21 February, 2014

Starting to correct my mistakes. And refilling the slots on my sets...

Again, not much shop time yesterday, actually only about 10 minutes. Probably take me longer to blog about it than I was in there, but I digress...

I had a couple of plywood cutoffs ready to go, so I did what anyone would do when the board is too short, and made it longer, or in this case wider...

I took my piece of junk Harbor Freight Quick Clamps and clamped the cutoffs into position, just into position for now, and then marked positions for biscuits on the top, and the cutoffs. Marking sides the cutoffs go to.

I then moved the cutoffs to the bench, set some bench dogs in place to keep the cutoffs from moving, set up my Ryobi biscuit joiner, and cut my slots, I then cut the slots in the top...


Now I know both Ryobi tools, and biscuit / plate joiners don't get a lot of love out there in the woodworking forums. A lot of guys have, well... ill will toward the humble biscuit joiner, but I really like using mine. It is simple, makes for a reasonable joint. Not perfect mind you, but where extreme strength is not absolutely necessary, it beats the tar out of the labor involved in settting up mortise and tenon joinery for sure!

Not that I am against M&T, but for me to set up to cut M&T joints, I had better have a LOT of joints to do... A biscuit joiner keeps me moving is all...

Once the slots were cut, I went ahead and applied more than sufficient amounts of glue. I do NOT want any chance for the joint to end up glue starved. I brushed glue all the way around the pockets, the mating surfaces, and the biscuits. I then assembled, verified alignment and got it in clamps.


I am considering extending the side frames for the hood using the same method. I REALLY want to make this as easy, and complete as possible...

Depending on schedules, particularly those of those important in my life, I may have an opportunity to work on extending the frame tonight. I will go ahead and free up the top and curved backing piece out, clean off the caulk and run my extension. Then it is a matter of trimming the extension pieces, mounting the top to the base, mounting and trimming a new, longer curved backing piece (1/8" hardboard, it flexes pretty well...), and then mount the whole thing to the bench.

You may notice the dust hose, yes it sticks up just proud of the top. I made the curved cutout sized such that the hose just barely clears with the saw in the rear most position, but also the top is sized such that it is low enough to minimize the amount of air volume to be cleared from to make it easier for my HF 2HP dust collector to do its job...

I have been working on the issues of getting the lumber wagon (our truck) working again. We managed to end up with a major transmission fluid leak that needs to get fixed before I tear up something expensive... Once it is all back together and working the way it is supposed to, I can head out to Lowes, or Home Depot, and get the few remaining components for the system. a couple of joints of 4" S&D pipe, some and a few 45 degree 4" connectors. I know too many bends, but I don't really have an option space wise, I have to do what I have to do in order to get to the collector...

No photos of it here, but you can make out the end of the Ryobi SpeedLoad+ quick change drill bit set. Just like any other drill bit set, the small diameter bits are pone to breakage, unlike other bit sets, matching replacements are VERY difficult to find. Ryobi does not make these bits available a la carte, so you either buy a replacement set (which I did once) or find a different bit, which I did this time. Sadly the only hex shank bits I could find in the diameters I needed (3/32 and 1/8") were DeWalt (generally good) in the black oxide coated variety instead of the Titanium coating (bad, but not terrible trade off).

I mentioned I had previously bought a set just to get the replacement bit, in this case a 3/32" bit. Well I went ahead of bought replacements from Amazon, in both 3/32" and 1/8" for the bits that were broken. Knowing I break these frequently I bought a couple extras of each size. They work as well as the Ryobi originals, and fit in the quick change collet just fine. I don't know about long term durability, but then again, these particular sizes never last long enough with me to dull out... So I guess that won't be an issue...

I think my next step in my shop development should be an over the garage door storage shelf, at least temporarily, to house all my aerosol canned stuff. I need to move it all off of the base cabinet so that I can pull that apart, and re-glue it. I may end up keeping non wood shop related aerosols up on that shelf after the cabinet is back in place. I need easier access to my stuff. I have plenty of stamped steel shelf brackets, and more than enough 3/4" ply scrap to put together a shelf. Once in use, I suspect it will stay in use. I have shop light T12 bulbs in a case already on shelf brackets that can be moved to the attic allowing me to use that space for things like Aerokroil, carb cleaner and the like...

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