It fit perfect and I liked the way it worked. I don’t have to screw anything down so if I need to sand something large like a piece of furniture I can take it down in a second. Once I started using it I began thinking I needed to design some sort of arm with a spring to support the hose to keep it off the surface of whatever I was sanding..Turned out all I needed to do was loop a large elastic band around the hose near the ceiling and drive an eye screw into the ceiling to hook the elastic to.

Again that worked great! It allows me to pull the sander in any direction I want and still keeps the hose from dragging on the piece being sanded. You can see the elastic but not the eye hook..its not setup for use in these pictures.

Another great thing that happened by accident was I was getting a tremendous amount of static electricity buildup in the hose. If I got my arm or head anywhere near it, it was quite uncomfortable. Once I ran the power cord up the side of the vac hose, it all but eliminated any static charge near the hose.

So, to review…didn’t cost me a dime..works great..just the kind of upgrade I like!

I don’t keep my compressor plugged in all the time. It kicks on @ 4AM to the delight of my family so I only plug it in when I need to use it, which I did this morning. I am spraying a tray with lacquer and I was using the compressed air to clean the dust off the piece after sanding between coats. I am also working on a white oak elevated dog bowl holder. I was sanding the round openings in the dog bowl holder that I had just cut out with my jigsaw, on the spindle sander. It’s alot like a router where you have a “climb cut” phenomenon especially exaggerated with the circular opening, with the spindle in the middle with 80 grit on it. Well I was sanding away making some good progress, when it happened..in the blink of an eye…the compressor kicked on to refill the tank, I wasn’t expecting it and it startled me. I took my concentration off what I was doing for a millisecond and the spindle grabbed the panel on the climb cut side and whipped it out of my hands, due also to the fact that my grip had loosened slightly due to the distraction. So in the blink of an eye I now have a 3/4” white oak panel spinning like a propeller around the spindle, and the whole sander starts walking twords the end of the counter due to the off balance swinging of the panel…all the stuff stored in the base is going flying and I am trying to reach down and hit the power switch without getting wailed by the spinning panel … I hit the power and the whole thing stopped….It all happened in the span of maybe a couple seconds. The panel hit me in the palm of my left hand and made a nice hole..and it dented the corners a little….my sander is OK, and I was able to find all the parts that went flying.

As I sit here thinking it could have been worse…it’s just how amazing how fast bad things can happen…

So I created a basic design for a serving tray in Sketchup, and I have two different versions that I am trying to decide between. I did a couple quick renders, with the new Podium 2.0 to get an idea which version I like better..so please everyone chime in and give me some feedback..

This one..Mostly Walnut with a maple bottom and the checkerboard stripe. I can also do an opposite version thats is mostly Maple with a Walnut bottom and the same stripe..

This version has a little more flair carrying the black/white theme a little farther, with split color corner splines!

Let me know what everyone thinks..i kinda like the second one, but I am not sure if it might be a little too out there…

Here is the top fence and stand..

The right angle sled

The router

A couple close ups of the table top..you can see the rust and the pitting..

Here is the right angle sled mounted…

The stand is missing a top piece..I will make a replacement for it. It has this simple kick stand setup to tip the top up and prop it to adjust the router or change bits. If your not familiar with this system the top is super strong, thin steel, and the router clamps to the bottom with the base plate still on. You can take the router in and out in less than a minute and its perfectly aligned every time. I am going to call Veritas and see if I can get replacements for the studs, and the micro adjust. I am going to try and polish the rust and pits out of the top with my ROS and some Scotch Brite pads. As soon as I got it home I was all over it with the straight edges and the engineers square. The top was flat, the fence is straight, smooth and perpendicular to the table, but the right angle sled was perpendicular to the fence, but not to the top. I messed with the leveling screws but I clearly had to crank them way out of alignment to get it right. I looked over the piece and I noticed that where the sled meets the top attachment rail for the fence the rail had chamfers in it that rested on flats on the sled. The piece looked skewed, so I loosened the attachment screws and as soon as I did i felt the pieces settle together. I tightened the screws and now it was close to perfect, except for the adjusting that I had made previously was now messing it up! So, a little fooling with the leveling screws and its dead on. The sled slides like glass down the length of the fence and has zero play.

