The new saw created 2 problems for me. 1. my entire shop is mobile so I needed to address that, and, 2. I am short and shrinking every day so I needed to lower the working height of the table. My Craftsman was 36” high and was very comfortable for me to work. My table saw and assembly table have 4” casters and i decided to use the same for the band saw. So working backwards I had the dimensions of the box.

Before I could do anything i needed a way to move 200# about the shop while I was working the new stand.

I had a piece of piece of solid core exterior door lying around and with a few casters I fashioned a platform for the Jet. This rolling platform allowed me to keep the saw out of the way. Now the new stand.

Easy – build a box and reinforce it on the top for the saw and reinforce the bottom for the motor. A couple of 2X6 fir blocks reinforce the sides and top. I had to cut a slot in the top for a drive belt but because of the way the saw attached to the box the slot didn’t weaken the support.

I left the box open on both ends for air circulation around the motor. I could close the end in if dist gets to be an issue but for now i’m running it with open ends. I got the paint guys at HD to match the Jet color and painted the thing. The motor is bolted to the box riding on neoprene washers to help absorb vibrations.

By calculations I needed a 45” belt. I debated getting a “V” belt from NAPA but decided to use a link belt. And I got a green one from HF. First time I have used one of these things. Was easy to adjust and with a little fussing I had it lined up.

I installed a new 1/4” 6 TPI blade from Lee Valley which is what I had in the Craftsman. Good for the smaller things I cut. So I haven’t done a lot with it but what I have cut was really nice. The saw runs really smooth with no vibration. I thought I would miss the larger work surface on the Craftsman but so far I haven’t. I have been using a piece of aluminum angle clamped to the surface for a fence. My TS miter works fine on the Jet.

Now I have to figure out dust collection. The jet wants to be hooked up to a 4” line and all I have is a shop vac. It looks too pretty for duct tape.

So I started putting the system together. Speaker stands were easy. A couple pieces of 1 X 4 oak with ¼” hobby wood. The trick is to isolate the speakers from the floor. I used felt for the feet to protect the hardwood floors.

And then neoprene bumpers between the speaker and the stand. Not inclined because they may become tables of some sort. With the felt and neoprene there is virtually no contact between the speaker and the floor. These were called bookshelf speakers at the time but they are really heavy.

The cabinet is 16” deep to accommodate the turntable and amp. Red birch ply with oak trim. Tung oil finish – nothing special. A lot of dividers to keep the records from bending and warping. The records are about 12 3/8” so I put stops in in the rear at 12 ¾” to keep from shoving them too far back. There is a skid under the middle of the unit set back 5 inches from the front. I didn’t think 3/4 ply could support the weight.

For the turntable I used 75# full extension accuride drawer slides with a positive stop so when they are retracted there is no vibration. There is 2” between the top of the amp and the bottom of the turntable shelf. It doesn’t look like 2” because of the pull strip but it is there. The back is open for airflow. These older amps generate a fair amount of heat. With all that vinyl the cabinet weighs a lot. There is no movement.

The corner is not the best location but this is a small house and this setup fills it with sound. As I go thru the old records most are in good shape after 40 or so years of abuse. I replaced the worst ones in the mid 80’s when vinyl was still readily available. I can move the stool to sit on when I load a record.

Just another old guy obsession.

I finished using the dado on my table saw and was replacing the blade when I noticed a large amount of wobble in the blade. And it was the motor bearings. Because of the way I use the saw there was over 1/16” play at the edge of the blade both side to side and top and bottom. I’ll bet the fact that I use a wobble dado did it. Those things can’t be good for a direct drive saw. And when I discovered that I decided to go shopping and the first opportunity was Black Friday. So I spent Thursday morning getting the old one ready to sell. And then I hit the ads. No, not the big box stores – the real ads. And Friday I found what I was looking for -

A cast iron saw for $100. Some people say you get what you pay for. I did run it at the guy’s house and it ran. Hasn’t been used for 20 years when the original owner died. A little vibration but that is expected when the rubber belt is 40 years old and has sat in tension for 20 of those years. It was passed from kid to grandkid and then to Jim. Looks nice. Didn’t know they originally painted the tops brown.

Well the first thing I needed to do was getting it on a platform so I could get it out of the truck and move it around. Lowes has a line of pretty good casters and I went for 4” which are really easy rolling and easy to get your foot under to lock. This will eventually be the base of the new stand.

The front end makes it look 40’s or 50’s but it is a 1972 model made for Sears by Emerson electric. Model # 113.29943. Went at the saw with liquid wrench and first a scotch pad for the easy stuff and then with 220 grit sandpaper. All wet sanding by hand.

