Smart Packaging Can Save Your Back

I just got my planer unloaded from the box. It arrived today. I have to give DeWalt credit; I know of no other company that packs heavy objects in boxes with side packing that can be removed before the items are unboxed.

When I got my sliding compound miter saw home, it was totally surrounded by two pieces of styrofoam, and styrofoam generates lots of friction when pressed against cardboard, and it also seals pretty well so air can’t get past it. Lift the whole mess straight up, and the box comes with it, because there is a vacuum between the box and the styrofoam. Lift one end while pressing down on the styrofoam and it comes up, but how do you lift the other end without dropping the first end? Get a friend to lift the other end, and what happens? You’re lifting the whole thing again, so the box goes up at the same time.

I used a hoist to get it out of the box. Seriously. The saw probably weighs 70 pounds, which is not all that much, but when the box is determined to stick to it, it seems like 700.

With the planer, I pulled out the stuff between the machine’s sides and the cardboard, grabbed the machine’s handles, and lifted. POOF. Out. With free space around the machine, it came right out.

I would have waited around and looked for a used planer, but I got this recon cheaper than a Ridgid, and it’s supposed to be very, very good. I decided to take a chance on it because the recon router I bought was perfect and appeared to be new. This thing has some scuffs on one of the ramp deals, but I’m not sure they’re from wood. It could be from rubbing against cardboard in the box. It may be totally unused. A lot of recons are.

In the box, it seemed to weigh maybe 175 pounds. That would have been my guess. I could not handle it or carry it safely. I used a handtruck to put it in the garage. Out of the box, it feels like less than a hundred. Funny how that works.

I continue looking for drill presses. I have come to realize that there is no perfect choice. The old ones with long strokes seem to be limited to a 17″ swing, and many of them have 3-phase motors, and it seems like it’s impossible to get the dealers to answer questions. Delta makes a new one with a 6″ stroke and a 20″ swing, but I get the impression that it does not have a split head, and if this is the case, it may be badly engineered. A split head allows you to fix runout problems that arise in long-stroke machines as they age. Steel City makes one with a long stroke and a split head, but it only has a 17″ swing.

This seems to be the hardest machine to choose and buy. There were several planers I liked. There are a lot of band saws that would make me happy. Table saws are a dime a dozen. But drill presses are just plain vexing.

I know that if I compromise on any feature, it will immediately become essential. That’s how life is. If I get a 4″ stroke, ten minutes after I start using it, I will need 6″. Don’t even question it. This is why I bought a compressor fit for a body shop. People laughed at me. Well, now I want to sand things, and guess what you need for that? Pneumatic sanders that suck tons of air. Who’s laughing now? Okay, I guess the same people are laughing, but at least I can sand things.

I am seriously considering building a spruce box with the tools I have right now. I can make a planer sled and try it. I can then plane the wood. I can do most of the cutting on the table saw. Hey, it would give me something to do.

Accident or Intervention?

Because of a clerical error, I received a document that should have gone to someone else. It was a court’s notice of filing deficiency. The plaintiff was a prison inmate. They like to sue the authorities.

Nothing in my life seems to happen accidentally these days. I was going to shove this thing in an envelope and mail it to him with a Post-It saying it had come to me by mistake, but I decided instead to include a short note saying I would offer a prayer for this guy.

Maybe you will join me. I just ask that God lead him to turn his life around and give faith and obedience a chance. His name is Charles Jones.

Case in Point

Here’s something I don’t need. But I wish I did. Check out the price.

CLICK.

Look at that. Gorgeous. But I don’t think a radial arm saw would be of any use to me. I have the table saw for ripping and crosscutting, and I have a huge sliding miter saw for just about anything else a rotating saw blade can do.

Journalism

Today people are talking about Joe Wurzelbacher’s new assignment as roving Mideast correspondent for Pajamas Media. Needless to say, many people have low expectations, and it seems like a bad idea. The liberal media managed to convince the public that Sarah Palin was stupid, and the smell has rubbed off on other conservatives. We really don’t need to give them another weapon with which to club us.

Nonetheless, the deed is done, so I suppose the correct thing is to pray for his safety and that he surprises us.

