The Greenhorn's initial sawing season 2019-20

[doc henderson]

just had a wood burning fireplace.  I did try to adapt and old box stove, but the maintenance guys did not like that, something about burning the whole place down.  :D I rewired the out door 3 x 6 foot storage closet so I could do wood projects on the back patio.  a few folks missed and a few were prob. glad to see me go.  ;)

[thecfarm]

That ice looks good.
You are a gaining!!

[ManjiSann]

Looking great!

Brandon 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I got a little done tonight. We had surprise snow this morning and I thought I would have to plow tonight, but when I got home my son and his 3 boys had plowed and shoveled for me. 8) So after chores and dinner I got an hour or so out there. I spent some time working the rust layer off my drill press tables with scotch brite and and wd-40. They are not prefect but they do allow a vise to slide around nicely. I just need it to be functional and clean. Now I have to find where all my drill press vises are hiding and some other stuff, like chucks and drift keys, etc.  :D
Next I rewired the table saw, something else I have been avoiding (have I mentioned I hate wiring?). It wasn't as bad as it could have been and went quicker than I thought. Fired it up and there was no smoke, so I figured we are OK.  ;D Glad to have that done, did I mention I was avoiding it? Tomorrow I am looking forward to putting it back together, getting a new blade on it and trying it would be really nice. Gotta fetch me up some of them fancy plastic push stick thingys because I hain't haven't never run one of these things and I would really like to minimize my finger exposure.

[Nebraska]

Looks and sounds really good. Making me feel guilty about  not accomplishing more around here.

[Old Greenhorn]

You must be kidding, I feel like a slouch. Things are not getting done as quickly as they need to and I keep adding stuff as I see it. I feel old and slow. Wasn't too long ago I would have been out in the shop till midnight most nights. I should probably sit down and write a short list of goals and focus on that. I have my plan for the very short future, to make some stuff like you do and Doc and WV does and see if maybe I can sell it (the 'hobby' funds are getting low). I have to finish up the table saw and router table, then get the RA saw moved upstairs, then I have to decide to either throw myself into the last loft build with milling the lumber and all that, or start pulling in some slabs and making some stuff. I have been making sketches all winter and am dying to get going. It's (I'm) moving too slow.

[doc henderson]

Well, you are no slouch, you are getting old, and you sound like a woodworker to me!!!!!!   ;) :D 8)

[SawyerTed]

You could do like my wife does.  She makes a "To Do List" but doesn't work on it in any sequential way.  So she winds up working on other stuff about half the time.  Next time she looks at her list she adds the other stuff to her list - then she marks it off!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well Doc, I am still as good once as I ever was, but I ain't as good as I used to be (also, read my adjusted tag line if you haven't already). ;D
Ted, I often do that, and in fact just did it at lunch time today, preempting your suggestion, or maybe it was ESP? :D
 Anyway, I also added time estimates to each item. This might allow me to pick them off the list when I have a little time. I do note that I find myself with about a half hour available at the end of the evening, but can't remember any of the little tasks, now I can look at the list and maybe get some of those done.
 Part of my (new) problem is that as things get cleaned up I think to myself 'oh, now I can finally set this thing up that I haven't been able to use in years' and off I go playing with that. It's kind of like rewarding myself for making room. It feels good, but it adds new tasks. Like the drill press. I set it up, then realized the tables needed to be cleaned in order to be usable, so there went another hour. Now that's done and I realize I don't know where my vises are, so there goes some more time. ARRGGHH! It all needs to be done, of course, but I should let some stuff slide until the need arises, then tackle it.
 In any event, making the list and looking it over convinced me to hold off on the last loft for a month or two, finish the open items currently in work, and make a project or two. Every other day I keep making sketches of things I want to try making and the list is growing.

[RichTired]

I always update my 'to-do' list with the other things I might end up doing for that day or week that were not on my original list.  It makes it look like I really did more than I had planned to do... 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, I always mess that part up. I add new stuff to the list as I am working that I think of as I go. When the day is over I may have crossed off 3 things, but added 4. :D ;D >:(

[SawyerTed]

Emily has made a clinical diagnosis for me - Level 10 MPD.  

Multiple Project Disorder.   :D :D :D :D :D  It's bad but it keeps me out of trouble!

[Nebraska]

SawyerTed -There now my wife has a fitting diagnosis for me, I'm going to borrow that one.

 OldGreenhorn- several times a year I sit down and make list of stuff I want to accomplish then It gets buried on my desk till I am purging it. Then i refind it and sometimes I am really surprised at how much I have gotten done, usually there is plenty yet undone. I get frustrated but then I look back at what a mess my place was when I bought it and look at it now and it's more than I imagined  it would be at first. So I count my blessings and go do the things I have to be doing that don't necessarily mesh with what I want to be doing.  You have accomplished a bunch even while fighting a nasty bout of the crud.  You will turn out some pretty cool stuff in that set up and have grandchildren that won't be clueless about how stuff works.  

