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52K views 174 replies 87 participants last post by  Blake 
#1 ·
sealed with a trip

Let me show you why tonight's shop-time sucked…



Sigh… So I had a 2gal bucket of Anchorseal - prized wood end grain sealer for drying logs and planks. I was carrying it to a spot in the shop where I was to seal up a bunch of European olive bottle blanks I resawed and cut up from a large log tonight. My foot got hung up really well on something - maybe my rolling stand - and I lurched forward hard. Of course, I never trip like that, but since I was carrying a bucket of liquid wax emulsion… I hadn't put the lid on the bucket properly - just sat it lightly on top - because I had just been using it, and was only bringing it over to use it closer to where I was working.



I should have capped it AND carried it by the pail handle. Alas, I absolutely launched its contents out of it. It was the same kind of 2-handed motion you'd do if you were trying to throw the contents of a bucket out a window, or into someone's face. I emptied it entirely, while screaming "NOOOOooooo!", and it made the same kind of noise you get when emptying a bucket into the tub, a sickening splash and splatter. I recall closing my eyes and not wanting to open them ever again. You'll note my shoe is rather well sealed now. I guess that new shoe purchase I keep putting off will get bumped forward on my to-buy list.



You can see the joy in my eyes there. I'll do a separate post soon on the bottle blanks, because the inside of that European olive log is just beautiful, and I got a lot of pretty pictures. The sealer on my arm is from the initial launch of everything out of the bucket.

In an earlier photo, you see a scrap of plywood coated entirely. I emptied it back into the bucket, then started using it to 'lift' the viscous sealer off the floor. I couldn't just scoop it up, because the floor is a mess in my shop, covered in sawdust, screws, tree parts, labels, plastic strips - in short, it needs a hardy cleaning. So, I kept laying the sheet in the puddle, then picking it up and flipping it over quickly, and using a turning blank as a scraper to 'shave' the new surface of sealer back into the bucket. You can see the scraped ply board in this shot:



I managed to get a pretty clean 3" high volume back into the bucket, enough to seal up the blanks. I'm normally quite dainty in my sealings, trying not to get any on my hands, because I don't like sliminess. It was too late for that now, though, and I just ended up plunging my hand into the bucket with each blank in many cases. Way faster! My hands should be silky smooth tomorrow :) The worst part was that I was trapped in the garage, because my hands were now frictionless. Even after I wiped them down, I had a very hard time with the smooth brass doorknob. I could've starved in there!

Cleanup's going to be fun. I imagined paper towels, sponges and a bucket, a steam cleaner to melt and suck it all back up, something absorbent and a heat gun to melt the dried stuff in, yanking it free like an eyebrow waxing, or just letting it dry out, and using a metal or plastic scraper. Shame the floor is rough concrete. That won't help any. Here's an example of how fruitless paper towels would be, in video form:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377

It's so thick, sticky, and waxy, the paper towels just push it around. I've spilled a blob or three here and there on the floor before, and once they get dusted in sawdust, those spots become slippery like ice. This spill is going to pose some interesting problems for me, even after I clean it up.

I ordered the 5gal bucket last week, as I was nearing the halfway point on this, and now I'm going to be doing all this resawing. It arrives this week. Stay tuned for the MEGADISASTER I'm planning for that container once it gets here!

Sigh…
 
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#6 ·
Did something similar with black stain just a week ago, the only good news for me was that I ended up not wanting to use the stain anyway, so lost the money but did not want the product, not for the current project. Was wearing flip-flops at the time, ened up with Ozzy Ozbourne black toe nail polish, so be thankful for the shoes.

Live and learn…
 
#14 ·
Thanks for the solidarity, folks! I actually did get hurt. When I tripped, I did something to the outer edge of my left foot. Almost feels like a fracture, but when I press on it and move it around, it doesn't hurt, and I think a fracture should. I've had knocks like this to the feet plenty, though, with my long and storied soccer career years back. I'm sure it's just a bruised bone, same as always. Hurts a little to walk today, but I'll be back at full strength soon enough.

Thanks again, all! We are truly a bunch of clumsy people :)
 
#17 ·
Hi Gary
Sorry for the spill I have been a fan of your blog for a while and totally get the free wood thing but I must ask you this…What in the world are you gonna do with it all? now others may have asked you this, but I do not have time to read every comments. it appears to me that all your wood is about 12 inches in length. Just my two cents.
 
