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#1 ·
Background and history lesson. Welcome to the Wayback Machine!

This entry, the first in the series Workshop Development." is where we get into the wayback machine, and go for a little history lesson. Specifically, how, and why I went from a guy with a garage and some tools, to being a guy with a workshop in progress. Not sure if I will ever be done, but at least it is in progress!

In the beginning there was a garage, Dave saw the garage and said it was good… Hmmm okay maybe a little to grandiose for my posting… Let me try again…

In early 2002, I was in a lousy domestic situation, with one upside, I had just closed on a suburban Houston home, with a garage. Now this garage was on the smallish size, and lacked anything nicer than a structure, a door, a single dual recepticle outlet, and a single bare light bulb, I am guessing for interrogation purposes, because it simply was insufficient for giving any real light to the garage, but it had to do. Due to the lousy domestics, the only "shop" I was able to squeak in was my existing tool box from my prior career as a mechanic, and a simpson strong tie workbench made from 2×4s (free, neighbor was throwing them out after a completed remodel project), a sheet of cheap sheathing grade 3/4" plywood complete with dips, knots, and other fun stuff, Strong ties, and screws. That same bench still serves in my shop today.

Fast forward a mere year and a half, and the domestic issue had completely changed, I got the house (big deal) and the Dog (I know this sounds funny, but he was all I wanted out of the whole deal, and to get away from her…) Now I have a 2 car garage, all to myself.

Now in the time span between getting the house, and getting free of Mrs. mistake, I had acquired a few woodworking related tools, some because they were left in the garage when I bought the house, some because I needed them for home repair, and some because of a rented RV that suffered a broken dinette table, and it was cheaper to build a replacement than it was to get one from the MFG, and nobody could tell the difference. Those tools were a Skill jig saw, a Craftsman 3/8" VSR drill, a Ryobi fixed base router, Craftsman 6 piece bit set, and Wolfcraft cheapie table. Along with the mechanics tools that carried over from career #1, tools given to me by friends as they upgraded, and tools that I acquired when the hardware store I worked in during college went out of business and the boss gave me a box of misc tools that we used in the shop including a Skil circular saw, bench vise, Ace hardware 6" grinder, hacksaw, a mess of window screen spline rollers, box cutters, tape measures, hacksaw blades, and a myriad of drill bits. This was far from a workshop though, this was still a garage with some tools in it.

And so it sat, mostly because I was spending time (and money) pursuing other hobbies, particularly blondes, brunettes, and most importantly red heads… All the while this goofy looking guy with a beard and a plaid shirt would come on every week, enticing me back to the hobby I enjoyed so much as a teen, but have been unable to pursue as an adult… I watched, dreamed, and went out of my skull meeting new people and just having fun…

Needless to say, she happened, a firey red haired angel that got my attention… Time, attention, and finances went to dating, and then moving forward it was obvious we needed to be married, so we busted our hides and did a proper wedding, and honeymoon. You know it's amazing how much Cup O Noodles a guy can put up with for lunches when trying to shovel cash aside for a trip to Cancun… But that is a different story all together…

After the wedding, and the finances returning to normal, my lovely bride noted that I am always tinkering with things, and building this, that or the other thing, and I should put together a shop (Thank God for a wife that grew up with brothers, and a Dad that are tinkerers and craftsmen), so I started, slowly, putting a shop together. At first thinking I was just going to put together something I could stash aside and pull the car into the garage…

Now that car is an F150 super cab 4×4 lifted on 35×12.50 mud tires. Even if it was a 2wd on stock rubber, just fitting the mirrors between the door jambs is a challenge. Why I insisted on wanting to keep the shop small at first I do not know… I had even toyed with the idea of a shop in a dedicated outbuilding, but my HOA restrictions being what they are, meant no shop building big enough for me was going to happen, and even without the HOA, I would never get a building big enough on my little suburban lot.

So what to do about building up a shop? I already had a good amount of stuff stored in the garage, camping, hunting, lawn & garden type stuff. And I did NOT want to be tripping over tents, coolers, and lawn mowers to get to my table saw, and routers…

Well, that will just have to wait for installment #2. There is a reason I made this a series you know! There would be no way anyone would read the history and thought process of my shop all the way through beginning to end. But string y'all along and you might just stay interested…
 
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#660 ·
Rolling clamp cart mostly done, except for the rolling part.

