Southeast Michigan Woodworkers

Today I attended an informal class on spray finishing put on by two members of the SEMWW, Dave Zaret and Jim Biddle.  They did an outstanding job of presenting an overview of spraying.  They focused on spraying Target Coatings products, and since I haven't used anything from them in a few years it was a great reintroduction to their lineup.  They also discussed gun setup, hvlp vs conversion guns, polishing the finish, and spraying technique.  Zaret has a great shop in a barn that he shares with Biddle, and they've made quite a nice spray booth in the corner of their shop.  I sure do wish I had such a nice setup in my shop!

Thanks to Dave and Jim for such a great seminar!

Today I attended an informal class on spray finishing put on by two members of the SEMWW, Dave Zaret and Jim Biddle.  They did an outstanding job of presenting an overview of spraying.  They focused on spraying Target Coatings products, and since I haven't used anything from them in a few years it was a great reintroduction to their lineup.  They also discussed gun setup, hvlp vs conversion guns, polishing the finish, and spraying technique.  Zaret has a great shop in a barn that he shares with Biddle, and they've made quite a nice spray booth in the corner of their shop.  I sure do wish I had such a nice setup in my shop!

Thanks to Dave and Jim for such a great seminar!

Well I've finally completed a few new projects.  Check them out on the main website:  dulcitars and my new outfeed bench.

The bench went together very quickly due to my use of a premade slab and Dominos for joinery.  It's a great design and I'm already thankful to have a few more workholding options for the shop.

The dulcitars were kind of a spur of the moment project.  My local woodworking club was doing a course on making them, and since it sounded like a lot of fun I enrolled.  Although these weren't on my looooong list of projects to be built they were a ton of fun to make.  And now they're a ton of fun to play.

Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to add a long overdue blog entry even though it sort of duplicates stuff on my web site.  At the slim chance someone out there is following me via RSS is might even alert someone to check out the updates (since I don't have RSS on my main website). 

Have fun and stay safe!

Well I've finally completed a few new projects.  Check them out on the main website:  dulcitars and my new outfeed bench.

The bench went together very quickly due to my use of a premade slab and Dominos for joinery.  It's a great design and I'm already thankful to have a few more workholding options for the shop.

The dulcitars were kind of a spur of the moment project.  My local woodworking club was doing a course on making them, and since it sounded like a lot of fun I enrolled.  Although these weren't on my looooong list of projects to be built they were a ton of fun to make.  And now they're a ton of fun to play.

Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to add a long overdue blog entry even though it sort of duplicates stuff on my web site.  At the slim chance someone out there is following me via RSS is might even alert someone to check out the updates (since I don't have RSS on my main website). 

Have fun and stay safe!

I occasionally have lulls in my woodworking hobby.  They don't happen often, and they usually don't last long, but there are occasionally times when I just don't feel like getting into the shop for some unknown reason.  This spring was one of those times, and this time the lull seemed to last unusually long - perhaps a month or so.

Right now is certainly an anti-lull (is that a word/phrase?).  I'm Jonesin to spend every available moment in the shop.

I'm in the midst of building a new outfeed table that will also serve as a second workbench.  This will look a bit like a Holtzapffel bench but with a few twists and mods - chief amonst them is an apron.  Aaah, how I love my apron.

I just got the base completed and I'm in the home stretch for the top.  Hopefully the thing will be completed before too long, but as usual it all depends on how much time I can squeeze in the shop (which often occurs by weaseling out of other honey-do items).  So what if we've been working on finishing a room in our basement for a year and a half, so what if I haven't trimmed the yard in far too long, so what if I need to replace/repaint some exterior woodwork before the snow starts to fall, and so what if the "real" project list doesn't contain a new bench at all.  I'm gonna make me another bench, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Over the past several days we've been reviewing the insurance coverage we have for our home, cars, life ("lives"?), etc. A few years ago we added a "rider" to our homeowner's policy expressly to cover my tools. Without the rider our basic policy capped tool coverage at something like $500 which is obviously not adequate for a woodworking shop. So our tool rider covers us for full replacement costs up to $25,000 which should be enough to get the vast majority (if not all) of my shop tools. The rider only adds $27 to our yearly insurance bill, so it seems like a great bargain for the peace of mind it provides.

The other nice thing about our tool rider is it forced me to make/update a tool inventory including pictures of each major tool. We track serial numbers, purchase prices, make/model, etc. All this is kept on line (partly on my website) for safe keeping.

With this we feel pretty good about insurance on our tools and shop. Hopefully we never need it, but it's nice to know that we're adequately covered if it's ever necessary.

My shop serves several purposes.  Primarily it's a place for me to build stuff.  But one of it's important secondary functions is to provide a place of respite from the rest of the world.  A place to go and forget about the issues of life and spend a few moments without worry or pressure or stress or trouble.

I occasionally enjoy going down to the shop and working on nothing.  I may tidy up the place a bit, or make minor improvements to storage or organization, or perhaps just go down there and zone out for a few minutes.

Most times (by far) I'm working on projects, but I'd be lying if I denied it also provides a simple place to get away from the world for a few brief minutes.

My shop serves several purposes.  Primarily it's a place for me to build stuff.  But one of it's important secondary functions is to provide a place of respite from the rest of the world.  A place to go and forget about the issues of life and spend a few moments without worry or pressure or stress or trouble.

I occasionally enjoy going down to the shop and working on nothing.  I may tidy up the place a bit, or make minor improvements to storage or organization, or perhaps just go down there and zone out for a few minutes.

Most times (by far) I'm working on projects, but I'd be lying if I denied it also provides a simple place to get away from the world for a few brief minutes.

