barn saved, near Philly

[Bob Riefer]

Thanks Harry, I'll definitely keep that in mind once testing starts. I have a great supply house right next to my office, so it's easy to pickup components as needed.

[Bob Vallaster]

Bob,
Sparkplug = energizer bunny = hard charger. You get the idea.

BobV

[Bob Riefer]

Ahhh funny because I feel so exhausted from all the work

[Bob Riefer]

Not much of an update, but in the spirit of keeping a log of projects (and mini-projects) finished..

It's become a challenge for me to complete as many projects using leftover scrap that I have laying around. I started with A LOT of scrap, but the pile is finally starting to dwindle. The side bonus of this approach is that it enables me to have one list of "projects I can complete for free from stuff I have laying around" in addition to a list of "need to buy stuff to do the project". Right now, between paychecks, the choice is to do nothing, or work through the free projects list.

Anyways, I got the hood for the miter saw built last night. The hood doesn't interfere with the saw regardless of which angle you're cutting. I think I'll line it with some laminate (or similar) and funnel all the dust to the hole behind the saw, but I'll test it first once the blast gates arrive in two weeks.

(please don't laugh at my miter fence in this picture, it's all I could afford for now, but it's been working great so far)


miter hood.jpg


miter hood dc connection.jpg

[Dave Gaul]

(please don't laugh at my miter fence in this picture, it's all I could afford for now, but it's been working great so far)


miter hood.jpg


miter hood dc connection.jpg

Laugh? Are you kidding Bob? I think it's great! If it works, who cares what it's made of or what it looks like! I just wish I had the space for something like that. Looks like you put a lot of work into that set up, I'd keep it that way, maybe paint or finish the fence, or even laminate it with something.. microdot formica would be cool!

[Bob Riefer]

Hey Dave - Geez, I'm sorry, I didn't see your reply until just now! My bad. I really appreciate the comment. The fence is working just ehhhhh now that I've had it in use a lot. The fact that the 2x4's are a little bowed makes precision cutting tough. However, I feel that most precision cuts will ultimately occur on the table saw, so perhaps the setup will be just fine at the end of the day. I'm going to live with it a bit longer.

--------


well, in the spirit of another update that isn't very meaty...

Since I last posted, my kitchen got flooded, so I needed to completely gut it and rebuild it. I did all of the work myself, except for granite install and laying the finished floor material, and did manage to design and build two pieces of furniture for the space, but I wouldn't consider these pieces to be "woodworking" per se, as they're built in a construction style, and I purchased the top already built.

But anyways, here's the kitchen, and the island/mini-island:
kitchen finished.jpg kitchen finished 3.jpg kitchen finished 2.jpg

So with that finished now, I can get back to business in the shop (side note: having the shop to do lots of this work was AWESOME). I found minimal funds, so my blast gates and flex duct for the DC system are on the way, as are the jointer knives that I need in order to be able to use the small 6" delta jointer that I purchased awhile back. I tell you what, it's been killer having all the piping and the thien baffle finished for 2 months, and not being able to use the system!!! Can't wait!

I also met (through this site) an experienced woodworker in Horsham that very graciously answered 2 hours worth of my questions at his shop recently. He may be visiting my shop next weekend, and the plan is to learn more about dialing in each piece of equipment and discuss shop flow etc.

With all that done, I'll go about building 10-12 adirondak chairs for our yard and porch. We have a big yard and use various spots differently, so having many chairs is not only good practice for me, but also useful. I'll be using white cedar from the local sawmill and I figure by the end of building all those chairs, I'll have a pretty good feel for taking rough lumber through to a finished project. And then I plan to up the difficulty level on the next projects after that.

Thanks for reading

[Homer Faucett]

Bob,

It was good to see you post here again. I'm sorry to hear about the kitchen flood, but you did a great job in the restoration. I did a similar gut and rebuild in my kitchen, and had to do some structural repairs to the house when I pulled out the walls--not unlike your barn repairs (the joys of owning houses over a century old).