I have a new post on my blogger blog…

http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2...t-i-built.html

I have a couple of spots that could be redone / fixed due to operator error, but I doubt I will. It is only cosmetic and I just don't care that much. It needs to work, not be pretty…

Quick Rundown, the build was done with 2×4s and plywood. 2×4s were cut down to size on the BT and crosscut with the miter saw, after the first cut, using the dust hood… HUGE difference. Not perfect, but certainly acceptable.



Once it was put together, even lacking casters, I loaded it up , unless the casters induce some instability, this thing is rock solid… No worries of tipping here!




I have after what, 6 years now, removed the clamp rack that was bolted to the wall. Next step will be to add the casters, patch the wall, and then move the freezer in…
 
#668 ·
I made good on the deal, after 17 months!

The writeup, as usual, is on my Blogger page, but the synopsis is…

I finally, after 17 months of on again, off again, health problems biting me in the tail work… I got the deep freeze moved into the shop.

The process was a bit painful, I had to remove the solid entry door to the shop, and that sucker's heavy…

I did verify that the miter saw, and mortiser line up, and stock clears each other, and the freezer with some room, but not much, to spare…

http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/03/making-good-on-deal-17-months-in.html
 
#669 ·
Bet that is a nice feeling having that moved. Last summer I moved a freezer out of my shop, and into an alcove in the garage. To make it fit, demolished some shelving that had been used for old tax records, that Sherie has mostly shredded now. The spot where the freezer was is waiting for an entry bench and shoe storage complex and a band saw. All the electrical is done…....

Got some work done on surface finishing my CD rack for the shop, yesterday. Now it needs sanding, a coat of WATCO, and it is ready to go back to holding CD's.

Eyeballing the outfeed/DC job, hoping to get some of that done tomorrow…........
 
#671 ·
Finishing up the reely big issue, mostly...

So in my latest blogi installment on daves-workshop.blogspot.com I go into some detail about how to install a Harbor Freight 50' self retracting air / water hose reel without any help. The process is fairly easy as long as you are willing to make adjustments in your plan, and work with / around the features of the reel itself. The benefits of having an overhead hose reel include safety, a cleaner shop, and greatly improved ease of use.

With the exception of the connection between regulator and reel, this project is done. And until the rubber hose I have doing the job now fails, I don't think there is any truly compelling reason to upgrade to larger hard line. Maybe in the future when I decide for reliability sake to upgrade, or if this does prove to be problematic / too restrictive and causing performance problems, then I would change it up, but for now it is quite effective…
 
#672 ·
Glad you got your air up and running. I do most of my work with air at my multipurpose bench, so it works to have the compressor inside of that as well as the nailers and the blower. You, as I noted before, have a lot more use for air than I have.

Nice day here in La Conner. Getting a new dish washer installed installed, the old one is very noisy, although it does a decent job of cleaning the dishes.

When that shop of yours is up and running, and it sounds close, it will make a lot a difference in your productivity…...
 
#674 ·
Dual air compressor plumbing done, and lesson learned.

I have the plumbing for the dual compressor rig completed. All done with 3/8" rubber hose, and where the hoses come together, I upsize from the 1/4" fittings to 3/8" copper to give it all room to breathe a bit better.

I used 1/4" pnuematic inline check valves to prevent bleedback between the comrpessors. A step a lot of folks don't do, but they are ganging similair compressors together, mine are rather dissimilar and thus need to be isolated so the big one doesn't overrun the little one and merely use it as a storage tank.

I also found out, when I took the bushings off the regulator where the errant teflon tape that jammed up my impact wrench came from, and I hate to admit it, but I did this to myself. Be careful when making your wraps of pipe sealant tape! You don't want to jam your tools up! I must admit though, I am a bit disappointed it got past the inlet screen on the gun, but, well pressure, and that teflon is slippery stuff, I guess no shock there…

Anyway, the writeup in more detail is on my Blogger site…

http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/04/running-2-different-size-air.html
 
#675 ·
Improvising air hose retaining clamps.

Okay so my schedule hasn't allowed me to run to Home Depot to buy any clamps, and my spools of plastic plumbers strap appear to be playing hide and seek with me, and winning… And that danging hose just bugs the tar out of me… But what to do?