I am so glad I jumped on this deal…sure it needs a little TLC, and some replacement parts, but this is an amazing router table system. He also had the companion book on how to use the system to it’s fullest extent, and I also want to purchase all the accessories that they make for it. This system got great reviews in allot of woodworking publications ..Like I said I have been wanting one since I first read about it, and I am so psyched that this one fell in my lap!

I did a little preliminary sanding and cleanup of the box, sanding the inside and outside along with the top and bottom to 150. I noticed that the box corners have a slight concave curve due to the cupping of the side pieces. Nothing I can do about it now, so i guess it’s just become a design element!

But the real headliner was the spline jig I just built. This will be the first time I use it. I mounted the two outside blades from my dado set shimmed to exactly 1/4”..

Then I got the jig out and cut the initial kerf..

I ended up cutting a brad nail in half…I mismarked where i thought the kerf was going to be when I was shooting it all together…no big deal..I was more worried that it threw a spark into my dust collector and would start a fire…

So I had glued up a test piece from the box cutoffs and set up the blade depth just the way i wanted it..

Then it was time to make the real kerfs! I had determined I wanted the top and bottom cuts to be 1 1/8” from the edges. I used a small combo square to align the fence on the jig, and made the cuts..

Came out perfect..

Then I made the remaining kerfs dead center of the box..

The finished kerfs..

I planed the darkest piece of scrap walnut I had to exactly the thickness of the kerfs..I wanted a nice tight fit. I cut them into pieces and glued them into the kerfs..

Once the glue dries I will sand them down almost flush with my oscillating belt sander and then finish them with the ROS.

So I printed out a cut list and got to work. I cut all the pieces of maple slightly over sized so I could sneak up on the miters and get them perfect. Then I planed and rough sized the walnut for the tops and bottoms. The maple pieces were cut from a board I had planed down to 9/16 some time ago and the pieces were slightly cupped…not good for tight miters. I decided to use the masking tape method to glue up the miters and then some additional clamps to make sure I get the corners as tight as I could. Heres a few shots of the box in the clamps

The masking tape trick works great to line everything up when you got glue spread all over the place, and it functions pretty well as clamps, but I felt it needed a little help due to the bows in the pieces. The Bessy band clamps are a little awkward to set up but work great once you have them dialed in. Here is a shot of the walnut top and bottom sized up and waiting for decorative edges..

Here is the box out of the clamps and mocked up with the top and bottom..

I am happy with the miters, they came out really nice in spite of the bows, and the box is perfectly square, when checked corner to corner. I was careful to cut the maple pieces in order so you can see the grain wrap around the box. Next a little preliminary sanding and I want to flatten the bottom and top of the inner maple box. They are really close, but a tiny bit off….I will spray adhesive a piece of 150 grit to a plywood scrap and smooth them out so they sit really flat. Then it’s time to fire up the brand new spline cutting jig next, so stay tuned!

Then I used some electrical tape to shim up and attach the 3/4” sleeves to all my tools. They all fit really well, and the coupling slides right on for a perfect friction fit while using the tools.








Everything fits nicely, and keeps the vacuum hose securely attached to the tool, and slides right off when I’m done. I love it when a plan comes together!

In the last blog I decided to change the orientation of the box so I could fit a framed 4×6 photo of Lucas on the front of the box along with a brass nameplate. Also, it turns out that after making these changes, I don’t have enough of either type of materiel (Maple, Walnut) to do the whole box in a solid color. So I present to everyone, a pair of almost identical boxes…please give me your opinion of who likes what color scheme better.