I don’t blame him for taking the assignment. It probably seemed like a great idea, and from his perspective, maybe it’s a real opportunity. Fame has monetary value, and while PJTV is obscure, it is possible that some of the few people have the power to help Joe move on to bigger things, and maybe one of them will come up with a gig for him.

It probably beats laying pipe in Ohio in the winter. And Joe deserves a little success, after the vicious treatment he received from the press.

I’m already rethinking my router insert/table saw extension. I really enjoyed using the Mag-Switch featherboard, and it would be nice to be able to use it while routing. That means cast iron is required. I have to see if anyone makes an insert that is exactly 28″ wide. Peachtree Woodworking makes one with a 27″ width, which seems crazy. How would you fit that between my rails? You would have to fill the missing inch somehow.

My readers are bad influences on me, and now I have returned the favor. Reader Ed complained that he had not been able to lay his hands on his late father’s table saw. Inspired by my shopping, he got on the web and found a saw just like his dad’s, and he bought it! Pretty cool. It would be better if he had received his dad’s saw, but this is a pretty good substitute. It’s funny how often things that should be handed down to certain people in families go to the wrong people, and then to the dump. I’ll bet this happens more often in families that are away from God. This phenomenon has an Old Testament smell to it.

Speaking of the Old Testament, Elisson has a post concerning his relationship with pork. Elisson believes in God and belongs to a synagogue, but when it comes to bacon, he might as well be a Baptist. He even eats whale bacon.

Finally, Pam Anderson says you can send food to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is this true? I would think brownies would ship pretty well in winter.

More Testing

I can’t believe I forgot to blog this. I was tired and preoccupied, but that’s a poor excuse.

As you know if you follow this blog, Heather’s mother has cervical cancer. Tomorrow at 9 a.m., she is going in for tests. Here is what Heather asks:

Tonight we are going to go to Lexington to spend the night at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge, so she can make her 9AM PET Scan appointment and 1PM doctors appointment. That is to see if the cancer has spread. I am asking everyone to pray that the cancer is contained and has not spread and the tumor is shrinking away from the kidneys and bladder.

I didn’t know she had emailed me until this evening. Wish I had seen this earlier.

Anyway, there it is. Please take a minute and help. Prayer makes all the difference in the world at a time like this.

Table Saw Extension Built!

It may be hard to believe, but I have succeeded in turning my old computer desk into a router insert. It’s not installed yet, but the bulk of the work is done. I am astonished that I pulled it off.

I got out my new plunge router, figuring I would have to edge-joint some wood for the support braces under the table. Then I remembered I already had a jointed piece of a two-by-six. I checked it out, and sure enough, it was long enough and wide enough to turn into two long braces. So I ripped it on the table saw, using the Mag-Switch, and it came out perfect.

I got out the Sears drill guide and gave it a try, drilling the holes to attach the tabletop to the side braces. It works well enough for this job, although I would not call it a precision instrument. I wouldn’t dream of using it for fine woodworking, because there is too much play in the shafts that support the chuck.

I had some horrible sheet metal countersink-type things, so I drilled with a corded drill and the guide, I reamed out the holes with the Bosch cordless, and I used my Panasonic impact driver to drive the screws. It was beautiful.

I had no idea how sad and lame my Sears corded drill was until I used it beside the Bosch. It’s slower and weaker, by far.

I used my 10″ miter saw to trim everything to length, including the supports I put across each end of the table. I still have to put at least one more of these in place. I think I should run one across the table behind the router lift; I’m not sure if there is any point in putting one farther back. But I may do it just to be thorough.

The other day I bought sheet metal sawhorse brackets which turned out to be garbage, but they were useful today, because I pulled the two-by-fours out of them, jointed and ripped them on the table saw, and used them for the cross supports. The brackets will go in the trash; they’re not even good scrap.

I don’t want to try to install the table in the saw’s rails until I have something to hold it up. This strikes me as a good time to get some quality sawhorses. I’m not going to build them. Wooden ones are heavy and bulky, and you have to go through the grief of trying to find acceptable two-by-fours at Home Depot, which is not easy. I want something I can fold up and store in a small space.