The other weekend in between business trips I was able install Byrd Shelix cutterheads in my jointer and planer with the help of a friend.  I had been selling misc shop tools that haven't seen much use to raise the cash, and I finally raised enough to purchase both the jointer and planer heads thanks to a great sale price from Grizzly that was matched by Holbren (who threw in free shipping as well).

From reading others experiences I gathered that the jointer head would be fairly straightforward to install, but from my personal experiences with tearing my planer apart I knew that would be a PITA.  Much to my surprise, they both went fairly easy, and we were able to get the two machines done in about 4 hours.  My friend was a huge help, and we had to re-use some parts that I wasn't planning for, but overall it was a much easier task than I expected.  So I thought I'd capture some lessons learned here for folks who might tackle the same task in the future.

For the jointer, the biggest surprise was that the bearings on my Griz G0490 (one of their first models) are different than those in a DJ-20, and they're also different than those shown in the on-line G0490 parts list.  So the replacement set that I had on hand were later returned to the store, and we had to pull the original bearings and re-install them on the new shelix head.  Other than that it went easily, and after tweaking the tables with the new head I was testing the machine in no time.

The planer was definately harder to do, but it didn't take much more time (probably thanks in part to my previous experience with "repairing" the gearbox).  The biggest issue with the planer is the $%#@* gearbox.  It looks easy in Byrd's step-by-step document, but my gearbox did not come apart (on either occasion) nearly as nicely as the one in Byrd's pics.  The shafts and gears interlock with each other, there are bearings all over the place pressed onto shafts and into the box housing, and the oil seals are tricky to seat properly.  Also, I think there's a fundamental flaw in the gearbox that permits the oil leakage - it needs an additional fastener in the upper corner of the case to get a better clamp load on the gasket.  Before you start the planer head make sure you have print outs of the exploded parts diagrams, replacement oil (I used 80-90W gear oil), replacement bearings and seals, several bearing pullers (the cheap HF set I purchased had several sizes and worked great), shop rags to handle the grease/oil, a dead blow hammer and deep well sockets to coerce bearings into/out of their housings and shafts, leather gloves to protect your hands from getting sliced on the cutters, and some real estate to lay out all the pieces/parts.  If you have some base knowledge of bearings, take your time, don't chip the new cutters, and keep everything neatly organized and you'll get it done.

I miss my shop.  Lately I've been travelling a ton for business, and the hours are long and there's little to no relief in site.  Since I can't take my tablesaw and handplanes with me on a plane, I've been busy with "virtual woodworking".  You know - reading books, reading web forums and blogs, working on desigs in Sketchup, visiting tool stores and galleries, and generally thinking about wood much more than working with wood.

So I'm well read but poorly practiced.  This bites the big one.  Really sucks. 

I even started a few threads on my favorite web forums asking for ideas about woodworking on the road.  The best ideas seem to be learning chip carving (which I've been meaning to do for a while).  That's fine, but when I really want to work on a desk or throw shavings at the lathe, fiddling with eeny weeny geometrical cutouts on a bland piece of basswood just doesn't seem so appealing.

So if/when free time becomes available again I need to concentrate on two priorities: my family and woodworking.  The wife and kids are always number one, but I need to take every spare half hour while the family is otherwise occupied and carve out some shop time.  I have a friend who wakes himeself up at some ridiculous hour in the morning so that he can have an hour or two of project time before the family awakes and work beckons.  I'm not a morning person, so that will never happen, but the idea of creatively squeezing out time to work with wood at every available moment is one that I need to learn from.

So if you're reading this and have your workshop a few steps down the stairs or out in the garage, get out there, spend an extra 30 minutes, and appreciate the quality time working with wood.

Oh, how I miss my truck! The lease on my F150 was up last summer, and in a moment of weakness I leased a Ford Edge instead of another truck. Oh, how I miss my truck!

Yeah, the Edge is awesome, and it gets relatively fantastic gas mileage for my 50 mile daily commute, but you just can't haul stuff the way I used to in my truck. Plywood? - nope. A new major shop tool? - probably not. A load of mulch? - no way. Two kiddies and a wife? - yessiree. I suppose my priorities have truly changed over the last few years. More family (and more work); less woodworking.

So I'm in the middle of a big desk/hutch project for Sherri, and I've gone as far as I can go without buying another sheet of plywood. Instead of jumping in the F150 and grabbing a nice sheet without thinking twice I now have to plan well in advance to either borrow someone's truck, "evaluate" one from work for a night, or beg and plead for someone to bring me one on their next plywood run. I could ask someone at the Borg to break down a sheet so that it fits in my truck, but then I'd be buying el-crapola ply and trusting one of their oh-so-helpful employees to cut it properly. Nah, I'll wait to get a decent full sheet home somehow, someway. It just might take a while, and in the meantime my wife won't have her desk anytime soon.

Oh how I miss my truck!

As often happens, an innocent tool upgrade has had far-reaching repurcussions in the shop. Found a deal on a new air compressor (sale price + coupon + gift cards = oh yeah), and that created the need for a new 220V electrical line to it's new location in the garage. My shop circuits were fed from my main house panel, and that's sub-optimal in a few ways. It's a long run for wire from the panel to the shop, the breaker slots are almost full (although I could always retrofit tandems), and that doesn't easily permit cutting off power to the shop to protect curious little kiddies.

So I finally decided to bite the bullet and install a new subpanel that feeds the shop. The subpanel cures all the ills above, but it's not a trivial task and with today's copper prices it's not cheap. So we bought a panel, #6 feeder cable, and a few odds and ends and took the time to rewire all the power to the shop. All is now done, and I'm glad I spent the money and time. I've got new capacity for growth (not sure why I'll need that though...), but the best part is with the flip of one switch I can cut power to the entire shop. Makes me feel much safer now that the rugrats can't go accidentally pressing pretty green switches on daddies big shop tools.