Improvise!

I stumbled upon an old, HUGE nylon zip tie, probably 3/8" wide by 30 or so inches long. I think it may have been from the compressor pallet. Anyway the thought occoured to me that the plastic used here was the same as what was used in the pre made clamps, so why not improvise. And that is exactly what I did!

Photos and a slightly different write up are on my Blogspot Blog...

The install ins't 100% finished, but once the shop light has been taken off of the ceiling directly and chain hung, I can finish it up. Maybe 3 or 4 more clamps depending on how OCD I get about routing… I need to either find or get chains for this light, OR create some sort of mounting system for it to space it off of the drywall.

For those that have the room and have been considering the hose reel addition and are hesitating not sure if the HF unit is worth the $$... I have the following observations about Air Hose Reels.

I have been around / used hose reels like these literally for decades, I started out as you may recall in high school as a pump jockey at a full serve gas station and worked my way up to management / mechanic while I was in college… I have been around many different makes / models of these things…

I can not attest to the long term durability of this comparatively, however the build quality at least at first glance is every bit as good, if not better than the "High End Tool Truck" models we used when I was making my living with them. My only areas of concern are…

#1. The durability of the spring winder mechanism. Mind you, HF has been selling these for a LONG time now, and absolutely zero of the reviews I can find anywhere complain about spring / rewind failures. More than I can say for the older Goodyear models we used that failed after 2 years…
#2. The durability of the Central Pnuematic rubber hose. I see a good number of complaints about this. I am wondering however what conditions they were installed in. Rubber hose is NOT, and I repeat NOT stable to UV, and large heat / cold swings. To be blunt. If I get 5 years out of these hoses, I will give it 5 stars. Throw in the complication of exposing the hoses to petrochemicals such as dirty motor oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid etc… and I can see how people are experiencing failures of the hose ends within a year. The Goodyear hoses we used to use at the stations on the pump islands lasted about a year before we had to use the hose end mender kits on them… The ones in the shop lasted about 2 years.

The operation of the reel itself is very smooth, and very predictable. No trying to force the reel to take up or pay out… No unexpected yanks on the hose from the return spring either… No rattle or looseness at all in the operations.

I looked at 50' Hose Reels from the BORG and the Blue Box, as well as from Northern Tool, and even Sears. There seem to be 2 main differences between the 50' metal open reel hose reels with 3/8" hose. They are paint color, most are semi gloss black, while some are yellow, and one was blue. The other difference was the hose itself. Most appear to have the same exact hose, the red one the HF unit comes with.

Prices vary pretty widely, the best price however was a toss up between the Central Pnuematic 50 footer from Harbor Freight, and Amazon occasionally puts the Tekton 50 footer on sale for roughly the same price as the HF… with the same hose, so the only real difference is do you want you reel in black, or red?
 
#676 ·
Thanks for the advice. Although I haven't thought about a reel, it might make sense in one of my shops over time. Right now it isn't an issue, although I am fighting the hose here in La Conner a little. A reel might work here, but the shop has to be further along in its development before I would know where to mount it.

Plugging away on the trim for the torsion box bench, nothing exciting to say here at the moment.
 
#679 ·
Problem found with compressed air plumbing!

As you may know if you are following along, I have been putting up a compressed air plumbing system based on rubber air hoses, 2 compressors, a regulator / filter and an overhead air hose reel…

I came across a popped open drain valve on the filter yesterday afternoon (good thing I turned the compressors off!).

Come to find out, the pressure rating of my Central Pnuematic 3/8" inline air filter / water separator / regulator with the 160 PSI gauge, that goes into the warning range at 150 PSI, is actually rated to only 100 PSI!

Ugh… And I thought I read the specs and the manual online before I paid for the dumb thing…

So for now, I throttle back the regulators at the compressors so that we are just a shave under 100 PSI. No biggie really. All of my air tools require 90 PSI or below.

As is typical, my in depth writeup is on my blog page at http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/04/very-little-shop-time-and-problem-found.html
 
#680 ·
I beginning to think that my basic compressor systems are throw away things….......(-: You know, the 6 gallon PC pancake things. They work fine, no problems, and are not expensive, and don't take up much room. But no way have I put the mental effort and research into my stuff that you have. However, I am only running nail guns and a blower. Nearly duplicate systems at the two shops, but the one back home is much better set up, with all the guns and the blower constantly connected, and the compressor in a sound deadening space in my multipurpose bench. I hope to have a similar system here, but with the little time I get in the shop each vacation, that is a long way off.

