| Blog series by TheKingInYellow | updated 10-05-2011 04:38 AM | 37 parts | 81620 reads | 115 comments total |
Part 1: Time to get back to it!
So it’s been a few years since my last blog post. Since then I’ve gained a son, but lost a lot of free time. This year, though, it’s time to get back to it. I have plans to built up my garage shop in anticipation of heating/cooling and insulating it next year. My wife has given the official ‘okay’ to losing the garage so long as I put up a shed in the back yard for lawn and garden supplies, Christmas decoration storage, etc. So, I’ve been collectin...
Part 2: It begins!
I’m officially starting the conversion from garage to shop this year. To give you an idea of what I’m starting from, this is a picture of the garage today. Notice the nice little water-gathering depressions from having my RAV4 parked in there for the last 5 years, and the spalling concrete. Lots of work ahead! I’ve already moved the vehicle out to the driveway so I can start working this week. I have what I hope is a reasonable plan for this first year. It does not ...
Part 3: Playing the waiting game
If there is one thing you can rely on to be unreliable, it’s the weather. We went from 8 degrees Celsius last week to -1 and snowing today. As I wander around the garage tidying and planning, I realize that until the shed is up, it’s going to be semi-pointless to actually start working. Oh well. I have done drawings for my router table and the sheer size of my Triton 3 1/4HP router is going to cause issues. It’s going to need 13” of horizontal clearance in the...
Part 4: Ideas that I'm stealing!
While I await the coming of the shed, and drying of the land and the organization of my garage, I find myself with plenty of time to browse and steal ideas from others :D So, having had a chance yesterday after work to mount the zero-clearance plate on my Circular Saw, I’ve been planning to steal this idea from Cory’s blog. Essentially a much nicer looking version of a pegboard tool holder. My plan is to incorporate this system of French cleats everywhere I have wasted space,...
Part 5: Official stuff built count stands at: Zero
I should have been starting on those french-cleat tool organizers this weekend, but instead I was trying to manage two young children and a wife that seems to come down with Chicken Pox. Yikes. It’s going to be another week or two before I get started, it seems.
Part 6: Getting started on some storage
My wife is finally feeling better after an absolutely dreadful couple of weeks. 14 days of 102+ degree fevers are just brutal. I checked out a used Ridgid TS3650 this week as I am still considering an upgrade from my jobsite saw, but I will tell you that people in Winnipeg are unrealistic about pricing of used items. This particular saw had been used as a table for some angle-grinding work and the top was chewed up on the edges. It was thoroughly corroded (three years outdoors with now ...
Part 7: A few more steps done...
Today was a bit of an experiment: Will my son sleep through me using my table saw in the garage? And the answer is: no. Not great news on the woodworking front, but not really surprising. Anyhow, I got about an hour to work in the shop today, and I set up my workmate as a semi-permanent mitre saw stand. My saw is just a cheapo Ryobi 10” SCMS but I swapped out my store brand 80 tooth blade for a CMT speciality SCMS 60 tooth blade today and man am I impressed. I was only cutting ...
Part 8: Proof of progress!
As someone commented an entry or two ago: pics or it didn’t happen! Hardly complete, but two of the panels are up, and one has all it’s cleats on. Only had an hour or so in the shop and most of the time was spent clearing off this wall so I had a place to mount the panels! The panels are mounted to the walls with eight 2” #10 screws, and they cross four studs so they are not going anywhere. The vertical panel will only catch two studs unfortunately, but it should ...
Part 9: Cleats are up!
I finished getting the cleats up this weekend and the task was made somewhat easier by the fact that I finally replaced my crappy old Blacka nd Decker VPX cordless driver with an 18v DeWalt. However, I also learned that the DeWalt will, very easily, snap the head off a #6 screw if you don’t have the clutch dialed in correctly. I’m sure I broke off two before I got it set up nicely. Things went a lot smoother after that! Sunday greeted us here in Winnipeg with 60 km/h winds a...
