And as y’all know … what DJ (or whoever YOUR equivalent is) wants … DJ gets.

Time to buy some plans !!

No. Wait.

Not THIS time.

THIS time, I’m going to actually design AND build something.

[Lord, help us all….]

Flipped through a few of the volumes from my awesome collection of used woodworking books. Special shout out to

“Illustrated Cabinetmaking,” by Bill Hylton
“Drafting and Design for Woodworkers,” by our own Bob Lang
“Practical Design,” by Taunton Press/FWW
“The Complete Illustrated Guide to Furniture & Cabinet Construction,” by Andy Rae

Got me some pencils, coffee, graph paper, and my old architect’s scale, and got to work.

In short….

... I’ll be building a 33” wide by 33” high case, from 3/4” MDF-core (that’s all I could easily get) African Mahogany veneer ply, with

... Biscuited miter joinery

... A dado’d in vertical divider

... (2) Dado’d shelves on one side
... (1) Dado’d shelf on the other side

... The shelves will be hardwood edged (all the hardwood is 4/4 African Mahogany)

... Hardwood face frame, biscuited in

... Frame and panel doors, made w/M&T joinery, w/applied molding. Panel from 1/4” MDF-core African Mahogany ply

... 36” x 22” top, from African Mahogany. Possibly breadboard ends. Still debating.

... An inset (smaller than case) base

... 1/4” MDF-core AM ply back, flush-mounted in rabbets

... Base and top attached with ledgers, rabbeted in

I did the “formal process,” from sketches to component lists to Bill of Materials to cut diagrams. You truly DO get to know a project from top to bottom, this way. Pretty cool journey !

The truck just came. 32 board-feet of African Mahogany, rough-sawn at 4/4, and three sheets of ply … are now mine to mess with and mess up.

This one’s going to take me a while, but … it SHOULD keep me—largely—out of the bars

:-)

Thanks for listening ….

Moved into our dream house, only to find out that … the way it sits on the lot … the master bedroom is IN our neighbors’ yard.

And their dogs barked and barked and barked and barked.

And …. the constant sleep disruption … took this medically disabled guy’s health apart, bolt by bolt.

And they wouldn’t stop the barking, no matter how civilly I asked, or how clearly I explained the harm it was causing me.

#1 US woman’s cycling champion, and her regionally-ranked cycle-racing husband.

Heartless souls. And their equally heartless comrades.

Turns out … as I suspected and told them … one of the dogs WAS sick. Died at age two, from an autoimmune disease. These people killed their dog, out of stubbornness, and tried their hardest to kill me.

VERY quickly, I was too sick, and having too many med reactions, to even CONSIDER moving—ignoring, for the moment, the loss of value in our house.

So I took up woodworking, since I couldn’t be outside very much—where I’m supposed to be.

Which led me here :-)

Eventually, it all turned into a lawsuit [God help me if I EVER have to be in one of THOSE again]—which is going badly … but not for the lawyers.

We’re still working on my health issues, which—2.5yrs into it—are NOT resolving, and we’re finally working on getting out of here, and into another house.

Most days, it’s in question whether or not woodworking will be in my future, but … I’m grasping tightly to hope … because … woodworking makes me happy :-)

And I decided that—finances be darned—I needed a little retail therapy.

No. Make that a LOT of retail therapy.

Now.

So … I just ordered ….

SawStop 5HP 230V 1ph ICS w/52” rails

With ….

Outfeed table
Extension wing table
T-glide fence + rails
Overarm dust collection
Industrial mobile base
8” dado brake cartridge (will work with my DadoKing stack)
Dado Throat plate
Extra brake cartridge

Debt is the 21st century’s form of slavery—right, Topa ?? ;-)

Well …. I’m going to be shackled for a bit.

Should be here in about 3wks. Will HAVE to sit in THIS garage, until we get the new house together, and I figure out how to get a 700lb saw into a basement (getting pricing on an exterior stairway/entrance).

But I’ve joined the club …. buy once … cry once.

Stay tuned….....

With a half-lap :-)

Spent too much time figuring out how to get Hurricane Walter to spew less dust, or—at least—how I could capture the dust he spews.

Shroud seemed like the way to go.

So …. with leftover plywood from the construction of the ol’ ChupaCaja, I made me a dust collection box.

ID is about 8” wide x 8” deep x 8” tall.

The joinery is (IS it called this ?) half-lap (or lock miter, or … well … whatever you call it !).

