My first real project - garage ceiling shelving

[chrispitude]

Hi all,

What an interesting morning. I went downstairs to vacuum up the remaining sawdust off the Shopsmith and off the floor. Then I wanted to check out how much sawdust was in the Shopvac. Oh my...

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The filter is caked solid! I am amazed it still worked as well as it did during cleanup! That is some really nasty fine stuff caked up in the filter.

My wife wanted sawdust from untreated wood for her composter, so I scooped some out:

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You're right, charlese - I have a newfound respect for what dust collection is really up against!

I have an inexpensive $90 Harbor Freight mini dust collector on loan from a buddy. After cleaning out the Shopvac filter to nearly-new condition and emptying out the Shopvac, I did a test between the Shopvac and the HFDC. The Shopvac is rated at 193cfm, and the HFDC is rated at "914cfm." I cut ten full dado cuts across a 2x4 with each one, and compared the amount of sawdust left on the carriage and floor. The result is that the HFDC did collect very slightly more dust, but both left a significant amount uncollected out of that front gap. It seems that the front gap in the upper guard is right where the dado blade "flings" the big chunks out. The sawdust on the carriage/floor seems to all be big chips/slivers that have enough momentum to get flung out through the gap. There isn't really any fine stuff coming through the front. I still insist a better lower guard would have allowed me to get by with a significantly smaller pile on the floor.

The next task was to convert the Shopsmith to drill press mode. This is where I made a rather unpleasant discovery:

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One of the stop bolts on the underside of the 520 main table is severely bent. You can see a similar stop bolt in the background which is straight. This is the first time I've moved the table out of normal table saw mode, and that was when I placed the main table into the carriage after taking it out of the box. I've never used these stop bolts (they are for tilting to the far 45 degree orientation) so I've never noticed this. It had to have happened during shipping, but a few months have passed since I took delivery of the 520 upgrade. I guess I'll contact Shopsmith and see what they'd like me to do next. Maybe I can try my hand with a bolt extractor (first time for that too).

I tried to very gently turn it with pliers, but the metal was already stressed and it just softly turned right off:

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Bummer.

...continued...

[chrispitude]

So, the next task was to set up the Shopsmith to drill countersunk pilot screw holes through the dado slots to hold the posts. I've never had the table in drill press mode before. I chucked a drill bit, locked the table at its stop, and checked it for square against the bit with an engineer's square. With some slight adjustment to the stop bolt, I was able to get the table square left-to-right. However, it's out of square front-to-back, and I'll need to look up how to adjust that in the manual. It's close enough for this task, so I left it for now.

Here is how I configured it:

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I set it up in drill press mode, but with some shortie tubes to hold an auxiliary table to support the full 48" workpiece. This Shopsmith sure can stretch out its legs when it wants to!

My thought in drilling the pilot holes was to center the drill bit to the table insert at the beginning, then I could simply visually center each workpiece's dado to the table insert as I went through to drill all the holes. I had changed out the table insert back to the saw insert, but then I realized the wider dado insert was better for visually centering the 1.5" dado on the table, so I put the dado insert back in.

I used a random drill bit's shank to center the drill bit in the table insert opening:

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This shank had exactly the right diameter to barely clear on each side only when the drill bit was centered in the opening.

Here you can see how I am going to set each workpiece on the table:

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The way tubes get in the way of the end of the workpiece, but it conveniently turns out that if I put the workpiece against each way tube, it puts the drill bit right where I want it! I taped the way tube spacer collar out of the way. Now I just needed a way to keep the workpiece straight and square. I measured the distance from the table front to the workpiece on the very left side for the two positionings against the way tubes, then placed masking tape on the right side auxiliary table at the same distances:

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When I put the workpiece against either way tube as a stop and line up the other front edge of the workpiece to the tape line, the workpiece is positioned perfectly square. Here's a closer look at the tape marks:

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...continued...

[chrispitude]

Here is the #8 countersinking drill bit chucked and ready for use:

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I have no idea what speed is used for drill press mode, so I'll need to look that up. I set it a little slower than the dado speed for now and drilled a test hole in a piece of scrap wood. The countersink depth looks pretty good, which you can also see in the picture above.

There is a bit of wobble in the drill bit end, and I think it's the chuck itself. I bought it off Ebay a long time ago, but I think it's time for a replacement. I chucked a normal bit temporarily and it was hard to tell, but I think that wobbled too. Still, it's fairly slight and it'll get the job done.

Here you can see that the unthreaded part of the screw shank will go through the dado:

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This is exactly what I wanted, as it will allow the screw to pull the board end tightly into the dado slot, without the screw also wanting to pull itself into the dadoed piece.

- Chris

[charlese]

Hi Chris! Sorry about your bolt! Those things happen!

Don't overthink Dust Collection! It is really all about air movement! You just can't expect a Shop Vac to move a lot of air for a long time when using one as a DC for woodworking. The their filters are too small to avoid getting plugged up quickly.

