I finally bought a house in Cave Country! W00T!!!

[The Chairman]

While I was poking around in the shop today, putting things away from ALL THE BOXES, I decided that I really had to spend some time and really set up the Shop Fox bandsaw. I had tried to adjust it earlier and in the end, it howled like a banshee so I knew I had over-tightened something. It actually cuts pretty well as is, but that howl is horrendous. It's time to set it right, so I watched a video three times last night on what to do and how to do it. It took him like ten minutes to set up his bandsaw, but it must have taken me three hours! In the end, it was worth it. I had to take the blade and table off, but she's quiet again and cuts rather well. I also cleaned up it's table and applied two coats of that micro-crystalline wax. I took a 2x4 and cut the into the face the width of the blade. I flipped it around to the back and the blade slid right in without nary a touch. She's true! She's quiet! She's sharp! I had installed a small LED light to really illuminate the work and she looks awesome:

 

[chillyinCanada]

Boxes, boxes everywhere! I've been going through boxes for three weeks now. I've deleted a number of them, organized a bunch more, and still there are a ton of boxes. Most of these are small boxes that hold specific items. Like Saturday when I went to Lake City for Tractor Supply, Corbett's Mobile Home Supply, Chik-Fil-A, Harbor freight and Home Depot (in that order), I realized that I had no heater blower and no windshield wipers. It was cold and the window was foggy. So while Dan was shopping, I was under the dash sussing things out. I traced it down to the 5A fuse that controlled the relay, and while I knew I had hundreds of ATO blade style fuses, I wasn't sure I had the minis. I made a final stop into a parts store, picked up the only assortment that had a 5A fuse and promptly dropped it and could not find it. Arrrrrgh. However, at the house, I found the small container and sure enough, I had 120 mini blade style fuses and was able to effect the repair.

It hit me that I could get rid of all the small boxes most of the shop would be cleared out. I looked up high and there's definitely room for a shelf, so that's the next project. Moreover, I have lots of 2x4 shorts, so maybe I can utilize them. I got a sheet of 11/32" plywood, ripped off two 16"x8' boards and one that was 12"x8'. I cut the 12" wide board into 12" squares and them cut them diagonally, corner to corner. I cut the two legs, and cut a 1/32" dado to accept lengthways so with the plywood glued in place, each one became a triangle. I then cut dados to accept supporting stringers between the supports. Here's a few pics.

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A minute or so each on the 4"x36" sander, and I painted them. They are upside down in this picture:

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Tomorrow, I'll mount them on the wall, cut/fit the stringers, put a bull nose on the plywood and paint it all. If I need to, there's space up high on the back wall for another shelf.

I need a bunch of those. Wish I lived closer.

 

[The Chairman]

I'm very happy with the shelf supports. I have four left over, so now I'm figuring out where to put them.

The miter saw wall used to be fairly organized until I put the shelves up. I had to stick to studs, which are not that evenly spaced, so many of the items that were fastened into studs came down to make room. I have bottles everywhere that were once neatly in place. I didn't like the solution I had come up with much, so taking a step or two back is no big problem... I just can't find sprays like I once could.

 

[The Chairman]

I was mowing the lawn today and almost ran over this lone antler lying in the flowers by the SW Fence. Glad I saw it and avoided running over it.

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My lunch break is over and I must return to mowing. Whew, it's getting warm out there!

 

[The Chairman]

No Dust In the Wind Project: Mostly finished!

The final part of the project was wiring in magnetic switches, so when I open a gate valve, the dust collector would come on. Finding the right switches was problematic. Most of these are for burglar alarms, where they want the circuit closed with the magnet in place. I wanted the circuit closed when the magnet was away from the switch. I thought I had tested the switches and wired them accordingly. Then, testing them again, it became obvious that they were backwards from what I wanted. I had used Liquid Nails to glue them on the gate valves, and was dreading all the chipping and cleaning that was ahead of me. Nope, the white liquid nails was still wet 48 hours after the fact. I wiped it all down, used the other contact, and glued them with clear Goop.

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Then I concentrated on the control box. It would be a fairly straightforward use of a simple relay circuit. When a gate valve was opened, the trigger circuit should close causing the relay to energize the dust collector. The motor on the dust collector was pulling 6 amps, so a 10A solid state relay should be sufficient. I broke a USB charger apart, since the relay called for 3 to 32 VDC and sussed out where I could get 5VDC.

