My shop projects since November '21, and what is left to do...

Some folks may already know the what, when where and why, but...

I laid low here, on the forums, my Youtube channel, and honestly in the shop for 4, almost 5 years as I had some life struggles with the family. and then with me dealing with it. 

Simply put starting in 2016, actually late 2015 but the impacts didn't start coming until 2016,  close family members started ending up hospitalized, which wound up in 2018 my wife being long term hospitalized with stress related cardiac issues, and the two of us enduring the loss of 20 friends and family, both our Dads, one of her brothers, aunts, a niece etc…

It was honestly all I could do to keep going on my day job, and ocasionally put out a video here or there. 

But last fall I guess I kind of clicked back into place… I can't explain it other than to say it was a God thing, and he just told me it's time to move on.

In the interim the shop suffered neglect, and honestly a bunch of long term projects that just got put on hold.

Well again, something clicked back in place and it was time to get back with it.

So I now present to you a pictoral of the various projects and upgrades I have done to the shop and its equipment since about October of 2021.

I know I have shown the Harbor Freight dust collector fitted with the Wynn filter somehwere here, it's the old green one and looks like the promo pics on the Wynn website, and the neutral vane is going to be VERY hard to photograph, but here is the Wen impeller during the install process. The install went super easy and was well worth the few bucks and little bit of time it took. What a HUGE difference in dust collector performance. No it is not in ClearVue territory but it picks up where the prior setup left a lot behind… I did get rid of teh Thien 55gallon side inlet barrel separator as it was a big CFM hit, adn the Neutral Vane so far is working well. I was leery of doing that, but after re-reading the Bill Pentz research, and some prodding from LCHIEN at Sawdustzone.org, I went for it.

Next I installed the compressed air piping system that I got as a Christmas present. The manifold setup and filter / regulator / oil and water separators I have had for a while.  As a reminder they allow me to plumb in 2 separate smaller compressors, both Central Pnuematic, an 8 gallon and a 29 gallon oil lubriceated compressor which gives me something like 14 CFM @ 40PSI. The regulator diaphragm sprung a leak and sounded like a whoopie cushion, I found a replacement that works so I am keeping the Central Pnuematic regualtor / filter in place as it works well. I did try a replacement but that did NOT work out.

I also swapped out any fittings in the system that had 1/4” ID, and swapped in 3/8” ID for improved airflow, this meant swapping from Central Pnuematic fittings to Miltons. Worthwhile, but pricey… For now I have 2 of these outlet blocks. The only place I didn’t upsize is because I couldn’t, and that was at my Central Pnuematic hose reel

While I did the install of the piping system, I moved the Central Pneumatic hose reel to the space between the overhead door tracks
I also converted all of the formerly T12 flourescent fixtures to LED ballast bypass tubes.
Also a larger project was the conversion from 4” dual runs to a single 5” main and 4” drops, this is resulting in a much better running system. This meant also that most of the runs are done with galvanized ducting instead of PVC, although the 5x5x5 wye fittings and the reducers are ABS plastic as the metal ones were very hard to find and incredibly expensive.

I resized to fit one of my sister in laws pullout spice drawers after she had to redo her kitchen due to Hurricane Harvey, this went under the extension wing of the BT3100 and serves to house my table saw accessories, jigs, and safety items like push blocks etc…

The band saw recieved its long awaited upgrades. out went the Cool Blocks, in went the Accura roller bearing guides for a MUCH smoother and more stable operation. The upper guide holder for the Accura that houses the micro adjuster for the thrust bearing did NOT fit the Central Machinery band saw, but the yoke that holds the side bearings is a direct fit replacement for the yoke that holds the blocks, so that is how I handled the upper guide. Lower was a direct drop in. The MLCS safety power switch was installed and located on the post, which happened to be drilled perfectly for the mounting screws. I sacrificed an outdoor extension cord to get a sufficient cord for the task at hand. The lower factory dust port was replaced with a larger Jet 2.5” port, and an additional 2.5” port was added to the lower shroud, urethane tires were added but not pictured here, and of course the Kreg Precision Fence has been installed and tested…

And as Heaven as my witness, I have no clue where that miter gauge came from, but it can probably crawl back where it came from….

Of course the previous mods of the G0555 tensioner, riser block, wheel brush etc… are still there…

The drawers and support tables / production stop rig for the miter saw bench / mortiser bench has been done, and now in use… Some minor adjustment to the right side table to get it to line up correctly with the mortiser as the table is 1/16 proud of hte mortiser table. Looks like honestly the mortiser needs to come up…

The wall stacker was killing my back and making me not want to spend shop time working with my equipment, so I built this pair of flip top stands for my bench top tools. The small bits and bobs from the Rigid sander live in a little pegboard hung basket on the side of the stand where I rabbeted in a pegboard side panel. These stands were built from mostly scrap / cutoff lumber and old Harbor Freight casters I had recycled from prior projects. 

And at least for the glut that is now, the last item that has been done since November is the sharpening station, which I have since upgraded with a better platform that has a slit for a jig to hold plane irons / chisels and such for sharpening them and they have really helped me re-establish some badly chipped out Chinese made Stanleys...

So now that is all done, what's left to do?

Thankfully it is a short list, but it is still a tremendous amount of work...

• I have some wide 3 drawer Sterilite cabinets that fit my cased drills. Make a rolling stand that will straddle my mobile base for the drill press and attach the plastic cabinet to it. Yes it is a cheat, but I'll take it to get it done quick.
• Build a replacement base for the lathe that integrates a MUCH stronger structure, ballast, and will use at least 4 more of the orphaned drawers my Sister In Law left in my shop...
• Clean, clean, clean, clean. I did too many projects with the dust collection either turned off, or disassembled and the shop needs a thorough cleaning, sorting and puging of old junk.
• Take down my clamshell cabinets and shop library, rework the french cleats so that they have a much stronger purchase into the studs and less of a tendency to pull out.
• Rework the dust hood for the miter saw, change its drop from 4 to 5".