[PurpLev]

Improvements, mistakes, and where did that blood come from?

I can't say enough good about how well the Thien separator on my dust collector is working. I tried avoiding building a pre separator to keep from taking up precious shop space. I can honestly say I am glad I finally opted to do it. I tired quickly from constantly emptying the lower bag from my DC with the Thien Baffle, so although my filter was staying clean, I was every other day, and sometimes once an hour pulling the lower bag from this thing, which can be a real chore!

I continued work on the base for my workbench, and it is coming along really nicely. However that nice smooth grain from the Cedar I milled this weekend is raising quite dramatically on some pieces. I expected that, but not to the extend I am getting it. I guess contrary to advertising, this stuff has never seen a kiln, and I do not have a moisture meter to be able to tell for sure…

So my mistake, and this was a dumb one, putting the upper spreader on backwards with the slot for the S clips out. I only did it to one, and I have some extra stock to fix this with, but boy was that dumb…

While assembling the front leg assembly for the base, I noticed blood on the stock, like maybe I had cut my hands somehow. But I didn't feel anything. I look, and nothing… Come to find out after I get back into the house that I had managed to cut my forearm on something in the shop and not even notice. Nothing deep, just a scrape enough to draw blood… The scary part is I never felt it.

The work stopper for the night was when LOML came out to the shop to ask me a question. Now this is NOT her fault, just coincidental, and she got to witness this… I managed to fumble my drill, complete with my 3/8" Ti coated twist drill bit, as it tumbled toward the floor I kept trying to catch it, but no joy… It landed, at an angle, just barely on the tip of the bit… Now I have broken drill bits before. Little teeny tiny 1/8" or smaller bits… But never anything this big… And of course I am drilling holes for my 3/8" dowels, so I kind of needed that bit… I will be off to Ace Hardware at lunch to grab a single bit as I am unsure if Home Depot carries drill bits singularly.

Hopefully tonight I can recover from my stupid mistake, and get the base together… We will see…

sounds like things are coming together over there - fantastic! I need to make the thien separator myself too, emptying the bag everytime is a PITA.

like MedicKen said - watch out for those jointed edges - they dont look it, but they are blood thirsty.

if I didn't bleed - it means I haven't been in the shop (ok… not really… j/k)

 

[PurpLev]

Fixing the rip fence, and almost finishing the extension wing.

Well, the sanding was done, I still need to install the leveling hardware for the router plate, so one last item there, and I am done. I had noticed that my rip fence wasn't quite up to snuff. The handle nearly pointed at the floor before the fence locked in place.

After seeing a thorough write up on BT3Central I decided that it was time to fix my fence, and per instructions, I straightened the tail on the clamper A cam, reassembled the fence, and tested it. All is well and good. The fence now locks exactly where it is supposed to.

More cleaning is coming over the next couple of weeks while I actively try to get my shop clean and organized. And yes, before anyone asks, pics are coming. My batteries on my camera are dead now, I need to get to the store to buy some new ones…

nice. interesting that such an easy fix wasn't found earlier in production, or is this something that got bent later on?

nothing more frustrating than to have to fight with your rip fence to lock where you want it to and stay put. glad to see it's over now for you.

 

[PurpLev]

Getting sick of standing shin deep in shavings...

The rush to get projects done for Christmas is finally over, family demands are back to normal, I have a little bit of time to get out into the shop and do some cleanup…

But where's the floor? I know there is a floor in here SOMEWHERE…

Let's see, those long shavings would drop right down into the dust bin instead of going on to the DC right? Sure…

You get where I am going with this?

I finally had the time to do some cleanup after the mess of projects got done, the tools are up, and I attempted some pickup of my shop floor by sucking everything up, long shavings, packing peanuts, you name it with the DC…

This was NOT my best idea…

Simply put, the long shavings from the cutting board (many of them 20" or better, and REALLY curly) got into the Thien cyclone, wrapped around uprights, and filled up the drop slot, making the separator impossible to function, so most of the stuff bypassed to the DC, but got caught on the cross bar of the inlet!.

So here I am scratching my head wondering why did my DC suddenly lose suction? I go and look, the hose between the Thien and the DC is jam packed with packing peanuts and planing shavings…

So I thought I overran the dust bin. I pop the top on the barrel, work the baffle out, and find it was just the baffle / lid that was jammed. I cleared the jam, cleared the hose, and intake Y on the DC. They I looked, barrel at about 75% full again, time to empty it. (Who wants to life a full 55 gallon drum of sawdust right?)

I shove as much shavings, and packing peanuts into the barrel as I can, and take it outside, where I can work a contractor trash bag over the mouth of the drum, then flip it to transfer the contents… Nice, easy, dust free right?