#18 ·
That is the pits!! :-(( Sorry to hear this. My guess is a pressure washer would be the way to take it off to floor. I have one of the little ones that hooks up to a hose for water supply. You can get adapters that go from kitchen faucet to hose thread. That way you could send hot water through to help soften the wax, Those pressure washers will take the finish off concrete if you're not careful. I'm sujre it will take teh wax off.
 
#19 ·
Thanks Karson and Andy.

Jaques - Good question! I'm just having fun. I guess there's a general idea here that if you're loading up on free supplies, you're trying to form a business, or at least offset costs, but I'm really not. I'm just fascinated by processes. I have often been known to buy all the stuff necessary for processes (anodizing, distilling, machining, etc), but never really make anything out of them. There are always new processes to learn and try out. So, any ideas? :)

I think pretty stuff will end up in frame and panel cabinets, as I have about 10-15 cabinet ideas I need for myself in various rooms and the shop itself. I've considered trying instruments when I get better, as I dabble in a few, and would love more than anything to make, say, a stringed instrument I could then fiddle around on. Book-matching my own instrument fronts and back would be very enjoyable for me. I have tables I want to make. Lately I'm a bit on about bottle stoppers, and that's why I cut out about 25 blanks last night. They can be very beautiful, are pretty quick and fun to make, and people always need them it seems. I already have customers lined up for some. I admit, one of them is mom.

I also love little boxes, like jewelry boxes, and thin slabs of pretty, found woods would make keepsake boxes extra special when I give them as gifts. I have some people who want a lazy susan or three, and making them out of wood I prepared from the tree all the way through to the finished piece would give me - and subsequently them - a nice little story behind the piece. Too, I have a lot of little ideas I want to try out on my mini mill and mini lathe, with CNC processes that would be nightmarishly difficult to do by hand.

Oh, another thing - finishes. I'm really happy to have tons of pieces of various woods for really trying out every combination of varnishes, oils, stains, dyes, and whatever else on the same wood, in mixed ratios, and with varying orders of application and layers. Once I build up a big knowledge of that stuff from hands-on experience, I'll know my favorites, and how they look, and what they do to wood, and then with minimal testing, I'll have a really strong picture of how I want to finish future projects in woods I don't know well. For example, I can then do 3 tests of things I'd prefer to use, and know "this is the one."

Finally, it's just fun! I'm having a blast. I have 1 other woodworking pal out here, and he's starting to pick up the pace in his new 2-car garage (so jealous), having gotten the same saw table as me, and now a compressor and 3 nail guns. He made a bunch of boxes in short order, and they all came out perfectly I hear. He's also really good at repair and refinishing of older and antique pieces. I could give him the gift of a pile of slabs to do what he will with next year when they're dry enough. It's no loss to me when they were free, right? There are few woodworkers I know here, because I'm in the tech/entertainment industry, at a computer all day.
 
#20 ·
i forgot to mention this in an earlier post, so I guess here is as good as any spot. I remember you got some softwoods (leyland cypress maybe). Remember that all that sap will cause problems even after the wood is dry. This may be one time that a kiln would be valuable. I've read on here that is is called eitehr pitch setting or sap setting. Basically, the theory goes that whatever temperature the sap reaches, is the new minimum temperature that the sap will start to run again. In other words, you will probably want to get your logs up to a nice warm temp (over 150?) for a sustainable time period. That way sap won't run from a finished project if it ever is exposed to heat in a kitchen, attic, or direct sunlight in front of a window.

Also, sorry about the spill. I've had some bad issues but it ussually involves a dropped tool or project. Thsi is messier, but hopefully less costly. Hope your foot feels better.
 
#22 ·
Gary
Just got a chance to see the pics. Ouch, hope it cleaned up well.
Sounds like some good ideas for usage of all that wood. Glad you are able to process it look forward to seeing the finished and the in progress pieces.

CtL
 
#23 ·
National Lampoon's Economic Downturn Vacation

I work in video games, and it's seemed this year to be pretty immune to the recession. Kids always want their video games, and when you can't do much else, like building that addition, or moving to a new place, picking up a game or two to play away the misery is a comforting alternative.

Or so we thought.