Part 10: Shed update and my first kickback!
The ground is finally drying out and I have started clearing the area for the shed. I need to keep two feet away from the property line, so I’m going to frame out a 10’ x 8’ area with pressure treated 4×4 with rebar stakes to keep everything in place. An inch or two of quarter down gravel levelled inside the frame and then a raised 8’x6’ platform of pressure treated 2×4s with pressure treated decking on top. I’ll put paving stones or something ...
Part 11: Shed base complete!
Ideally, I would have been posting a picture of a completed shed, but a combination or rainy weather and a pukey daughter meant that I lost a lot of time on the weekend. However, I got this accomplished: It’s a good start, and digging down two or three inches into the gumbo they call soil here in the red river valley after a solid day of rain was a huge undertaking. Having said that, the platform is resting on about 3” of quarter-down gravel roughly levelled and packed. ...
Part 12: Shed is up!
The first big step is done. The shed is up, and now I can start reorganizing the garage and actually moving stuff out of the way and into the shed… Still tons to do and this took a lot longer than I planned :)
Part 13: Cleaning and organizing...
Sorry, no picture this week. I moved a ton of things into the shed this weekend, tossed a lot of garbage, organized other things and generally speaking cleaned up the place. I want to wait until that is fully complete before I post a picture though. Might as well make my before/after pictures as dramatic as possible, right? I’ve been on the hunt for the new table saw for a while now, and I have to say that Winnipeg is an awful market for used equipment. Everything is low quality,...
Part 14: Still making progress, still no pics :)
I know that no pics means it didn’t happen, but I’ve been busy getting the house ready for my parents. They are coming to visit for two weeks, so there has been a ton of tidying and cleaning the last week. Having said that, art of the organizing was moving a shelving unit into the garage which is nice. Oh, and there is a Ridgid R4512 Contractor’s Saw sitting in it’s box on the floor :D The SawStop was just out of my budget, so I went with the inexpensive option...
Part 15: Got the saw assembled...
I accidentally spent the whole day in the garage assembling the new Ridgid saw. So here are my impressions: Tolerances were pretty decent but there is a distinct bow in the steel extensions. I opted to keep them as level with the cast iron as possible but on the outer edge of the extensions they dip as much as 1/32nd of an inch. Not likely to be a huge issue, but one to note. The cast iron itself is pretty much dead flat but getting the insert to sit flat wasn’t fully possible. I su...
Part 16: Time for an update and some pics!
Time for an update. As of right now, a lot of things have been moved out of the shop, some storage is up on the walls (although I have not moved everything up on to it yet), I’ve replaced my Table Saw, got my dust collection started, and have racked all of my clamps except my 10 48” Irwin Parallel Bar clamps. Here is the garage right now: Shop Fox clamp rack from Busy Bee: New shop vac, Dust Deputy, and some free advertising for the good people at Wine Sense, j...
Part 17: MORE POWER!!!!
Okay, so way back when I said that I planned on adding a sub-panel to the garage, and I’ve now hit a point where I need a second circuit so I can run a large tool (like my TS) along with my dust collector. Well, I decided that for this year I really only need one more circuit since I don’t have addition lights or heat to run. As such, I found another circuit running near the garage that was unused, and spliced it into a pair of outlets on either side of the shop. Everything w...
Part 18: Saw drama...
So, I took the Ridgid saw back to HD this week. I was going to do it last weekend, but attempting to load the saw back in my truck triggered a problematic bulging disk in my back and I spent three days on the couch this week. What triggered this whole event was detailed in this thread but the gist of it is that the blade slide out of alignment again, and now the belt is slipping or the motor is shot. I’m fed up with all the little annoyances and back it goes. So, I’m shopp...
Part 19: Crickets in the garage...
