Dust4brains's Blog at LumberJocks.com

From Junk to Dust....(Part 4, "Slowly rising from the junk")

Dust4brains — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 07:00:27 GMT

Howdy y’all. Well it’s been a few weeks since the last update so here it is. The garage/woodshop has not progressed much due to family commitments. However, over the last week I have managed to tune up my budget B&D table saw. The alignment was way off from the miter slots and the blade wobble was excessive. After attending a wood expo in Seattle I got to see what a ‘real’ table saw and blade looks like…..and I don’t mean the next B&D model up! I’m still salivating over the Powermatic 2000. Anyway, I realized that the blade my table saw came with is a thin kerf and so I decided to replace it with a full kerf blade. Being shy of a few funds I opted not to buy the Forrest II Woodworker (that and the fact that the table saw cost the same as this blade) so I bought an Irwin combo blade (50T) and installed it. The wobble is now negligible when cutting 2” stock in comparison to the non square cuts prior to this blade. I guess the extra thickness of the blade (full kerf) help stiffen the blade. Another point worth noticing as a rookie wannabee woodworker is to watch out for the maximum rpm of the blades. The blade I removed is rated for the saw speed of 5000 rpm. The Irwin blade I installed is rated at a maximum of 9000 rpm. I guess if it is rated at almost twice the speed of the motor then wobble will no longer be a factor…...with the exception of the density of the material being cut of course.
While I was tuning up the table saw and making multitudes of sawdust (speeding up the recycle process) I did notice that everything, and I mean everything, had a layer of sawdust on it. This was a nightmare to clean up with my shop vac. Fortunately due to Matt Vanderlist’s and Marc Spagnuolo’s podcasts I was aware of the dangers of this and have been wearing a respirator throughout. So, this weekend my wife allowed me to go and buy a mini dust collector. This is a 900CFM portable unit and filters down to 35 microns according to the spec. Anyway, I took my table saw off the stand, made an attachment to the base for the dust collector and reassembled it. After the tune up, new blade, and the dust collector it was time to put it to the test….....SWEET! as Matt would say, and NICE! as Marc would say :o) I am suitably impressed.
I also purchased a block plane today and have made some oak runners for the miter slots and tomorrow I will be completing a cross cutting sled. Now I know this is like Pre-K for the majority of you guys out there but I’m enjoying every minute of it. The runners were a great opportunity to practice some planing skills and the cross cut sled will compensate for my saws lack of ability to have a zero clearance insert. Once this is done, watch out world, there will be another wood splinterer in the neighborhood :o)
Stay tuned folks and remember to support some of our favorite sources of inspiration as well as offer them encouragement. For me this is Lumberjocks.com, MattsBasementWorkshop.com, TheWoodWhisperer.com, and of course Furnitology. Great job y’all.
Oh, one last point. The company I work for had an associate survey last week and they gave us the questionnaire and a pencil to complete it. I found myself looking at the pencil and wondered what wood it was…...Is there any hope for me?

From junk to dust (part 2 1/2)

Dust4brains — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:48:27 GMT

Bonjourno y’all !!!!. It’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog and there has been some progress in the garage/wood metropolis. I have cleared out half of the collectables (junk) and have been slightly distracted in a good way. I bought a benchtop style table saw based upon space and budget and have spent the last few days setting it up. It’s a long way from a ‘grown up’ table saw but it’s all mine. All mine I tell ya! :o)
I carefully unpacked it and carefully read the instructions prior to setting it up. I even bought some Kerosene to clean off the protective shipping gunk from the table and then wiped it down with isopropyl alcohol to get it real clean. After this I gave it a light hand sanding with very fine wet emery paper and cleaned it up again. Finally I applied some carnuba wax and buffed it up to a satisfactory smooth surface. Now I don’t want to use it in case I scratch it or get it dirty…...just kidding.
I did all the adjustments ensuring everything is perfectly aligned but when I cut some scrap 2×4 it was slightly off 90 degrees despite the accurate setup. I even checked it with a Wixey digital angle gauge. After some serious head scratching I contacted Woodtalkonline.com and Matt from Matts basement workshop reckoned this may be due to deflection as cheap table saws do not have the greatest blades in them. I can appreciate that, after all the table saw cost less than a Forrest II blade. Anyway I can apply an offset to get square cuts and live with it until I get better in my hobby and in my budget. By the Matt, you’re awesome man. We appreciate the podcasts dude!
Last weekend I visited my son at college in Spokane and while I was there I visited the Woodcraft store (woodcraft.com).........Man!.....I was in awe. Out of money…...... but in wooworker heaven :o)
After finishing work this evening I noticed a 4 1/8” Sears Roebuck jointer/planer for 25 bucks on craiglist. I got in the car and made like a Ferrari. When I got there it looked old, a little rusty but ran great and does it’s job. I feel a huge dose of jointer TLC coming on as I ‘rescued’ it and brought it home
Well, I’m off to bed now as I’m heading off to the Wood Expo in Seattle in the morning. I just can’t get enough of this hobby. I’ve even done some marathon listening to podcasts from Matts Basement Workshop, WoodTalkOnline, and of course TheWoodWhisperer. Talk about a crash course…......I LOVE IT!!
I may post some piccy’s (pictures) as I begin my baby jointer renovation…...I can see this turning into a romance story between me, my jointer, and my table saw…........the ultmate love triangle :o)
OK, back to reality, I OBVIOUSLY need some sleep. Stay tuned and I’ll be updatin’ ya soon! Happy grains y’all!