Looks like it's finally trickled up, or down, or sideways, and as such, we had The Meeting today. While not officially laid off, I'm on 'forced vacation' starting tomorrow morning. The good news is that I don't have to get up early! The bad news is that we're waiting on a deal with another company before we can all come back. These kinds of things are notoriously painful and slow. There's a lot of wishy-washy back-and-forth when trying to get a game started, or in this case, finished. We were told that they "don't want to cancel it," but there's a lot of negotiating still going on. Meanwhile, the bosses - who are really great guys - have tried every avenue they could imagine - old contacts, cell phone games, 1-off stuff we could all do separately, like the script I alone wrote for another company earlier this year, and of course, subcontracted work for larger games being made elsewhere - a usual savior for us. Unfortunately, large companies are all saying the same thing - the recession has them fighting just to feed the mouths in their own companies.

There are 40 in our employ, and with one side job going still, only 5 will be coming in to work on that, and I'm not on that project. I do have 19 vacation days saved up, and will be paid for them as the days off add up, but after that I'm unpaid until we get work. The bosses gave the other company an ultimatum - we must know where we stand by the 15th of October. That's sort of the cut-off date., but if we get the greenlight to continue tomorrow, we'll be back to work on Friday. It's all up in the air. It's looking like at the very least, some layoffs will unfortunately be in order. The other company hasn't even paid us for all the work we've done up until now, so we're robbing our own coffers to pay ourselves for that for the time being. Fortunately, I'm one of about 9 leads, and the bosses privately told us that they will consider us last during layoffs. This isn't really favoritism, though. Mostly it's just seniority, and our knowing how the bulk of our programs and processes work. Small comfort, though. I'd hate to lose any of us. It's a great group, and the end of the day was filled with hugs, well-wishes, and scribblings down of email addresses so we could all stay in touch in the interim, or in case that's it for the company.

Meanwhile, I have some unexpected free time. Sleeping late, cleaning the workshop "for realz," sawing up huge Eucalyptus logs, finally conquering The Ebay Pile (most of which isn't even worth selling anymore - anyone need a 3" thick book on Visual Basic 6.0 from half a decade ago? How about two of 'em? ;) - it's all queued up, and for that much I am excited. I do wish I had no money worries so I could go buy all the lumber I need for the half dozen or so projects I really want to build - organizers, wood storage, cabinetry, shelving, etc. Plywood is pricey! I've had this happen once before in about 2003, free after we were all let go at the end of months of hard work at a company, trying to enjoy the time, worrying alongside that about finding new work. I'm fine, though. I have a good amount saved up in several different areas. However, with the incredibly high cost of living here in LA, it really isn't as much as it seems. You can scale things for yourself by noting that a 1-story, 2-bedroom, 1-bath house of about 800-900 sq. ft. on a sub-1-acre lot, with a 1-car, detached garage, all built in and negligibly maintained since 1924 currently goes for - starting - about $650k, rents for about $2500/mo, no A/C. It's crazy times.

Anyway, good luck to us all. Apparently none of us is safe from this economical beast.
 
#44 ·
Craftsman 13" planer woes

I've been so fantastically lazy these past 3 weeks of pseudo-laid-off time. I wanted to use this unexpected break to go nuts in the garage, as it's what I've dreamed of for more than a year now, but I think the anticipation of hard times ahead, and light anxiety of not having a steady income at the moment (first time in 6 years - since shortly after moving to CA) has sapped my motivation almost entirely. I've done almost nothing but wait. I've had some things I've wanted to do, but haven't wanted to spend any money on them - things requiring lumber and plywood, and so they're just on the back burner. It's looking like I might have to find another job soon after all, sadly.

But enough of that. I did work up enough motivation today to try to make a little oak grip device I've wanted to make for a few weeks now. I found a piece of scrap thicker than the usual 3/4" stuff of which I have tons, cut it into 2 lengths, then spent about 20 minutes going at the 6" Jet jointer with derusting agent, steel wool, and finally applying a coat of Johnson's paste wax, now that I have some. It's been half a year since I've used the jointer, and it's just been holding tall stacks of drying turning blanks, as I had no other surfaces upon which to set them. I moved them finally to a temporary place outside. I'm trying to push to finally have a shop [albeit, tiny] wherein all tools are accessible at all times. Piles really get in the way and kill my motivation to work on projects even more. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished when literally every tool and worksurface has a tall pile of junk on it, and there's literally nowhere to move any of it to in such a tiny garage - not until I build some storage solutions that will hold it all up on walls or hanging from rafters (which I've begun to do). Leaving that aside for now, the paste wax really does make a difference on the jointer. Wipe it on, let it dry a moment, buff it off with paper towels, and wood slides across it like an air-hockey puck. It should help prevent more rust, too. The jointer worked great, and a few minutes later the narrow oak pieces had a perfectly flat side.