Today I hooked up a little portable Grizzly G1163P dust collection system to my table saw. (Everything else I run using the Festool dust extractor). I assembled it today also, easy, except for some strange bolts that mount the motor/fan to the wheeled base. They were non-standard 1/4"-20 bolts, with a flanged head, that took a 10mm socket.

Buttttttttttttttttt….......the heads were too shallow, widened out at the bottom, and wrenches tended to slip off of them. And they were in tight places to reach…...meaning, couldn't use a ratchet on them easily. I wonder who was the brainiac that selected those for this application. I finally cut down some too long hex head 1/4"- 20 bolts to fit, and was able to get those in. I probably would have been able to use the original bolts with a ratcheting metric box wrench, but I don't even have the metric version of that in Anchorage. Fortunately, a non-critical issue solved with a hack saw and some available bolts.

The motor is a 1 hp induction motor, will run either 120 or 240, and the amps fits the stated hp. Very solid, heavy construction. A simple device with a cloth bag to connect and disconnect…......adequate for a TS that doesn't generate fine dust. It worked extremely well, connected direct to the TS with a short connection of 4" hose. Nice machine, actually, and just right for this shop, that must be put away each evening. Just roll it back to the wall. It will actually hang on the wall as well.

Running in the low 50's here, but with blue sky and sunshine who's complaining.

Later…...................
 
#690 ·
Might have solved the compressor plumbing problem...

Not sure about the popped drain valve, but I stopped the weird noise coming from the check valve. I managed to have a thread leak even with teflon tape… It was metal / air escaping moaning, sort of like a baloon groan but not as high pitched, or of course… flexible…

Got the fittings sealed now, mostly. Have a hose end female fitting by the reel that leaks that I need more thread sealant for… Going to buy the compound though, not tape… I kind of caused that leak tonight though. While I was waiting on progress indicators and had things locked up over the VPN I got the light dropped a bit and a passthrough made for the hose. So hose routing is now complete. The story and photos are on my Blog page.

Physically looked at my regulator, which IS the same item # as the ones on sale now, and it is clearly marked right behind the gauge, MAX PRESSURE 145 PSI. So my 125 PSI into it was no problem…

I fiddled around with the drain valve and got it to stop blowing as well. Filled / drained the tanks on both compressors twice. It would appear we have no shortage of humidity here… That is a LOT of water to squeeze out of the air!

Tomorrow night is going to be spent in Houston I suspect, working on my truck with my BILs again… Might as well… Gotta get it done so I can pull the Saturn down and swap out the AC clutch, Water Pump, PS pump, Idler, and Tensioner pullies. Yeah everything that spins on the front of the engine aside from the alternator. I swapped that out last year…
 
#704 ·
Simple box joint jig for Ryobi BT3x00 and related saws, and my first box joint!

My latest project, and blog entry at http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-simple-box-joint-jig-for-ryobi-bt3100.html is all about the BT3×00, more or less. I created a very simple yet shockingly effective box joint jig for use with the saw.

My first box joints using this jig, are surpisingly clean, snug fitting, and accuate. And yes I intentionally left the tails proud of the surface…



I had to remove material to clear the star knob on the back side of the 3/4 stock, this was done with a regular grinding stone on a dremel. Not super pretty, but I have plenty of clearance now!



The indexing pin is a 3/8" walnut scrap that I attached with a finish nail with my air nailer, and Titebond III. The spacing in to set my first cut / align the jig to the dado stack is just the cutoff of that same piece. Very effective, very affordable to do!



I have a LOT of projects I need to work, and I feel this setup should allow me to produce some drool worthy joints.

I need to grab some cheap stock to practice with, and set up the dovetail jig, both the MLCS and Harbor Freight jigs, and my box joint jigs, and just build boxes. Mostly to build skill more than boxes.

