More cleaning and rearranging in the upstairs storage. Ran across my old Craftsman 12-1/2” planer.

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I remember getting this for $75, then a few days later a Woodmaster 718 showed up on Craigslist, so this little benchtop unit was relegated to storage until the next garage sale and forgotten. I plugged it in and fired it up. Still working great. Electric stuff is so much better than gas stuff if you have to store it. I planed a bunch of the narrow Maple lumber that I sliced up from the log last year. These were leftovers and off sizes from the log edges. This little planer can’t take as deep of cut as the Woodmaster, but for quickly planing a single board in the middle of a project, it’s a whole lot easier to deal with than my big machine. I hate to take out the big machine and hook it up unless there is a stack of lumber from the sawmill to plane down before use or sale. It’s best to have both sizes. And with the storage unit shelves for the benchtop machines (planer, grinder, etc.), it’s easier to keep this handy for quick jobs.

What didn’t survive the latest clearup? A case of PC keyboards, two dozen, brand new. Since they are PS/2 style instead of USB, they are not much use to anyone. But they will go to Goodwill and maybe someone can use one. I also seem to have two extra chainsaws than I thought I had. A 14” baby trim chainsaw, and an electric 16” chainsaw. Neither of which I have any use for and cannot remember getting. Those will go back on Craiglist. That will give me some money for some Incra accessories for my tablesaw fence!

Sigh! Eight feet in and 24’ feet to go. It’s like mining. But tonight will be for making a few signs instead of cleaning.

In an effort to reclaim some space on the upper level of my shop, I started cleaning out some of the house construction materials. I want to focus on my woodworking as I’m getting older and framing up roofs and finish carpentry is not that much fun anymore. So out goes the glass deck rails that I got on Craigslist, the exterior doors I bartered firewood for, tons of closet shelving, a french door… when did I get that?!? I am not sure when I got some of this stuff, but I’m entitled to forget some of these things after fifteen years of purchases from yard sales, thrift stores, and craigslist.

With some of the contruction stuff out of the way, and access to the eves, some gems started appearing. The first was an Incra TS-LS table saw fence system. I must have gotten this ten years ago, but having long pieces, the only place to store it was in the most inaccessible place in the shop. Actually, it wasn’t inaccessible when I put it there, it was only inaccessible after I put all the rest of the stuff “temporarily” in front of it.

Now I know there are those of you that would like to chastise me for letting such an expensive fence go unused for so long. Okay, I deserve that. But the good news is that this weekend it finally got mounted on my Jet Cabinet Saw.

For those of you that have seen the demo at a woodworking show of Incra’s router fence, their tablesaw fence is similar. The difference is that it mounts on two rails for added stability. There is a YouTube video that has a review of it. All told, it took about 90 minutes to put on. The instructions were comprehensive and left nothing to chance. Truing up the fence required no rulers or squares, just a tape measure and an allen wrench.

After the fence was on and adjusted, I tested it out. Wow! I had no idea how good this thing is. The standard demo at the shows is to cut a 10”, 6” and 4” wide board, then stack the 6” and 4” along side the 10” and see if they are the same width. Well I did that on my saw and it actually was so close that I could not feel the difference running my finger over them. And while I don’t know why I’d do this for project, I was able to repeatably cut 1/32” slices off a board shifting the fence each time. All the pieces were consistent. Finally, setting random widths for project pieces is so fast that I may actually finish something now. (ha, ha).

Anyway, I can highly recommend the Incra TS-LS Tablesaw fence system. Perhaps I should have put it on my saw 10 years ago? Oh well, it’s there now and being used.

I’m still digging through the stuff on the upper level to see what else I find…

I lost two carbide tip off one blade to a large nail in one of the logs. Luckily I always have a couple spare blades around.

In two of the logs, the heartwood had rotted and was the consistency of chocolate pudding, but smelled alot worse. Blech!

Anyway, now I have several stacks of 4/4 maple. Whoo hoo!

Getting into the log – the first cuts are 1×2’s that I use for stickers.

Wider boards – once into the logs, I cut a bunch of 4/4×8” boards

This slab is just below the center of the log. 8/4×24” x 6’

Stack from one log – 4/4×4”, 6” and 8”

Before and after – the log to the left is about the same size of the log I just cut to make this stack of lumber

I loaded them into my trailer with my Bobcat. Being fresh and VERY HEAVY it was quite a chore. By my calculations each log was around 900-1000 lbs. Luckily, the trailer is rated at 10K lbs. I finally got them back to the house. Unloading it turns out was a whole lot easier than loading. I just used a peavy to roll them off the end of the trailer. After that, it was back to using the Bobcat to lift them up and block them off the ground so they’d dry out.