The planer was a different story. I noticed a change in its sound early this year when I was using it on some shelving. It started to sound like it was fighting just to spin, and instead of winding down when I'd turn it off, it would brake very quickly. It seemed like something was jammed, but I could never find anything. I still worry about it, so today I had a more forensic search, and still found nothing. Unplugged, turning it by hand, I did find locations where it felt like the rotation was sticking. I couldn't figure out why, and it's a carnival of unremovable walls in there, so I couldn't get to the root problem. I just went with it, hoping the tight spots were magnetic things involving the motor. It still sounded rough as it had earlier this year, but I managed to plane the two oak pieces down to 1" thickness in several passes. I was going to make one more pass (they were actually 1-1/128" thick) to get them to size, but the whole planer jammed before I could insert the pieces. I jumped back and kicked the huge E-OFF panel with my foot. I really hate the noise and dangerous feeling of that machine, and having it jam, making a squealing rubber sound (the belt) really shook me. As my heart slowed back down, I unplugged it and set about to do a full autopsy. I've determined that this is nearly impossible.

This has to be the most vault-like tool ever made. The 4 mount holes are nearly impossible to get to, with literally 1/16" clearance in certain directions laterally, and maybe 3/4" vertically on some. You really can't get tools in there. Trying to remove the sideways hinge bolts that hold the tables on showed me that there isn't clearance for even the short end of a standard allen wrench. There's cast aluminum in your way everywhere. I had to go in partially at a diagonal, slipping out with each attempt just to get a little looseness in the screw, then just use my fingertips to undo them the rest of the way. The panels on the sides don't come off. There are screws I found way up inside, but there's no way to get a screwdriver to them. I can actually touch the screwdriver head to the screw heads through the handle holes from the outside, but only at about a 45° angle, not enough to engage them. If I could remove them, I'd then have to go through a host of other screws to disassemble everything, including the vertical rods that hold the adjustable height head to be able to get under it. I'd worry about screwing up the accuracy across the 4 posts doing that. The motor is molded in entirely. I can't find any way to remove it. It's not a free motor bolted in place. It's like it's part of the entire carcass. The chains and gearbox are tucked behind several walls that simply can't be removed, so I can only peer into a slit with one eye and a flashlight. The bottom of the machine is all solid cast aluminum - no ports in, a fact which I found out after fighting out those tight-clearance mount bolts I mentioned. Wasted [huge] effort. A half hour to remove 4 bolts is absurd, Craftsman.

When you lift the lid on the top to see in, it only goes up about 30° before it bangs into the rest of the machine, so I had to find and disassemble its hinges, which sent 2 small pieces of metal falling into the machine. I managed to fish them out eventually. I can't imagine that this thing wasn't designed to make it really hard to self-service, either to avoid people hurting themselves and suing, or to ensure the need to hand it over and pay for maintenance, because it's like a bank vault in a heist movie. I cannot get inside this thing after hours of vigorously trying. I'm nearly ready to search ebay for a stethoscope so I can try to figure out what's going on in there. I cranked it to the top, which gave me about 5" of clearance underneath to fit my hands and fight out screws with an allen key, which sent springs I didn't know were in there shooting all over (sigh…). I can't take the belt off. It's tight as hell, and the grooved pulleys do not have a looseness adjustment. It would appear (to my one eye with a keychain flashlight held just beneath it, both peering in through a crack in the side of the machine) that the belt must simply be pried off of the fixed wheels, but there's no way to develop that leverage while blind and reaching through a tiny opening with my fingertips. I want to see if it's the blade roller or the motor that's frozen, but I won't know until I can free that belt, which btw burned a bit, sending a lot of black rubber powder around that area when it jammed, before I could hit the E-OFF.

Right now it's laying on its back on the shop floor, piles of unhelpfully disassembled pieces around it and on the workbench, its rollers (and their freed springs) sprawling across its insides, unattached, with the blade cylinder still frozen completely. I tried sticking a hex key in one of the screws that holds the visible blade [of the 3] in place to use as a lever to turn the wheel, and it is frozen solid. It doesn't even wiggle. It's like it's part of the cast housing. I have a feeling this is all I'm going to be working on tomorrow, and I'm hoping that unlike my ancient Apple Performa 6400 PowerPC with its completely cemented on top access panel, I won't resort to drills and dremel, destroying the planer's plastic side panels in hopes of finding some way inside the monolith.
 