This thing should be functioning tomorrow night. It won’t be pretty; the desk had two holes in it for mouse wires, and they’re still there, and I made big holes in it when I was planning to use it as a separate router table. But it ought to work very well. The top is very, very flat so far; the bracing worked. I can fill the holes in with epoxy or something, so it will look better than it does at present.

Once I have it done, it will serve as a platform I can use to make something better. I love the workbench I built, but as a woodworking bench, it’s useless. It’s too small, and it’s against the wall, and it has a big mechanic’s vise on it.

I suppose I could build a frame and fix it so I can attach MDF sheets to it with recessed bolts. That would be a good permanent solution. When the top gets damaged, take it off, rip a sheet of MDF, and put it on.

It’s fantastic, being able to do this stuff. Once I have a planer and a sled, I should be able to joint wood fairly well, so making a better table extension should be a cinch. I have to have jointed wood because the router needs a flat surface. I can’t just plop any old lumber on the garage floor and nail it together.

The Mag-Switch is amazing. It even works over the miter slots.

It has occurred to me that if I start making boxes, I may already have suitable lumber on hand. I bought some cheap spruce boards for shelves, and it looks like I won’t need them. Believe it or not, some of that wood is very pretty, and you can get box-sized pieces without knots. Might be a fun thing to start with. Beats splurging for walnut and then ruining it.

I think it’s spruce. I get my softwoods mixed up. Spruce is a perfectly nice wood. They make guitar tops out of it. I don’t know what violins are made of, but it sure looks like spruce.

I smell like a sawmill, and I still have to put everything away. I’m out.

I Cannot Get Enough Cast Iron

While I was at Woodcraft yesterday, I got a Mag-Switch featherboard. I got the pro version; some wood nut on the web said it was a better featherboard than the standard job, which has smaller magnets. Whatever. I didn’t want to buy twice, so I got the big one.

I tried it on the Powermatic 66 today. I wasn’t cutting; I had other stuff to do. But it’s very, very strong, so I think it will be a great tool. The guy at Woodcraft loves his. The great advantage of this thing is that you can put it anywhere on a cast iron table. No worrying about slots.

The Walker Turner band saw I was thinking about buying turned out to be sold. It was an old Craigslist ad that hadn’t been deleted. Bummer.

I think that if I can get my hands on a drill press, a band saw, and a decent sander, I’ll be able to do a few things. I could fake a lot of the band saw stuff with a jig saw.

I’m trying to summon the courage to go outside, joint a couple of two-by-threes with the router, clean up the edge of the cut I made in the end of the computer desk/router insert, and finish the extension on my saw. I think maybe I need a big piece of Costco beef first.

I have to have two long pieces of wood to run lengthwise under the insert, and I’ll have to have at least two going the other way, to eliminate sag.

The Ebay guys with the big Powermatic drill presses do not return messages, so they can take their tools and eat them as far as I’m concerned. A person who won’t tell you what he’s selling you deserves to go out of business. I think a Steel City is in my future. If I can find someone who will sell me one! I want to buy locally and save the enormous cost of residential delivery, but you have to beat people to get them off their rear ends to do business with you. In this economy, people like that will be the first ones to hit the bread lines. It’s going to be a real education for a lot of folks.

I think I need a Dynabrade air sander. In his box video, Doug Stowe uses a half-sheet finish sander turned upside-down. That does not seem like a great idea to me. And here I am, with compressed air to burn. On top of that, the Dynabrade will have a hundred feet of hose on it, so there’s no reason I can’t sand things in the yard. Forget dust collection. It lands where it lands.

My heart is broken over that Walker Turner saw. Where else am I going to find an Art Deco band saw? I could paint it yellow and purple and sell it on South Beach, to decorate a gay bar. It looks like something Batman would have had in his shop, back when Bob Kane was drawing him. Whoops, that goes back to the gay theme, doesn’t it?

Batman wasn’t really gay. He was just shy around girls. As all rich men should be.

Time for my pre-tool-session meal.

