It must be comfy because she lays on it all of the time. Ockham’s Razor: Sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution. Now if I could just train her to sweep up at night…

cc

The dims are roughly 36”x24”x7-1/4” and made from 1/2” BB ply, 1/4” pegboard, and 1/4” hardboard (bottom). The dust collector is connected to the table via a 3” Johnny Flange. I modified the flange by cutting some of the “flange” part away so that I could keep the overall height of the table down.

The first two pictures are some dry assembly. You can see the Johnny Flange laying there on the table in the first picture. The second picture is shot that shows how the bottom is angles up so that you get suction at the end furthest from the suction hose.

The last two are action shot of the table.

I need to stop by the hardware store and pic up some varnish and give her a couple coats and this one is in the record books.

Thanks,

Here’s a couple of pics of the timber on the jig. The far end is crap but the second pic shows that the other end has some really nice wood in it. I’m getting excited!! Can you tell? lol

I just wanted to test the new jig so I grabbed a piece of lumber that wasn’t the best piece in the pile just in case the worst should happen. Everything seemed to go quite well. I’m not going to do too much here right off of the bat. I’ll rough it in and let it set in the shop for a week or two before final dimensioning.

Please let me know if you see something that I’m not doing correctly. It’s been a heap of a long time sense I’ve used a planner and this is the first planner I’ve ever owned.

Here is the system installed. It’s all 4” S&D pipe that I got at Menards and I used caulking to glue it together. I used a Loctite product called “Instant Grab,” I think that’s the name of it.

I’ve only hard piped the one side of the shop right now. I’ve not devised a plan and put it in stone yet so I’ll wait on that part.

The drop on the far right is a permanent drop that goes to the table saw. The drop on the middle is a “flex” connection for tools such as the planer, down draft table, floor sweeper, ros etc. The one on the far right is the connecting to the DC.

This is a picture of the brackets that I made to mount the pipe to the wall

Challenge #1:
The biggest challenge is trying to figure out how to connect the 4” flex hose to the 4” S&D Pipe. I still don’t have a solution for this! I did find / read that a 4” blast gate will fit inside 4” S&D pipe. I just added a couple rounds of blue tape to the blast gate to help make up some of the slop, then used the caulking to hold it fast.

Challenge #2:
The other challenge is finding a way to hang the S&D pipe. They don’t really make any hangers for it as its really meant to be used underground. Maybe they do, but I couldn’t find any. So what I did was to use 2 hole straps for DWV pipe. The problem here is that DWV pipe has a much larger outside diameter than the S&D pipe so the clamps fit loose.

Solution:
I used sticky back foam rubber “tape” to make of the difference. I had some camper tape laying around, the one on the right in the picture below, that I cut about a 4” piece from and stuck it to a 8-1/2”x1”x3/4 plywood “spacer.” Then I screwed the spacer to the wall. For the pipe, I found this rubber pipe insulation stuff at the Depot that I cut in 10” lengths and add 2 lengths one on top of the other to the pipe. Now when you tighten the 2 hole clamp, it fits nice an snug and I hope the rubber helps with vibration.

Now if I could just con someone into coming over to look at the new setup, I might just be able to hold them hostage long enough to hang that darned drywall! grrr

Thanks for reading,

I got a chance to play around with getting the angles setup for the adjustment wedges tonight. I made a fixture to cut the angle in some scrap. I didn’t pay real close attention to detail on the fixture. I figure it’s a one of a kind item and probably will hit the compost pile in the spring.

I don’t particularly like the bungee cord idea so I’m going to use a 1/4-20 bolt to keep the adjuster in place. Here’s the concept:

I’ll drill a hole through the center of the adjuster and counter bore a hole deep enough to allow for adjustment up and down. Since the entire fixture / jig is basically hollow, the bolt will just float to keep the adjuster in place.

I used AutoCAD to make a template @ 15 degrees. I used some 3M77 to stick it to a piece of 1/8” hardboard and used a jigsaw to cut it out.

Adjuster angle fixture.

Here’s the test piece in the fixture. You have to keep your wits about you when doing something like this because the piece isn’t backed up by anything. If your not careful, disaster could strike before you know what hit you!

Here is the 1/8” pattern in the test piece that I cut. It turned out really well considering I didn’t spent a lot of extra time and effort making the fixture look pretty.

I’m not sure when I’m going to get this fixture completed. I may put it on the back burner for a few days (read as I plan on just picking away at this project over the next few days) as I need to work on my dust collection and get some permanent piping installed.