So what to do with them? I had thought to slab them out using a Alaskan Mill with a chainsaw and 30” bar. I know that many here have thought about this solution. I have both of these items, but it turns out that this method is both a workout and lunch… except I don’t like having a mouthful of fresh sawdust for lunch. At least not without Bluecheese dressing. So I gave up on the Alaskan Mill and let them continue to dry out.

As luck (or Divine intervention) would have it, I was about to come into possession of a portable sawmill. Another big tool for the shop. I so love big tools…

Here’s some shots of the logs…
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc434/dpenley2000/Logs2.jpg
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc434/dpenley2000/Logs3.jpg
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc434/dpenley2000/Logs4.jpg
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc434/dpenley2000/Logs5.jpg
http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc434/dpenley2000/Logs6.jpg

- My cabinet saw that I’ve lovingly cared for seems to have survived quite well. Not a speck of rust on the surface. For those of you that do not treat the working surface of your saw, let this be a lesson. With waxing, this top survived for almost two years with no rust in a high moisture environment.
- The bandsaw had some rust specs on the table, but nothing major.
- The CNC machine powers up, but the motors are not working . So no plywood dinosaurs in the front yard for a while. I’m in the process of debugging the circuits, but it’s going to take time.
- The handtools and small electric tools that were in storage cabinets or in their plastic cases are in perfect condition. Again, a lesson to be learned if you do not have a climate controlled shop. Keep things covered and protected.
- the temporary shelter that I was storing plywood in had issues. According to my next door neighbor, the winter before last, we had heavy snow and it collapsed one end of the roof. Snow and rain for two seasons have turned several dozen oak, cherry, and maple plywood veneer sheets into something that can only be used as exterior sheathing. Such a waste. I’ll see this weekend what I can salvage out of it.
- Whoever has been in my shop during my absence seems to not like to put things back from where they took them. Many of my tools and materials were scattered around the shop, on the floor, or dumped into a pile. It was difficult to know what was present and what was missing. I’ll figure this out once I get things cleaned up and back in order.

Anyway, It is not the way it was left, but I consider myself very lucky that so much survived untouched. I’ll post some before and after pictures as I get things back in order and then it’s on to to making some sawdust.

-David

I don’t know which bothered me more, the ones about tort reform, or the ones that said big companies should protect us from ourselves. Sigh!

I had an interesting day today. I was out at a house after work disassembling a 12’ satellite dish off a guy’s property. I’m going to use it for a non-woodworking project for my daughter and I (can you say giant solar cooker!) Anyway, the owner mentioned that he is taking down two 40’ Maple trees this week. He asked if I wanted the wood and of course I said YES!. He’s going to have the tree service cut it up into 4’ sections so I can get it on my trailer. I’ll like it longer, but since it is wet, I don’t think I can handle any pieces longer than that. When I get my workshop back in two weeks, I’ll use my Alaskan mill to slice it into some nice lumber, ready for some project this Winter once it dries. Score!

Soon I will be reunited with my love that was taken from me about two years ago. On April 4th, I will be reunited with my house and, most importantly, my workshop after a very long divorce that went on for almost two years. I can hardly wait. I have been lost without my hobby and went through several months of sawdust withdrawal. Agonizing!

But with the settlement complete, I will be able to get my fix every day!

From the pictures provided during the settlement conference, it is clear that the workshop became a dumping/storage area for things that were inconvient to store in the house or garage. I’ll be spending most of April clearing that stuff out and getting the shop and tools back to operational order. Since most of the tools were covered, I am hoping that the surface rust is at a minimum, but with the power off and hence the dehumidifier off, the Pacific Northwest is particularly unkind to unfinished steel.

I also am not looking forward to ridding the workshop of the uninvited guests (mice, rats, squirrels) that may have taken up residence in my absence, but hopefully, the warmer weather will have most of them critters outside and I’ll just have to clean up their winter quarters.

I am also looking forward to a few “wacky” projects to let the neighborhood know that the crazy woodworker is back. So I’m thinking of taking one of those wood dinosaur kits that you see in the craft shops, scanning it into my CAD program, scaling it up (how about 1” = 1’), and then cutting the pieces our on my CNC machine. How about a 12’ Stegosaurus in the front yard. That will get some attention, I’m sure.