Any used ones out there that could be purchased for a reasonable price?

Thanks for any input!

James

Just finished my homemade shop air filter. I had to change my original plans, which were to hang it from the ceiling. That’s because I also wanted a washable filter, to keep down on the ongoing costs. So here was the final criteria: I needed a blower that would draw and push at least 800 CFm, a primary filter that would catch up to 5 microns, and a secondary filter that would catch 1 micron particles, and not be cost prohibitive. Plus – it had to be quiet.

So – I’m lucky – I’m in the real estate business, and have to regularly deal with HVAC people, plumbers, electricians, etc.

I put the word out to the HVAC people that I was looking for a take out blower and cage – in good working condition – hopefully with several speed selections. Lo an behold – one showed up not 8 days later – from a home that was being remodeled using in-floor radiant heat. Yipee – step one…

The 1 micron washable filter I found at Grizzly (http://www.grizzly.com/products/1-Micron-Washable-Secondary-Filter-G9956-/H2451 if you’re interested). I live at almost 9,000 feet – the air is already thin – so I really wanted good filtration. But this filter changed the configuration – it needed 18 inches to work. I wasn’t going to hang a coffin sized box from the ceiling, so I decided to build a roll around filter. Make it 1/4th less tall than my tablesaw, so it could double as an infeed table, and make it sturdy enough to put my future surface planer on. Kill 3 birds….

So I had to horizontally mount the blower. This would require some support for the side opposite the mounting holes.

So dowels with rubber tips seemed like a good candidate.

And I think I found a simple solution to dampen the motor vibration – I mounted it over some rubber hose:

So here is the blower configuration:

Now I needed intake holes:

and here’s a pic of the bottom – it should stay where I put it:

I didn’t want the exhaust too close to the intake, so I side mounted some floor registers. I’m also not glueing the back or top so I have future access to the guts if maintenance is needed.

So here is the semi-final assembly:

and from the back:

And after a coat or 2 of paint (Grizzly colored of course – lol), here it is finished:

It’s very very quiet, and rolls around easy (I put a big handle in back…). I just finished using it as an infeed table for my TS (I’m ripping out the parts to finish Norm’s workshop Hutch…). The primary filter is already showing signs of dust, after only about 15 minutes of operation.

I think my lungs are gonna thank me! And thanks to you for reading!

I used 3/4 birch plywood for the fronts. I was going to make the drawer handles – but I was too anxious to move on to the next step.

I put a chamfered edge all around the fronts – I like the look of the plywood stripes, and it helps to hide the fact that some edges don’t line up perfectly (it’s a garage guys – not a dining room…)

The drawers are already almost filled – and I still have more “stuff” to store. So I was going to go on and build the hutch that will sit on the right side of the bench, but changed my mind. Even though the dust collection works great, the dust from making and finishing the drawers was everywhere. And living at 9,000 feet – the air is thin enough without the dust.

So I’m going to begin making my air filter system first. I’ll document that later. It’s a good plan – a 5 micron prefilter with a washable 1 micron secondary filter. Sounds like fun!

Thanks for watching!

Most of you have been doing this for a long time. Think back to your early days – and some of the goofs you made. Although I’ve been reading blogs, magazines, and other “how to’s” for years, to me there is simply no way to know – except to do it.

I’ll relate some of my blunders without embarrasment, hoping that some of these simple (and obvious to you) mistakes could help out other new people. Don’t get me wrong – I had some incredible epiphany moments, and even some things I’m very proud of. And the payoff? I’m getting better at this, and think I may even get good at it over time.

(this may get a little long – don’t be afraid…)

Background: I live in the mountains in Colorado. I’m almost an hour one way to the nearest Home Depot. So lists have become important to me. If I forget a box of screws after a 3 hour round trip shopping trip – that’s what I am – screwed. So I must become a far better planner.

My shop-to-be is small – just over 19×13 feet. But it’s amazing that things can still get lost. How is that possible? Sheesh. Especially the paper notes with the dimensions of what I need to cut. So I got a big dry erase board I can see from everywhere and do my cut lists on there. It’s hard to lose a 4 foot dry erase board.

So how to build a shop – without a shop to build it? After setting up my new saws, and trusting their accuracy, I needed to build bench space and storage space. Consider the logistics of building a cabinet bench without the help of a bench… Well for me there was a lot of setup, cut something, glue something and setup again for something else. Back and forth, again and again. Also – while ripping a board, if I suddenly realized that I forgot to cut a groove in a board while the dadoset was in the saw, – well you get it – I spent a lot of time changing blades and retesting cuts until I had the steps down pat. So plan it – it helps to have jotted down a step by step list when you’re not working from a set of plans.

I had decided to build a cabinet bench about 16 feet long with 20 drawers in it. It’s based on Norm Abrahms Workshop hutch. Here’s a pic of current progress:

The cabinet partition construction went well. The hard part is that the garage floor slopes down 2 inches from left to right. I decided to account for that by building the top 3 sets of drawers alike, and make each bottom drawer progressively taller.