Once I am more comfortable with making these joints, I need to get very, very busy building things, to start off with, drawers, and a lot of them. I am going to reface my cabinets through the house, and in the process also replace the lousy butt joint and brad nail drawer boxes the builder used… I already have the bits I want to use for the doors which is the MLCS #8782 mitered door frame bit, and I have the matching cove bit. It's a squeeze, but I have fabbed up a sample drawer front using this bit set out of pine. Looked great. (Should have taken photos of it, but didn't think about it sorry…).

My first priority though should be a shadow / display box for LOML's wedding "stuff" (bouquet, garter, veil etc…).
 
#707 ·
Project planning on how to eat an elephant.

The blogger entry is here for those that want to see the graphics and the nitty gritty details… Plenty to be found there…

http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/04/project-planning-or-how-to-eat-elephant.html

Right now, being somewhat time constrained with other priorities, and as other projects are ongoing, I am squeezing in design time, and planning to complete what is left of my shop storage / organization tear as it were.

I am working on fine tuning the details, but I have the following projects to tackle before I can consider my shop "done enough" for now to keep me, and LOML happy for at least the next few years, and to complete the tasks I set out to do…

#1. Finish building and installing the drawers for the miter saw / mortiser stand / cabinet.

I am changing the design a little bit however, instead of 2 rows / 3 drawers, I am going 2 rows 2 drawers, I want deep drawers instead of more shallow drawers. Might regret this but can always build more drawer boxes if needed.

#2. Install blow in insulation in non powered wall, complete drywall repairs and paint.

#3. Sheet goods / cutoffs cart. LOML is getting somewhat insistent. I worked with a guy that had built one on another forum and came up with a workable design that requires 2 sheets of plywood and 4 casters.

I have updated the Sketchup model and cutlist to give a much more accurate cutlist than what I had previously put up.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=u7bcebf6e-5281-4555-a33c-167bbd247334

The rest of the projects are ones I can take my time on. They are…

#1. Drill pres base cabinet. A removable cab that will ride on my mobile base to my drill press to hold my handheld drills, as well as bits, hole saws, jigs and misc drilling accessories.

I am trying to rethink how best to keep the drill press stable, and maximize storage. The design for this cart is likely to change, a LOT before ti gets build.

#2. Lathe base storage cabinet to house my turning tools, chucks etc… and to enclose at least 2, probably 3 80lb concrete bags in the very bottom for ballast. Design still in progress. Having some difficulty deciding on the drawer layout… Again not sure how best to approach this. I am thinking full out replacement bench / cabinet with ballast compartments below, and drawers in the middle. I have seen some where the lathe legs are mounted to a ballast platform, and a box of drawers is mounted to the lathe base. Still trying to decide.

#3. Table saw / Router mobile workstation. I would like to design and build this such that ALL of my table saw / router accessories, fences, jigs, bits, blades etc… store neatly inside, with an effective mobile base, and leveling feet. I have ideas, but need dimensions.

#4. HF DC "Side Flip Stand modification, with Thien Top Hat separator". I suspect we've all seen them, and I want to build one. A stand to reorient my impeller housing to eliminate the connector hose between the impeller and the inlet ring that the bags go on, with the intake pointing straight down into a Thien separator, in this case I want to build a top hat style to go on top of my 31 gallon galvanized steel trash can. Once done, this will be moved off the stand, and on to the floor, giving me room for…

The side flip stand would look something like this Lumberjocks.com member's project except the motor / impeller and ring would be mounted probably 6" higher up to allow for room for a Top Hat Thien separator… I may also change the impeller itself for a larger impeller. I have found a part # that allegedly interchanges, that should move much more air. It always bothered me by how small the stock HF impeller itself is… Oh, and I might just to be different, actually paint my dust collector cart… And possibly the ring, impeller housing, and motor mount… Be good practice with the HVLP gun…