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I hooked it up and using the Miter Saw gate valve, the relay did not close the circuit. Oh the LED came on, but no joy on the working end. I tried a 22VDC power supply and still didn't get a connection. I went to some mini relays that operated on 5VDC, meant for a microcontroller. Still no joy. Ultimately, I went with with the ubiquitous 12V cube used in many automotive applications. This one was rated for 50A and it worked perfectly. For the power supply, I used the guts of a wall mounted AC to 12V cigarette lighter socket. That band saw was perfect for dissecting small electronic adapters like that. I double sided foam taped it to the project box. The relay has a tab that was screwed in where I drilled/tapped for the other relay.

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So this morning, I mounted it up on the wall by the 4" tube, finished running the three sets of wires, hooked it all up and walla:

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Like a good mechanic, I always start what I finish!

I'm not quite done yet. I have one adapter for the band saw coming as well as one for the miter saw. I need to build a dust collector for the router and hook it in. It and the table saw use the same gate valve and I'm thinking the lower part will be as simple as a bucket with a port cut in it. Since they are using the same table, I might make an upper hose that simply dangles from the ceiling that can be used for either the table saw or the router. I'll just plug it off when not in use.

 

[The Chairman]

Another week has passed here, Summer is rapidly approaching. My across the street neighbor encouraged me to go and harvest some taters, so I went with Daryl and we got quite a few. Yum!

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Work on the barn style shed continues, but we're getting it ready to lie for a month since we're headed to Fiji the last week of May.

Dan's best side!

The view from the loft.
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I've been busy in the work shop simply organizing and tidying up. I like it when things come together. Here is my work station...

Lot's of room to grow on the pegboard.​

 

[Johnoly]

... Here is my work station...

It looks nice & neat. Is there a computer printer in the shop for you to print out drawings, or do you have to go back to the house for that?

 

[The Chairman]

It looks nice & neat. Is there a computer printer in the shop for you to print out drawings, or do you have to go back to the house for that?

I actually have a little net box I might put up high and I do have an extra color laser printer. Not sure where I'll put it.

I added a magnifying light as well as a vice today.

 

[The Chairman]

So much has been done, but there's still so much to do. On of the things I like to have is an outside sink for washing hands, paint brushes etc. I have a leaking valve that sent water to the West side of the property, so I plumbed in a valve, added a wash tub style sink and a hose bibb by the Pump.

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I finished the initial build of my No Dust in the Wind Project, by adding stabilizing brackets to the gate valves and replacing the bent hose on the dust collector...

Bracket and speed/framing square organizer.

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[The Chairman]

No Dust In the Wind: Router Dust Collection...

I got the idea from youtube to make my router dust collector out of a Homer bucket. I have a number of them around, so I don't mind sacrificing one. In fact, I think I want to make this using only scraps and items I have on hand. Assessing the situation, my biggest issue is that I don't have a flat surface under the router table...

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I took out the old stiffener, counter sunk the screws holding the aluminum brackets, am going with 1/2" shorter screws to hold down the router, and add some 3/8" ply to fill in the gaps. I'm not sure how the guides on the router lift corroded so badly, but I took the time to disassemble and clean it all up. They both look great now.

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Then I made a base. I had cut some 2x6s to being exactly 4: high for the Barn and so I cleaned up the edges, cut 3/8" dados along the edge and fitted some 3/8" plywood as a spline and glued it all up.

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It's almost impossible to get a dado perfectly centered, and really, you don't have to. I marked one side of each piece with an "F" for fence. I cut each dado with the same side towards the fence and then assembled them that way. I really had to crank down on the clamps to make the faces mate. Perhaps I should have let a bit more room?

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I only took 1/64" off each side in the planer to make it completely flat. I really like the way the splines look. It almost looks like a solid piece of wood if it weren't for them.

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I traced the outline of the bucket, modified it to the width of the router lift, cut it with a jig saw and am fitting it to screw into those aluminum brackets.Guys at the hackerspace commented on how even the jig saw cut looked, and I guess I owe that to great lighting and clamping it down.

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I took the bucket and base to hackerspace and let the group brain storm it. The best idea was to make it a "bayonet style" mount. I created two retainers that are just a tad less than a quarter of the circumference of the rim. The rim is only 1/4" thick in either direction. I planed some of that scrap 3/8" plywood to match that and then took a 1/4" flush router bit and put on a 1/2" bearing, and routed two "quarters" of the rim.

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Now all I have to do is to twist the bucket a quarter turn and the remaining rim slides under the retainers. I even attached a block, so I won't over turn it. No, I won't have to remove the bucket often, but I might and this will make it easy. This morning I'll attend to adding an vacuum port.