{"id":2408,"date":"2008-12-25T14:11:17","date_gmt":"2008-12-25T19:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hogonice.com\/?p=2408"},"modified":"2008-12-25T14:11:17","modified_gmt":"2008-12-25T19:11:17","slug":"the-nimitz-is-moored-in-my-garage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=2408","title":{"rendered":"The Nimitz is Moored in my Garage"},"content":{"rendered":"

TLC<\/em><\/p>\n

While I wait to toss the rib roast in the oven, I have been fooling with the new old table saw. I wanted to get the blade and top aligned, and I thought I’d to a few other things.<\/p>\n

When I took the top off this thing to move it, six shims fell out of the front side. They were between the cabinet and the top. I was not positive, but by the way they fell, it seemed likely that there had been three on each side. A commenter told me I was in danger of warping the top if I got the shims wrong.<\/p>\n

I now think that has to be wrong. This top attaches at three points. It’s impossible for three points to define anything except a perfectly flat plane. So it should be impossible for the three mounting points to exert a flexing force on the top. It seems to me that the only important thing the shims can do is to prevent the top from sloping diagonally.<\/p>\n

I got some advice on orienting the blade inside the throat plate slot, and I found out how to align the blade with the miter slots, and I took a crack at it. Now the table is tightened down, and everything looks kosher. I’m not one hundred percent certain about the squareness of the blade to the top, but it seems fine when measured with the tools I now have.<\/p>\n

A woodworker told be about a couple of great tools for tuning table saws. One is a dial indicator which reads in tiny fractions of an inch when you depress its plunger. The other is a Chinese dial caliper. You’re supposed to mount the indicator on a cross made from scrap, put one part of the cross in the miter slot, and move it back and forth while checking the distance. You pick a tooth on the blade and use it as your reference. I haven’t been able to do that yet, but I was able to measure the distance between the near wall of the slot and one gap on the saw, and it looks fine.<\/p>\n

I put stuff on the saw’s cord to polish it up, and I used orange-based gun cleaner on the top, to see if it did anything. It made the saw smell very nice, but no matter how much of the ancient varnish I remove, there is always more underneath. My only real concern is that it will stain wood that rests on it. And it might cause friction.<\/p>\n

I wish my new plug were here so I could fire the saw up and make sure everything was right. Kelly Mehler has a blade-aligning trick that only requires a dowel and a miter gauge. I could do that if the saw were running.<\/p>\n

The more I think about the extra-long rails, the more I think I might be able to make use of them. If I moved a cabinet in the garage, I would have room for the rails, and the cord would still reach my socket. I could put a big ol’ extension on the table and hang a router from it. I could put wheels on the whole operation. I could make a cabinet under the extension, with an enclosed dust-catching area for the router, plus a shelf or some drawers. If I did all that, I would have endless horizontal space to work with. I will never need it for stuff I’m cutting on the table saw, but it would be convenient to put tools and workpieces on it while I’m doing things.<\/p>\n

The extension should be easy to make. A flat board with two legs and some bracing. A hole for a router. Casters. Done. Not sure how to compensate for the uneven garage floor, however.<\/p>\n

It would be hilarious to use my old desk as the extension. It’s probably too narrow, though.<\/p>\n

I’m wondering what other junk I need to do basic woodwork. Planer and jointer, I suppose. Surely that will be enough. Maybe it’s possible to survive without a jointer, if I get my wood squared up when I buy it. I think a planer would be harder to do without, because you wouldn’t want to have to drive five miles each way when you change your mind about the thickness you want.<\/p>\n

This stuff is a tremendous amount of fun, regardless of whether I accomplish anything in the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TLC While I wait to toss the rib roast in the oven, I have been fooling with the new old table saw. I wanted to get the blade and top aligned, and I thought I’d to a few other things. When I took the top off this thing to move it, six shims fell out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}