First, the Maple sides with the Walnut top, bottom and splines,

Or, the Walnut sides, with the Maple top, bottom and splines,

So, I would really appreciate some feedback on which one everyone likes better…I am partial to the Maple sides…but I’m having trouble deciding

Mine is made from 3/4” MDF (cause that’s what I got!) It has sliding positioning wings to hold the box or picture frame in perfect alignment with the blade…

The only stuff I have to buy is a piece of Rockler universal T track, and some t bolts and knobs. The track sits in a 3/4” dado int the trough side

The sled will sit on two miter slot tracks made from 5/8” Baltic birch ply. If I had the money I would make the whole thing out of Baltic, but MDF should be fine. I plan on gluing and shooting everything together so I can precisely align things, then when the glue dries I will reinforce everything with screws.

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It will be made from Black Walnut, with Maple miter splines, and a Maple picture frame.

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The base will have a Roman Ogee profile, and the top will have a beaded cove profiled edge. The picture frame will be a simple cove profile.

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The name plate will be brass engraved. The picture will be 4×6. I showed these renders to the wife and she liked the basic design allot, but she suggested that I lay the box down horizontally, and then I could put the picture frame on the front instead of the top. That sounded like a good idea to me, so stay tuned…I will re work the Sketchup model and we shall see what that version looks like!

I left the bracing under the top..I had considered leaving it out…but this planer is pretty heavy..the shipping weight is 90Lbs! I changed the bottom to a shelf/flat bottom rather than blocks..it’s sturdier, and will resist racking, and it’s alot easier to mount the wheels.

Here is a view from behind the table saw looking into the shop, twords the right side.

It’s alot brighter in person..the pics are a little dark…I guess I should have shot them in the daytime! You can see my main tool rack and my main work area as well.

Here’s a look twords the left from the same spot..

Here you can see my chop saw setup as well as my main dust collector.

This is a shot at my table saw area..

The saw is a 2001 3HP Unisaw 220V, 52” Beismeyer fence. Like alot of my tools it’s a Craigslist find. I love this saw…when I bought it, it was barely even broken in! I upgraded from a BOSCH contractor saw and what a difference.
Here’s a closer look at my table saw accessory area..

I recently completed the blade holder, and the pipe clamp rack I adapted from a design I saw on here..I wish I could remember who posted it…but like I said I adapted this from his idea. The shelf is a simple ply scrap trimmed with walnut scrap on a french cleat, the pipe clamp and the accessory holder are also mounted on a french cleat.

This is the opposite wall..

Here is more of my ever expanding clamp collection. i try to buy at least one or two a month. The clamp rack is laminated from plywood scraps and I plowed dados in it with the chop saw. ..also mounted to the wall with a french cleat. The area below it with the plastic buckets is reserved for my long bed 8” jointer with a helical cutter head..whenever that gets here!

Here is a close up of my main work area..

I built the bench from a Fine Woodworking plan. It’s laminated from plywood and has mortise and tenon joinery. The top is a layer of 3/4 ply under a layer of 3/4MDF, trimmed in hard maple.. I like to roll builders paper over the top…I can sketch on it and write notes, and it keeps the bench top from getting mucked up with paint and glue. The bench is heavy and rock solid..I am really happy with how it came out. I am eventually going to add a 9” vise under the overhang on the left side. The bench and my out feed table are the same height. I set it up so I can back my pickup right up to the saw, slide full sheets right into the saw and I can slide the work bench anywhere I need it for extra out feed support.

Some close ups of the tool wall area…


The usual assortment of stuff…again everything on french cleats, the shelves all made from 3/4” ply drops trimmed with scrap. The drill press is another Craigslist score..my first and only Powermatic! I love it..aside from the little bit of rust on it it,s a great drill press…and it definitely has a custom made drill press table in its future! I’m not crazy about having the drill press parked in front of the tools..but I need to position it in a place that it has maximum side clearance, and I just don’t have enough clear space in this shop. I have to keep everything on wheels so I can re position if necessary..the DP IS GETTING A MOBILE BASE SOON.

