A couple of things before I get started. First, you will have to drill new holes in the mounting brackets for the fence system. There is no way around this. If you take your time and pay attention, you’ll do alright. Second, make sure you wear gloves and eye-wear when cutting/drilling metal. Wood in your eye can hurt, but imagine a hot sliver of sharp (or dull) metal. Not a good day! Lastly, the fence is not US made so you’ll need metric wrenches/sockets. If I remember correctly, a 12mm and a 10mm wrench ought to do it.

Summary

For those who don’t want a long explanation, here is the basics: Line up the fence with zero on the tube and mounting bracket. Drill holes in the bracket (front and back) to match the holes in the table saw top. Mount the system. And you’re done. Easy.

Instructions

(I’ve got a lot of pics, but I’ll try not to be pic happy.)

Step 1: Remove the old fence and make sure your top and wings are flat as possible and all necessary bolts are tight. Unplug any power chords to the machine and remove any safety keys.

Step 2: Attach the tube (the part with the scale on it) to the front mounting bracket. Take a strip of blue painters tape and tape it to the bracket about where you think things should line up. Give yourself 3 or 4 inches of play. Put another piece on the table saw’s cut line.

Step 3: Raise your blade all the way up. Now, rest the fence on the table top up against and parallel to the right side of the blade. Hold the bracket with the tube attached up to the front as if it was mounted to the saw. Line up zero on the scale and mark on both the TS’s blue tape and the mounting bracket’s a reference mark.

Step 4: Now, take another piece of tape and put it on the table saw’s front edge (don’t cover your reference mark). Hold the mounting bracket and tube back up to the saw and check for a snug fit on the fence “T” without raising the fence off the table top more than 1/32” or so. Once done, make a horizontal mark near the fence “T” referencing the top of the mounting bracket.

Step 5: Take the fence off the table and set it aside. Remove the tube from the mounting bracket.

Step 6: Now that you have the horizontal and vertical positions marked on your reference tape (on the saw), you can measure the location of the holes in relation to the reference mark. Remember to measure parallel and perpendicular respectively to the table’s top. You don’t want the fence out of square already!

Step 7: Transfer your measurements to the mounting bracket. I suggest marking the position of these holes on more blue tape. After you have done so, hold the mounting bracket up to the saw and eye the positions to double check.

Step 8: Now that you have the holes marked and you are confident that you are not going to have everything completely out of whack (seriously, triple check yourself at this point), you are ready to drill. I put a scrap piece of board on my drill press table to act as a fence. Once lined up with the vertical position of the holes, I only have to worry about the horizontal. For a drill bit, I used a step drill with the press at the lowest possible speed. Two good reasons for this: You can cut through the metal slowly and one bit at a time and you end up with a hole that has a larger entry point than exit. So, you don’t have to do too much counter sinking.
Step 9: Make sure to clamp the bracket down once you have it lined up. Drill the hole and countersink if you feel you need to. Make sure to test the bolt in the hole as you go to make sure you are wide enough and the countersink is deep enough. The bolts head has to be flat to the bracket. Clean up the burs on the holes if you have any with a chisel.

Step 10: Test fit the front mounting bracket by attaching it to the table, attaching the tube, and then connecting the fence. If you are within the adjustments of the little window on the fence, your gold. Now take it all apart.

Step 11: You need to take it apart and transfer those hole locations to the rear fence. Once you’ve done this, drill your holes for it and put everything back together. Once you are done, go through the manual’s steps on tuning the fence.

Sorry if that was all a bit wordy. Also, I might mention that is not exactly how I did it. My method was slightly different, but I didn’t really like it so I kind of re-thought it as I planned this blog entry. Any feedback is welcome. Happy ripping!

~DB

Well, after a couple of weeks I have finally gotten to work a bit on tuning and doing a few cuts. I’ve worked through part of a quick project and I have to say I am not disapointed in the saw at all. That particular model is well made and the motor has plenty of power. Plus, it seems to be plenty customizable.

Well, the first thing that I upgraded was the legs. I absolutely have to have a mobel base. My shop is just too small to work without one. However, price is a major concern. Also, I have the unfortunate asset of an unlevel floor (dug out basement) and not enough head room to lay down a level floor (or money). So, I settled on the retracting casters from Woodcraft . I was able to pick up a set while on vacation a right after I bought the saw so the wheels went on early.