After the first day – ½ can of liquid wrench, 1 ½ sheets of the best 220 grit cloth backed paper I could find, half roll of paper towels, ½ scotch pad. Total time invested was about 2hrs. Soak the top and have a beer for 15 minutes then 15 minutes sanding. Full cd of Willie Nelson and ½ Kristofferson and Coolidge. Only 2 very small pits on the right side that I don’t think were caused by rust. It looks to me like somebody used the top as a bench while using some kind of hard pointed punch. Less than 1/32 wide. I could probably get them out but I don’t want to take off that much material. You can’t feel them with a finger but if you bend down and look through the reflection of a lite you can see them.

End of day 2 and it looks much better. All surface rust gone and most of the stains too. The sides of the top are harder to get because when they were ground the process left small ridges that I can’t get with sandpaper. I am going to go at the edges only with a very soft wire wheel. A couple more hours and I will call it done.

Off to NAPA to get new v-belts for the saw and drill press. Both have the original belts and they are very hard and lumpy. I originally intended to get link belts at HF but reading reviews there does not seem to be a difference between the HF green link belts and v-belts with cogs. And the v-belts are cheaper. I figure I can buy them, put em on and if it clears up the vibration I’ll keep them. Neither tool is bad right now but we might as well start new.

And Saturday morning after black Friday I placed an ad for the small saw online for $35. At that price I don’t have to feel bad about the shaft wobble and the saw was gone by 1pm. The guy that bought it was going to mostly use it for balsa wood models so it will be fine. So I rented the original saw for $200 for 9 years and the new saw cost me $65 + sandpaper, liquid wrench and ½ scotch pad. I won’t count the casters. I would have had to get them no matter what I did.

So here is the “I’m tired of doing this” picture. I did use the wire brush but only on the edges on wet material. And I did not go at it hard. I am sure most people would think I quit too soon but it will last my lifetime.

I like the fact that I can take the front off with 6 screws. Makes it easy to clean. On the underside I used a LPS penetrating oil and a soft copper brush on the threads and gears. Worked it pretty good. Then I applied LPS 842 dry lube on all the moving parts. The tilt and raise and lower are now smooth as silk.

Some stuff I used. At the end of each day I worked on it with liquid wrench I wiped the whole thing down with mineral spirits. i owe a lot to YouTube.

Total invested time 3 days, less than a 30 pack, and about 3 hours per day. I took the belt for the drill press back but the one for the table saw made a big difference. Or maybe because I spent some time partially tuning the saw. Note no holes drilled in the rear of the saw – more on that later.

Jan 8 – can’t believe it took me this long but the shop was warm and with the outdoor temp between 20 and 40 the beer was fine.

Finally got a base built. The total height is 33 inches so I can reach across without getting on my tiptoes. I used to be 5’6” but am now 5”5” and shrinking daily. Not happy with the way it came out because the ¾” plywood I got from HD is as warped as a piece of green pine sitting under a hot desert sun. Terrible and it cost me $40 + tax. Every 2’ X 2’ piece had at least 4 football patches and plenty of blows visible in the edges. Because I am in the middle of a very high priority project (I get to vote on the priorities but my vote really doesn’t count) I had to use this terrible stuff and get back in operation.

Also the first Delta T2 fence installation. Ok except the back rail was held in place by the wings. There were no holes drilled in the rear of the saw. I worked with it for a week or so and decided the system was too limiting. I would never be able to have full and better extensions with the back rail not attached to the saw itself.

So I decided that even though it would be freehand with a hand drill I had to have holes in the back of the saw. If you note on the left side I had to drill a second hole. I think I might have punched it wrong or maybe when I drilled the pilot hole but in any event the holes didn’t line up so I drilled a 4th. Fortunately there was space in the back side that gave me some options.

It lines up perfectly now and while I was at it I drilled out a 4’ piece of aluminum angel for mounting some kind of outfeed in the future. What extra hole.

Then I started experimenting with inserts and have a decent dado mdf prototype. 6” Freud dado from tools plus.

Now 2 months later I can get back to work on the TV cabinet. But I have another new toy.

It’s a craftsman, made in 1969. I found an old Power and Hand Tool catalog from 1968 that shows it – http://www.roseantiquetools.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/1968craftsman.pdf. Page 18 shows the floor model. The only difference between the floor and bench model is the length of the column. It weighs a ton.

The whole thing is cast iron. And it has the original capacitor start motor. I haven’t seen one of those for years. Digression – that motor reminded me of the time before capacitor start. My dad had a bench grinder which was nothing but a couple wheels on a mandrel. He plugged the motor in, lifted it up a little, gave it a spin to get it going, and then dropped it down again taking up the slack on the belts. We had that grinder until the 60’s. I thought that was how you started all motors.

