One guy–he wrote a book on knifemaking–has a wonderful solution to the problem. It’s one of those solutions that are so simple and obvious, it’s amazing that no one else does it. He makes belt grinder frames out of wood.

Why not? Think about it. Metal grinder frames are horrendously overbuilt. Do you really need two half-inch-thick plates of steel to hold a grinder bearing? I very much doubt it. You could put a hook in a piece of steel like that and hang a pickup truck from it. A piece of a two-by-six should be more than sufficient. I have enough scrap in my garage right now to build a zero-cost frame and find out. The knife guy used maple, but I don’t see the need to spend that kind of money. Softwood is not weak. Two days ago I lifted a 367-pound saw on a hoist supported by a two-by-eight across three two-by-sixes, and I didn’t hear or see a single sign of stress.

A steel frame would be nice, but it would weigh twice as much, and I’d have to clean and paint it, and what’s the advantage, exactly? I can’t see one.

Yesterday I considered hitting Harbor Freight to buy one of their nearly-free cheap belt grinders, because to build a metal belt grinder, you need a belt grinder. Now I think I should just slap a frame together out of scrap and see what happens! Worst case scenario: I get rid of an annoying pile of wood.

Oh, man. This could be fun. I could make DADOES. I could make TENONS and MORTISES. Oh joy.

I almost broke down and bought a drill press yesterday. I still might. I think a bench model might be a good thing to have, even if I get a mill. It should be more convenient for most jobs. But the price! A decent one is $350. I have seen the Ridgid floor model for $224 at Home Depot. If it’s still available, maybe I should consider it. At the regular price, it would make my cheapness gene vibrate. I’ve been checking Craigslist, too.

I better go do an inventory of my scrap.

Success!

The bandsaw WORKS.

I wheeled it out to where the cord would reach the new 220 socket and plugged it in. Nothing happened. I removed the disconnect between the socket and the breaker, and I started fiddling with the wiring. POOF, I smoked a Craftsman screwdriver. How can that happen when the disconnect is out? It can happen when you wired the circuit wrong from the disconnect to the socket.

Now I’m out one cheap Philips screwdriver. I suppose Sears would honor the warranty, but it’s not honest to return stuff you destroyed out of stupidity. Which is very clearly what happened here.

I shut off the breaker, fixed the wiring, and started again. The saw ran!

I turned it off and got out Mark Duginske’s book, and I started tuning the saw.

First, I took off the silly 3/4″ blade that came with it. I could not fold the stupid thing up, so I dumped it on the garage floor. I installed the new 1/4″ blade and got it adjusted. Then I checked the book’s instructions on folding bandsaw blades, and I sort of got it folded, but the loop was bigger than I wanted. Oh, well. Not everybody has the remarkable spatial aptitude required to understand a bandsaw blade. It’s like a Moebius strip with rabies.

I think I understand why the seller chose to sell this saw instead of his Grizzly. I am pretty sure nobody in his business had the slightest clue how to make a bandsaw work, so when this one acted up, they decided to get rid of it. Name an adjustment. They had it completely wrong or didn’t even try.

The thing that holds the upper guide bearings was out of place…by about HALF AN INCH. This is like missing a parking space by six feet. In case you’re a BMW driver and you do that all the time, I’ll clarify. It’s bad.

The thrust bearings weren’t even close to right. None of the bearings under the table were anywhere near where they were supposed to be. One was so far back, it had probably never been in contact with a blade.

The blade guide post wasn’t square to the table, either. I had lots of fun fixing that. I also had to grease the guide post rack, gears, and screw, and I had to get the fine dust out of the mechanism so it would move.

Why would anyone spend over $1300 on a tool and then fail to learn how to maintain it? This tool looks like it was used ten or twenty times. After that, they apparently gave up. All they had to do was buy Mark Duginske’s book.

I fired up the saw and tried it out. I ripped a piece of scrap to see if the rail gauge was correct. It was perfect. Right on. I finished up by applying a whetstone to the blade’s rear edge. I don’t have one of those cute little stones with a handle, so I grabbed something I used to use to sharpen fish hooks.

I like the bandsaw, although maybe I could have been more aggressive in my choice of blades. The 1/4″ blade I got will take tight turns, and it’s supposed to be a good compromise blade, but it’s pretty slow. I can see why people run to the bandsaw instead of the table saw. There’s no push stick. No ear protection. No kickback danger. Very little dust. And you can use your hands.

I don’t know if this is a particularly good saw; it’s Chinese, after all. But it seems to work fine, and it has a great capacity. And now, thanks to me, it’s PORTABLE. Can’t beat that. I think I got a better deal than I realized.

I’m really disturbed now. The table saw works. The bandsaw works. The planer sled is built. I may have to MAKE SOMETHING. I am running out of excuses. No, wait! I still need a sander! Yes…yes…a pneumatic sander! And a drill press! No, a milling machine! THEN maybe I can get crazy and make…a picture frame or something.

Oh, hey! I can make new inserts for the table saw! That would be fantastic! I’d actually be able to use my Microjig splitter!

Life is sweet.

I Did It

1. My mobile base does, in fact, hold up my saw.

2. My hoist can take 367 pounds of saw without even creaking.

3. I can’t believe I put those front wheels out in front instead of off to the sides.

4. I think I’ll redo this, with the rear wheels the same, shorter tabs and no brakes on the front, and two additional side tabs for screw-down stabilizing feet.

Nonetheless, I am the King of All Tools. So to speak.

Finito

The bandsaw base is finished. I think.

Today I brushed the rust off of it, which was probably not necessary, and then I wiped it down with denatured alcohol, and I put it out on the grass and blasted it with canned truck bed paint. It’s drying now. I think this was a good choice, because the saw won’t hurt the paint easily, and the reverse is also true. This stuff will be like a layer of padding between the saw and the base.

