A day or two later, I called and told him I wanted to buy a good bit of it if he could give me a price.

So, I’ve got 1000 bft of lumber – and had no place to store it.

Lumber racks were needed.

Unfortunately, the 5 minutes/month that I have for LJ has elapsed. Got to take the wife to the doc.

More about lumber and racks later.

-Paul

More later.

Finally, more than 3 years after the shop was built, in early December, I got the attic floor completed, and moved hundreds of boxes of stuff upstairs – so that now I have room to work down below. So, opened the box and set up the jointer. Now, before I began, I considered this to be my “starter” jointer. I just bought it because it was probably the cheapest cast-iron 6-inch jointer with a stand that I could buy. I figured that if it worked at all, it was worth the money and I could use it until I get a real jointer.

Well, I had the good fortune to have a visit from my old (retired) pastor friend, who before he entered the ministry was a tool and die maker. We sat there and dialed that thing in so that both ends of all 3 blades were within 2 thousanths of the same level.

All I can say I can’t imagine $200 better spent on a tool. It works quite sweetly. The table is short, but for the things I have jointed – up to 48inches long, it did a fine job. Now, I can’t really face joint anything except for narrow stuff, but I already have found this little machine quite useful. If you take the time to dial it in, it serves well. I’ll post some photos and talk more about the blade adjustment procedure when I get more time.

So, after reading a bit on-line, I ordered a tenoning jig from Rockler. I think you can get the same jig for $20 less from Grizzly, but I didn’t notice that til after I ordered it.

To obtain the maximum range of motion, and allow me to cut at zero (tight agaist the blade) without worrying about cutting into the cast-iron fence, I added a 3/4” plywood face plate to the fence of the jig.

After playing around with the thing a little, I decided that it needed an upgrade, so I ordered a 6-inch digital readout (iGauge) from Grizzly. The same DRO is available from many on-line sources. I had only to get a friend to drill and tap a hole for a #8-32 screw in the cast-iron moving plate (to attach the end of the DRO rail), and hammer one of the brackets supplied with the DRO into the shape I needed to connect puck of the DRO to the base plate on the tenoning jig, and I had a jig that could position a workpiece within a thousanth of an inch over a 2.2” range of motion.

I can just turn the screw to get any position to the thousanth of an inch.

Then tighten it up to fix that setting.

It tends to move 1 or 2 thousanths when I tighten it up, so I plan ahead and dial it in a bit high.

I’ve used it to make some saw-kerf box joints out of scrap which I’m quite pleased with.

I’ve had to fiddle with the alignment of the jig, and I’m going to re-allign my saw as well, but I’m really having fun with the things I can do with this set-up.

One added bonus is that I can use this jig to align my saw. I only need to clamp a peice into the jig which has a protruding post or finger, then dial the jig out to touch that finger against the tooth of the blade on each side to measure (using the DRO) the distance from the slot in the table top.

God is good to us!

I should make something (out of wood) for the baby. I’m not sure I’m up for a cradle – and a cradle is used for such a short period of time, that it probably would take more weeks to make it than it would actually be used.

Any suggestions?

All this wood on the ground inspired me. Can any of you folks who can advice me on how to mill up green stuff on a bandsaw (if that’s a good idea)?

I’ve got a small walnut triee that has a section maybe 10’ long that is straight and should fit through the saw. Also some cherry, not so straight, but I haven’t really looked at it yet. Branches off of a couple of huge oaks that should fit but from what I’ve read may be too reactive to use. etc.

-Ocelot

The tornadoes came through on Wednesday. I thank God that my family and friends are OK. Unfortunately, not everyone here was so fortunate.

At my 3-acre place, I had no damage to house or shop, but lost a few trees – including 2 white oaks 100 years plus, a couple of young wallnuts, a medium size cherry and a few other small trees.

If anybody has a portable mill or a way to get some logs, I’m sure there are still plenty of trees on the ground that you can have (not mine) if you’ll haull them away.

We still don’t have electric power, tho’ a friend lent me a generator and another friend fixed it, and I didn’t lose the freezer or fridge – and even have hot water.

I’ve got to go back to work today, since the boss got a generator. :)

-Ocelot

Finally, I’ve pulled the photos from my camera. I neglected to photograph it as I built it, but here it is in finished form. It gives me 8’ of stop range for precisely measured crosscuts. I can use it for through cuts as well as crosscut dados. The extension table top and fence are made of a partial sheet of 18mm (3/4”) oak veneer plywood that I’ve had laying around for 10 years or so. The legs are of ordinary 2×4 stud material. There is no finish on it. The stop rail is two 52” sections of Incra rail.

The saw is mounted on a Ridgid universal tool stand. Dad didn’t have a stand for it, and had it sitting on various things over the years.

This photo shows the right end of the fence. To the right of the blade, there is a partial spacer fence the same depth as the INCRA rail. The back of INCRA rail is fastened to the fence and the top of the extension table is fastened to the bottom of the INCRA rail.

The fence (sacrificial) of the RAS is clamped between the (wooden) table and a floating partial table at the back of the main table. This is the original table that came with the saw when my Dad bought it back in the mid-50’s. It’s not so flat, but my feeling so far is that it is usable.

Under the left front corner of the main table, I’ve got this little drawlatch which pulls the extension table tight to the main table. Since the back edge of the extension is fastened to the fence, which now extends 8’ to the left from the right edge of the main table, I didn’t think I needed any further fastening at the back.

The extension table is supported with two inverted “T” legs which are mounted to door hinges so that the table can be folded for ease of storage or transport when removed from the main saw table. The bottom of each T leg has two “T-bolt” inserts which provide for height adjustment of each corner of the extension table.

Here’s a view from upstairs.

The left side of the saw.