Here’s a closeup of my compressor cart..

Standard PC pancake, with 75’ of 3/8 Fleexeel on a reel. I have the usual suspects for guns..you can see my latest addition on the top shelf right..the 23Ga pin nailer..I love this gun! Got it on sale at Woodcraft for $35.00! I also have a full head framing nailer as well. I want to upgrade soon to a vertical 25 gal. tank compressor so I can use a spray gun and pneumatic sanders.

Here is a shot of my sander and bandsaw…

Again guess where I got the bandsaw…CRAIGLIST! I had to do some repair work on this puppy. There was a factory defective part on this style saw that is in the tension mechanism that fails over time. I replaced it and now the band saw runs like new. I just added the mobile base, now I need to get a better blade for it. The osc. spindle sander was a xmass present. I upgraded the dust collection capabilities with a kit from Woodcraft. Under the table is a moving dolly. That is where I had my Rigid 13” planer..well, I was borrowing from a friend. Unfortunately, he took it back so Santa is rumored to be bringing me a brand new Steel City 13” planer with the helical head..oh boy I can hardly wait! Since I don’t have alot of room I just roll the planer out and put it on my out feed table, and stash it under the work table when I don’t need it.

Chop saw area..

Love my Makita chop saw! The hood is made from hardboard scraps reinforced with Baltic birch. It’s mounted on a french cleat so I can slide it to the side to cut miters. The saw is only bolted to the stand with wing nuts so I can un bolt it in a minute and bring it to a jobsite, and then put it right back where it was aligned with the fence when I’m done. The kreg sliding stop system is great. I love to be able to walk up and dial in a measurement just like my table saw and have it be right on..and perfectly repeatable. I have a 80” capacity to the right of the saw. The cabinet below the table is very deep and I want to eventually make pantry style draws with full extension slides to maximize storage. The cop saw cabinet draws also have full extension slides, and house my biscuit joiner, my kreg pocket hole equipment, my jig saw, and a bunch of other jigs and tools.

The side table for my chop saw is an assembly cube that can be rotated to achieve three separate heights.

Here is the view looking twords the table saw..

The out feed table is great..I want to build a mobile base for my new planer in the same style. The out feed table is also great for assembly and glue ups.

Well, thats it…my little shop…or as the wife likes to call it, the garage she can’t park in!

Here is a shot of the finished legs..I trimmed them with two passes per side on the table saw down to 3 1/2”

Then with everything glued up, and sized and sanded I started assembling things..

Heres the base with the sides all glued up, clamped together and squared up..

The MDF was screwed to the plywood from underneath and then the top was pocket screwed through the upper stretchers..

Then I just put on some HD 3/4” solid maple trim..I actually found a piece in the bin that was curly..I put that on the front..mitered all the corners and shot it on with brads, then screwed it on into both the ply and MDF…The finished product!

I am very happy with the result. The bench is rock solid, and the top is nice and flat. I am going to install a nice vice on the left end, and drill some holes for some round bench dogs.

So I decided I was going to build a simple out feed table out of 2×4’s screwed to the wall studs and 2×4 legs. I topped it with 3/4” shop birch and 1/8” hardboard. I used a light coating of contact adhesive so I can change out the hardboard if it gets all messed up. I kept the chopsaw on the cabinet I made for it, and once in the position I wanted it in I locked all the wheels and shimmed it so it is level. The out feed table legs nearest to the cabinet I turned so the long side is facing the cabinet. I drilled holes and installed 3/8” x 2 1/2” lag bolts and washers to lock the two together. I made the fence from 3/4” melamine for the face and 3/4” birch for the base, pocket screwed together. The fence is 2 1/4” high per the Kreg specs for the stops to work right. Here is the finished fence before I mounted the track to it..

It’s screwed to the table top with 1 1/2” pan head screws. The top track is attached to the fence with #8×5/8” pan head screws. It’s pretty easy to dial in the tape placement and the curser of the stop..in a couple minutes and a few test cuts I had it dialed in as accurate as my Biesmeyer!