Once you get the knack of using your jointer, you can tame the bow right out of those miter saw fence 2x4's. I had that same miter saw a few years back, and with a good fence, you can expect better results in cross-cuts than what you get on your table saws. If you can find a wicked deal on a 1950's Dewalt radial arm saw, I think you'll find it even more versatile than your miter saw . . . but I'm getting off-topic.

Good luck, and keep plugging along! If you find yourself driving near Indianapolis, I'd be more than happy supplying you with some more free lumber, including some spalted maple from a tree I cut down here on the property and had milled up with a Woodmizer. The catch is that you'd have to stay for dinner and help me kill a few beers.

[Bob Riefer]

Hey Homer, Thanks for commenting The flood did indeed suck, but we did get some insurance money which helped (but we were still out of pocket some). Luckily, I have 10 years worth of projects pre-planned (call me obsessive), so designing the room and setting the project plan was fast and easy in this case. Side note, I did the whole project for about $11K start to finish, and that includes removing a fireplace, rebuilding the wall, levelling and rebuilding the subfloor, rerunning all new electrical and plumbing etc... Not too bad in this day and age of uber expensive kitchens! Of course, being able to build the two islands for about $500 total helped.

If I'm ever through your way, you got it! If there's one thing I KNOW I'm good at, it's eatin' and knocking back a cold one with a new friend! Cheers!

[Dave Gaul]

Don't sweat it Bob! Sorry to hear about the flood damage, but nice work on the restore! Love that island.

[Bob Riefer]

Thanks Dave! The island (and mini-island) are NOT fine woodworking by any means, but they're built like tanks, they fit the 1902 farmhouse style, and are just real functional. But it makes me feel good about it that woodworkers approve anyways

[Bob Riefer]

FINALLY got my blast gates and flex hose yesterday. So I stayed up til midnight installing everything because I just HAD TO test the damn system finally! ha ha. I'm paying for it today, but am also very satisfied because the system works great.

So, to recap.. 4" PVC run around the shop in probably a not-perfectly-optimized layout (i.e. due to obstacles, I had some longer runs than I'd like... and I used some 90 bends) powered by a 2 hp harbor freight blower. I built the thien baffle right into the ring that comes with the DC, and exhaust directly outside.

My longest run is my bandsaw. I made a bunch of test cuts and it's keeping things MUCH cleaner at that station. (edit: the DC is not powerful enough to run both the 2.5" hose AND the 4" hose, so don't be mislead by my picture... it was worth a try, but more power is needed to run both hoses simultaneously)

2nd longest run is my drill press and planer area. At the drill press, I tried a handful of marble sized pieces and was happy to hear them rattle all the way home and land in my collection container. I planed some poplar a couple passes and could see the dust go bye bye through a small length of clear flex pipe.

Table saw results were hard to gauge.. It's my shortest and best optimized run, but it's a cabinet saw where most of the dust was falling properly into the cabinet anyways. I did notice that my rooster tail of dust on the front of my shirt is no longer present - with the saw off, and DC on, I can feel suction through the insert plate and through the various vents on the base of the saw, so I think I'm in good shape. Inside the cabinet, I also have a ramp installed that funnels the dust towards the collection pipe.

Miter saw is SO MUCH BETTER. That's my second best optimized run. And also probably my messiest machine. I built a hood around the saw, and have the pipe installed behind the saw such that gravity and suction work together. It's such a big difference.

Anyways, YAY!


blast gates 2 small.jpg blast gates small.jpg

[Joe A Faulkner]

Sounds as if you have made great progress on controlling the dust. It is encouraging, exciting and even motivating to see your progress. I have a 6" system using an old Grizzly 2 HP unit with a Wynn Filter, but I haven't made nearly your progress in getting things plumbed.

[Bob Riefer]

Hey Joe, Thanks for dropping in

Well, I'll admit that I plumbed the easiest possible way in order to get started. I can already see modifications that I can make to improve performance, but it's "good enough" for me to finally get started really making furniture. I'll be making about a dozen adirondack chairs this spring (and perhaps summer depending on how long it takes me!).