#45 ·
I have pulled apart and rebuilt a RYOBI 12 1/2 Planer and replaced all the parts over a few years.. it was easy to get it apart and most of the part were available from the loca bike shop. LOL
Finally after all the ******************** I had to put up with. repairing it many times ,........ got permission from the department of Finance to get a 15 " professional planer.
2HP industrial motor. good machine. triple belt drive. On a stand… all so much better than the small 12/13 models.
 
#52 ·
Jimi_C nails it - my planer suffered a blown bearing

In my last post, I mentioned my planer seizing up entirely. I couldn't move the belts, and I couldn't spin the knife wheel. I also talked about how insanely built the Craftsman 13" is, and I still stand behind that. I think taking apart my Toyota pickup's engine might be less involved. I finally found the secret under the black slide-in plastic caps that the top rods sit in. There were access ports that let me undo some hex screws and finally lift off the top shrouds (one required several hammer blows to loosen) which in turn released the side panels and opened up another world of hurt inside. I took apart the gear box to get in deeper, and about a dozen rods fell out. The gear box isn't held together on it's own. You have to balance a dozen rods between two plates while installing the whole thing into the box. That'll be fun to reinstall.



It didn't get any easier once inside, and I'd say it even got harder. I'll save you all of that, but suffice it to say that after giving up on it for 3 weeks (I can't believe how fast time is flying by this year), I spent the last 2 days on it and finally found the issue. As I said, Jimi_C got it right in my last post. The bearing was blown out on one end of the knife wheel.

Here's the good bearing on the knife wheel:



And here's the one that blew out. Note that it's all streaked with black, and the cap is popped out. You can see the retaining ring inside the cap, too:



Next up, I have to figure out how to pull it. I've already used my gear puller on several pieces to get in this far, but it's about 3/16" too short to reach the bearing with that long rod sticking through it. Also, because it's a 2-arm puller, instead of a 3-arm, one sits nicely in a flat, and the other would bang into one of the knife edges, if it could reach. I'm not super keen on removing the knives just yet. I tried to torque one of the hex screws out, and couldn't get it to budge. There are a bunch of them on each knife, and these were lined up very nicely and still sharp enough. I just want to pull that bearing, pop a new one on, and probably spend 2 days fighting it all back together. That reminds me. I'm going to have to find a new bearing somewhere, too.
 
#53 ·
Gary,

There should be some numbers stamped into the side of bearing. Take the old bearing or the the good one on the blade holder to a motor shop. They can probably fix you up.

Lew
 
#63 ·
My planer's broken bearing

I got some shots of the gruesome outcome inside the machine. The replacement bearing has been ordered through Sears Parts Direct and should be here in a week or two. Meanwhile, the carnage…



Here are some closeups of the broken bearing from the side where it opened up:



Note the broken cage and missing balls. No idea where they went:



The shaft was pitted beneath the bearing. At first I thought it was damage, and it may be, but I'm leaning a bit toward it being a deliberate roughing-up of the surface to help hold the bearing in place through its high-vibe activities. That's the story I'm sticking with. let me know if you think otherwise.



I think if the bearing itself caused pitting, it would be more 'smeared' around the shaft. This doesn't look ground in. It looks like someone took a pin and a hammer and banged in some dents somewhat evenly around the shaft before sliding on the bearing. I didn't note any ground-up metal falling out from the bearing when I pulled it free with the gear puller. Again, who knows?





Here's a blurry shot with my finger for scale:



The current, full gallery of pics in this mini saga is here.
 
#64 ·
I think you are on the right track. Here's a follow-on theory. The shaft was under tolerance and the bearing was sloppy when installed on the shaft. They then roughed up the shaft with a center punch and then forced the bearing on with a (hammer?). This lead to a premature failure due to:
1. Damage caused by impact damage when it was forced onto the shaft.
or
2. Normal heat generated by the bearing was not able to flow out of the bearing into the shaft leading to overheating of the bearing leading to lubrication breakdown and the ultimate failure of the bearing.

If this is true, you may find the new bearing won't fit properly. :(

You might ought to check the other side and see if it is going down the same path.
 
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