I knew it was older because by 1975 sears was using those safety switches on all their stationary tools. My radial arm saw that I bought new in 1975 had the same switch they are using today. This thing has a separate plug for the motor that you control with a switch on the drill

Anyway this thing is in perfect shape. There is one chip in the table where someone drilled it but otherwise it is like new. Very clean. The pulley’s are original and look brand new. It runs really smoothly. The belt is a craftsman but I can’t believe it is original. It had to have been replaced.

The column is 3” in diameter. Clean and no rust. I have looked at a lot of used drill Presses and one thing they have in common is rust. The only manufacturer info is on the chuck which was manufactured in Hartford Connecticut. I know this was built in the US. There may be a mark on the bottom telling who made it for sears but it is not worth my time finding it.

On this one Sears pinned a metal user guide on the front of the press.

Hard to really see because of the light but they also included the Plexiglas cover in front of the pulleys so you can look and see which pulley is in use without tilting up the top. About half of the used presses I looked at were missing the top cover. Hard to believe that plastic thing isn’t broken.

When I got the drill it was on a stand. We took it apart and loaded it into the truck and the stand was ½” shorter than the tailgate. So I backed the truck a few feet into the shop and slid the press on to the stand. It just so happened that Tina no longer wanted the rolling cart I made for the crock pot and vacuum sealer. The cart was made 5 years ago out of ¾” oak veneer I had lying around. Glued, nailed (back when I could hit a nail on the head), and very substantial. The middle shelf is dadoed, nailed and glued giving it a lot of stability. I changed out the fancy rollers for 2 ½” locking swivel casters and it was ½”higher than the original stand. So I could just slide the unit from the stand to the cart.

I don’t know what I am going to do with the stand. Maybe one of my friends can use it.

Looks kind of stupid having the light oak color in the shop. But it works and there are 2 more shelves to put stuff on. And amazingly I still have pieces of the oak so I can put doors on it if the spirit moves me.

Now I can put the press away like the rest of my tools.

It sits real nice next to the compressor.

4 pieces of 1 X 6 T&G gave me a 20” back. The back joints of the sides were overlap and the angle in the front was a butt connection secured with a plywood gusset.

The gusset is visible in the left front corner. The polycarbonate panel fits perfectly with 2 cuts. The stuff isn’t that easy to work with so i had to clamp each side of the cut to minimize the vibrations and potential splitting. And the full sheet wants to flop around and break. However with a little care I was able to make clean cuts with my Hilti skill saw. Love that tool.

I fabricated 2 cross braces, one for each seam and to add rigidity i used the readily available molding strips under the ends and screwed every ridge. For the cross braces I cut an initial angle on the table saw and then worked it to where it fit with a hand plane. I caulked the seams but i am not sure that is necessary.

I painted the insides white for reflective purposes and stained the outside to match the shop. One cold frame had a heat trap made of PVC. I filled it with 50% water and 50% propylene glycol. Visible in the second photo. I tore it out this year because I couldn’t see where it made much difference. When the temp hits the low teens and single digits the cold frame freezes. Nothing grows here in December and January without heat and that is not the point.

I hinged them both the same so the covers are interchangeable. I can put chicken wire covers on in the summer to keep the chickens out.

The first unit has been in use for 5 years and worked so well I built a second unit a year later. These things work.

The whole system was pretty simple and here in Salt Lake we can eat fresh greens from late January until the main garden is ready. I keep plans of ost of the things I do and in this case it came in handy for building the second unit.

After clearing the space I had an 8 X 10 slab poured and started. As I said in my intro weight is the first consideration for me so using cedar as much as I could was important. And I wanted to have the place be light, airy, and open.

I sunk 4 cedar posts and bolted 2 X 6 fir cross beams to the top of the posts. The question was then and still is knee braces. I chose not to use them because I like the more simple look.

The roof structure was also 2 X 6 fir. As you can see there is not much to it. Now for the interesting part. Because I wanted a light structure and I can’t lift 4 X 8 sheets easily I decided to forgo a standard truss structure and just use 1 X 6 X 6 fence boards for the roof. A board and baton type structure. The overlaps give the roof structure and are very light and easy to work with. And very available and if you take your time picking thru the piles there are pretty straight grained knot free boards to be had.

Here is the finished roof. I did install a redwood 2 X 6 on the back side for rigidity and to hang stuff. Next to the kitchen is a cover I built for the basement walkout. When I bought the house the walkout was covered by a deck and the rain and snow flowed into the basement. So I used the same system for a cover.

This view shows the details of the roof surface as well as the reinforcements for the kitchen roof. The kitchen roof has now been in place for 5 years and has been subjected to 70mph gusts of wind and it holds up fine. Also no problem with snow weight. This roof system is water resistant – not water tight. It is great for what we use it for.
Over time I have added to the original room.

A sink base with T&G cedar that I covered with a tile top.

Added natural gas for the stove in 2009 and another cabinet made with T&G. Later I put T&G doors on the cabinet next to the stove.

Kitchen in use this fall.