It Saws Wood & Will Also Serve as an Anchor for a Destroyer

Sorry I wandered off today. I visited the nearest Woodcraft store and asked about a Steel City drill press. The guys working there didn’t seem to know what to do. At first, they claimed they could order one. Then they said they couldn’t. Then they said they had to ask the boss. He’s on vacation.

Meanwhile, I looked at other stuff. I found some interesting band saws. The most intriguing: a 16″ Walker Turner which is still being used in a shop. Price: $500.

This is a really neat piece of equipment. Almost all of it is cast iron. The motor is small (3/4 HP), but people claim they will resaw up to 11 1/2″. If I got this thing and I decided I didn’t want to keep it, I could almost surely unload it for what I paid.

It could use some paint and TLC, however.

I also found a Jet 18″ saw for $549, but it’s a model nobody likes. The resaw height is not good, and people complained about the saws wobbling.

I might give that Walker Turner a try. I can probably dismantle it and shove it in the Explorer, but even if I can’t, I can rent a van for almost nothing. I’d have to drive eight hours, unfortunately. But then I am eccentric, so that’s not a deal-breaker.

Battle Ends

A while back, I posted a prayer request from a reader. His mother was coming to the end of her struggle with lung cancer, and he asked people to pray that the end would be easy. Here is an email I received yesterday:

Mom left us today @1:00. Please thank everyone at the blog for the prayers. A prayer that I don’t come apart at the seams would be nice. Thank you for any good thoughts my way.

I thought you would want to know.

Router Extension Ready

This is beyond amazing. I used my Powermatic 66.

After I got the splitter installed, I realized I had no choice but to go ahead with the router insert plan. I took apart my old computer desk and made sure there was no metal left in it. I made myself a featherboard. I realized I had no way to anchor the featherboard. I put the featherboard away. Then I sawed up the desktop.

Believe it or not, it is possible to cut a sheet of particle board five feet long and two and a half feet long, on a table saw with rails but no extension. The long cuts are easier, because you have less board hanging out over the empty space where the extension should be, but even the short cut is doable.

I remembered some of the stuff from Kelly Mehler’s video. Stand at the left rear corner of the sheet. Hmm…maybe that’s all I remembered. I tried his trick of using sawhorses as an outfeed table, but it was a colossal failure. I believe the problem is that the sawhorse brackets I bought are total garbage. The sawhorses refuse to stay open, and when you pry the legs apart, the brackets bend and give way. Useless. I should complain to Home Depot. I thought these things were a better deal than the premade plastic sawhorses, but I was severely wrong. I am going to buy some of those things even if they cost thirty bucks each. You really have to picture me, walking around the saw while the sawhorse folds up, trying to keep the desktop against the fence while preventing it from falling on the floor.

I did a practice short cut, which was perfect. Then I moved the fence and did the real cut, which was less than perfect. Doesn’t matter. I screwed up pretty badly, and the error is still probably less than a sixteenth. Who cares?

That Biesemeyer fence is really something. Old and beat-up as it is, it still seems to lock up completely squarely.

I have to mount some two-by-threes under the desktop so I’ll be able to attach it to the rails. After that, I’ll be sitting pretty. I’ll pop the router in and add some sort of adjustable support leg. Bang. Done. That will put me in a position to use the saw and router to make a real cabinet and extension. I didn’t realize how long the extension was; I should be able to create a very serviceable woodworking bench from it. It’s not the ideal workbench, but given my space problems, it will be a lifesaver.

The saw isn’t loud at all. I don’t know why I bother wearing ear protection. But the dust! It shoots straight up under my protective glasses. I guess I need goggles.

I tried a different blade. I’m not sure which one to use. It turns out I have more blades than I thought. Something like two dozen. I decided to try one that looked more “woody” than the others.

The splitter is wonderful. Kelly Mehler says to put them to the right of the blade, so they moosh the wood against the fence, and boy, is he right. It makes it a lot harder to slop the wood to the left. The flexibility of the splitter assures that the wood will fit between the fence and splitter, so that’s not an issue.

This is beautiful. This is a little piece of what I was hoping for when I bought tools. I had a whole bunch of problems today, and tools solved them. Tools really work, if you buy enough of them and make an effort to learn how to use them.