Another left angle view.

This has almost nothing to do with the RAS, but it’s the partially floored upstairs of my shop. When I finish this, I can move a lot of stored craft materials (my wife’s yarn, fabrics etc.) upstairs to free up space to really get my shop set up. So, finishing that is top shop priority!

Sorry.

The first week, my 10-year-old had spring break. I took the week off and worked on flooring the attic of the shop – got it about 1/2 finished. I had thought that I could knock it out in 3 or 4 days, but I don’t have the stamina that I needed for that. In my usual life I sit in an office, and I’m not what anybody (in his right mind) would call “fit”. But, all the same, it was nice to get part of it done – and be that much closer to being able to move the “storage” stuff upstairs to free up floor space in the shop.

The second week, I was unexpectedly called out of town for work… then I got sick and then,...

... upon my return a lightening strike took out my cable modem, router and (most sadly) very nice network printer. So only yesterday I got the network back up and running at home here.

So I’m back (or will be back). I’ve still got to finish the taxes. :-( But I expect to get a fair sum back :-) And meanwhile, despite being repeated flooded with rain, the garden calls and things must be planted, so I don’t know when I’ll actually get back to anything like wookworking or even to spend time on LJ.

But, that’s life.

PS. I do have some photos of the shop, but haven’t yet taken the time to dig them out of the camera and post them.

-Ocelot

A few thoughts (mini-review) on the Incra track.

Had I realized that this is the old-style Incra track (non-flip-stop), I might have considered the newer one, even though it was a bit more expensive.

I bought two 52-inch track sections, one with the “shop stop” included, from Amazon – for about $140 for all. They arrived in good shape without delay.

Each 52-inch track came with 3, 16-inch long sections of plastic scale (nice plastic), marked 16-0, 32-16, 48-32 (from left to right). Since I considered that it would be a nuisance to have the scale start over at 48”, I ordered the 96-48 (3 sections of 16” each) directly from Incra. These scale sections are what I consider to be a minor shortcoming of this track system, since you must allign (on a 96” track), 5 joints between the mylar scales – and redo it any time you move the zero point. The instructions for zeroing the stop to the saw suggest that you set the stop in a fixed location, push the stop rod up agaist the saw tooth, then slide the scale to zero. That’s not practical with the scale divided into 6 sections which have to be alligned at the ends.

So, I leave the scale where it is and just move the stop rod to the saw tooth to zero it. I can’t imagine why they would suggest doing it the other way. It occurs to me that I could just replace the steel stop rod with a piece of wooden dowel (each time I change blades or dado stacks) – and then just clamp the stop at zero on the scale, and cut off the end of the dowel to zero the stop. Probably, that’s overkill. I’ll just use the steel stop rod for now.

I’ve already discovered that the stop rod floats a little more than 1/4” off the surface of the table, so that if I cut a 1/4” piece of MDF, the stop rod slips over the top of the piece I’m trying to cut. I just line it up by eye and it seems to be easy to get it dead on.

I’ll post photos when I take them. I keep forgetting to take a camera to the shop.

Llimitations of the RAS aside, I already very much like this setup. The limitations are that this RAS has a bit of slop in the column so that I have to square it to the fence with the arm of the saw pushed to the right, and remember to push it to the right before each cut. I’m going to try to figure out where the slop is and see if I can tighten it up, but it seems that the arm moves about a 1/16” at the far end, which is a lot more than I would like. Does anybody know where I can tighten this up?

Oh, and I’ve discovered that Emerson (manufacturer of this saw for Sears) will give me $100 to scrap it and send them the motor – due to some lawsuit or recall or something. I think I’ll keep it, though it has no brake and spins a loooong time when switched off.

Next post will be 1 picture longer and 1000 words shorter.

From time to time I’ve read posts on the LJ forum, but this is the first time I’ve posted, or rather blogged here.

A bit of background about myself. My father was at one time a high-school shop teacher, but for reasons I can only guess (and I have a pretty good guess), he never taught me woodworking – and did little woodworking during the years I grew up. The only shop/stationary power tools that Dad had were a Craftsman, model 100 RAS, dating back to the mid-50’s and some kind of 12” planer he picked up used along the way but never bought a motor for. Some years ago, thinking I would never use it, I gave the planer away to my old pastor who had helped me pull a stump. When I went with him to his shop to help him unload it, it turned out that the pastor already had a 20” planer and a 42!!” planer. I’m thinking I may be able to get Dad’s old planer back – tho I’m still not sure I’ll want it.

My guess at why Dad never taught me woodworking is that Mom probably feared I’d cut off some useful body part (which is a very reasonable fear for any parent). So far I’ve managed to avoid that.

The 50’s model RAS I still have and use, in fact my most recent project was to build an 8-foot left extension table with a 104” Incra track on it to convert the RAS into a crosscutting station – for both length cuts and dados.

As I’ve written in my profile, I’ve been a beginning woodworker for 12 years and I figure I’ll continue to be a beginning woodworker for another year or two before I become (hopefully), and moderatly skilled intermediate amateur.

So, I’ve current got in the shop

55-year-old Craftsman RAS – with 80-tooth, thin kerf Freud blade.
12-year-old Ridgid TS2424 – with the same Freud blade,
Harbor Freight 6” joiner (still in the box – just bought it a couple of weeks ago)
HF 2HP dust collector (also still in the box)
HF “smallest DP ever” ($50 item)

Porter-Cable circular saw (I cut panels on the floor with a clamp-on guide)
HF plunge router I picked up for $50 a few weeks ago,
various other hand power tools.

I hope to aquire soon

Bandsaw
Router Table and associated positioning system.
TS fence upgrade
TS miter sled.

OK, that’s a long post – better stop.

-Ocelot