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31K views 125 replies 47 participants last post by  Burrago 
#1 ·
Finally using a circular saw

It rained all weekend, keeping me from using my new planer, but I did manage to use my tools.
I wanted to build a wine rack out of PVC for our basement. (the base is WOOD, I swear) so I did use my SCMS and finally broke down and used a circular saw on a piece of plywood.

I think the issue I have with the circular saw is the weight. I took that into consideration when buying it, but it still feels awkward in my hands, particularly at the end of the cut.

Here's my first attempt at embedding a picture here, as I won't post this as a project. The lighting is off, but the 4" pipes will fit wine bottles, the smaller ones are strictly to add an 'artsy' element.

Oh yes, and I did use my Sonicrafter to sand down the edges of the PVC. I have no buyers remorse about getting that tool a few years ago - it's very handy and gets used often.

http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s469/Gullyabb/IMG_0606_zpsad8ab6a2.jpg

Better picture:
http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s469/Gullyabb/IMG_0616_zps303121a9.jpg
 
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#3 ·
Yup, I arranged the pipes initially without glue. I arranged them until I was happy with it, and then took a picture.
Using the picture as a guide, I reassembled it, using crazy glue between the pipes.
I had seen something like this on pinterest.
 
#4 ·
I used to be afraid of using a circular saw, probably because the first one I used was a very old (like pre-1950s) model that had no brake. It kicked back on me rather forcefully, and I saw my femoral artery spraying blood everywhere in my imagination. I didn't use one until some years later. Thankfully it was a new Skilsaw with a blade brake, and I had someone to teach me to use it the proper way.

I find that if it's awkward to hold, the easiest way to get comfortable with it is to properly brace and support the piece you're cutting so that you can use two hands on the saw without having to hold the workpiece. The cut is much easier to control, and as you get more comfortable with the saw, you can start trying one-handed cuts.
 
#5 ·
yup, femoral artery bleed would certainly ruin your day…

thanks for the tip. The plywood I cut was already down to 2×3' and I clamped it, but I found I still wanted to put one hand on the workpiece. (well away from the saw of course)
 
#6 ·
Cutting larger sheets of plywood can be tricky. In additon to clamping the plywood, did you support the cut off piece? This prevents the cut off from breaking off at the end of the cut and should make you feel safer. Another possibility is a smaller circular saw (~4 1/2" dia. blade). I believe Delta still makes a model (Norm often used one on his show). There are also battery powered 4 1/2 circular saws.
Sounds like you are pleased with your Sonicrafter. I purchased one a couple years ago only because the Fein model was too expensive ($400). The sonicrafter is OK but the Fein has a few features that make it superior and now the price is about $200 (on clearance at the my local HomeDepot).
 
#8 ·
Sandra,

I mentioned either making or buyingclamp on rail guides/ Or making a circular saw rail guide with tempered masonite. Does the illness get in the way of managing tools?

1. snap a line, or use a pencil and staight edge.
2.line up the blade on the waste side of the cut.
3. Set depth of blade only deep enough for teeth to ome through the board
4. hold saw with the grip to feel comfortable with the wieght
5. use the grip(knob) as a counter blance.
6. When cutting don't hurry keep checking the line
7. You can stop thesaw at any time in the cut, just back off the cut when starting it again and wait til full rpm's
8. walk slowly through the cut
9. Stop the cut when blade finishes cutting through
10. practice on scrap wooh..LOL!

Best of luck in mastering your fears and the tool.

I have similar angst about my new lathe
 
#9 ·
New lathe. Exciting. When I was in middle school I was part of the first group of girls exposed to shop class. I turned a lamp and remember really enjoying it. Maybe that's when the seed was planted.

Thanks for the tips. I think one of the issues with the circular saw is that I'm very comfortable with the jigsaw, and the circular saw just seems more unwieldy. In the middle of the cut with the circular saw, I wanted to back up to reposition like I do with the jigsaw. I had a quick moment of panic when I realized that I should let the blade come to rest first. I did have the blade set properly though - I tend to read as much as I can before trying a new tool.