[Old Greenhorn]

I think it is fairly safe to say that Ms. Emily has nailed a good many of us right there. :D

 Yeah, that list I made today helped to lay it out in my head and we just finished dinner so I am anxious to get out there and knock some things off the list. But I left the list on my desk at work. ;D

[ManjiSann]

I'm always writing lists of things I want to do when I get home from work... then I get about a block away from home and somehow I forget about the list in my pocket.  :D

OG, you're doing great! You may not be where you want to be but you've accomplished a lot my friend! 

Brandon 

[doc henderson]

so (too) many things i had thought to say reading over the new posts today.  i know you do not need coaching, but might be fun to start a grand kids list, so dad can drop them off for a few hours (that yes you personally will not get as much done) and they can do for you.  they already feel like such a part of that shop and sawmill.  You are a lucky man!  I will leave it at that. ;)

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, more little stuff tonight off my list, but I feel pretty good about this one. I had figured that finishing off the table saw setup would take two evenings and that was on the list for tonight. But I finally got a replacement deburring wheel so I mounted that up and then gave it a test drive by taking all the 40 years of patina off my framing hammer. I immediately realized I set the wheel too close to the buffer (I am out of practice) so I will have to re-drill some holes and move it, but no big deal there. My hammer looks better too.
 

 

 Then I jumped to the table saw. Mounted up the fence rails oiled all the under-workings, installed the fence, and put on the new blade. Took a test cut on a KD 2x4 and holy cow! This thing cuts like a dream! Then I tried a piece of ash, SAME THING! the blade makes NO sound going through. When I got it (a month and 5 days ago, but who's counting?) I tried cutting a 2x4 and what misery! Turned out, they had a 8" laminate blade in there and when I yanked it, I could see that it was toasted. This new Diablo I have (10" GP) with the chatter slots cuts like a flippin' dream. I still have some things to make better on the saw like grease on the elevation quadrant, calibrating the blade angle gauge (way off) and stuff like that, but it is working. The second part of this was the router table the previous owner had built. Nothing about it appealed to me except that it included a 1/2 HP Rockwell router. He had attached it to the table saw with deck screws through the sheet metal (who does that?). I draw the line at that kind of workmanship, sorry, and there was no way I would put it back together that way. I had been thinking about how to do this for a few days (OK weeks) and tonight it finally came to me. There is no reason that router table needs to be attached to the table saw, right? So I just made it a stand alone with legs and set it right in where it was between the fence rails. I used his one existing leg (plywood) and added 2 ash 2x4's for the other legs and used 5/4 scraps from my flooring for gussets. Solid as a rock. Now i can move it out if I have a project requiring a lot of work. 



 

 There will be more tweaking down the road when I do the last loft because there is a conflict where the garage door track comes up over the present loft floor (this is why that last loft will have a 10" step up). So I am not finalizing anything but it's all workable. I will move and adjust things when I do that last loft. I like being able to pull stuff out or turn it for specific projects, then put it back when I am done. I just don't want to have to re-arrange the shop to do that. Something simple and easy.
  You can see the conflict better in this photo, so I will have to move the saw and table about 10" to the left to resolve that for now.


 

I also have another conflict which is the loft railing, shown here (it's a grey rail just behind the saw table).


 

So I will either have to raise the saw or lower the rail. No biggie, I will think on it for a while yet.  Probably raise the saw and router table with some nice custom milled planks which may help cut down some of the vibration noise from the saw through the floor.

 Anyway, I am very happy with how that table saw works, I am a convert now. I have to give kudos to @btulloh and @WDH for shaming me into the purchase. That was a pretty darn good $150. capitol expense. ;D
While I am thanking folks I should point out that @ManjiSann was spot on when he asked about noise transmitting through the bench I added to the new loft. It does indeed 'resound' but nothing too terrible. Actually every machine upstairs makes the loft vibrate and resonate. I don't see it as a big deal. In fact I find those sounds somewhat calming and comforting. Since I was a little kid, my Dad's shop was in the basement right under my bedroom and he would work down there after I went to bed. Many many nights I fell asleep to the sounds of the shop running. I could tell which machine and as I got older what he was doing on what machine. It's how I began to develop a sense of 'good sounds' and 'really bad sounds' that i carry to this day. Maybe I am just weird. I like those sounds, they comfort me. 
 Also @doc henderson had the idea for the master cutoff switch I added to that grinding/sanding/deburring/tool bench which I used and am quite pleased with, so thanks for that. Also @Nebraska @WV Sawmiller and @richhiway for encouragement and support. There are others I am sure I am missing and I apologize for that. The folks here are so supportive and giving of their thoughts and even seemingly off-hand comments that serve to make me think in a new direction and change (improve) my thinking. It all adds up. Tonight I just really thought I should mention that, because it's a big deal to me. It's as if you guys are stopping in after work and checking progress and offering a hand or ideas. Its a pretty amazing thing we have going here. You guys should know it matters to me. Thank You one and all.
 Tomorrow I will find that DanG list and check some things off. OH and while I was jumping around doing all this stuff I happened to find one of my drill press vises I had neatly stored (3 years ago) on a shelf. I put it back where it belongs, finally. ;D :D 8)