Not much of an update at the moment primarily because I am without a table saw. I’ve built the Jointer I picked up last week and I’m dialing it in now, but with nothing to cut the wood my dust collector cart is on hold. I’m 99% sure I’ll be ordering a Grizzly 0690 but I have a 10% off coupon code that I can’t use until the 20th. As such, I haven’t even ordered my new saw yet. Waiting SUCKS.
Part 20: Measure once, drill once, measure again, throw out wood.
Okay, yeah, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I still don’t know how I screwed this one up. Anyhow, the Jointer is assembled and dialled in. Looks pretty good right now and I know I’ll get a lot of good use out of it when I start making end-grain boards for Xmas this year. However, lacking a table saw at the moment, I wanted to work with the few pieces I did manage to cut before returning my Ridgid saw. They were not overly square, but this is for shop furnitu...
Part 21: G0690 is on the way...
10% coupon at Grizzly? Check.Wife’s (reluctant) approval? Check.G0690 ordered? Check. Finally getting a real saw! Now, of course, I need to get 220v to the garage.
Part 22: Tidying, organizing and pics of my progress
So this weekend was mostly about continuing to clear out and organize the garage. I’ve been making little steps here and there, but with the new saw coming, space is an issue. Even though I ordered a mobile base, I know I’m not going to be twirling a 500lb saw around a bunch. I need my space organized and ready ASAP. So, the goal this weekend was to clear off my ‘work table’ so that I had some assembly space for more tool hangers. You can see this table in the b...
Part 23: Jointer woes...
I had put off dialing in my new Rikon Jointer until my knife setting jig arrived, which it did on Friday. So yesterday I grabbed a square to square up the fence and then align the knives. Squaring the fence to the infeed table went swimmingly but to my alarm the fence was then out of square with the outfeed. I checked the fence with my trusty Lee Valley straightedge, and it was dead flat. Dreading what I was going to find, I clamped the straightedge to the outfeed and grabbed my feeler...
Part 24: Jointer update and plans for the weekend
So despite 8 hours or so of fiddling, cajoling, begging and weeping, I have been unable to square up my new Rikon jointer. It’s back at the dealer and they are going to take a crack at it. If they can’t do it, I’m shopping for a jointer again. This time one with parallelogram tables! I have my permit for the 220v wiring, so this weekend’s goal is to get the cable pulled and ready for inspection next week. Then I can get the new saw assembled, tuned and fired up!
Part 25: Wiring done!
So the wiring adventure is mostly done. I’ve pulled two armoured 12-2 cables out to the garage, have installed the boxes and sealed everything up with duct seal to replace the vapour barrier and firewall. Let me tell you, grabbing your drill, a large bit, and blindly drilling into an exterior wall is not my idea of fun. I took it slow, measured everything out as best as I could, and came in within a few inches of where I expected. I consider that a success. I just need the inspec...
Part 26: Wiring is ready to inspect and the great saw upacking begins...
The last few bits of wiring have been completed, I just need the inspection and then I can fire up the saw. Speaking of which: There are pics. Therefore it happened. The saw is current on it’s mobile base thanks to the help of three buddies last night. I only had a half hour or so to work on it today otherwise, so one of the extension tables is installed but that’s it. I recently picked up a Oneway Multi-Gauge and I used it to help align the extension. Very, very ...
Part 27: Quick news: Wiring passed inspection!
I officially have 220v in the garage, and I can fire up the new Grizzly… As soon as I finish building it :) Had a bit of a rough family day and ended up having a lot less time in the garage then I planned, so the saw is not assembled beyond the first extension table being installed. So far, so good! Machining is top notch, tables are dead flat, and assembly so far has been easy and well documented in the instructions.
Part 28: Won't be cutting much this weekend, time to test Grizzly's service...
Spent a little while in the shop yesterday setting up the saw. Got both tables installed and aligned within a thou, and everything is dead flat and smooth. I had to do five rounds of Mineral spirits to clean the top. I don’t think it was cosmoline, but it was tough to get off despite a very thin coat. Followed that with three light coats of TopCote and then two of paste wax. Smooth as butter and they aren’t kidding when they call it a mirror finish. Got the front rail on a...
