Rough Sawn Walnut #3: Finally, back in the shop

Well I finally was able to get back into the shop tonight for the first time since the flue kicked in a week ago Sunday. I did manage to get a couple very small things done in the shop over the last week but nothing enough to even talk to.

I’ve been working the last month or so trying to get my shop setup (read as an entire new shop) after I moved to Iowa. It’s been a long journey that’s far from over but at least it’s going to be something to remember!

I ripped my first 4×8 sheet of BB ply tonight on my new tablesaw / outfeed table combo. Man what a joy that was. The saw cut through the ply like butter and the new outfeed table worked exactly as I had hoped it would. You may remember that my outfeed is 4×4 square. The 4 feet length is absolutely great when ripping an 8 foot board, or ply. It takes the entire length of board without having to be a circus performer trying to balance the sheet, the cutoff and try to find the off switch. If you’ve got the room, get an outfeed table that’s 4’ long, you won’t regret it if you ever cut 8’ boards.

Also today, the big brown truck showed up with my new Freud router from Peachtree. I took advantage of the great deal they had on factory referbs. You always roll the dice on factory referbs but as a general rule of thumb, I have pretty good luck with them. I bought the router for the new, yet to have, router table so I won’t get to try her out for a little while but I’m looking forward to it never the less.

Oh yeah, back to why I ripped the ply tonight. (Still a little loopy! lol) I need two jigs: one is a jig that you can use your planer to flatten long boards with. FWW had a article on it some time back (vol 175) and there’s a nice video of it at the www site too. The other jig is nothing more than a long straight board that you clamp an uneven edged board to so that you can rip a straight edge on it, I like to call it a table saw straight edge cutting jig. How’s that for originality! No idea what the real name of it is but it’s pretty simple to make.

Take a flat piece of ply, I use a 1/2 BB ply
Cut a dado down the length of the board (about 1/3 of the width or so)
Drill a few holes for a 1/4”x20 carriage bolt
Then use a couple hold down type clamps to clamp the rough sawed lumber to the ply
Rip a clean edge.

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Well that’s all for now.

-- Chunk