I also threw together a dust hood for my chop saw. I made it out of scrap hard board, scrap MDF, and scrap 1/2” Baltic birch.

I used a table top dust collection fixture mounted under the box. I mounted it to the wall on a french cleat that way I can slide it to the left to do angle cuts. It works pretty good at sucking up most of the dust…..allot better than no hood. I also used some pool hose to direct the saws built in dust collection port down into the collector.

My little shop is starting to come together! I will probably put up a piece of solid wood trim on the front of the out feed table. I have allot of storage behind the fence and I will be putting up more french cleat storage and maybe a cabinet as well. It’s a bit of a reach over the wide counter top but I am tall so It’s not too bad. Next on my list is a real bench to replace the door on two saw horses I have now! Also I want to make a nice drill press table with a movable fence.

I didn’t get a manual for it and I have never owned a drill press so is there any routine maintenance that I should be doing?
It seems to run really good. I changed the belt config to a faster speed (something between the recommended hardwood/softwood speed..around 1900. It is a little noisy..seems to be coming from the tensioner pulleys in between the motor and the spindle..i guess that’s to be expected given its age. One thing I noticed that I’m not sure I like is when I pull the spoke wheel to advance the bit down (with the spindle turning or not) there is a clunk that you can hear and feel as the spindle travels down the first inch or so. Other than that it seems to be fine and it doesn’t do it every time..it almost sounds like something in the gears…weird.

But it seems to be a great press other than these things..maybe somebody can give me some info as to what they think it might be. The general consensus online is these go for anywhere between $150 and $350…so i think I got a great deal!

The wall sections of the cleats go up fast and then it’s a little time consuming making all the little hangers for each tool you want to put on the cleat. Here are a few close up shots showing some of my hangers and holders I made..

As you can see, it’s really relatively simple. I found I ran out of room pretty quick, I will be putting up more on another wall. I just wanted to get enough up so I can get all my essential tools where i need them to be. They used to be all inside my basement and I would have to walk back and forth every time I needed something, then schlep them all back when I was done…very time consuming. So far it’s like a godsend to need a mallet or a chisel and to be able to just take two steps to get it is so nice! Overall I love the whole French cleat thing. The greatest thing is it’s so simple to move things around. I was shuffling things back and forth the whole time I was building it….and I will probably never stop! The shelves work really well and they are easy to make…just some ply screwed together in an “L” and a French cleat screwed to the back. Another great thing is I was able to use up a bunch of small hardwood scraps I had laying around that would probably have just gotten burned in the fire pit!

So after I had been working in the garage for a few days I noticed how low the light level was. Just a screw in bulb fixture in the ceiling and a lamp and one hanging 40 watt shop lite. I was having trouble seeing what I was doing at the table saw. So I went to Home Depot and picked up a two bulb T-8 35 watt fluorescent fixture for $18.00! You can screw it right to the ceiling, it has a tiny little ballast that guarantees it will start down to -10 degrees. A pack of two bulbs was around $4, and I bought a two dollar extension cord to wire a plug onto it..total cost 24.00!

Eventually I want to put up like at least four or five more and wire them into a sub panel I will be installing …but for now I might buy a couple more and just wire them all into the bulb socket….the T-8 fixtures don’t draw allot of juice, very green! So now that my tools are in, the next thing to tackle will be getting rid of my door across two saw horses and build a real bench!

And the shelves were perfect right off the saw..I am so impressed with that Biesmeyer fence system. It glides smooth as silk, locks up tight with no deflection, the fence faces are long and smooth..and once I dialed it in with some scrap wood and my dial calipers, it cuts deadly accurate..all the way out to 50”..I know this because I was checking every cut with my tape for the first few cuts then I thought….why bother. It cuts to whatever I set the fence too..I know that shouldn’t be a big deal, but when your used to not trusting your fence..old habits are hard to break!....