Think of all the stuff I had to do to get this thing running. Take it apart. Load it by myself. Unload it by myself. Put it together. Change the plug. Align everything. Lubricate the trunnion. Build a mobile base. Alter the dust collection connection. Fabricate a splitter. And here I am, sawing stuff up with very good precision.

I hope I continue to have success. It helps to pray every single time you do anything even slightly difficult.

Romanum Eunt Domum?

I cannot be stopped. I am the Tool King.

Today I decided to have another go at the table saw extension. I plan to saw up my half-done router table and turn it into an insert. Then when I get it working, I plan to use the saw and router to build a better insert and extension. To do this, I need to be able to saw a 30″ by 60″ piece of heavy particle board coated with melamine. I realize I could do this with a circular saw and something clamped to it as a guide. Just shut up about that, okay? I want to use a table saw.

I rolled the Powermatic 66 out, got the fence put on, made sawhorses (harder than it seems, because the sheet metal pieces have specs straight out of the Mexican Handbook of Metalworking Tolerances), and prepared to dismantle the router table. Then I realized I had no splitter.

Problem? Sure, for girly men like you. But not for me. After I finished crying, I went to the computer and learned that the Powermatic 66 has a bolt inside it, just waiting for a splitter. And I happened to have a piece of aluminum scrap in the garage, about an eighth of an inch thick!

Unfortunately, the aluminum had an angle in it, like angle iron, but I happen to have a pile of tools that will cut anything, so all I had to do was choose. Rotary tool? Dry cut saw? Hacksaw? In the end, I went with the grinder and my mighty 5″ vise. I sliced a nice piece out of the aluminum, and then I used a spade bit to enlarge an existing hole. Now I had a splitter with a bolt hole.

I was pretty happy to learn that spade bits cut aluminum. I had no fluted bits that big, and I was leery of using my pretty Forstners.

I cut and filed and cut and filed, and eventually, I had this:

Isn’t that beautiful? It’s not perfect, but I know exactly how to make a better one, and this one should work fine. I suppose I could even make one with pawls, if I were feeling manly. Maybe the bolt isn’t strong enough to withstand that, though.

People were giving me advice on blades. That’s one of the Corian blades I got with the saw. This is a phone photo, so it’s blurry, but maybe you can tell something about it.

Tool people, clue me in. I set this thing by eyeballing it; the bolt in the saw has a jam nut, and you can adjust it. Think that will be okay, or should I expect a board through the liver at any moment?

I figure the desk is a good thing to test it with, because it probably weighs 40 pounds, and I doubt even a 5-horsepower motor can throw that very hard. At least I hope not. I’m just guessing.

Let’s see if I can get that desk cut up.

Big Old Tools are Cheap

I still need a few basic tools in order to accomplish anything with wood. One of those tools is a drill press, although I have a Sears drill guide which may be useful for some jobs.

Here is an item which shows why a big shop (unlike mine) is good to have: CLICK.

That’s a Powermatic 1150 drill press. It has a 3/4 HP Baldor motor. It goes fast. It goes slow. It has a 6″ stroke. And look at the asking price: $650. And it’s within half a day’s drive. I don’t think it will work with 1-phase 220, but a new Ebay motor would not cost a whole lot.

There is a lot of stuff like this on the market right now. The beautiful 8″ Powermatic jointer I mentioned recently sold for much less than the cost of a crummy little Chinese job.

The drill press wouldn’t be a bad buy, if I had a place to put it. It’s a 15″ machine, but for some reason, it takes up a lot more room than a typical 17″ drill press.

The nice thing about old machines like this is that they don’t cost anything. You can buy them for X dollars and sell them for the same amount or more. A Steel City drill press would probably do more stuff, since it has a 17″ swing compared to this one’s 15″. But the minute I got a new Steel City drill press home, the value would drop from $500 to $350, and I could kiss the sales tax goodbye.

Maybe I’ll offer this guy $50.

You Will Pay in the End

I become more amazing every day.