There are two issues with the illness that affect my ability to manage the tools, but you could say that both are positives as far as safety. The first is fatigue. While it's frustrating to have to back away from a project, I'm quite partial to my digits so when I get hit in the afternoons with fatigue I won't touch any of my power tools.
The other is some issues with proprioception. I've been cooking my whole life, and last year I started burning myself regularly. And then I noticed that I couldn't find a bolt on the back of a cabinet I was assembling without finding the edge with my hand and sliding it across. And now, if my eyes are closed, I can't tell the position of my hands or feet without relying on other senses. Sooooooo in the kitchen I've adapted quite well by paying closer attention to where my hands are, and I've done the same thing in the garage - no distractions, and keep my eyes on my hands and the tool.

Stuff we're all supposed to anyway, right?

Happy Monday
 
#10 ·
Have you considered only working with hand tools? Dsve bardin ie. SuperDave does blogs in that area.

Use Charles Neil's rule. "Measure three times and sneak up on it!" LOL! Works better than my Grandfather's saying "I cut it off twices and it was still too short."
 
#11 ·
2 suggestions for the circular saw: I always use some type of straight edge/guide clamped to the workpiece and second , those thin kerf blades (mine are DeWalt) cut SO much easier so you never feel like you are forcing the saw through the wood. You would laugh at my little black plastic antique Black and Decker circular saw but it goes through 3/4" ply like a knife through butter with those blades (and they are cheap).
 
#12 ·
The planer, boss - the planer!

And finally I used the planer…

The guys renovating our basement thought birch would stain nicely to match the new laminate flooring. The plan was to make a ledge/rail at the bottom of the half wall and a long ledge (110") where the wall juts out. I thought it would be a good project for me so I took it on.

I found birch and maple on kijiji and came home with a van load of rough lumber. Which lead to me building lumber racks. Funny how these things snowball.

Then of course I needed a planer. Did some reading, decided on the Ridgid 13" portable planer. (portable is open to interpretation obviously) The planer got good reviews, but one of the complaints was that there were too many plastic parts. I thought this would be good for me and meant a somewhat lighter planer than the Dewalt.

After reading the instructions a few times and watching really cheesy how-to videos, I took the planer out of the box. I set it up outside on my Durabench which is rated for 500 lbs. It fit nicely on it, and felt very sturdy. The planer itself required no set up other than attaching the dust hood, taking out the packing material and checking it for level.

I hooked up my shopvac to the dust hood and I was off to the races. I treated my first piece of lumber as a test piece and assumed that anything put in the planer could act as a lethal projectile and made sure I was never in the line of fire. I started doing shallow cuts with a goofy grin on my face. Then the planer and the shopvac died.
With the lumber halfway through. Double crap.

I unplugged everything and thought about how in heck I was going to get the lumber out. I'm ashamed to say I even got out the owner's manual and flipped to "troubleshooting" before I realized that I just had to turn the handle to raise the cutter blades. Duh.

Then to the basement to reset the breaker. Turned on my shop vac and it was making a sickly noise.
Triple crap. My brand new shop vac ruined. Unless…. And yes the thing was jammed full. I knew the planer would produce a lot of chips, but hadn't expected it to fill the shop vac that quickly. Emptied it out and problem solved. Since I was outside I decided to lift the dust hood and let the shavings fly.

If I wasn't hooked on wood before, I certainly am now after watching the grain show up from the rough piece of lumber. I got the short piece of birch done for the half wall ledge and then routed out the bottom so that it would sit over the drywall.

For the longer piece, I put my miter saw a few feet away, and set the rollers on that stand to the same height as the planer. As the 11 ft piece came through the planer, it hit the rollers on the miter saw. It gave me lots of time to get over to the other side and support the piece as it finished going trough. No sniping, nothing.

Mission accomplished. Here's a picture of the the planer before getting started and the two ledges.

Oh yeah, after using my Bosch Colt palm router on the underside of the short ledge it would have been nice to have a chisel to clean out the corners. I don't own any chisels. Yet.

http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s469/Gullyabb/IMG_0618_zpsbfc1afe0.jpg
http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s469/Gullyabb/IMG_0620_zps06fe1014.jpg
http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s469/Gullyabb/IMG_0621_zpsca587df1.jpg
http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s469/Gullyabb/IMG_0623_zps1700eb00.jpg
 
#13 ·







to show your pictures
i just dragged all your http stuff down
and put an exclamation point tight to both ends of it
(each one separate)
presto !
(that's how to show them)

very nice work results
glad you are having fun

tip
clamp the planer down
the vibration will make it wander on the stand
or outboard weight (which keeps increasing)
can make it tip

hate to see you lose a brand new tool
 
#17 ·
The miter saw that started it all

Every time I set up my miter saw, I chuckle to myself about how I ended up with the saw. Yes I do chuckle to myself aloud sometimes. That doesn't seem to bother folks as much as talking out loud. Thought I'd share.

