Friday again folks.

 

Nothing I want to do on my weekend agenda, what's on yours? 

Got a bunch of the toy's router templates cut on the scroll saw. This weekend will be dedicated to edge sanding/smoothing those little buggers. Production should commence next week. 

Trying to remove and replace the on/off switch on a Shopsmith has become a nightmare. Can't get the old one out.  

 

Edited October 6, 20232 yr by Gene Howe

52 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Trying to remove and replace the on/off switch on a Shopsmith has become a nightmare. Can't get the old one out.  

 

 Might need a bigger hammer. 

I was actually able to do some minor woodworking yesterday. I'm way behind on reading my woodworking magazines and was able to catch up while Marie is convalescing. In a 2 year old issue of Wood I came across a table saw hack I though was really useful...here's my version of it. It's simply putting a small drawer inside the front fence tube. My execution isn't nearly as nice as what they did, but just as functional...and I'm very much a function over form guy for shop stuff.

5 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I was actually able to do some minor woodworking yesterday. I'm way behind on reading my woodworking magazines and was able to catch up while Marie is convalescing. In a 2 year old issue of Wood I came across a table saw hack I though was really useful...here's my version of it. It's simply putting a small drawer inside the front fence tube. My execution isn't nearly as nice as what they did, but just as functional...and I'm very much a function over form guy for shop stuff.

Now that's thinking outside the drawer. Pretty nifty.

Sunshine is gone.  Shop time shall resume.

Used to remember when it being a Friday meant something good....

 

Woodworking last night..

Means I have to rearrange a couple items...

As this will make the Post Drill stick out into the shop a bit too far (15" plus the 4x4...

May down-size the Old Swayback Maru....with a narrower one, that has one more shelf...

 

Boss wants to go "shopping" TODAY!

Heading to a Ham swap meet in Belton, TX tomorrow morning.  Looking to pickup some used gear... antenna analyzer, external antenna tuner.   Managed to make some QSO's (contacts) on the 10meter band.  3 on the east coast and 1 in Wales, UK.   Changed my antenna setup from an inverted V to a flattop (60' of SS wire 25' off the ground on both ends) and it's working much better than before.  Not bad for a 100w barefoot setup.  One of these days, I'll add a RF amplifier.  I'm allowed 1500watts.  

 

Got the electronic logging working.  Laptop interfaces with radio to pull the data into an application.  All I have to do is type the call sign.  

My logbook

https://www.qrz.com/db/kj5ctx

 

.40

 When I retired I documented on my blog the workshop 1 syllabus projects I used to teach .   Lately those posts have been visited an unusually high number of times by someone/some group of folks in Singapore.  What the posts didn't do that I always did was demonstrate how each project step was done.    So today I dug through the wood scraps in my garage shop area to find a useful piece to use for a small box "lesson".  I've rounded up a tripod to stick my camera on.  Set up my router table with a 3/16" spiral upcut bit, and plan to video the steps to making a perfect rabbet/dado corner joint.  Steps will include:  How to set the distance from the fence to the bit.  How to set the height of the bit. How to back up the cuts across the grain with a scrap board.  Etc..   Not yet sure if I'll post this on YouTube with a link to it on my blog, or just on my blog within the associated lesson. 

 

As time goes by I'll do the same with each of the other project steps.  Splined miter joint using the table saw.  Box joints using a fixture on the router table or table saw.  Shallow rabbet corner reinforced with screws covered by wood plugs. 

 

I realize that the descriptions/photos of what to do are missing the tool setup and cut logic and wisdom best show in a video.  A video anyone can watch on their phone or PC seems as though it might be more effective than what the students learned standing around me as I demonstrated these things.   That's the goal for this weekend. 

4D 

Got some yard work done earlier this week. Also a little shop time in doing on-going tool refurbing. Outside work will be hit and miss this weekend with scattered rain forecast and wind kicking up at times. Gonna have to cover the 'mators and bell peppers during the nights too as frost is in the forecast. A little early for our region.

 

Hopefully more tool refurbing in the works too. Church responsibilities Sunday plus helping the Mrs. around the house. She has rescheduled (due to C-19 a couple weeks back) out-patient surgery procedure Monday AM. 

4 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I was actually able to do some minor woodworking yesterday

Good to see you're getting a little shop time in Fred. Cool idea and mod. Another place to forget where something is hidden. 

 Managed to get the Pilots brake line installed after walking about 5.5 miles to the Autozone before the moved in. Now waiting for it to quit so I can get the brakes bled. 

 

If it was a horse I'd shoot it. 

  I have to wonder if they still teach left from right anymore. 

 

 Went to Kwik-Trip and for the third time with three different cashiers I had to tell them "The Other Left" when telling them where what I wanted was. 

This time the manager was watching the goings on, and she could only shake her head and roll her eyes when she looked at me. 

Now that every kid has "smart phone" the result is that kids don't learn to think for themselves.  I noticed during the last decade or so of teaching college kids that none seemed to ever read past the first paragraph of an email. As if they didn't know they could scroll down to see more of the text. The left/right challenge failure is due to "Hey Google?  Right or Left?" being an impossible question to answer out of context.  A problem I always had when helping students with CNC requests was that the vectors they sent me were often "lost in space".  I'd load them in but have to zoom back until I could see a dot somewhere then choose the dot and have it centered in the work job area.  After demonstrating to a class of 10 students or so how I imported vectors then made toolpaths from them to cut out I made sure to mention I wanted their vectors centered on or just above and right from 0,0, X.Y coordinates.   Only one of those 10 submitted vectors right where I wanted them, and I asked her why she was they only one to get that right,   She quickly replied that she'd taken notes.    Note taking is clearly a lost art it seems. 

4D  

@Fred W. Hargis Jr that is one of thee coolest table saw hacks I've ever seen!

It's SHOWTIME!!!

@forty_caliber That electronic log is very cool. How long has that been available. 

 

Finally back to my usual 4 plus hours in the shop. Went to an estate sale today and picked up a box of 45 shells for 20 . And 52 steel fence posts for 3 each. These are the old iron posts. I have looked them up sometimes and cost is from 16 to 24 each. These are just 5 foot and son wants a fence higher to exclude deer so I have started drilling holes in posts so can add wood to top after posts are installed.

6 hours ago, Gerald said:

@forty_caliber That electronic log is very cool. How long has that been available. 

 

From the About page.  https://www.qrz.com/page/about.html

"QRZ was founded in 1992 by Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ as a spinoff of what was once called the "Callsign Project", a cooperative effort designed to obtain and distribute FCC database tapes..."  

 

.40

 

On my table saw rail drawer above I got a PM asking how the drawer deals with the bolts inside the tube (the ones fastening the tube to the angle iron bracket). So here's another couple of pics on how it works. The bolts on my saw stick up a metric 3/8" from the bottom of the tube. I though about buying shorter bolts, or cutting the ones I have off a little. In the end I just left everything as is and dado-ed the bottom of the drawer to slide over them. The drawer bottom is 5/8" thick so there was plenty of room for the groove. The sides of the drawer are 1/4" ply..actually it was closer to 3/16". The end that sticks out of the tube is just a butt joint, but I put a #10 biscuit between it and the drawer bottom to make sure it held. One other note, the tube isn't square in the corners so i rounded over the bottom edge with a 3/8" roundover bit to match the tubes corners.

Went to my local Woodcraft 9 yrs anniversary. Went to a Jess Crow epoxy clinic. Pretty interesting. Also scored two 8/4 walnut slabs for 110. One 56 inches long not sure about the other .