My biggest Forstner bit—at 2-1/8”—wasn’t quite big enough for my Shop-Vac hose, so … after cutting the 2-1/8” hole, I stuck the hole over the biggest spindle that my oscillating spindle sander had to offer, and … gave it a few whirls.

Now … the Shop-Vac hose has an EXCELLENT friction fit, the box sits beautifully right behind the blade, and atop the saw frame, and …. the dust collection is just great.

To be quantitative, I’d say the BOX captures about 95% of the dust. OF that 95%, I’d say 85-90% goes RIGHT into the hose. The rest gets pushed toward the nozzle, and goes bye-bye.

There wasn’t a dead-simple way to insert the hose from the bottom, or I would have. I’d either have to snake the hose behind the cabinets, semi-permanently, or invoke a 90 degree elbow, which … would decrease CFM more than I wanted to.

This saw … yesterday made an AWFUL mess of my countertop. Today: virtually no dust at all.

I’ll likely mount it to the saw base AND the back (concrete) wall with either double-sided tape or … something.

For now, though, it works, it was zero incremental cost, it took about an hour, and … Walter seems happy :-)

BY THE WAY ….

For those following this series …. I bought the Master Plate, from Grizzly:

For ME, it made a BIG difference in ease of aligning the RAS.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got this thing dead-on [WOO-HOO !!!].

I started by removing my Mister Sawdust table. I stuck the mag base of my dial indicator on the underside of the RAS motor, and … using it … got the table awfully darned parallel to the radial arm. A few thou’, here and there. Nothing more.

Then … re-mounted the table, and re-installed the sacrificial 1/4” topper (sadly, this was TWO HOURS before the replacement hardware, that I had ordered, arrived [D’OH!]).

The Master Plate made it very easy to get the blade square in every axis. I’ve done QUITE a few test cuts, and … each … is well nigh perfect !

Next time I’m tearing into the saw, I’ll replace the table mounting/adjusting hardware. For now … I’ll likely plug up the dust collection snout [or … get a Wye, and run a second small hose TO that dust collection snout], and … just start getting acquainted with the thing.

Thanks for looking !

The RAS motor is ready.

.......................[clears throat] WOO-HOO !!!!.......................

Installed it.

Spliced the new mil-spec (not really, but it’s a beefy boy !) toggle switch into the two power cords.

Locked and loaded the blade and stiffener.

Put on its overcoat (the blade shroud), and … despite ALL my efforts and hard work ….

It runs !

Yes, I DID do a test cut, after making this video, and … to my utter amazement … it cuts, too !

But … no more fun and games until I get the table Dead Flat and aligned, and then … the whole saw … aligned.

And then … the sky’s the limit !

I’ve got a 2-tube, 4’ fluorescent fixture right behind where I would stand to use this saw, and facing 90 degrees the wrong way.

So … tomorrow … I’ll flick it around, and mount it right above the RAS table, then mount the new “dust snout,” and set about aligning … well … everything.

I’m a PHRASOD, right now !

[Pretty Happy, Radial Arm Saw-Owning Dude]

HokieMojo ??

You out there ??

No pressure ;-)

I replaced all four RollerHead (carriage) bearings. Not particularly easy, because the king bolt (the slotted thing in the center of this photo) had frozen, rendering the clamping mechanism inoperative, and nearly impossible to budge.

I love PB Blaster :-)

The clamping mechanism is the knob at the 4:00 position, in this pic. It works beautifully, now, giving nice linear feedback, as it clamps the yoke down:

—
Then, I cracked the motor, cut all the electrical wiring (to be replaced, in the next step), and pulled the front bearing. The bearing puller made short work of that job.

The old one did NOT turn easily. Good choice to replace it.

Then, I pulled the guts out of the motor, to access the back bearing.

Uh-oh.

Over time, the back bearing had galled to the armature. Long story short, I broke my bearing puller, and spent well over an hour beating the snot out of this thing, ruining a cheap chisel, and working up quite a sweat in the process.

It finally came off.

A little emery cloth on the armature, and a light coating of grease should prevent its recurrence. The back bearing didn’t turn freely, either. ALSO a good choice to replace it.

The pics:

My co-workers:

What it takes:

Every fastener that was removed was cleaned up and properly lubricated. The mating surfaces that allow the yoke to pivot needed a fair amount of elbow grease, but … after that … and once a thin film of synthetic grease was applied … the motor pirouettes elegantly :-)

The wires that exit the winding, and connect to both the power cord and the circuit breaker … are trash.

I’m tempted to take the motor to a local small appliance repair shop, and see what they think.