From junk to dust (part deux)

Dust4brains — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:49:12 GMT

Due to the title being in French, I thought ‘d continue this and welcome yaw’ll in French also. Ola amigo’s! (remember dust4brains?) Today I got up ready to start cleaning out my wannabe shop as I have a couple of days off work (vacation). I rushed down in my jammies as my wife and kids are at work/school and headed for the garage. OK, I took a 2 hour detour at the computer and read all your wonderful comments. I also apreciated the tips and suggestions such as the roll away workshop article in finewodworking.com. That guy is definately on a roll…...and guess what? It got me thinkng. Oh, by the way, my definition of life is “I think, therfore…..it hurts!” However, this was a pleasant and welcome discomfort today. Thank you to everyone.

Well, I see “Thewoodwhisperer.com” hasn’t got any more podcasts up yet and I already checked out his awesome piccy’s at Flickr so this inspired me to get some awesome shots of my junk and post them for a reference. As you can see the pictures show a typical garage…..at least in my house….full of junk.

This is my side of the garage with all the junk and no space.

And as you can see my wife’s side is a little more organized?

Well, enough of this computer based thing-a-ma-jiggy stuff and it’s off to the garage to prepare the transformation….....Hmmmm…I wonder how much a U-haul costs to load this stuff off to the dump? OR Perhaps I can strap the water heater to my bicycle?

Anyway stay tuned and I’ll update you as soon as I can….assuming there are no hernia’s incurred!!

From junk to dust

Dust4brains — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:52:21 GMT

Well, it’s been a week since I signed up here. The journey you are about to undertake with me is not for the experienced woodworker, but for the absolute novice. You see, I have NO WOODSHOP!!!.......hence the kewl name Dust4brains.
However, I do have a two car garage where my wifes truck resides and this will never change. My side of the garage has relegated my truck to living on the driveway. At present the space is full of junk such as an old water heater…..had to change it out about 2 months ago when it decided to resemble the Mississippi river….and various other pieces of antique refuse (JUNK) and my prize WalMart fishing gear….The fish love it!

Over the next few weeks I will be posting photos of this miniscule space/garbage dump as my plans unfold to convert this into a superb fold away woodshop. I also plan to park my truck inside for the winter so stay tuned for some recycling, innovation and space saving ideas on a trickle feed budget. Don’t worry, safety will still be paramount!

Will it happen? Well, I know most of us out there love to talk about our Powermatics and Festool Domino’s (That’s for you Marc Spagnuolo…...TheWoodWhisperer.com), but I will be going low end for tools. My table saw will be a cheap portable one when I get it. After this the budget bottoms out….but that brings a challenge and kicks in the creativity. Meanwhile I’m going to read up and learn all about wood as Marc has inspired me. Great Job Marc and Nicole! I love your podcasts.

OK, I’m off to the library to read up tomorrow on wood…...someone told me it grows on trees….yeah right, like I’ll believe that’s true!

Stay tuned folks and remember…..if you love wood, cut wood, sand wood….it really doesn’t matter how well it turns out; you’ve got Dust4brains.