Derek's Shop #4: Five guys, two pots of coffee, one minute of actual work.

How many man hours does it take to lift a table saw two feet from its crate and onto its new base? Roughly five… :)

A good weekend, putting two new tools into commission and making huge strides towards being where I’d like to be…

As you may have read back in November my Lovely Lady Wife gave me permission to buy a new saw for my birthday/Christmas. While the saw arrived promptly, it turned out the mobile base was out of stock. After consulting with some woodworking buddies I decided to delay assembling the saw until I had the base, as the core cabinet was heavy enough and would be enough of a bear to lift all by itself without adding another couple of hundred pounds or so extension wings, fence parts, etc.. etc.. Little did I know that it would take two months!

Between the base being out of stock every where, the nasty storm we weathered around Christmas, and the general incompetence of UPS the base wasn’t delivered until last week! Big kudo’s go out to Ron and his crew at the Seattle Woodcraft store for putting up with my weekly calls with grace and humor, and for the effort they put into finally finding one (a floor model in Pittsburgh!) and having it shipped to me.

I put out calls to my buddies and set a time to transfer the saw to the base.

The timeline Saturday went something like this:
0845 – People start arriving, drinking coffee and BSing.
0900 – Everyone is here so we take our coffee and bull session out to the garage.
0930 – We finally decide to make the lift.
0945 – Everyone is actually in position to make the lift.
0946 – The saw is in it’s new home.
0947 – Fresh coffee is poured and the bull session resumes…

By 10, my non woodworking buddies had made their goodbyes and drifted away, but my woodworking buddies Ralph and Matt stayed long enough to help me get the wings attached and aligned. After they left, I checked the blade-to-table alignments (spot on to the limit of my ability to measure), and then my Lovely Lady Wife endured the cold and helped me attach the rails and fence.

Other than a bit more vibration than I’d been lead to expect, my new baby cuts like a dream! I suspect the vibration is because the belt had taken a set from the cold and being semi crushed in its packaging. The vibration was noticeably less on Sunday while I was out playing with the saw, which seems to confirm that hypothesis.

After a few more tweaks (I’m still not entirely happy with my fence adjusment), I turned to one of my other birthday presents – a Craftsman router/table combo set. (Well, actually I was given a Craftman gift card, and I spent part of it.) It took less than an hour to set it up and test it, and I am most pleased at the ugrade it represent over my old (inherited) combo – higher horsepower, higher RPM, and a fence that sucks less.

-- Derek, Bremerton WA --