I’m not sure how long it has to dry before I can put the saw on it. The can doesn’t say, believe it or not. A website for a similar product says 24 hours.

One problem with painting it is that if I have to weld extra metal in to support the swiveling casters, it will be hell getting the paint off.

Even though I painted outdoors in a breeze, I think I’m a little high.

Little Killer on Your Workbench

A while back I complained that my 6″ bench grinder was not big enough, and I wrote about getting a different machine. I considered buying another bench grinder, but I am now dead-set against it, and here’s why: those things are extremely dangerous.

I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. The wheels come apart, and guess where the pieces can end up? Inside your skull. Or where your teeth used to be.

Here’s more wonderful information: angle grinders are dangerous too. If you Google, you’ll find a story about one that came apart. The wheel fragments entered a man’s TORSO. You can wear a face shield to protect your head. How do you protect the rest of you? Think of all the things you’re exposing to the grinder when you work. That list contains a lot of stuff you really don’t want to have mutilated by flying debris.

You really have to be careful to keep the guard between you and the wheel. If not, you’re inviting truly hideous injuries.

The more I think about it, the more I think belt grinders are better. They’re faster. They’re a hundred times as versatile. They don’t get hot. They use cheaper, faster motors. And they are a lot less likely to maim you.

In fact, I’m even thinking I may get a little pneumatic belt grinder to replace my angle grinder. Why risk being perforated if you don’t have to? And a little grinder like that would probably do much better work.

Bench grinders are weird, because they seem so much safer than they are. It’s very obvious that a table saw can mess you up. Nobody with any brains would take chances with a lit torch or a nail gun. But grinders look perfectly harmless. Most people wear no safety equipment at all when they use them.

Glad I learned this before splurging on a big Death Grinder.

Don’t Read Before Eating

I have about had it with protective glasses.

It seems like every time I wear my polycarbonate specs, crap flies in under them and goes directly into my eyes. I don’t understand it. They are completely worthless, yet–as far as I know–just about every tool expert in the US recommends them.

Yesterday I thought I had an eyelash in my eye. I put up with it for hours. Then I got out my reading glasses (man, I miss being able to see), and guess what the problem was? A splinter. In my EYE.

Talk about freaking out.

I’m pretty sure it was a piece of the wire brush I used to clean the metal.

I figured I was on my way to the emergency room, but I decided to rinse my eye and give the splinter a poke, and PRAY. And the silly thing came out.

Am I the only one who gets bad results with glasses? I am really fed up. I think I’m going to give up on them and use the face shield from now on. It’s the only thing that works.

Isn’t She Lovely

You thought this day would never come, but here it is:

How about that? And it WORKS. I can rest my fat on the side rails and hop up and down, and if the base is flexing, I can’t detect it. It should hold the saw just fine, even with the less-than-beautiful welds.

The design is not optimal; I’m limited by my tools and the amount of work I’m willing to do, plus what I’m willing to pay for steel and parts. But it’s much stronger than it needs to be.

I got much better performance out of the welder today. I tightened up the ground; this may have made the difference. I had no problems seeing the puddle or keeping the contact tip from welding to the wire.

In case you’re wondering who gave the best answer about removing rust and scale prior to welding, I think it was Ed Bonderenka. I believe he was the person who suggested a wire wheel for the grinder. I got a wheel and tried it, and it blows through rust and crap a paint removing wheel barely polishes. Wonderful.

I learned something new today: Hitachi drill bits are crap. At least they seem to be. I bought a big box of them, and I was trying to drill through the 3/16″ steel on the tabs that hold the wheels to the mobile base. The smaller bits didn’t seem to do anything, and the 1/4″ bit was really slow. I dug out my old Craftsman bits, and they went right through the steel. Go figure. It’s clearly time to get a Drill Doctor. I wasted maybe 20 minutes with that stupid Hitachi bit before I realized something was wrong.

I plan to grind off the scarier bits of weld, and then I’m going to go over the base with a brush, and then I’m going to hit it with a can of truck bed paint. I have some in the garage, and it’s much better than ordinary spray paint for this purpose. Once that’s done, I’ll shove the saw over to my hoist and see if it pulls the roof down while I try to put it on the base.

Man, this was great. I learned how to cope welded corners. I used my plasma cutter. I used the welder and the dry cut saw. I bought a soapstone holder, a wire wheel, and a scribe. I had tremendous fun. And now I can roll my bandsaw around the garage, so I can get it within reach of the new 220 socket I made.

I have a new table pin, three blades, and an Incra miter gauge for the saw, and I am DYING to do something with it.

Maybe some day I’ll make a better base for the saw. Now that I fixed the welder’s problems, I know I can make a much prettier base. But I think I’ll wait for a drill press or a mill. I did not enjoy making those stupid holes.

Another thing: I got a little Baldor grinder a couple of years ago. I thought it would be more than enough for my needs. WRONG. Because the radius is small, it’s hard to get stuff up against the wheel. I’m wondering what’s the best size. Eight inches? Surely not ten. That would weigh 200 pounds. I believe the one I have now is 6″. It’s wonderful, but just not big enough. It’s dandy for sharpening certain tools, and I used it to pretty up some of the base parts, but it’s limited.

I suppose the real answer is a belt grinder. I have to get to work on that eventually. The price of a big Baldor would more than cover the parts cost for a belt grinder, and a belt grinder does more. Man, that would be sweet.

Time to celebrate. I’m breaking out the fettuccine.

By the way, if you read about me helping Mike find Li’l Paul’s Smokehouse in Lebanon, Tennessee, the other night, you have been waiting for these photos.