Part 29: Saw is not done, but this is...
So although I couldn’t get my saw up and fully running, I realized that I had time to finish up another side project, which was assembling this fun little toy: Jessem router table with a Triton 3 1/4HP router. Since the router has an integrated lift, this table only has a Jessem plate, not one of the Jessem lifts. However, I did spring for the Mast-r-Fence, Mast-r-Top and the Paralign featherboards. All in all, it’s a really nice little system. Having said that, since...
Part 30: The saw saga continues...
I have very bad luck with Table Saws. To my delight, UPS delivered the replacement guide tube on Friday afternoon, so I popped out to the shop early this morning to install it. I was honestly thinking the box looked quite big, and once I started opening it, I realized why. Grizzly sent me the 80” tube from the G0691, not the 60” tube from the G0690. Cripes. So, I called in and had my warranty case reopened, and I’ll get a call back Monday. In the meantime, I figured...
Part 31: The saw has been turned on. Wood has been cut. It's a miracle.
Not to be completely defeated, today I mounted the rear rails on the saw, mounted the MDF-topped steel extension, and temporarily hung the power switch off the rail with some stove bolts and nuts. I had to cut off the plug from the saw to connect to my locking extension cord as well. I popped a 50T CMT General Purpose blade on the saw and checked the parallelism of the mitre slot to the blade and it was out by about 7 thou. Easy enough to adjust on a cabinet saw (thank goodness) and now it...
Part 32: New guide tube is on the way from Grizzly.
Got the shipping notice on my new guide tube. I doubt it will be here for the long weekend, but in the meantime I’ll use a clamped piece of MDF or something as an immobile fence so I can get something done. I’ve promised my wife a little stand for her new iPad, and I have some 3/4 black walnut that’s been stickered for a year in the basement that I’ve been wanting to use. I think I will likely make one like this one from Amazon. Simple to make, some routed edges ...
Part 33: The new guide tube arrived. Drumroll please...
It’s perfect! Nice and square, flat and tapped properly. I’ve installed it and the fence, resquared the blade to the table (under a thou) and that’s all I had time to do today. I need to get the fence parallel, and then I’m good to start working. This was a dreadfully busy weekend so that’s all I had time to do, but I’m happy! I have a fully functional Grizzly 0690 in my shop! Now here is the funny bit. I now have two excess guide tubes. One is ...
Part 34: Major projects are done for this year...
As an update, I’m getting my dust collector cart finally built, then I’m on to projects. I’ve already bought some wonderful wood in the last few weeks on my trips into Windsor Plywood. Plans right now are: - iPad stand for my wife made from Pau Ferro- Picture frame for family friends from Canarywood- A simple open-top box for the wife’s assorted papers, likely from Walnut- Cutting boards and more cutting boards for Christmas- Some candle holder centrepieces for Chri...
Part 35: I'm woodworking for realz!
So good news this week: My boy slept through me using the Vac, Jointer, SCMS and table saw this week! I didn’t fire up the planer though, I figure why push my luck. So earlier today I got to work dressing some of the hardwood for my projects, specifically the Canarywood and Pau Ferro. Here is my impression of my new equipment so far: Rikon 6” JointerThe jointer did a really nice job edge jointing both woods. The Pau Ferro had one face that was already dead flat, so I did...
Part 36: An hour in the shop and a quick update.
Spent a little more time working tonight, got the board for my wife’s iPad stand cut down to final dimensions. Just need to route the edges and cut the angle for the back once I decide exactly what that angle is going to be :) I just have to say that I finally feel like I have a working shop. Boards are flat, corners square, every single cut I make feels safe and easy. I’m not getting overconfident by any measure but I’m finding it much simpler to make my plans become ...
Part 37: First project is out of the shop!
It’s a small project, but it’s my project, and it’s made in my new shop. Here is the iPad stand I made for my wife. She loves it!