#5. Above the DC / tool box storage cabinet. This will need to be VERY solidly built, and securely anchored. Remember my shop supports not just woodworking, but also auto repair and home repair. It will hold.
-5A. 8 gallon air compressor. Put this as close as possible to the manifold etc… My 8 gallon compressor is the older version of THIS MODEL with the only difference I can see are the handle, mine is molded plastic where this one is tubular steel, The foot arrangement, mine has one foot, this has two, probably better for stability, and the stickers on the tank… Oh and my compressor is rated .1CFM higher at both 90 and 40 PSI…
-5B. Floor jack and jack stands. The tiny, under capacity for my truck units are going to be cleaned up and sold, replaced with a Pittsburgh 4 ton floor jack. I am willing to pay more for a better quality jack that has the capacity to meet my needs, but I haven't found one yet!
-5C. 6 ton jack stands. I have some old, orange steel jack stands, I think they are rated to 3 ton, but I am not willing to risk it. Probably sand them down, repaint them, and sell them.
-5D. Ball Joint Press and adapter cup set.
-5E. R134A Manifold Gauge set. Mostly because the friend I borrowed this from doesn't seem to want it back. I don't mind storing it, but Joel, if you see this, please don't think I am not trying to return this to you! Again I don't mind, I just would hate to have any misunderstanding with friends…
-5F. Pulley remover / installer set.
-5G. Radiator / cooling system pressure tester.

#6. Replace the simple shelves that are next to the tool stacker with a proper wall cabinet. I want the cabinet to house my spraying equipment, cleaning equipment, shop rags in a box, basically most of the stuff that is on those shelves, plus add more abrasive storage and keep it neat. I don't have a design yet, but trust me, one is coming soon… I will need to insure that I have jig storage factored in there as well for the dovetail jigs, as well as for my box joint jigs.

#7. Design, build, and install some sort of means to store the remaining safety equipment, respirators, cartridges, nitrile gloves, hearing protectors, safety glasses etc.. on the man door where the fire extinguisher and first aid kit live now.
#8. Not sure if I can get my lovely bride to agree to this, but I am considering painting the shop side of the man door bright red to indicate that is the emergency / safety center.

#8. Build a quick & simple rip fence micro adjuster for the table saw. I have plenty of the necessary hardware, and the design is forehead slapping simple, I just need to do it…

So as you see, I have a TON of work left to do to finish just the shop storage projects. I have plenty of projects to do for in, on, and around the house, cars, and my own happy self.. So we will see what gets done and when!
 
#708 ·
You have your details down well. I too need a sheet goods cart, but it needs to be 18" wide instead of "24" to fit the space allotted. Hopefully will get some shop time over the next 6 days, need to complete the outfeed table/dust manager for the TS.

Minor plumbing issues around the house are just taking up too much time. Have a plumber coming to replace the pop off valve on the hot water heater. It started leaking, and by flushing it a number of times it finally stopped. But can't have that happening when we are out of town, so will have the plumber replace it this week. In the past I would have done it, but it involves shutting down the water, draining pipes, etc. I just don't have time for that.

Later….........
 
#716 ·
Auto lifting safety, cheap cordless additions, and safety center updates.

The light duty floor jack and jack stands finally gave me a moment of pause and I finally bit the bullet rather than the coffin, and opted for more serious hardware. I got rid of the little trolley jack, and 3 ton jack stands in favor of a 4 ton service jack, and 6 ton stands. I haven't had an opportunity to test them yet, but if they function as well as the actual fit and finish looks, these will be real workhorses for my automotive work for years to come.

On a more wood shop related note, I finally decided to just bit the bullet and try out cordless, and as much as I Have hated it in the past I couldn't see going high dollar on it. I went with the ultra cheap Harbor Freight 18V cordless drill / flashlight combo. While the build does feel cheap, and I am sure this is a disposable tool, I have so far been pleasantly surprised by the performance of this thing…

Lastly, I made some updates to the safety center, building / adding a dispenser / holder for my nitrile gloves, moving the safety glasses holder up some, and making room for, as well as marking my layout lines on the material for the holder for my respirators.

Like always, more detailed info and photos can be found on my blog…

http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/04/some-auto-related-upgrades-and.html

Thanks for looking!
 
#717 ·
I have long had cordless tools around, and used Makita for years. Then I bought an 18V Bosch driver and drill, much smaller, but more powerful than the Makita. Probably due to the Lithium ion batteries. Then in La Conner I bought a 12V Bosch mini-drill for quick change bits, a 12 volt drill with chuck, and a 12 V impact driver. That was after reading an article in FWW. I liked those 12 volters so much, really small and light, I bought the same three for Anchorage, and totally retired the Makita stuff. The difference is the lithium ion batteries, quick charging etc. I have a couple extra batteries at each shop for the 12 volt, and two chargers at each shop. Amazingly, I only reach for the 18V when I have to have 4 drills in action with different drivers, bits, counter sinks, etc. So, if you ever think you need another one, try one of the 12V things…....every brand has them…...and you will get hooked.