Wrong…

So the bag slipped on, pretty snug, and mind you there was a slight breeze last night… Holding on to the barrel around where the bag is, I flipped it, no problem…

Slowly, Carefully I work the bag off of the drum, and then set the drum down…

That's when it happened… Something in the bag settled, and a mushroom cloud of wood dust came billowing up, being caught by the just then shifting breeze, and carried from the driveway, through the open garage door, and back into the workshop.

So the bag got tied off and taken to the curb, the drum got taken back into the shop, the shop door got closed, and the fan / filter air filter rig got turned on.

Guess that means that was enough cleaning for last night…

hmmm… what dust in the shop, stays in the shop.

at least it's not happening on a daily basis (or is it?)

 

[PurpLev]

Getting sick of standing shin deep in shavings...

The rush to get projects done for Christmas is finally over, family demands are back to normal, I have a little bit of time to get out into the shop and do some cleanup…

But where's the floor? I know there is a floor in here SOMEWHERE…

Let's see, those long shavings would drop right down into the dust bin instead of going on to the DC right? Sure…

You get where I am going with this?

I finally had the time to do some cleanup after the mess of projects got done, the tools are up, and I attempted some pickup of my shop floor by sucking everything up, long shavings, packing peanuts, you name it with the DC…

This was NOT my best idea…

Simply put, the long shavings from the cutting board (many of them 20" or better, and REALLY curly) got into the Thien cyclone, wrapped around uprights, and filled up the drop slot, making the separator impossible to function, so most of the stuff bypassed to the DC, but got caught on the cross bar of the inlet!.

So here I am scratching my head wondering why did my DC suddenly lose suction? I go and look, the hose between the Thien and the DC is jam packed with packing peanuts and planing shavings…

So I thought I overran the dust bin. I pop the top on the barrel, work the baffle out, and find it was just the baffle / lid that was jammed. I cleared the jam, cleared the hose, and intake Y on the DC. They I looked, barrel at about 75% full again, time to empty it. (Who wants to life a full 55 gallon drum of sawdust right?)

I shove as much shavings, and packing peanuts into the barrel as I can, and take it outside, where I can work a contractor trash bag over the mouth of the drum, then flip it to transfer the contents… Nice, easy, dust free right?

Wrong…

So the bag slipped on, pretty snug, and mind you there was a slight breeze last night… Holding on to the barrel around where the bag is, I flipped it, no problem…

Slowly, Carefully I work the bag off of the drum, and then set the drum down…

That's when it happened… Something in the bag settled, and a mushroom cloud of wood dust came billowing up, being caught by the just then shifting breeze, and carried from the driveway, through the open garage door, and back into the workshop.

So the bag got tied off and taken to the curb, the drum got taken back into the shop, the shop door got closed, and the fan / filter air filter rig got turned on.

Guess that means that was enough cleaning for last night…

dbhost - you could put a wood/metal frame that will keep the bag down in the barrel, and pull the frame out before tying the bag up.

the frame is real simple, much like a picture frame - since you want to be able to pull it out when the bag is full. all it needs to do is keep the bag from being sucked up.

 

[PurpLev]

More cleaning, oh yeah, I remember that stool!

So with what little time I could eke out for myself again last night, I managed to get out to the shop and do a little tiny bit more cleaning, I finished moving a stack of lumber from next to the workbench only to find that it was hiding a GIANT mound of plane shavings, and a Woodcraft padded stool. I kind of forgot I had 2 of those…

Well, lazy me decided to plug in the DC and just suck the plane shavings up, and away into the Thien Separator they went… I also found the blank of the drill press table I was building and stopped when time was running short, I need to get back after that, SOON… Along with that, I found 2 boxes of Black Mamba fireworks, a brick of Lord only knows what, and about half a case of sparklers. It looks like we forgot some stuff for the 4th of July… I really don't want this stuff in my garage until next year. I might have to set them off for a new years party or something…

I started looking into my cutoff bin, and realized, I have a mess of cutoffs that are small enough, that I don not want to bother with them… Mostly the stuff I am thinking about pitching is low grade plywood cutoffs, that are relatively small. I guess we will see. Again, how do I get rid of all of the junk?

Likewise, I am finding that there are still piles and piles of lawn and garden junk that are just sitting there on plastic shelves, taunting me…

My plan here, is to get my hands on some largeish boxes, box up similar things together, electronics stuff here, lawn and garden there, plumbing in another etc… and get those cheap (insert expletive here) Plano shelves OUT of my shop. The Heavy Duty one I got from Lowes I actually like, it has capacity, and space to be useful. I have a space carved out in my shop design just for one more of those racks… Of course that rack will be repurposed to holding project parts once the garden shed gets done… But that is a way down the road for now…

So I just keep plodding forward, a little tiny bit at a time… I should soon be able to start ripping down sheet rock woo hoo!

sounds like a plan.

