Spackle & Sawdust

Over the long holiday weekend I only managed to sneak in roughly a day and a half of work on the shop. Between Friday afternoon and Saturday I secured the base cabinets, assembled the “floating” top for the DeWalt 706 miter saw, and built the three countertops. Not too bad considering the time.

Over the years I’ve made many bone-headed mistakes.

Cut a piece too short because I “knew” the measure and didn’t feel the need to consult the drawings I spent hours preparing. Put a dado at the wrong height, the wrong length, or worse, the wrong side! Glue a part on backwards. I’m not quite old enough to say “I’ve made them all,” but by now I’ve definitely made my fair share of them. And while I tend to make fewer and fewer mistakes as time goes by…and thankfully don’t typically make the same mistake more than once (OK…maybe a couple times)…there’s usually at least something that requires special attention (repair, “design-around” or re-do) in just about every project.

This one’s unfortunately no exception.

A few months back, while visiting my folks in Florida, I read a magazine review for something I just had to have. I was so concerned I’d forget about this miracle device that I immediately went online and surrendered $40. It’s called the Wixey Digital Angle Gauge. This is incredibly cool - due to both it’s utility and utter simplicity. Place it on the tool’s table, zero out the measure and then place it on the blade to verify/adjust the angle. Quick, easy, AWESOME! That is, when you actually use it.

This past Saturday I began my day in the shop (after helping my wife with the kids’ breakfast, of course) by cutting out the various parts for the new 22′ long cabinets/work bench/miter saw fence for the shop. After lunch, it was time for assembly. I had cut dadoes for the cabinet bottoms and tops and was looking forward to the satisfaction of dry-assembling the pieces and lightly “banging them home” with a mallet. Things were going swimmingly until I went to attach the top supports. The top was nearly 1″ wider than the bottom!

How could this be???

After some choice words and a bit of grumbling I decided to have a closer look at my tools…and noticed the blade on the table saw read some 2-3 degrees off 90…which led to cabinet bottoms angling the walls a bit beyond their intended target. With the glue already curing and available time short, I decided to basically force the sides square and call it a bench. Truthfully, as mistakes go this one’s not too awful — there’s enough play in the dadoes to allow for the readjustment — but hopefully this will serve as a reminder to verify the dang blade angle before starting a new project; even when it looks 90 degrees.

Oh, and by the way…I also managed to assemble the right-most cabinet mirror-image to the design with the wider drawer compartment closest to the right-hand wall. No matter…I’ll just tell people I planned it that way.

This weekend marked the beginning of the “load in” process. With Grandma and Grandpa in for the weekend, the kids were well occupied and I had the time to finally start to finish the shop addition.

On Friday evening I finished the loft underside — and did my typical lousy job of taping/plastering the seams. “Hat’s off” to the pros who do drywall for a living…someday I hope to get it right.

On Saturday, I needed to pay a visit to my local Woodcraft store in Woodridge. They were having a “tent sale” this weekend. I’ve been eying a cast iron router table extension for some time now. I was aware of two — one from Bench Dog and another from Peachtree Woodworking Supply. While the Peachtree version was significantly cheaper ($219 vs. $325), I was a bit hesitant about it as I was unable to actually see it and there were no online reviews available. From photos online it was clearly a different product from the Bench Dog version, though I’m guessing that they’re both imported from Chinese factories. In any event, Woodcraft had the Bench Dog ProMax listed as “no longer carried” on their website, so deep down I was hopeful that they might have a floor model or clearance package at the store that I might get at a good price.

After trolling the aisles for nearly an hour, picking up ~$30 worth of small accessories, I made a second swing past their closeout table and noticed something I hadn’t seen earlier — on the floor behind and underneath the closeout table — a Bench Dog ProMax wrapped in cellophane! Awesome. Apparently this was the floor model detached from a demo saw that was sold the previous day. After some brief discussion with the manager and then the “boss” (aka my wife Suzy), it was mine for $255!

The best part is how easy it was to install.

Not being a metal worker, nor having cut any metal denser than aluminum in many many years, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to properly drill holes in the cast iron top if needed. Turns out that a) I only needed to drill one hole through the front to attach the fence and b) it was not an issue. The holes in the table lined up perfectly with the saw top and it took almost no effort (even alone) to get the top flushed and tightened. Beautiful. While they say you don’t have to attach the front edge to the fence rail, I figured it couldn’t hurt. So I drilled a hole for the bolt - first 1/4″ starter, then a 5/16″ to finish size.

I then removed the wooden wing from the other side of the table and drilled 5 holes in the cast iron so that I could mount the old left wing in its place. I now have a full 60″ of cast iron top and no sagging melamine extension. I’m sure the extra weight won’t hurt either.

I then installed the track lighting and extension cord reels under the loft and got about as organized as possible to prepare for the construction of the cabinetry that will act as both storage and a shared miter saw/radial arm saw counter top and fence. Since I was getting no where visualizing the cabinetry required for these saws — even using SketchUp — I decided the only thing to do was to simply move them into the shop, test and fine tune their locations as best as possible, and take measurements from there. With some help from my neighbor Wilson (seriously) I was able to load in the jointer, miter and radial arm saw. I now have them positioned where (I think/hope) they’ll best be used and have begun the process of creating the detailed construction drawings for the cabinets/counter top.

Considering my available free time, I’m hopeful I’ll be ready to build/install drawers within two weeks!

OK, so the inspections went well — though it took 3 visits from the inspector. Mostly little stuff — but Jay promptly dealt with all of the issues and we finally made it.I’m now working on getting the shop “in shape” before moving all of the tools in. This includes building a 4′ x 14′ loft 7′ 6″ from the floor at the far end. I ran conduit and wiring for (2) ceiling mounted cord reels and a track light. I still need to tape and plaster the seams and screws before I can paint it and mount the extension cords and lights.

A couple weeks ago I picked up a used (circa ‘89) WoodTek 2100CFM dust collector from a guy in Indiana for $200 (Craiglist is very cool). The first thing I did was replace the power cord — which is a good thing as the ground wire had apparently become disconnected.

Last weekend I extended some of the “old shop” (a.k.a - the garage) power into the addition. I ran (1) 20A 120v, (1) 240v 15A and (1) 240v 20A circuit into the room. The 240/15 is for the tablesaw and/or bandsaw. The 240v/20A is temporarily being used with the dust collector — I plan to keep it in the shop while I build the cabinetry and fixtures. After the cabinets are complete I will be running duct work so that I can move it to its permanent home in the street-facing “closet” in the front of the shop. I’ve also installed a smoke/CO detector in the shop as well…should make it a bit easier to sleep at night after a late night in the shop.

Today I’ve decided to build an overarm blade guard/dust collector for the table saw as well. So the next steps are - complete the loft “ceiling,” build the overarm collector, build the cabinetry and workbenches.

Considering my limited amount of “free” time, I suspect this will take me through the end of the year and a bit into 2008 before I move the rest of the stationary tools in. Then there’s the shelving/upper cabinets, drawers, etc to do before the small power and hand tools are organized. This could take a while!