If I’m smart, I’ll get new windings, and a new circuit breaker with proper terminals. The wires from the power cord are soldered onto this breaker, making it difficult to re-use, once I put the new power cords on.

Time to be smart, and NOT be penny wise and pound foolish.

Maybe tomorrow.

For today, I have to belt sand my hands (next time, I will wear disposable gloves), and have myself declared a Superfund site :-)

I’m trying hard NOT to consider a cosmetic restoration. I just want everything to WORK … perfectly.

But then I found THIS …. and suddenly … can’t even LOOK at my RAS, anymore:

Can you STAND it ??? It’s all powdercoated, nickel plated, balanced, blueprinted, stroked, relieved, ported, has twice pipes, and wide ovals on it. AAAAHHH !
—
So … aside from THAT (:rolleyes:) ... yeah … I’m having fun :-D

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/24247

As you were :-)

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/24313

Any future entries in this blog series will not simply be links to old threads :-)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast feature ;-)

Here’s where the DeWalt got its first apartment:

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/23954

So … playing catch-up … I’ll re-create the series, and simply link to the old ones.

And away we go !

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/23475

[no need to comment on anything you’ve already seen/commented on. I just want to make it easier for others … who may have interest … to follow the RAS project in chronological order—a HUGE benefit to the “series” feature of blogs !]

- Drilling the dog holes (awaiting the arrival of the 3/4”, 17” long Bosch auger bit)
- Installing the face vise
- Framing the front, back, and sides with 3/4” hardwood (thanks, Steve !)
- Deciding whether or not I want to hit it with Danish Oil

But … it’s dead flat, roughly 36” working surface (seems perfect for me), and …. will probably come in right around that $175 mark, if I can buy the hardwood trim pieces right. That includes the Veritas vise, handle, bench dogs, and Wonder Dog.

The ends are trimmed up. All the edges were broken with a chamfer bit. It’s all sanded to 180 grit. Some BIG OL’ lag bolts hold the top to the base. It’s not going anywhere.

So … not quite a finished project, but another step in the blog series ;-)

Merry Christmas … and Happy Holidays, to all !

So … I’ve been overdoing it a bit on shop time.

Sue me ;-)

Anyway, the workbench base—also made entirely out of 2×8 boards of Home Depot Douglas Fir—is complete.

The legs are glue-ups. The end assemblies are glued. The end assemblies are bolted to the frame rails.

It’s square. It’s solid. It’s stable.

Left to do:

- cut some oval-ish holes in the cleats, to attach the bench top
- trim the ends of the bench top
- drill the dog holes in the bench top
- chamfer edges on the bench top (used my mini HF hand plane to chamfer the edges of the legs !)
- sand everything to about 180 grit
- attach the top
- maybe finish. Maybe not ;-)

Thanks for stopping by :-)

I like that idea ;-)

He raves about SYP, but … not much of that in my neighborhood, so …. I went with the dimensional Doug Fir, from the Depot.

I’m working on the base, right now, but … here’s the top … before being trimmed to length:

Got his recommended vise, bench dogs, and Wonder Dog, from Lee Valley. The top will dress out at about 3-1/8” thick by 27” wide by 70” long, and … considering it’s Doug Fir … is pretty darned heavy !

Working on some jumbo M&T joints, now. Things move slowly for me, in the woodworking arena, so … stay tuned :-)

I rarely get to fall back on skills that I’ve learned well, used often, and perfected.

And … when I leave glitches in my projects, making ME think I earned a grade of “B+” or “A-,” I always wonder ….

What if I did that project again. Would I get an “A?”

So …. I’m making my wife a box, based on the same design as one that I made for my grandmother … but … that winded up being for my mother:

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/36582

And … in three days’ work … here’s the completed project, before I put the finish on it. It’s a pine top and bottom with a book matched red oak mid-section.

The top has a combination Roman Ogee and roundover profile; the bottom is chamfered [1]. I’m giving myself an “A,” on this one, because I WAS able to correct the mistakes I made on the first one.

Which makes me feel just that much better about how my future in woodworking will go :-)

This one’s going to be for my wife, Diana….

Thanks for looking !

[1] Oh, do I love using my router table setup, now !!!!!
Kreg PRS2000 table, Milwaukee 5625-20 router, and Woodpecker PRL5625 lift

But I’ve never had time AND money.

—

The sort of thing you do when you have TIME, but no money:

You MAKE your loose-leaf page lifters, instead of buying them.

So … who else has been in a position where they’ve got wood, time, and tools, but not a lot of money, and …. what did you build BECAUSE you were IN that situation ??