About three years ago, I was in Home Depot (quelle surprise!) with one of my girly friends who ran into her friend and the two women started talking about beading, leaving me to talk to the husband. We were standing near the power tools, so I struck up a conversation with him about how I'd love to own a miter saw, but didn't know what I would do with one.

He launched into a conversation about being a contractor and having just bought a 12 inch saw, and not needing his 10 inch one. (biting my tongue to stifle an inappropriate comment…) I then got to hear about the Ridgid stand his saw was on. At the time, I had no idea that Ridgid was a brand name. Again, biting my tongue.
I asked him how much he'd sell the stand and saw for, and he offhandedly answered "oh I don't know, $200".

His wife beckoned, and off he went. For the record, I am definitely NOT and have never been the eyelash-batting type. Which is probably why his wife had no problem giving me his cell phone number the next day.

When he answered the phone, he sputtered a bit when he figured out who I was.
I asked him if he was serious about selling the saw, or if he was just blowing smoke.
He answered that he was at a job site and I probably wouldn't know where it was.
I said 'try me'. He told me the address and I showed up 15 minutes later with $200 in my pocket.

When I pulled into the yard, the saw was being used. His buddies were quite amused when he folded down the stand and loaded my new saw into the back of my minivan.

"Do you even know how to use this thing?" he asked me.
"I'm sure I'll figure it out." I replied.

And that, folks, is how I got my first power tool. Being the practical, responsible type, I called a carpenter friend to check out the saw to make sure it was safe and ask him if I got ripped off or not.
Here's the picture, you be the judge :)



Sandra
 
#18 ·
dats my saw !

i had one identical
stolen from a jobsite

the contractor quit
and moved to canada
shortly thereafter lol

great beginnings sandra

i'd say you got a great deal
 
#22 ·
Bandsaw anticipation

After reading, reading, and more reading, I broke down and ordered a bandsaw from BusyBee (BAND SAW 14IN. DELUXE CRAFTEX CX SERIES CSA) . With it being so close to Christmas, I'm feeling a wee bit guilty having spent that much money on myself, and as a result I haven't broke the news to hubby quite yet. He's a wise man, and will probably say nothing about it anyhow, but it's the LOOK I sometimes get. The 'what did she buy now?' look.

Truth be told, we'd likely be in the poor house if it weren't for my husband. I'm a bit too far on the 'you can't take it with you' side and he's a bit too far on the 'stuff it under the mattress side'. With some sighing on both sides of the argument, we manage to meet in the middle.

So tonight, I'm settled in with Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Bandsaws. I'm not sure when the saw will be delivered, but I'm really looking forward to assembling it and putting it to work.

Growing up, we never went without, but there were no extras. As a young adult on my own, I struggled financially for several years before starting a career. In other words, I've never felt entitled to the life I now have, nor have I ever forgotten how lucky I am and how hard my husband and I worked to get here.

So for Christmas, the house will be full of family, food and laughter. And on top of that, MAMA'S GETTIN' A NEW TOOL!!

Merry Christmas
 
#23 ·
Sandre,

Does he read? Make him a bookcase. Does he watch tv? make him a holder for his remotes. sports magazines, a mag rack for the bathroom. A jewelry case for all the jew…naw you spent it! LOL. Time to start making sawdust vs. making a shop. I know. Still making that shop, but doing carpentry to keep the 140 year old house goin!..

O Merito Gosaimus! ( Japanse)
 
#33 ·
2nd attempt at buying a bandsaw

After my unfortunate experience with Busy Bee, I've been looking into my options for bandsaws.

I almost went with a 14" King Canada bandsaw because I could buy it here locally. The price was right, but the resaw capacity was paltry. The 17 inch model was out of my price range completely.

I finally decided on the Rikon 10-325 and then started shopping around.