If you have any experience with this fixture, I’d love to hear how to made yours, is it really worth the effort, ...

Thanks for reading.

cc

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.

Needless to say I had to call in sick today, only my second time ever calling in sick to work. I’m one of “thoses people” that seldom get sick. Oh I may get a sniffle of two but rarely down and out under-the-weather. It’s been 10 years since I’ve felt like. Guess the Gods are taking back my good fortune in spades.

I need to take 5 at this point.

Here is grand daddy of them all. This will make someone a very nice mantle some day.

Here’s a closeup of the grain on the massive Chunk.

The guy I got it from was a very nice gentleman. I expected to see an older, retired, man but he was probably in his earily 50’s. He said that he just didn’t have a planer and it was starting to go bad. I paid the guy the $200. Did I do ok? There’s some real nice pieces in there and some real nice pieces of fire wood too.

If you live close by and would like some turning blanks, there’s plenty!

Thanks for reading along.

(1) Mounted new levelers from McMaster-Carr onto my outfeed table.
(2) Routed miter gauge slots in the top of the outfeed table.
(3) Hung 4 new T8 lights.
(4) Made a bigger base for my wobbly floor standing drill press.
(5) Bartered a deal for some rough cut walnut
(6) Rewired my dust collector on/off switch to a new “remote” switch

Levelers: I purchased a set of levelers from McMaster-Carr for about $14.00 for the set. They carry about 4 different styles, all rated for 100lbs so I got the cheapest, or least expensive. I really like these levelers. They are easy to mount and they are the style that hooks under the leg for more support.

Miter Gauge slots: Not to best routing job in world but I am a beginner when it comes to using a router. I have a lot to learn on this skill set. I think I probably used the wrong bit. I used a pattern bit and that forced me to make a fairly deep cut all at one time. Lots of chatter! I think a straight cut bit would have been better and then I could have done to cut in 2 passes. Best to learn on shop furniture!

Lights: I had already purchased 3 light fixtures from Menards for the WS on sale a couple of weeks ago, about $18.00 each. I needed more light so I headed off to the city. I stopped at Lowes first because I had to return a router bit that I bought in error. I had intended to go to Menards afterwords but Lowes had a similar fixture for about the same sale price at Menards, $17.98 or there about. I actually like the Lowes fixture better. It’s better made and it comes with hooks to hang the light with. The fixture from Menards, the hooks were a special trip to town.

Drill Press Base: The floor in my shop, concrete, is not all that level to say the least. To further compound the problem, the base on the drill press is pretty small and not all that flat. It’s a real adventure holding the drill press with your foot, to keep it from tipping ove, operating the press while holding your work. I had some green treated 3/4 ply left over from a previous project that I used. I cut two pieces to size, 19×30 if memory serves me correctly and glued then together then counter bored a couple of holes for 1/2” carriage bolts. I bolted it all together and it’s now a lot better. It still wants to rock a little but at least it doesn’t feel like it’s about to tip over.

Walnut: Found a add on Craig’s list for rough cut walnut. The guy has about 200 bf of the stuff that he cut way back in the day. I’m going to pick it up here in an hour or so. Needless to say, I know what the new spare room bed is going to made from. He says that some of the wood is only good for turning. I don’t turn so we may have some turning stock lying around.

Dust Collector Switch: My dust collector on/off switch is right on the motor pecker head. A guy with a back like mine, I hate having to stoop over, it just kills me to do so. So I basically removed that switch completely and connected a new “light” switch to it. I like the idea of having the switch where I’m working so I used a length of SO cord, a 4 square box and big old magnet. I mounted the magnet to the back of the 4 square box so that I can take the switch with me and stick to different tools around the shop. And lucky for me, I had everything sans cover that I picked up on my trip to the city.
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Oh yeah and I managed to make a pot of chili! Life is good!

Thanks,

The fence is a little challenging to get set, but not impossible. I would like to have micro adjustment on it. I think that would make adjusting the fence a snap. I have an idea how to do it but haven’t quite got all of the details in my head yet.

As for a zero clearance, not. With the new base, the blade was no longer perpendicular (way out) to the base and no way of checking until after the blade was through the base. So I had to raise the blade, adjust the saw, plunge again, check, wash rinse repeat. So the blade slot in the base is a little wobbled out. Oh well. It will do just fine as is and it cuts just as good as before.

Chunk