So I built a jig that would locate all 4 drawer guides correctly at once. Great idea. Here’s a tip – when you go to the store to buy a framing square – get one that doesn’t measure 12ths on one side and 16ths on the other. Or at least be aware that that is what you did. I built a jig that hung crooked guides. Lost half an afternoon on that one…

So then I rough cut 80 pieces of drawer fronts and sides for 20 drawers. Ripped them all to their proper heights. Time to square up the ends – hmmm – no crosscut sled. Stop everything and build one. Hmmm – no hardwood around for the runners. Well, just build one that will last accurately long enough to complete this project, and build a “real” one later. Had scrap to build one big enough to crosscut a little over 12 inches. Was cutting perfect 90’s on my first try. Yea! I later discovered that the lower drawer heights would exceed 13 inches. So yeah – I built another one.

Better than the first one, but still just temporary to get me by. Cut perfect 90’s too – but I later discover some of the drawer sides weren’t 90 degrees. Some off by a lot. I finally figured out that a small accumulation of sawdust in the sled was throwing off the alignment of the piece against the back fence. Sheesh again. You all knew to brush out the sled every now and then, right? Well now I do too. Also – along the same lines – brush out the miter slots before putting the sled on the tablesaw. Too painful to tell you that story – use your imagination…

Now the fun part – cutting finger joints. (I know I know – there are other kinds of joinery I could have used that may have been less painful – but I’ve always wanted to do this). I make the jig, and make some test passes. Joint too tight – make a small adjustment. Wow – perfect finger joints. So the plan is: make all 5 top drawers. Then the second ones down, etc. Started cutting fingers for the sides. (hmmm – cutting fingers? think I’ll call them box joints from now on…...) Oops – forgot to cut the groove for the drawer bottoms. Re-blade the saw – cut the grooves – back to box joints.

By the 3rd one of the top drawers – I realized things were not lining up when the drawer sides were dry fit to the fronts and backs. It appears that when I needed to make the second cut that requires the spacer stick, that after removing the stick I was allowing the piece to move a little – throwing off the cut. So from then on – I’d clamp the first cut to the jig, then remove the spacer. Things went better after that.

Glue up time. I now know why you all have so many clamps. I had enough to glue up 2 drawers at a time – well almost. Occassionally, a drawer front or side was warped a little, and required an extra clamp or 2 to square it up. Clamps are on my list for the next trip to Home Depot…

It takes a while to glue up these box joints. The top row of drawers only had 4 fingers at each end – the 3rd row of drawers had 9. Even though I spread the yellow glue as fast as I could, the joints were beginning to set before I could get clamps on them. Any suggestions for which glue had a longer set up time? Could I have watered it down? I really learned the importance of dry-fitting, and having everything ready and within reach before a drop of glue hit wood.

Anyway – because of my initial problems, most of the top row of 5 drawers required a little adjusting before they would install and operate properly. By the time I was installing the 3rd set of 5 drawers, they all went in and operated smoothly right away. I’m beginning the bottom row this afternoon, and though I’ve learned a thing or two along the way, I’ll still be checking accuracy on every step.

(can’t wait to put the drawer fronts and handles on…)

I’ve got to admit – there is a real thrill you get after glue up and clamping when you check the diagonals and they are exact. It makes all the other steps that you worked so hard to make precise so worthwhile.

Like I said – you all knew this stuff already. I admired all of your experience before – but I now realize what you all had to cope with to get that experience.

Thanks to all who read this. And by the way – THIS IS FUN! Even with all these challenges – I’m having the time of my life! Never forget how lucky we all are to be able to do this!

The new video is Here!

Thanks for watching!

Hope I’m doing this right. Beginning to construct a workshop I’ve been waiting for for a long time.

It will be a small space (at least for now). Everything on wheels.

Be kind for this is my first video attempt. I will update as I go. Thanks for watchin!

Video is Here!

So – I’ve been ordering tools. After almost a year of research, and lurking around this and other woodworking websites – I settled on mostly Grizzly equipment. Yesterday was delivery day! How exciting! Except for my drill press being backordered till April, I was greatly anticipating the arrival of my G0514×19” bandsaw, my G0690 10” tablesaw and my dust collection system. I have put off purchasing a jointer and planer until I get the shop benches and cabinets built, and see how “roomy” the remaining space feels…

Well the truck driver says he has bad news – something was damaged. “Crushed” would be a better word. The pallet with the dust collector was smashed down to about half of what the proper height should have been. So I started taking photos of all the cartons – just in case something else was damaged. Good thing I did.

I live in the mountains, and on an inclined street. So rather than push the equipment uphill in the truck to unload it, the driver elected to park so that it was downhill to the lift gate. With just the 2 of us to keep a couple of 600ish pound machines from running away and falling out the back was quite exciting – I wish someone was videoing – it would have been both scary and hysterical!

We get the bandsaw crate to the garage door – it was way too tall to fit! After way too much discussion, I took a circular saw and cut the top 6 inches off the crate, and moved it in. Driver creates a damage claim and departs. I am left alone to explore and examine all that was delivered. I have been waiting for this day for almost 20 years!

With such a small shop space – I wanted everything movable. I bought mobile bases for both saws. I’m now realizing that without 2 or 3 more strong men, these tools will never move off their pallets and end up on their bases.

So I spent the last 4 hours of last night opening boxes, and reading assembly instructions. Today I will be cleaning the cast iron tables, and hopefully by the end of the day, I will have gotten a little help moving the saws to their bases, and mounting the heavy tables and wing tables to the saws.

I will try to post regularly as the shop comes together – maybe my experiences will help someone else. The next month or two will be very exciting indeed!