I could buy the saw on Amazon.com and get free shipping but not to Canada. My neighbour has a PO box in Maine, and even with paying duties and taxes, I could get the saw home for about $1260.00 Cdn plus the cost of gas for the one hour drive each way.
The cons - If I've read correctly, the Rikon ships in one box only. I'd have to drive down to Maine with at least one other person, buy lunch etc etc. and wrestle the beast home.
-also, I prefer to shop within Canada as much as possible (despite the saw being made elsewhere of course)

When I the saw the bandsaw marked down to $799.00 on CanadianWoodworker.com I called to get a shipping quote. The total came to 1240 something with taxes and shipping. Pretty much what I could get it for through Amazon, but without the bother of driving to Maine.

So it's a done deal! I'm not going to get my hopes up quite yet, and having learned from my last experience, I will be taking a very good look at all the pieces before doing any assembly.

Fingers crossed
 
#34 ·
I got the Rikon 10-325 a month and a half ago. I'm happy with it. Don't forget to get at least 2 new blades, (the stock blade is not great) one for resawing and one for curved cuts. You will also probably want to consider a mobile base, as moving it otherwise is an accident waiting to happen.

After all you've been through with BusyBee, I wish you luck on your new saw!!!
 
#48 ·
My shiny new Rikon 10-325

Well shut the front door! My Rikon 10-325 is put together and making sawdust!

After a unpleasant experience buying and returning a Craftex, I was leery about my new Rikon.
It arrived two days ago and I've been putting it together a bit at a time. This evening I finally finished it.

From reading LJ's comments about this saw, I expected the instructions to be crappy and I wasn't disappointed. The black and white pictures are not clear, with arrows pointing to who knows what. I got frustrated a few times and just walked away. I know that Ikea is a bad word on this site, but those folks know how to write instructions!

I ran into an issue with my shopfox mobile stand. To be able to open the door on the base of the saw, the saw needed to be higher, or the wheel configuration on the shopfox changed. I didn't want to raise the saw any higher than it was and the wheel configuration was what I wanted. So after some humming, hawing and muttering, I decided on this:



I decided to put a bag of concrete in the base, reattach the door and not use the base for storage at all. This way the saw is as low as possible and the concrete lowers the centre of gravity somewhat.

Once I had the saw together, I started adjusting the table, fence etc. Keeping in mind that I only used a bandsaw perhaps twice before in grade school (we were the first class of girls allowed to take some shop classes) I didn't find it that bad.

I tried my first cut with the 5/8 blade that came with the saw and ended up with a rippled cut. I lowered the tension, readjusted the upper roller guides and voila!



I grabbed a block I had glued up in a quilt pattern awhile ago and took some 3/4" slices off it.
Then I took down a piece of walnut (I think) and resawed it to 5/8" for a trial box. You can see the results, nothing is glued together yet.



The dust collection port doesn't have the grill over it as some of you had shown, but there is a piece of metal half blocking it. The sawdust doesn't seem to be even going in that direction anyway. I'll worry about that tomorrow.
And the ever maligned lamp is in fact completely useless.

The fence was easy enough to adjust and square up, but it does remind me of the fence on my Bosch table saw - once it's set it's fine, but it doesn't slide smoothly into place.

For the price I paid, I'm happy with my purchase already. (and for the record, it's prettier than the craftex)

So thanks to all of you who posted about this saw and those who answered my questions along the way.

It's Friday, I've used my new bandsaw - time to raise a glass and toast the newest addition to my shop.
 
#63 ·
Congrats! Glad it was worth the wait after the frustration of your Craftex. You may want to get a new bandsaw blade though; if it's like most that come with bandsaws it will be crap. A good BS blade will take very little effort for you to push wood through…
 
#74 ·
When the moon hits your eye..... it's a mortise (now with tenons)

So I've decided to build my workbench and have settled on this for a design from Fine Woodworking:



It's a nice size for my work area, and will definitely be a skill builder. I can make the bench with or without the drawers, but I'd like to give them a try as well. The frame is mortise and tenon and the drawers are made with box joints, neither of which I've ever tried.

Yesterday I fired up the jointer and planer and dressed the lumber for the frame. I had bought some rough birch and maple last summer and after doing some 'ciphering' I managed to get all the parts for the frame out of birch. I don't have much maple, so will have to get some more when it comes time to build the top.

