I'm Havin' Fun Now

[J T]

Got my HF power mitre saw unboxed today. And tried it out. Non-slider, and only about $70, but works just fine, and is just what I wanted.

I'll be using it for semi-production work. I want to cut pieces up to 8" wide, but the way it is now, it'll only cut a piece just under

5" wide. But, by raising the base up a bit, it'll be able to cut almost 9" wide with no problem.

So my mission just now is figuring just how I'll raise it. I've cut some old 2X4 chunks, and glued them two high and two wide. I'll have to run them thru the planer a few times, but that should do for the left side of the blade. For the right side I glued two shorer pieced on top of each other, I'll put a "ramp" in that, so he cut pieces will slide down out of the way. May have to make that a bit wider also, don't know yet, wasn't able to get out to the shop this evening. May eventually have to tilt the whole saw, to get enough angle for the cut pieces to fall readily.

Then I'll have to figure out how I'll fasten both down, that may involve drilling some holes, for hold-downs or bolts.

On the left side I'll also figure out how to make a guard, so I won't easily be able to get my fingers near to the blade - I'm a large believer in keeping my body parts away from the sharp whirly parts. I also may have o wind up lopping the end of that plastic saw guard off, and it won't hurt to have that covered either.

No plans, no measurements, no sketches, on any of this. Just set a piece of wood in place, see how it looks, see what what the next step will be, do it. It'll take several days, mostly because of glue drying time. I'll be cutting pieces from 1 3/8" wide, to about 8" wide, so I'll be making saw stops to let me get different and consistent cuts, with no measuring. Right now I'm not sure of how I'll fasten the stops down, but it'll work out. I'm thinking like on my saw sled, a block screwed in place to keep it from sliding, then different stops clamped in place for different width cuts. Gave consistent cuts with the sled, so have no doubt it will work as well on this.

I have no idea if something is out there that would do this or not, and even if there is, I wouldn't buy one, no matter what the price. It ain't rocket science, but it is fun, making my own stuff - woodworking at its finest.

JOAT Expensive tennis shoes won't cure a sore toe.

- Bazooka Joe

[Bill in Detroit]

Sounds like me this afternoon making a cross-slide sled to use my horizontal router table to make mortises.

I saw a really nice version of this sled that used drawer sliders and fancy hold-downs. Lots of 'gold standard' Baltic Birch. Looked really slick. The only problem I saw with it was that I don't have ANY of that stuff laying around.

So -- I'm making it from what I actually have. Dunnage plywood. A piece of t-track bought at least a year ago. Some glue. A few wire brads, 16 short screws. Four 1/4" bolts, 4 short pieces of HR angle iron, four oak step block sets and four through-knobs for hold downs. Or maybe I'll buy the step blocks at Production Tool down the street. Probably more fun to make them.

Once the epoxy sets up (IF I got the mix right this time), I'll make some practice mortises. Then fix whatever is wrong with the jig.

I'll figure this stuff out eventually.

I guess.

Bill

[J T]

Wed, Apr 25, 2007, 2:02am [e-mail] (Bill=A0in=A0Detroit) doth sayeth: Sounds like me this afternoon I'm making it from what I actually have. Dunnage plywood. A piece of t-track bought at least a year ago. Some glue. A few wire brads, 16 short screws. Four 1/4" bolts, 4 short pieces of HR angle iron, four oak step block sets and four through-knobs for hold downs. I'll figure this stuff out eventually. I guess.

I differ in that I always try to stay away from any metal, period, in my sleds and all, if I reasonably can. I figure at some time or other there's always the chance I'll screw up and run a cutting edge thru it and I prefer not to risk metal in the way. Titebond II has always worked fine so far. Figurig it out is just part of the fun.

JOAT If you don't ask the right questions, the answers don't matter.

- W.S. Lind

[J T]

Spent some more time this afternoon, paning down the 2X4 chunks, and thinking about the next step. Things coming along well, figure some

1/4" plywood, as a base joing both pieces, on both sids of the blade, will wind up strengthening the whole think. Also think now that 2 or 4 J-hooks will let me get away with fatening it down without drilling any holes in any part of the saw. Found out too, the right side wood needs to be wider, so planed another chunk of scrap 2X4 and gluing that on this evening. Once they were planed, to get the grunge off, those scrap 2X4 chunks are looking good, and have that nice clean pine smel too. Also found out that instead of cutting off a fair szed portin of he ipof the plastic saw guard, I may be ableto get along with not taking any at all of, or only a quite small piece if so. I won't be able to tell that until I get it all done and actually use it.

JOAT If you don't ask the right questions, the answers don't matter.

- W.S. Lind

[J T]

Spent a bit of time in the shop yesterday, figuring how to get the 'ramp' on my right side piece. then it hit me, just set it on the saw, figure the angle I wanted, market it with a pencil; then just glue up a siimple planer slet, that'll holt it at an angle with the pencil line level with the planer sled. No prob. Scrap plywood base, glue a block on the end to keep it from slipping, and a block on one side to hold it up. I would normally have glued a block on the other side this evening, but had a doctor appointment in Raleigh today, with a stop at my favorite used bookstore, so all in all decided I'd pass on it today. I could have used some brads and tacked the whole sled together in 5-10 minutes, but I have a very strong reluctance to having any metal in my saw and planer sleds. So I glue them all.

At the used bookstore picked up a few reading books, no pictures, and a couple with pictures. One is The Indian, The History Of A Classic American Motorcycle. Lovely full color pictures. I think it was actually better looking then Harleys. The other book was Classic American Runabouts, Wood Boats 1915-1965. You talk about some beeyootiful woodworking. Would have been nice to have me restoration in progress pictures too, but there are some of when the boats were being built new. Not a bad day at all.

I checked the woodworking book section too. Nothing I wanted myself, but some of you guys would probably drool at some of the books there. Go back a week from now and probably most of them will be gone and different books in their place. If you guys don't already you really need to find at least one good used bookstore to browse. Get to know them and they'll be on the lookout for books you'd like and hold them for a few days.

JOAT If you don't ask the right questions, the answers don't matter.

- W.S. Lind

[rmeyer1]

Did you happen to see the movie The Fastest Indian? Story of Bert Monro, an old guy from New Zealand who has built and re-built a 1920's Indian to break a speed record in the States. Stars Anthony Hopkins in creep free role, I think one of his best. Gives an old guy hope.

[J T]

Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 7:21am (EDT-3) [e-mail] doth quer: Did you happen to see the movie The Fastest Indian? Story of Bert Monro, an old guy from New Zealand who has built and re-built a 1920's Indian to break a speed record in the States. Stars Anthony Hopkins in creep free role, I think one of his best. Gives an old guy hope.

Not seen the movie, reard of him. Friday got a book on Indian History, with some nice photos of the bike, includig wth one side off, and some of history.

Call it hope or whatever you want, I never lost it.

JOAT If you don't ask the right questions, the answers don't matter.

- W.S. Lind