But … in woodworking … I’m absolutely convinced that there is AT LEAST one:

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY CLAMPS ;-)

It’s glue-up day, folks…....

Rather than use templates, I just laid everything out on the stock, took two 3/8” passes with the dado stack, then ripped to length, cut the bottom at 3*, cut out the tenons, routed the chamfer, and lightly sanded the notches.

Here’s the result:

Now the question: Obviously, I can re-cut the wedges out of mahogany, too, but … personal preference … who thinks I should re-make the wedges, who thinks I should leave the wood pairing as it is, and … who recommends a different wood (other than the beetle-kill pine) for the wedges.

In other words, my wife is out of town, and I’m pretty useless at the artistic part of all of this.

Any thoughts ??

TIA !

And I didn’t.

Much of the work on these projects is thoroughly enjoying and relaxing—if even a bit nerve-wracking, because we want to do it right !

But … for me … I can usually tell, as I review plans, which parts of the project are going to be—by a factor of 100x—hardest for me.

In the case of THIS project, it’s the false tenons and the wedges. There are templates to be cut out for each, and then—the eight tenon templates AND the eight wedge templates are to be affixed to the milled stock, and cut out on the band saw.

But there’s that nagging “visually impaired” thing again.

I was PRETTY sure I could just wait this part out, and that … eventually … it would go away.

No. No dice. Didn’t happen.

Over the last couple days, then, I set out to tackle the wedges—affix, cut, and sand.

And they were all I thought they’d be. Bleccch !!!

But … Chapter One is done. Ladies and Gentlemen: I give you … the wedges:

The first two, prior to sanding:

All eight, after sanding:

I’m in “Eyeball Rehab,” now, for a little while.

It’s my BET, though, that the little false tenon templates … are quaking in their boots :-p

And OhByTheWay: Grizz already asked me if I’m leaving the paper ON, or taking it OFF.

Haven’t made up my mind, yet :-)

One of his things that I’ve had … pretty much all my life … and NEVER knew what it was … was a black box with something like eight or ten differently sized metal blocks, and some plastic “button.”

Only when I started woodworking did I figure out what they were.

They’re GAUGE BLOCKS !

They seem to date from about 1944

And … as a visually impaired dude … I’ve been using them a LOT, since I started working on bigger projects.

I have a steel ruler—a good one. I have Incra T-rules. I have a Wixey digital height gauge. I have three different tapes. I have a wood folding “carpenter’s” rule.

I’ve got all that stuff.

But … for setting up blades and bits … nothing has worked better for me, nor been EASIER for me … than these gauge blocks.

They’re the only approach I can take that gives me incredible accuracy (beyond that which I care about) WITHOUT putting my eyes into contortions. Everything else has to be stared at, lined up, parallax considered, etc., etc., etc.

So … since I’m adopting more of a story stick approach—get the first measurements right, and then build to the PIECE, rather than to the PLAN (consistency being more important than accuracy, to the 10,000ths of an inch !), I’m finding it moves much faster with this set … the set that Poppa left me.

——

[1]Hey Mama, I heard Papa call himself a jack of all trade.
Tell me is that what sent Papa to an early grave?
Folk say Papa would beg, borrow, steal to pay his bill.
Hey Mama, folk say that Papa was never much on thinking.
Spent most of his time chasing women and drinking.

Let’s start with today’s inspiration: a peanut butter cookie, half of which was dipped in chocolate. Uh. Yum !

The “not-so-secret” secret drawer ;-)

It’s got feet !

A shelf….

The top….

Got some band saw work, ahead of me, to cut out the fake tenons and wedges. Soon, though. Very soon.

Thanks for looking :-)

I’ve cut the side panels and shelf stock. Note that the entire project is based around three degree cuts, so … the tops and bottoms of the side panels, and the sides of each shelf are all cut to 3*. This also dictates the size of each of the shelves.

The joinery will be biscuits (the slots are at three degrees, too !).

I’ve put the 1/4” rabbet in the side panels, for the plywood back. I’ve also laid out all the lines for the 3-1/2” ‘feet,” to be cut on the band saw, or with the jig saw. The layout lines are visible at the bottom of the side panels.

Everything is sanded down to 220.

Next step is the drawer and the top. LOML tells me that I should do the drawer false front in the same beetle-kill pine. I defer to her aesthetic. The drawer box will be made from Baltic Birch ply.

After that … dry fit, and the fake through tenons.

All in all … it’s going quite well. I’m having a lot of fun, working on this one !

Thanks for looking :-)