I had three bolts broken off inside the wall of the tube on my table saw. How the previous owner managed to break them is a mystery. I had to get them out. I drove to Home Depot and bought an extractor.

I drilled a hole in the end of a bolt, planning to use the extractor. As soon as the bit went through (the bolt remnant was very short), the bolt popped through the bolt hole and disappeared. I guess it caught on the bit, and the bit turned it. Same thing happened on the second bold. On the third, I decided to be safe and use the extractor. I opened a hole, stuck the extractor in, started turning…and it snapped, leaving a piece of hard steel embedded in the bolt. Nice.

This is what I get for doing something right.

The great thing is, this gave me an opportunity to use my diamond rotary bits. I can’t remember how I ended up with them. Ebay, I guess. They’re for rotary tools like Dremels. I experimented with several, and finally, I found one I liked. I opened a nice big cavity in the bolt, hopefully with no extractor bits left in it, and I went to work with the drill again. Pretty soon the bolt disappeared, just like the others.

This is the beauty of having too many tools. You can almost always find something that will do what you want.

I got the saw set up (rails but no extension), and I tried a saw-calibrating method I had heard of. I crosscut a piece of wood with an X drawn on it, and then I mated up the sides, turned one piece over, and mated them again. The wood was about three inches across. I think there may be a tiny error of a small fraction of a millimeter, but it’s so small, I’m not sure. I put the pieces of wood together and checked them every way I could, using a square and straightedge. I noticed that the miter gauge from my Ridgid portable gave a better result than the nicer of the two gauges that came with the Powermatic 66. I guess it’s possible that the error came from the miter gauge.

The Corian blade made a very nice cut, but it seemed slow.

I was able to park the saw next to the wall with the rails on it, but I discovered that I was no longer able to open the car door. So things had to be reorganized. But now that the saw is on wheels, I don’t really care. Wheels seem to be the secret to successful small workshops.

Things are looking up. It’s pretty clear that I can put enough stuff out there to be able to tackle most problems and projects. I may even steal my cousin’s plans and build a cyclone.

What a Delightful Surprise

It turns out the guy who sold me the Powermatic 66 has a sense of humor.

I was trying to get the rails mounted. This should have been a ten-minute job, but I found rust and gunk on the tube, and I had to get it off. I started with a drill and wire wheel…then I remembered my GIGANTIC COMPRESSOR. I fired it up and appled the needle scaler. Unfortunately, it ate the paint pretty fast. So I finished up with sandpaper and the drill. I don’t care about the paint, because it’s going to have to be redone anyway. But I plan to use the saw before repainting, so I don’t want to mess it up more than necessary.

I got the tube cleaned up to where it was usable, and then I noticed three bolts, broken off inside the side of the tube. And of course, I had no extractors. So I had to hit Home Depot, just for the purpose of getting one. The assortment they had was lame, so I plan to root around on the web to see what else is out there. I bought one tiny extractor. It should do the job. Luckily, the bolts go into a hollow space, so if I can get them to turn in either direction, I’ll be fine. They’ll back out, or they’ll go forward and drop out inside the tube.

I saw a couple of bolt heads on the floor when I picked up the saw. Evidently, he had started dismantling it, but he hadn’t been able to finish. He didn’t say a thing about it. Maybe he was trying to take it apart so he could sell it to someone who would pay more.

I found out that the measuring tape on the tube can be replaced very easily. They cost twenty bucks, tops. So I may refinish the rails and tube eventually. Right now, I just want the saw to WORK.

They Need a Bath

Help me out, tool nuts.

The rails on my Powermatic 66 have a lot of rust and crud on them. It’s bad enough to make me worry that the fence’s accuracy will be affected. I started working on it with a wire wheel, but that’s pretty slow. And I had to be careful to avoid the paint.

I’m wondering if I should just strip it bare and repaint it. The paint looks bad, and it will be hard to clean off the rust and gunk without removing the paint. Problem: the tape-measure part does not come off, so I don’t know how to work around it, and I can’t figure out how to replace it if I strip the markings off of it.

I’m not sure what kind of paint to use, either. It would have to be very tough.

I could get some blasting media and a blaster and Northern Tool and give it hell.

What would you do?