No automotive work here, other than swapping summer and winter tires…........but I should get a good jack some time.

Have a good week. I spent my weekend in a very lazy fashion….....age is definitely slowing me down.
 
#721 ·
Project preparation, rolling sheet goods / cutoffs cart.

If you may recall, a while back a fellow Lumberjock named Jerry built a sheet goods / cutoffs cart that he called a cutoffs / scrap cart, but in all honestly it was sized perfectly for full sheet goods. I found the design to be a great idea / space saver/ organizing brilliance. And I contributed to the cause by drawing up a Sketchup plan of the cart. Now it is time for me to build one.

In order to get a handle on it, and be able to actually efficiently handle the project, I needed to get a plan of attack going, and get a budget set up to handle this project so I can control costs, while ending up with the results I want.

The blog entry is at the link below…

http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/05/preparing-for-sheet-goods-cutoffs-cart.html

I am not certain of the rain chances which is something that can foul up my plans, but I know Sunday looks clear, and I believe Friday night is clear as well…

With any luck, in the near future I should be posting another completed project with this cart done. And then I can finally get the lean to sheet goods storage taken care of, and get the buried Masonite siding out so I can fix the siding on the back of the house…
 
#729 ·
Finally tracked down that *#$% leak!

Okay not entirely wood related, but close enough…

With the very little shop time I have been able to spend over the last couple of days I have finally gotten the evasive leak fixed. Turned out to be a FPT male coupler that just did NOT want to seal for anything even though I sealed it up tight…

A colleague of mine had asked me about my impact as he knew I was putting a lot of work into our vehicles lately, and I told him about the Central Pneumatic Earthquake gun. I even offered to loan mine to him, but he insisted on buying his own, and is thrilled with it… Great to hear.

I figured out how to troubleshoot, get spares for, and repair a 20+ year old Blue Point Air ratchet so now I have a premium air ratchet, and a bottom of the barrel version. Both work so whatever…

Detailed blog entries are in 2 places this time. For the leak fix and impact the post is at http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/05/sometimes-threads-just-dont-want-to.html

My write up on the air ratchet and a pictoral of teardown and rebuild is at http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/05/20-year-old-blue-point-air-ratchet.html
 
#730 ·
Not really up my alley, but there may be a day when I will change my air situation in Anchorage….......and I have yet to make the setup to house my compressor at La Conner. I don't have access to a Harbor Freight here in Anchorage, and the nearest one to La Conner is in Bellingham. I do get to Bellingham most trips to La Conner. I will have to check them out.

Got beat up by work this week. Yesterday was recovery. Looking forward to being a little more productive today….............
 
#731 ·
Clearing the (compressed) air.

I did some additions to my compressed air system, by adding a Central Pneumatic Desiccant Dryer / Oil Removal filter, and coupler bracket. I also chased down the last few leaks, and replaced a defective replacement regulator on my HF 8 gallon compressor.

Not sure if you remember, but I managed to cause at MY fault on the original regulators fault, the destruction of the OEM regulator on my small compressor a few years ago. If I recall correctly I dropped something on the compressor like the impact wrench and busted it… So I replaced it with a Husky, which has never been completely reliable… So I replaced that with a fresh HF regulator. So far so good!

The whole system has been bubble tested and passes with flying colors, and the compressors are both undergoing leak down testing connected to the system and at the 14 hour point they are both holding exactly the pressure I left them with (and turned them off so it's not like the compressors are cycling…).

The pics and more detailed write up are on my blogspot page for those interested.

http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/06/clearing-air.html
 
#732 ·
Nice.
Year ago I bought a $800 air compressor for $70.00 only because the pressure switch was not longer working and the guy was afraid that the tank would explode.
I bought a new pressure switch at HF for $7.00 and since the compressor is working perfect.
 
#735 ·
Dealing with the continued pressure...

Another update. Pressure is holding fast. My brain is probably going OCD on this whole thing as I am wondering if I should upgrade the connection between the filtration rig and the hose reel with something like Rapidair, copper, or even black iron.

I have my updated post, and even set up a poll on my blogger page if you are interested…

http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/06/follow-up-update-dealing-with-pressure.html
 
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