Shop Talk...My blog

Finally getting some heat in my shop

Monday, 15 December 2008 17:00 |

No, I’m not talking about guns. Today I bought a 50,000 BTU forced air propane heater and a 20# tank for the shop. The temps lately have taken a big nose dive making gluing and finishing in my shop nearly impossible and I can’t bear going 4 months without making anything.

So tomorrow I’ll get the tank filled and give it a shot. Luckily my shop is on the small side, only about 300 square feet so I think this heater will do the trick.

Guess we’ll see tomorrow.

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More progress on my Ruobo

Tuesday, 09 December 2008 17:00 |

Today I finished jointing and planing three sections of doug fir that I had glued up over the last couple months. Two of them were 4 2x’s thick and the third was two. After jointing these laminations I learned an important lesson in workbench building. 4 2x lamination glue ups that are 8 feet long are heavy. The lamination that was 2 thick wasn’t too bad. I’m thinking for the remaining laminations I will do them 3 2x’s thick.

Wiring the shop to run the jointer

Tuesday, 25 November 2008 17:00 |

So my new jointer requires 240 volt power. My shop is currently all 110. So today, after many visits to Home Depot for parts, many talks with electrician buddies I rewired the shop today. It has a new subpanel so that the jointer has 240 power, and two other 240 outlets so I can convert my tablesaw to 240 and so there is one more 240 outlet for when I get a dust collector.

I separated the light circuits and the outlet circuits and made it so each wall’s set of outlets have their own breaker. Yeah, it’s overkill for how small my shop is, but I’m a little OCD when it comes to organization. It should be noted I did not say cleanliness. I’ve been known to make some mad messes. Hence the reason I’m not showing any ‘before’ pictures of my shop.

Anyway, the majority of the wiring is in. I’ll connect it to the main service box tomorrow. I’d do it tonight, but my kids are still scared of the dark and I kill all the power anytime I’m working inside that box.

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Wedding Gift

Sunday, 07 December 2008 17:00 |

So over the Thanksgiving holiday it was announced that one of my nieces on my wife’s side is getting married in January. I remember being a newlywed couple and using boxes and such for furniture. That got me thinking that I should try and build them something as a wedding present. I’ve got a fair amount of knotty alder not being used for anything and my budget is a little low so that just leaves what I should build as the question.

Grizzly G0490 - Day 7

Monday, 24 November 2008 17:00 |

Today’s the big day. It finally came. About 8:30 I went to rent a pallet jack and then I started cleaning the patio to make sure I could get the jointer all the way to the shop. About 9:30 or 10 the UPS truck rolls up and the driver and I get the beast unloaded. The driver wheeled it all the way back to the shop for me. Now for the real fun.