Two nights ago, I made a bunny pen for the wife's/kids' latest acquisition, and at the end of lots of cuttings and drilling had just the smallest amount of cleanup to do - before my DC system was setup, I would have been knee deep in dust! So I'll call that a win

[Bob Riefer]

I got my first batch of rough lumber this weekend. For those of you that have been keeping up with my crazy tail, you'll know that in January 2009, before ever woodworking in any capacity at all, I started rebuilding the barn so that I could become a woodworker. Yeah, that's nuts, I know. Anyways, my point is that this first visit to the sawmill was a long time coming. It was great. The out buildings, the 6 foot (just guessing) sawmill blade, stacks and stacks of different species of woods, talking to the sawyer and his team, seeing their 16 inch jointer and 36 inch planer (YIKES)... Picking through stacks to find boards that would suit my needs. Warming up next to their fire. And then sipping my coffee on the way home, with a load of boards in the back of the truck. Sigh... It was a long time coming, but here I was, on the trip to making furniture. If you've ever had a goal that took so long to even start the actual journey, you'll understand the feeling of satisfaction this weekend.

Anyways, I bought enough white oak to make 1 adirondack chair. This is a relatively simple project that could be completed without the nice shop that I have put together, but since I'm working the lumber from the rough, and since I'm just learning my shop flow, and since we'll use the heck out of adirondack chairs, it's a great confidence builder. A beginner project. I chose white oak because, quite frankly, it was the only weather tolerant wood the sawmill happened to have in stock on this particular visit. I paid $65 cash for the lumber which amounted to about $2.50 per board foot.

So, I get home and my wife had set it up that I'd have several alone hours to work in the shop while she took the kids to a birthday party. She understood how important this was to me. I layout the boards and chalk each one up to indicate which component it will become. I rough cut to lenght, leaving a few extra inches on each piece so that I can fine tune later in the process. A few pieces are too wide for face jointing on my jointer so I edge joint them, rip them to width, and then face joint all the boards.

With one side flat, I can now plane to thickness. And don't ya know, the darn planer has something wrong with the setup. It's incapable of taking any material off, and is popping it's own safety on multiple boards. What's worse, it's making a groove down each board.

So, arrrrrgh, I had to stop for the day with nearly prepared lumber just staring at me. I'll trouble shoot the planer issue this week (knives are brand new, so it must be an alignment or setup issue of some sort.. perhaps they're even in backwards) and continue on the journey.

The good news is that I was confidently working through the process. I knew what to do, the shop workflow was comfortable, the dust collector worked great. So, this'll just be another learning opportunity along the path to becoming a woodworker.

(side note: tonight I'm picking up an upgrade to my jointer as well. My existing Delta proved serviceable, but this other machine will save me from having to really make an expensive upgrade for a few years)

[Bob Riefer]

Well, the Ridgid jointer came home with me last night. The seller was a really nice family man the next town over. He's actually the fire chief for that township, and an electrician for a living. Anyways, we got along very nicely and the machine was in great shape (flat tables, coplanar, sharp knives, 90 degree fence, belt in good shape etc.) so making the deal was a low stress event. Together, we put the jointer in my truck and strapped it in for the 10 minute drive home.

When I got home, I removed surface rust and cleaned and waxed the tables and fence. Cleaned the cutter head and anywhere else I could easily reach (and peered into other areas to determine that it wasn't worth ripping it all apart for an internal cleaning at this time). I hooked it up to my dust collection system without incident.

I tell you what, this thing is such a night and day difference compared to the Delta jointer I was previously using. The Delta was alright, but this thing is amazing in comparison. And just having the much beefier fence is a big win alone. So, for $220 spent, I'm very happy overall.


Unfortunately, there's a broken part in the planer that I have to replace. Nothing major, but yet another setback in my start to furniture making. How frustrating. Plus the Flyers lost in overtime.

jointer new small.jpg