A Bandsaw Joins In

This past Sunday I had plans to take a short road trip with my dad to look at a bandsaw I found on craigslist. Unfortunately I got the flu saturday and called my dad to cancel. He offered to go look at it and bring it home if it looked like a good deal. My mom went along and they had fun exploring a little more of Iowa...They even carried it into the garage for me! Thanks to both of them.

It's a Rockwell Model 28-113. It's in pretty good shape and has a 1/2hp motor. I had to spend quite a bit of time on the table, but its clean and smooth now. There was also no switch so I added one and tuned up the guides and cut some wood with it last night. I need a new blade for sure, that will come this weekend as will a shopmade mobile base of some sort. While it's not the 18" I want eventually, it's a welcome addition to the shop and when it's time to upgrade, I will be able to get what I paid for it for sure...

 

New Light and Fan Box

I had always been disappointed with my light setup at the lathe. Until recently I had a 4ft. fluorescent light with 2 T8 daylight bulbs directly above the lathe and 3 100watt equivalent low voltage bulbs mounted in clip on fixtures from HD. It was adequate but I was constantly moving the clip ons or they would just slip and need to be readjusted. Then I stumbled upon this picture I had saved on my work computer.

I couldn't remember where I had copied it from but then, while researching ways to improve the lighting over the , I saw this tip on Laymar Crafts. This site is packed full of great ideas, tips and articles. I had not thought of looking on that sight because frankly I had forgotten about it. (google is my friend) This new setup up gives me tons of light and also enabled me to improve my lighting elsewhere in the shop via the now unused 4ft. fixture.

This new “fanlight” includes two small blowers mounted between the 4 bulbs. I picked them up at a garage sale for $2 a piece. One fan has a heating coil that will provide much needed heat during the cold months. The other is just a fan that provides air flow during the warmer times in the shop. (OK it gets downright hot in there during the summer) The air flow also acts as a downdraft that helps my shop made air cleaner suck up more dust. Both blowers are plugged into a 6 outlet power strip which I can also plug my sanding and detailing tools into. I also added some washable filters at the return air areas in order to hopefully add to my dust cleaning. Once again, although it's not pretty, the craftsmanship isn't the best and it's made out of scrap this new tool works great and serves a great purpose.

If interested, you can view some more pics of my light/fan box here.

New Toy...errr Tool!

I've been wanting an electric chainsaw for quite awhile now. Because most of my shop time is in the evening or late at night a gas chainsaw is out of the question because of the noise level. Last year I purchased a Ryobi 18volt 10" chainsaw and it worked well, but the size and the battery life made me want something bigger and faster. I saw a 14" Homelite at Home Depot a few weeks ago and my father in law gave me a gift card so I came home with this model yesterday....I cut up a few maple blanks last night and it works great! Automatic oiling and no tool chain tension are great features. I will be putting it through some workouts very soon and will report on it in more detail then.