I am in the process of reorganization myself, and decided to just trash all the cutoffs that I have , as I noticed I don't REALLY ever go for them. - except for some nice pieces that I plan on using for some drawer pulls. already cleared out 2 32gall trash bags out. I'm liking seeing floors once again!

I am still undecided about adding a thien separator to my DC. it is my understanding that it decreases the air flow significantly. have you noticed that on yours?

 

[PurpLev]

Why is cleanup making it more of a mess?

Oh yeah, I took stuff off the wall!

Okay so I am busy trying to make a disk slip or something by stripping my 10' wall section between the tool stacker, and the clamp rack completely down to the sheet rock. Now this is no small task. Everything small enough was stuffed in to four clearance priced totes from Walmart $3.00 each, and I will re-use them for holding project components when I have to make smallish production runs of parts..

It's the bigger stuff that is causing the problem. Moving the lathe out of the way, sort of, and it's the sort of that isn't helping matters at all. It needs to be toward the front of the shop, but no it is now sort of slid up against the work bench. The sheet goods are just sort of leaning there, and the shelf and closet brackets are sitting on top of the totes, that are now on the table saw and work bench. Ugh!

Well, to make my way to this wall, I had to move out a BUNCH of stuff. Among the moved items were…

2 power drills in cases, B&D rotary tool in case, Dremel accessory box, Rockler blade cleaning kit, gallon of blade & bit cleaner, large selection of sandpaper, jig saw and blades in case, circular saw, guide, blades and wrenches in case, Arrow electric brad nailer in case, biscuit joiner in case, 6" buffer in case, small box of dust collection parts, small assortment of templates, three, thirty nine drawer bins (the cheapie plastic jobs from Home Depot) full of misc hardware, a ton of measuring and marking tools, a few misc router accessories, and my fire extinguisher (which will get mounted closer to the back wall by the workbench), and a pair of folding extending sawhorses.

Now with the wall segment clear, and all of the sheet rock anchors removed, I am leaving the holes for now, remember that this sheet rock is scheduled to be ripped down, insulation put in, and fresh sheet rock put up…, anyway, with the wall segment clear, and the stud locations marked. I am ready to get in ASAP and mount up the wall standards. These are the Closetmaid heavy duty standards that I got at Lowes on clearance. They were a heck of a bargain when I got them. 6' standards for something like $1.25 each if I recall correctly…

Once the standards are in as they should be, the sheet goods go back to where they were, the brackets go into position, and the long stock gets put up. The lathe goes back (temporarily, and then I figure out just WHAT I am going to do with the handheld tools and such. My plan was to build on to my wall workbench where the peg board is, by adding upright supports, and then adding a shelf to the back of that bench, and directly attaching the peg board. This will kill some of the upper peg board access, but I can live with that for now… I will be adding peg board later on anyway…

All in all a good day, and good progress being made, especially considering the other stuff I had to do before hand… So even though it looks like my shop was hit by a tornado, it wasn't… Lord willing this will all be done before my descendants need to use my shop to build my coffin…

AAAH, the move mess from THIS SIDE of the shop, to THAT SIDE of the shop - inspiring at first, depressing while at it. lol. good thing is - although it may not seem like it- you are setting up a base to build on, so now that things will be put back into place, things will be more accessible, and much easier to work with. just takes time sometimes, and doesn't always seem like it's getting along while at it - although it most certainly is.

good luck with the process.

 

[PurpLev]

I need help!

So I have been nursing a really bad flare up of a back muscle sprain now for the past 2 weeks. The doctor has me on muscle relaxers and pain killers, which is all well and good, but it doesn't do a thing for me being able to actually, well… Function.

And there are a good number of things that need to happen in my shop, and around my house. I have things in such a bad state in the shop it is frightening. I have the canoe taken down, partially. Literally the bow is off of its ceiling hooks, and resting on my workbench.

I need help.

Healthy, strong backed help…

The gate needs to be completed, and it is ever so close, just nail the pickets, and the already cut rot board onto it, screw the catch assembly together, and double check alignments and make needed adjustments, throw a lock on it and I am DONE.

Once that is done, the canoe needs to come the rest of the way down. I am anxious for this to happen. That will remove the boat, AND the non folding sawhorses from my shop. Not to mention one of the large tarps, and a few bungee cords from the attic… (Yay!)...

With the boat and saw horses out of the way, the air filter needs to be mounted. Now even with a good healthy back, I don't have enough hands to lift, and balance the air filter up against the mounting cleats, while I get the lag bolts started. I must get some help here… I have actually considered renting a mechanics transmission jack, or better yet, a drywall lift to help me do the job…

But that is all in the future, for now, I rest, keeping the load off of my back, and get back up to speed. Then I can attack all of these issues, again…

sorry to hear that. I'd drop by if I was any closer.

to health!