This was also my first experience with something I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do: modify the saw. And by “modify” I mean drill holes. The stock legs on the the saw didn’t have holes that line up for the casters so I ended up drilling (using a step bit) new holes and attaching them that way. Worked out well. But, it isn’t the last time I’m going to have to do something like that (more on that later).

So far, I like the saw and the possibilities that it opens up for me. The next step, which I am in the middle of, is to buy and attach a new fence system. I already have the fence, but I’ll do a write up and review on that separately. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures and if you have the chance to get one of these saws, you won’t be sorry.

~DB

P.S.: Sorry for the blurry pics. Phone camera’s suck.

I recently picked up five books and thought it would be useful to review them for folks.

Making Little Boxes From Wood by John Bennett
- Guild of Master Craftsman Publications, Lewes, East Sussex, England. 1993

Most all woodworking books focus the first two or three chapters on familiarizing the reader with the various tools and techniques used to create the projects later in the book. Making Little Boxes… does this in five short chapters. And I do mean short. Only 35 pages are devoted to tools and tricks and the rest of the 136 pages is left primarily to projects.

The most notable attribute of this book is that it was written and published in England and therefore possesses some different characteristics that American woodworkers may not be used to. For instance, it is entirely in metric measure. For clarity, there is a conversion table in the end for converting millimeters to inches.

The projects are plentiful with good supporting drawings for following along. You are definitely meant to build the projects as you go along. My favorite project in the book (though I have not built it yet) is the Briefcase. I like the idea of making a wooden briefcase and showing it off amongst the leather “shoulder bags” of the metro sexuals around the office now-a-days. Seems to be a bit more “manly” to me.

The only thing this book really lacks is color. Since it was publish in 1993, I gather color was an extra expense that the publishers decided to only use for a few pages. It would have been nice to see more of the projects in color to see more details. Overall, however, this is a good book for a beginner/intermediate box maker.

Wood Magazine: Making Great Boxes
- Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York, NY

I like Wood Magazine’s publications. I really do. Their books are wonderfully detailed and easy to follow and their magazine is equally useful. This book is no exception.

It begins with no this-is-a-table-saw definitions but delves straight into some how to on veneers and inlays. After which, it proceeds to walk through its project list. Each type of project is preceded with a brief explanation of technique and then more detail is given in the project walk through.

My favorite section has to be “Chapter 2: Bandsaw Boxes”. The authors walk through making a simple set of bandsawn boxes with Jerry Patrasso. It makes the entire process infinitely approachable to novice woodworkers.

Taunton's Basic Box Making by Doug Stowe
- The Taunton Press. Newton, CT

This is a very down to earth and get it down approach to box making. The introduction is exactly 2 pages and then the projects start the very next page. All of the projects are straight forward and any complex or learned techniques are provided with the project itself (including how to make jigs for certain joinery).

Most of the projects have a design option that can be utilized to produce different looks to the boxes. For instance the “Lapped Corner Box” on page 80 gives an option for a top with a handle or a top with some decorative stone inlays (I hope my mother isn’t reading this because I’ll probably have to make her one).

I would consider Taunton Press to be one of the higher bench marks in terms of quality books and magazines and this book really shows that off. It is simple to follow and loaded with great technique along with their great projects.

Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Box Making by Doug Stowe
- The Taunton Press. Newton, CT

With as good as the previous book by Doug Stowe and Taunton was, this wasn’t as good. Mostly because I am looking for projects to build and less for pure technique. However, if you have a design in your mind and you want some help trying to figure out the joinery inside it, this may be the book for you.

The book is almost entirely about the the technique in box making not specific projects. They start with tools and jigs then move on to the parts of the boxes like the joinery or the lids. In particular, I like “Section 2: Box-Making Materials” where the reader is walked through prepping stock at several stages of the woods transition into materials that can be used to construct the box.

Even with the lack of a clear project in the book, I still would suggest this for beginner box makers as so much to the technique that can be left out of other books is thoroughly covered.

