Year: 2017

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Processing new wood

I spent the weekend processing some standing cedar and elm wood. I thickness planed it down to the 3/4″ that I need for making sticks. I then made the sticks. What is fascinating to me is how bad these woods are to work with! Elm has a peculiar smell to it and has a very curvy grain pattern, so it is very difficult to know ahead of time whether the bevel cut I do is going to pinch or spread as I cut it. The standing cedar likewise has internal stress and I found that if the stick I process should be about 8″ in length or less, it binds too much and might kick back in a very unsafe manner.

 

 

Initial bevel cut made
Cedar board about to be bevel cut

Elm and cedar sticks made

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Rhoma Variant with custom base. Matt Cremona logo

Here is a couple shots of the puzzle I made for Matt Cremona. The pieces are walnut with an alder base. The base I made is unique in that I turned the puzzle base into a packing style puzzle. I think this makes it even more aggravating to solve! Check his work out at YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/mcremona and his website: mattcremona.com

Matt’s Weekly shop update.

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Assembled
Disassembled
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Drill Press shop cart

Sketchup
Sketchup 7 project file

Based upon Michael Olson’s  “Heavy Duty Mobile Cart from 2×4’s”   I made my own heavy duty cart with half-lap joints much like his, enough so that I thought I should attribute his video as a source of inspiration. Furthermore, I put together a sketchup file for the project. For the wheels I took apart a Harbor Freight furniture dolly.

Some of the things I would differently is that the drawers are a little deep and too tall. I think that after I load them up with typical items that belong to a drill press cart the drawers might end up being too heavy. So ideally the drawers should be at most 7″ tall and maybe put drawers in from both sides while using the rear drawers for more permanent storage (all those things that I never use and should probably get rid of) and place the diagonal cross member in the middle making the drawers about 13″ deep. It would be nice if two of the front casters would lock in place so the cart does not wander around at all when I am using it.
The drill press I placed on top is a Dayton 3Z993C with a RJ33A-13L chuck. The drill press comes in at around 110 lbs. I have no qualms with placing 300+ lbs on the cart.

Half way there

I will add some more picture soon of the project on the way to completion along with the completed version. Let me know if you have any questions!

Here is the finished cart:

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Harbor Freight parts bin storage shelf

I got the inspiration for this build from when Nick Ferry on YouTube had a shop organization project using the Harbor Freight parts bin storage units.

I did not have any vertical wall space to use and I felt that having to reach a little higher if they were in a stacked manner would not be convenient. Furthermore, the white wire shelf that I replaced always had the brackets in the way and never really was good at keeping somewhat unstable footprint items from falling.

Here is the finished product. I just need to spend some time labeling the parts bin so I don’t waste any time searching for the right bin.

 

The way I am going to label them is much easier than Nick’s method. I think he would appreciate it since he has a background in theater work. It is gaffer’s tape. The kind I have has an extremely strong adhesive with a cloth surface that a Sharpy really takes well to.

 

Here is the file for the Sketchup plan.

Please let me know what you think!

–Tim

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BT3000 Shims – made from 0.008 stainless steel shim stock

This is an outdated version: see this post about stainless steel shims

Finally got around to figuring out how to bend my own steel shims for my table saw. I had read on some forum where many have had success using brass shim stock from their local hardware store. I thought that this was a brilliant idea but I thought that the brass stock would be too malleable and not allow for proper arbor alignment as the set screws would wear through fairly quickly.

I first created a jig where I could maximize material usage by allowing me to precisely cut stock to the final length of the shim, then to be able to cut the strips to the exact overall width of the shim so that it could be bent exactly to the dimensions needed. I think the pictures below are self explanatory.

https://goo.gl/photos/LeXKs8GUP7QhdbfG7

From my own website carries stainless steel sets at a discount.

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BT3000 Shim

This is outdated. Take a look at  stainless steel shims.

First off I would like to thank the author of http://bt3000.com/ along with the wonderful descriptions of alignment of this great table saw. I especially like the “permanent” solution he has for his shims. He simply glues them into place! It is genius and have done it myself and am very impressed with the ease with which the saw raises and lowers the blade.

I did have to resort to buying a saw for parts to replace my shims since they were mangled beyond the ability to be glued in place. Nowhere was I able to find these: http://www.ereplacementparts.com/shim-p-149355.html

I am going to attempt to bend my own so I can rescue the saw I bought for parts. Stay tuned, I might be able to sell you my fabricated version.

http://bt3000.com/Shim/ is the link for the fix

 

I have since succeeded in cutting, bending my own shims: http://34.221.208.2/2017/04/12/bt3000-shimms-made-from-0-008-steel-shim-stock/