So, a couple 30 screws later you have this..

Then I glued and screwed on all the trim panels..

Then I dry fit the hard board top..

I was going to leave it big on all sides and cut it down with my router and a flush trim bit but I stupidly set the saw to the finished width and it’s perfectly sized for that. I was going to use a lighter coating of contact adhesive to hold the top on but I don’t have any wiggle room and I don’t like using contact adhesive without hang over on all sides. Maybe I will just use small dots of wood glue..i want to be able to change it out in the future if need be so I don’t want it glued down too well…but I don’t want it to move or pop off either…any suggestions?

So now it was on to the wheels. I cut some blocks from solid 1 1/2” square hard maple. My plan calls for 2” square, but it was all I had without doing a glue up so I went with it. I don’t have a drill press yet ( I will be getting one this week, with the money I have left over from my table saw purchase) so I have to use this little kit I got at Woodcraft to help drill perpendicular holes. I struck two lines across to find center then clamped it in my vice and marked the center with a special punch.

Then I use the guide with a special bushing in it that holds the center punch. I line that up till the punch drops in the hole…that lines up the jig to center.

Then I remove that setup while holding the jig in place and drop in a bushing sized for the drill bit I am using

Then drill my hole…NOTE: Hold down hand removed for picture taking….

It ain’t the greatest system..and its a little tricky to use..and I wasn’t using brad point drills so my holes wandered a little but stayed perpendicular. Then I drove in some T Nuts..

Dry fit of the wheel setup..

Then I glued and screwed the wheel blocks to the legs with 2” counterbored screws, going into each leg part

Then I mixed up some 2 ton epoxy and cemented the T nuts in..

All wheeled up..

Pretty straight forward. My assembly cube with its MDF top makes a perfect table for this operation. Also another key element is the vacuum attached to the machine….saves allot of time cleaning up, and the tool runs better without all those chips gumming it up. So once the biscuits and glue was applied, I clamped the pieces together to keep them aligned and square and drove in some 1 1/4” square drive screws. I use the self piloting and self countersinking type for cabinet assembly. One done, three to go!

Next it’s time to assemble the end frames. I took the MDF top off the cube and turned it on its second highest side. As you can see in the picture, another great thing about the cube is you can clamp right through it and to it..try that with a bench or a table!

So with a leg assembly clamped loosely in position to the cube I lined everything up for assembly. I used a scrap piece to set the stretcher position rather than measure..that way I get a perfect fit. Check for square, and shoot some 1 1/4” brads to keep everything in place.

Next, I drove some 1 1/4” screws through the stretcher into the leg..

Similar process for the bottom stretchers…I cut a block to the distance between the stretcher and the bottom of the leg and then squared it up and shot it with brads, then the screws.

Rinse, and repeat!

Next I laid an end assembly on the floor and attached the top and bottom long stretchers to the end assemblys….same drill…glue, brads and screws..

Then I placed the other end assembly on the stretchers, and marked where the glue was going. Pulled it off, applied the glue and placed it back on, shot it with brads and screwed it in…

And then there was a finished basic frame!

Next I wanted to install the support stretchers, I decided the easiest way to put these in was pocket screws, so I set up my new bench top master jig. I love this bench jig..it clamps the pieces in nicely, and the dust extraction works perfectly. Again, it saves so much time vacuuming chips up off the floor…and pocket screws make allot of chips!

For the long support pieces I used the pocket hole jig with its mobile base. Just clamp it to the piece with the face frame clamp…

A little glue and a few pocket screws…

Here I was using a trim piece to support the horizontal rails before I assembled everything..

Next the bottom support piece goes in the same way. Another cool assembly tool is this but joint clamp. One end fits in the pocket screw hole and the other side of the clamp has a pad. It holds the pieces together tightly , which is nice because the only thing I don’t like about pocket screws is they have a tendency to wander a little when your driving them in if things aren’t clamped down nice and tight..

The final basic frame, waiting for the sub top!