I’ve read several books on the subject of box making. There are also several resources on box making contained in some of the complete-guide-to books on woodworking. One book that I would highly recommend to the beginner has to be Box by Box by Jim Stack. I didn’t review it here because I didn’t happen to have the book handy, but I think a large percentage of fairly new woodworkers (and some ol’ timers) have built at least one box from this book. And that is with good reason because it is a very good book.

Check back to my Lumberjocks blog later on for more book reviews. I read quite a bit more about woodworking than I actually work because of a wife who thinks a trip to the library is equal to a trip to the movies (man is she a cheap date!). So, as I come across more and more good books (or bad ones) I’ll try and post some reviews on the blog and in the review’s section.

~DB

Well, the byproduct of my education is that I do have a reasonable understanding on what it is to run a business, although I don’t have a huge amount of experience in actually doing it. I had been involved in several non-profit organizations at various levels but I always found myself more serious about the business than my colleagues.

Anyway, the point of my post:

I had to take Accounting 1 as part of my major. In that I was lucky enough to learn how to do some basic book-keeping and I was smart (or lazy) enough to keep the workbook that actually explained how to do Journal keeping. So, as an exercise in getting rich slowly, I’ve started to track my woodshop as if it was a real business (at least financially).

Not to go into a lot of detail, but I looked around at several different bookkeeping software packages. There wasn’t one that had a free version that would work with even the smallest workshop. I’m basing this on the lack of inventory and raw materials tracking available in the freeware versions. There were a couple that I could get close to what I wanted but their interfaces were such crap that in one situation I couldn’t even delete an error I had just made during an entry. Crazy.

Well, I have access to Microsoft Office both at my day job and at my house. Excel is a spreadsheet dream for people like me that don’t mind working with it. However, after setting up a bunch of the information, my wife decides that she hates Windows and that she is now going to run everything off of Linux (she does this for a living). So, the home MS Office doesn’t work anymore and I don’t have any way of running it.

Well, here comes my new favorite freeware to the rescue: Google Documents. It is completely online and completely free. All you need is a gmail account and you’re set. The programs are a bit less powerful than MS Office, but they can import and export Office files with ease and they work 100% online. After a little tinkering, I’m hooked.

My only word of caution is that you shouldn’t keep any information out there that you don’t want to be unsecure. Google usually does a good job of keeping your stuff private, but they are a large web-based company so they are likely to be a target. That being said, if you keep your account #s off of there, keeping the financial docs isn’t so bad. Seriously, what does a hacker care that I happen to have just bought $100 in 2×4s from Lowes???

Anyway, I’ll probably post more on how this is going later, but if you have the opportunity and need a free Office-like program suite, take a look at Google Docs.

We are in a horrible time in our history where the real problem is not a recession of the economy, but a recession of risk taking. We as a world society have somehow decided that we are too afraid to loose. We have become overly cautious and nervous about nearly every facet of our being to the point at which we are seeing our entire world grind down into what it is and has become.

Don’t believe me, then consider the following:

• The last few months despite the Christmas shopping season and huge discounts and sales we have seen many business including big box stores file bankruptcy.
• Compared to just one decade ago, a high school kid carrying a pocket knife is considered a threat to school security.
• Someone knocking at your door expectantly tends to be a moment of nervousness and worry rather.
• Children are encouraged less and less to take part in athletic activities for fear that they may be injured.
• Millionaires are able to purchase up large amounts of stock in the now failing stock market because they know that it will bounce back and they will more than triple their investment in most cases.
• The consumer is more of a consumer of goods than ever; they will gladly buy a temporary, disposable item for $.50 rather than a multi-use item for $1.00.
• Governments are moving more and more towards governing towards people’s wants rather than their needs and citizens are fine with that.
• The part of the American population that makes the least, works the least, and pays the least taxes is now becoming the largest beneficiaries of those who pay the most, work the most, and make the most.
• A hard work ethic is less of an asset in a job interview than your FICO score.

Feel free to criticize the above points. They are my main concern. These are just a few from a long list of items that I have observed in my short quarter century of watching and learning. I don’t want to sound like I don’t have hope. I actually do.