I enjoyed your method of squaring up your 2 X 4 for drilling. Another method, which may be easier next time is to use your miter gauge. Set it up - lock it down using the locking screw reference no. (279) - (part no. 501401). When using this tapered screw, don't over-tighten it - just enough to secure the miter gauge.

Good Luck!

[paulmcohen]

If you have the 5 foot connecting tubes you can use the rip fence as a stop on the auxiliary table and the miter gauge as a backstop and you are ready for production.

[chrispitude]

My crooked drill bit chuck appears to have snapped off the bit in my fancy countersink bit. Sigh. I guess I need to buy a countersink bit and a new chuck. Is there an affordable source for a drill bit chuck besides the $40 (+$9 shipping) Shopsmith chuck?

I am bummed. In addition to broken equipment, I've noticed that my arbor no longer springs back like it used to. This is a brand new headstock from Shopsmith, bought maybe two years ago. Prior to this project, it basically sat in my garage untouched for those two years.

I also noticed that my drill holes weren't symmetrical. This turned out to be because the main table was not "projecting" straight out to the right from the headstock, but rather projects at an angle. In other words, in drill press mode, if you are standing directly over the table and looking straight vertically down at the table, it's rotated clockwise by at least a few degrees.

- Chris

[Ed in Tampa]

Chris
After that bolt and now the table twist it sounds like you never did the basic setup on your shopsmith. Both of these problems would have been discovered and fixed by now.
I know it is a pain to go through each step but unless you do you will never have your SS setup completely.
Stop what your doing, and start on page one of the step up and go through it step by step. Then do a complete maintenance of the machine. I will guess you quill will work fine, your table will be in perfect alignment and your wood will come out like you want it too.
And do each step, reading it completely doing it and then rereading to make sure you didn't assume something or overlook anything. I know when I did mine I began to read a step and said I know what they want and never finished reading. I then did the adjustment the way I figured it should be done. I soon learned that method will take you down the garden path. I went back and read and did each step in exact sequence and all of sudden my machine was all step up ready to go. For the most part other than me second guessing myself or reading something on this forum and going out and messing around my machine has stayed in perfect alignment since 85.
So do it once, do it right and never look back
Ed

[charlese]

Chris, before you give up on the chuck, try it again - using this procedure: re-install the chuck onto the quill, making sure it is butted up against the collar and the allen screw is directly over the tapered flat area on the quill. - Insert a straight drill bit, by inserting it all the way into the chuck and hand turning the chuck until the three dogs touch the bit - slide the bit out a little way to get it off of the bottom of the chuck. - Hand tighten the chuck just enough to hold the bit from falling out. Now, using the chuck key tighten the chuck just a little, until resistance is felt. Then move the key to a second tightening hole and repeat. Then move the key to the last hole and repeat. Now, depending on how tight you turned the key in each hole you might want to go to the first hole to snug it up.

The use of all three holes for tightening relieves the uneven pressure on the other dogs and the chuck gears. It also helps tremendously in getting a bit in straight.

All that said, for your shelf project, you might be better off using a hand held drill and a counter sink cutter. In this application if your pilot holes a slightly off of plumb, there should be no problem. Looking at the screws you are using, and the wood, there's no need to make pilot holes in the secondary pieces. With holes drilled through the dadoed pieces, that should be enough. I know many folks who wouldn't even bother with pilots and countersinks in this (shelf) application. They would just drive the screws home with their hand drill with a phillips bit.

[chrispitude]

Hi Ed in Tampa,

I think that would be a good idea. I did some of the setup but not all of it. I really need to go back through and start from square one.

Hi charlese,

I'll try out your suggestions tomorrow! I know that this is just as easily done with a normal drill. I was using this as an opportunity to practice using the Shopsmith, setting it up in different operations and learning how to efficiently crank things out in production (as Paul has said ).

I did try something similar to your experiment. I tightened up the chuck as evenly as I could with my hand wrapped around the chuck, to try to apply even rotational pressure to the entire collar. I thought maybe the chuck key was causing the tightening collar to kink, so I tightened it as tight as I could by hand without the key. The bit still wobbled.

I am not sure how much I trust this chuck I have, to be honest. I bought it off Ebay many years ago when I first bought my 500 used. The set screw is drilled through the chuck body crooked:

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I am assuming it's not supposed to be like this. I also wonder if this is where the wobble comes from? You can't see the rest of the chuck in the picture, but I assure you it's not pretty.

Another thing I'll try is chucking the countersink bit in my hand drill and see if it wobbles there. Maybe it's the bit and not the chuck? I'll check it out...

- Chris

[chrispitude]

Any drill bit with a hex shank seems to spin with a wobble in my chuck. Round shank bits wobble, but maybe only half as badly. It's tough to visually check for wobble while it's spinning, so what I did was to gently bring the bit down itnto a small block of scrap wood which I loosely hold in place. The wobbling bit end causes the block of wood to orbit around on the table slightly, and that lets me know how much wobble is really at the end of the bit.

I guess what happened is that the bit was touching down into the workpiece at an angle. This caused deflection in the rotating bit, which of course will snap it in short order.

- Chris