Little stuff

[robinson46176]

I was slipping in a bit of woodshop time this afternoon ahead of an evening meeting.
An old retired guy shouldn't have to fight so hard for a little shop time. It's raining almost everyday here now and the grass is growing about 2" a day... Can you say "behind on mowing"?
I had picked up a couple of plastic shelf units the right size for boxes of screws and nails for a buck each and I bolted cleat pieces on the back of them to hang them on my cleat wall system.
I had some time left so I decided to put the new lock-set in my door to the outside. The door was a recycle and was already drilled to the lock-set. I had hung the door a while back but I had not put a lock-set in it yet. It was quite simple and generally went smoothly but got a bit silly at one point. The screw holes where the bolt goes in looked a little loose so I wanted to take up a little space in them. Normally I would stick in a toothpick with some glue or a matchstick. Neither were handy so I looked around for a sliver and spotted a couple of pieces of hedge with a few splinters sticking out where they were split. I grabbed a wood chisel and split one off and kind of whittled it into shape and cut it to a piece about twice as long I needed with the chisel and then was cutting it in half with the chisel. The chisel was sharp and I was just using my hand to cut the piece. Yep, I sat the edge down on the piece and whacked it... One half went north and the other went south. I have no idea where the north piece went but the south piece bounced off of the furnace about 20' away and off into never never land... The silly part came when I cut another with pretty much the same results... Who would have thought that a simple chisel cut would launch those little bits that far...
I cut a third and shaped it but then I put glue on it and stuck one end in one hole and broke it off flush then did the other end the same way. It all worked fine but even there by myself it was one of those dumb silly things that was embarrassing.
I do try to do something dumb at least once a month just to stay in practice.

[Gene Howe]

Come on over to my shop. I give daily lessons in dumb. On Saturdays, there's an advanced course in stupid.

[ChrisNeilan]

Dumb? hardly... Last night I was working on my router table build. I had to cut a dado centered on one side, and two on the top. Yup, had three on one side. Tried to salvage it. Turned the piece over and re-cut the center dado... Yup, measured off the wrong side of the blade. There goes $30 worth of cabinet grade oak plywood!

[rjent]

Whew, I was thinking how dumb I am at times and chalked it up to beginner dumbness ....

But you guys are proving ....

[benush26]

Tonight, excited to finally get to use the shop for the first time in a LONG time. Okay, still not enough space to move appropriately, but sort of kind of enough. Tables set, rip fence measured. Check that all the levers were tight and made my money cut on the expensive router table. I did notice some burning at the beginning when it sort of stalled, but knew it had to be operator error... As long as the ply/laminate blade was on I decided to cut the ply for a base for a new rev-a-shelf that has been setting next to the stove for about a year!
Change the blade height, line everything up, lower the upper guard, fire it up start and cut and voila it stops at the riving knife. Not pleased, power off, find that I can shift the piece to clear it but the big question is - but when did I bend that dang knife?? Do the wiggle waggle on the knife, run the second piece SAME DANG thing!! Grab the upper guard and hear a strange noise. Look under the table and the lower guard is moving with the upper!!! Tightened the collar on the quill and happy happy cuts!

And that ladies and gentlemen is why my favorite character in the movies is the Scarecrow... If I only had a brain!

Be well,
Ben

[ChrisNeilan]

Ripped a plywood panel to 31" last night. Set up the floating table, set the fence on it and made the cut. Probably should have locked the table down! Luckily it only moved a smidge to be slightly out of square and I could re-cut it!

[algale]

My list of mistakes and booboos is so long that I couldn't begin to list them. I'll just say that it is reassuring to find out I am not the only one.