I believe that very shortly we will find a turning point (one of several we will see in my lifetime). At this point there are an infinite number of decisions that can and will be made along with an infinite number of outcomes. I’d like to tell you about one of the paths to these outcomes that I tend to believe in most.

At this point, the emphasis on the “Global” economy will begin to collapse on itself. Despite the technological advancements we as a society have enjoyed in the past hundred years, we are not ready for such a one sided system. In fact, the same market forces that many think will bring us out of this turning point are the very ones that will collapse and be found at fault for our present situation.

There will be a new focus on the local economy. This focus will be outstandingly strong and those of us who have labored in one craft/skill or another will be at the front of this new emphasis. The shear cost of shipping and handling will be so great that local goods, foods, and services will be the new market. We are already seeing it in small doses amongst (forgive the term) tree-hugging suburbanites with the advent of Community Supported Agriculture. Soon, we will have more and more craft and home made businesses sprouting up. People living just a few minutes walk from old style Main streets will find new life there from stores specializing in locally produced merchandise.

If you don’t believe this, that is fine. I’m not one for changing minds that have already been made up. However, if you are hopeful for something like this, then I do have some advice. Firstly, don’t give up your craft. To make ends meet we all must do other work, but by knowing a real craft other than pushing buttons on a computer, you can survive much more post Global Economy scenarios than the average person.

Second, and finally, do everything you can to save the small business. If you are a small business person, then you are likely already trying. If you are like me and you are only a hobbyist at best, then talk to small businesses on how they think you can help. And no, I don’t mean simply buying more from them, I mean more of what you can do to change the system that is taxing them to death. As much as it sounds like a cliche, contact your senator and your city council. Demand that they make it easier, not harder, to sell a home made good. Purchase what you can when you can from smaller businesses. Vote with your money (what you have left). Put the stigma back on the big not the small.

Now, before you stop reading, please let me say that I am not totally against large businesses. Sears, Lowes, Conoco, even Wal-Mart have their place even in our future. What I am suggesting is that we garantee that both large and small business have their place. The economy will take care of itself as long as we are willing to make responsible choice and take responsibility for their outcomes.

~DB

At midnight last night my wife finally coxed me out of the woodshop after I got into a groove building this:

(It’s not finished yet, hence the sketchup.)

As I started building the thing, I came up with a challenge for myself: not metal. So, this is a prime opportunity for me to use something I just purchased online that I’ve not gotten the chance to try out yet: my antique Stanley Dowel Jig.

I have to say, that this is oddly rewarding. Something about putting everything together with just the wood is kind of cool.

Like I said, it isn’t finished yet, but I’m close. Almost all of the parts are cut and most of the joinery is done and ready for glue. Just a few more holes to bore and I’m there.

~DB

Now, I have finally gotten back into the shop to do a few minor projects including a Christmas gift (more to come on that later). I have to say, it is nice to be back down there. Although, I do enjoy home building/renovating, I have coming home and having a huge hole where my living room used to be reminding me that I have work to do.

Currently, other than working on these small projects, I’m cleaning out the basement shop and planning on a big project of reorganization in this shared space. I have a bit of a unique problem to solve down there seeing as I have a concrete ledge to work around on all four walls (three of which protrude about three feet square). In addition, a bit of sealing and waterproofing of any improvements will be happening along with this.

For now, I’m just glad to have my little space. “My room” which was one of the three bedrooms is now a TV room (smallish) since we decided not to put a TV in the living room after it was done. So, the shop is my respite in the house. Here’s to my small piece.

~DB

Now, in retrospect, there isn’t woodworker alive who didn’t by a tool he didn’t need or before he was ready for it. In the rush of declaring yourself as a hobbyist or professional, we all get into that buy cheap and buy now mentality that is very understandable at first. Honestly, we all remember the rationality of it when it happened even if we shake our heads about it now and poke fun. Still, this is one of those lessons that comes with the territory. Something you have to learn by mistake since none of us listen to the advice of our peers and mentors on this one.

This brings me to my actual thought for this post. Last weekend while cruising the area garage sales, I came across a descent deal on a Craftsman 12in Band Saw-Sander. A crazy weekend and week day schedule kept me from doing hardly anything with it except for two nights ago. At about 8:30, I had the saw in the shop and was systematically unscrewing and unbolting everything I could from the old frame to brush out and wide down with WD-40. At ten, I had just enough time to put the new blade I bought on the way home from work on and fire it up.