 Nice idea about List Doc. We actually do save stuff for them to do. They love sweeping and building stuff with wood scraps (so I mustn't burn them all), but yes, I do keep a list in my head. I should probably write one and hang it on the wall as things occur to me. I do need to get more brooms because they cause fights. ;D

[donbj]

so (too) many things i had thought to say reading over the new posts today.  i know you do not need coaching, but might be fun to start a grand kids list, so dad can drop them off for a few hours (that yes you personally will not get as much done) and they can do for you.  they already feel like such a part of that shop and sawmill.  You are a lucky man!  I will leave it at that. ;)

You're a wise man Doc Henderson

[doc henderson]

thanks @donbj  as the Volga Germans from Hays, Ks would say, "too soon oldt, too late smart"!!!

[doc henderson]

chokes me up a little my friend.  all I can think of is with the table saw and rail, it may work as an out feed table if you plan to cut up there, which i assume you do.  maybe even a roller or two on the rail.

[donbj]

"too soon oldt, too late smart"!!!

Beautiful! How many generations since Adam and we're still working on that! Priorities in life, I'm just as guilty as the next guy.

[Old Greenhorn]

chokes me up a little my friend.  all I can think of is with the table saw and rail, it may work as an out feed table if you plan to cut up there, which i assume you do.  maybe even a roller or two on the rail.

Maybe I can raise that rail and under-sling a long roller?! Not a bad idea. I will look at it tonight and ponder on it a while. I have some better push sticks en route. Gotta stay on task. It's functional now, lets move on. But I do like that idea. 
 I didn't mean to get sappy, just wanted to let y'all know how much I appreciate the very real help. I've never been good at accepting assistance and it is rarely offered anyway, but i am trying to change the former.

[ManjiSann]

OG, for whatever little contribution I have made, you are very welcome. I'm thrilled I can give back to you and all the others that have given so much of their time and knowledge to me!

Keep up the good work!

Brandon 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well kind of tired tonight, but I knocked 2 things off the checklist. I removed a piece of 3/4 ply and moved it up on the wall. That was painted and hung as a high tool board before I built the loft. After the loft went in, it was at floor level so we moved it up (my son stopped by, it was a 2 man job).
I also took an old counter top and set it on some low storage shelves to make a bench I can put slabs on for sanding. It's a little hokey and am not really pleased with it, but it is functional. My focus is narrowing toward getting some project work started. Had a new idea for lumber storage last night. I may start on that tomorrow night (yeah, another side trip, I know, but it is on my list). But we have some snow coming in the morning, so the evening may be lost to plowing.
No photos, not much to show.
I really hope to move some of my wood in the shop this weekend and start something very shortly.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, the snow worked out in my favor today and pretty much melted through the day, not worth plowing what is left so I got right back out there. Frustrating night but I got something done by forcing myself through it and I took one and a half things off the list.
Last night, as I mentioned, I moved the tool board up and I keep fussing over what tools and how I should hang them. I will have at least one upstairs and another over the bench down stairs then some on the downstairs side wall and possibly some ones with dedicated tools or shelves by specific machines with the right stuff for those machines. I think I should stop thinking about it and just start hanging tools. I know I will have to re-do them as I learn or refine what I need where, so I should just get at it. Right now it is a blank canvas:


 

Here is that bench I tried last night. It may go away or stay. I will see how it works out. Its a bit warped, so I put the hammer drill on it to help flatten it. If it stays and is useful, I will firm it up with some screws and make it more proper. Right now, just trying out the idea. It may be in the way or too much when I move my Dad's lathe here.


 
Anyway, tonight I made a quick and dirty lumber rack that is overhead of the table saw. Because of the location, I won't be whacking my head on it. I may make another one on the other side over where the jointer I don't own yet will go.


 
The rack allowed me to get almost all of last year's leftover lumber off the floor (opens more floor up!) I still have a few pieces. Frankly most of it is junk but there are a few pieces like 2x4's I could have used on the loft build if I could have found them. So, a nearly open area now except for a couple of pieces and some plywood I may use for another tool board by the jointer. which will go in approximately this area.


 


This is what that area looked like a few weeks ago. Lumber on the right and the left and a 'few things' in between. So I guess I am making a little progress. 8)


 
Tomorrow I really have to bring in some wood to begin working this weekend. The temps are gonna plummet tomorrow night and I really should have done it tonight, but everything was covered in slush. Tomorrow it will be frozen. Either way I will be doing it in the dark which is not preferred. ;D
Got a 3 day weekend coming up and I want to make it count. I have to pick up some diesel on the way home to keep the shop warm.