I measured and marked off the mortises and really should have stopped there. Of course I was dying to break out my newly sharpened chisels for just a few minutes… We all know how that goes.

So here it is folks, my very first mortise. Only fifteen more to go. At the speed I did the first one, I should be done in about 5 years!





I suspect my body is going to be rather upset with my eagerness tomorrow. Have a great night.

Sandra
 
#94 ·
My three Stanleys

For better or worse, I've dipped my foot in the handtool pool.

A few weeks ago, I purchased a lovely 'tricked out' Stanley #4 from Don W. as well as a Sweetheart #3 from an anonymous LJ. Both planes were auctioned off by LukieB for charity.

While I was waiting for the planes to make it across the border, I picked up a Bailey Stanley #4 that looked like this:



I wanted to take one apart and understand how it works before possibly ruining all the work that was already put into the planes I purchased. I also started reading Hand Tool Essentials by Pop WW. I can't recall who suggested that book, but it was good advice.

After some CLR, steel wool, elbow grease and rustoleum, the Bailey looked like this:



Flattening the sole was an onerous task to say the least, considering all I had to work with were two 6" diamond stones. (Should have bought the larger ones, should have bought the larger ones, should have bought the larger ones) I had the same issue with the blade, but got it done.



There's still a dark strip through the centre, which I presume is a low spot, but it's a shiny low spot if that's what it is. After hours I decided that for now it would do. Flattening the sides was far easier.

Getting it ready for use was interesting, but not so bad. Here are my first results from a rough piece of birch:


The main issue is now my worktable. The durabench was skittering across the concrete floor making it very difficult to use the plane. I certainly didn't get nice curls, but it's a start.

And THEN yesterday, both planes arrived.
The Stanley #4 from Don W was ready to use out of the box and looked like this:


Again the workbench proved to be a problem.

The lovely #3 sweetheart from the anonymous LJ was probably also ready to go out of the box, but I promptly took it apart to see how the y yoke works. It's back together and did well considering the user and the workbench.

So here are my three Stanleys. The one on the far right is the #4 I cleaned up, the centre one is the #4 that Don W tricked out, and the one to the left is the lovely sweetheart #3



For the record, the shipping for each of the planes was over 35$US, so these guys ended up paying cash to auction their planes off for charity.

Now, it's back to working on my workbench so that I have a sturdy base for using my new tools.

Thanks for looking,
Sandra
 
#112 ·
$15 Falcon Pope plane has landed

For $15.00 last week, I bought a Falcon Pope #5 after getting some good advice from LJs

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/47849

I chose the Falcon Pope partly because I didn't have a #5, but also that it seemed sturdy, had all the parts, and it said made in Australia. So why not.


Once I took it apart however, I stopped feelin' the love.



Nevertheless, I pitched into a CLR bath and let it sit for a day. When I took it out, the lever cap was peeling, the color looked terrible. I was tempted to chuck the thing. I let it sit another day and then decided that I would just get it up to working order, but that I wouldn't spend a ton of time on it. Of course once I got started, I enjoyed it and decided that maybe I should strip the brown paint off the tote and handle, then might as well paint the base.

Once I had the tote and handle sanded down, I used some dark walnut stain I had on hand and then a coat of wipe-on poly.

The iron had a curved edge to it, so I sharpened it by hand on my diamond stones. It seemed okay, but then I had either a lightbulb moment or a bad idea. I had a 220 disk on my ROS so I decided to finish off the iron with that.
Lo and behold, I got it very sharp.



This morning, I put it back together and didn't have high expectations. I'm still learning about planes, but this one seems to be a lesser quality one at least when it comes to appearances.

It was very easy to adjust the depth of the iron, and here were my first results on a piece of birch:



Questions that arose in the process:

When I was sanding the paint off the tote, the sawdust once I got underneath was a reddish rust colour. I'm not sure what kind of wood that would be, but it wasn't very dense or heavy.

Lead paint - If this is an older plane, should I have been concerned that the paint I sanded off might contain lead?

All in all, I now have a very serviceable, albeit slightly ugly #5.
That's it for planes for now. Back to my workbench build so I have a sturdy surface for using the planes.

Make sawdust, my friends.
 
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