Let me say this: I’m astonished at what this (a relatively low end band saw) has the potential of doing. My scrap box has already been ground down into a fine coating for the floor. Most of it was pine of various shapes and thicknesses, but there were a few pieces of rock maple in amongst other things. Easiest cuts I ever made.

So, now I’m wondering why it is that I didn’t spend the money for the table saw on a band saw? For the last couple days I have pondered this a bit and I starting to wonder more about other parts of this. Is the band saw not usually seen as an easy to use cutting machine? Are there really that many cuts that a new woodworker can’t do on a band saw but could on a table saw? Is there a hidden danger in a band saw that isn’t present in the table saw (likely the opposite there)? Do non-woodworkers not really know enough about woodworking to see the advantages of the band saw over a table saw?

More likely, I’m guessing it is the last piece. I know that I knew what a band saw was when I first started, but its possible that I assumed it was only for curved or scrolled cuts. Sort of a granddaddy of a scroll saw. Had I paid more attention to some of books I have read and internet articles and blogs too, maybe I would have made a different decision.

Well, for now, I have one of both and the versatility that comes with that. I’ve already planned out how to make a few cuts on the band saw that I would have used the table for. On top of that, I’m probably going to go broke on extra materials over the next little while building attachments and jigs to make those cuts. Christmas season will definately be a learning experience.

So I searched around a bit and found a couple of examples of home made jobs. What really interested me where the manual powered ones. Most, like this example, had a large fly wheel attached to a foot powered board at the bottom. The idea is that they would get the momentum built up in the wheel so that the craftsman could work without exerting much force. Freakin’ great, right?

So, now that begs the question for me: What about other tools? (My wife, the environmentalist, will love this part.) When it comes to large bench or floor type power tools, what do they all have in common (other than a motor)? Answer: They hall use some sort of spinning action to create the motion need to make the cut(s) or mill work.

Therefore, can’t we apply this same technique from the manual lathe to almost any power tool? I can imagine the table saw or even a planer/sander being fairly easy to rig for this sort of thing considering the spinning action goes perpendicular to the ground. Just build a frame to support the wheel and you could belt drive to your tool. What I want to figure out, though, would be doing a drill press.

With a drill press, the spinning action is parallel to the ground rather than perpendicular. Because of that, either we would need a fly wheel situated in the same manner or some gearing system (easily enough done with modern techniques) to angle the motion. Another issue that would present itself with this would be the reversing the motion of the chuck. Without really doing a lot of studying of the design for the lathe I’m assuming that it is set up to be best used working in one particular direction. So, a gear box would work for that as well, but one could also attempt to simply reverse the belt drive (flip the belt on one pulley) to solve that problem.

At this point I feel like I’m rambling on about this. However, I would love to give this a try with a few tool examples. Heck, I bet if I look around hard enough I will find where someone else thought of it first. Still, if my wife’s predictions of peak oil come true, then having a man powered way of completing wood projects is available it might keep a few woodworkers in a job.

~DB

This weekend, my wife, Jenny, wanted me to work on some garden stuff for her. She gets real excited about playing in dirt and some part of me just doesn’t want to discourage that. So, I spent Sunday afternoon during the NASCAR race building what she calls a cold box.

The basic design of a cold box is an old window framed by some 2×6s such that it rests at an acute angel to the ground where it can collect the most light. Underneath the window, Jenny (or any one else I guess) can start seedlings in cups, egg crates, boxes, or even in the natural soil. We found a 49” x 27” window at our local Habitat Restore shop and purchased some pine 2×6s at Home Depot. The box went together quickly and as soon as the weather dries up again, we are going to have it out on our sunny side getting those seeds started.

I’ll have some photos to post of it soon and be posting them on my projects page at Lumberjocks.com along with an actual break down of the costs and better instructions on building.

Next wood project I have (and I already have materials for) is a pantry shelf. That should get done fairly quickly as I have built one before and I’m not modifying the design too much from the original. Stay tuned for more on that.

Danny Boy