A very busy week is finally over. I've been working overtime preparing for the show, well maybe not really, managed to play one hockey game and watch 3 on TV, and the plasterer came on Thursday to start doing his thing. He comes back tomorrow so after I sign off, I must break down the PC set-up for the third time this month.
I had a fairly good show today. It's always interesting to see what sells and what dosen't from one year to the next. The three new trucks sold almost immediately (thanks I presume to the bad news from China), but two transport trucks of the same design, made in 2004, were still on the table at the end of the day. Five of eight bread knives sold so they seemed popular, as did my two four dimensional tic-tac-toe games. The Mr. & Mrs. Frosty went but the lighted snowmen and Christmas trees that were popular in other years stayed on the floor.
Besides the sales, the meeting people and getting feedback on your work is the fun part of these events. I also get to meet a few fellow woodworkers and discuss our respective hobbies and favourite projects.
I have attached some pictures but it seems the ground was shaking when I snapped some of them. The "boss" is featured in the first one. Without her, I would be lost in packing and setting up all this stuff. I bought her flowers before the show just to cover all my bases!
The storm that is sweeping accross the continent is scheduled to hit here overnight so they are annoucing 12- 14 inches of snow coming our way. Maybe the plasterer won't make it tomorrow. Oh well "c'est la vie", as they say in these parts.
Have a good week!
John
Weekly Blog - December 2nd
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Weekly Blog - December 2nd
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John - Looks like you had a successful show event. Thanks for sending the photo of your better half! She is not only supportive, but also quite talented as shown in the painting of your creations. Hope you both got home in time to break out your snow gear!
Has been, what we call cold, here in Southern Calif. We even had rain this weekend. Saturday saw .70" of ppt. This is more than we received all of last year! There are not any puddles remaining today. The ground was pretty thirsty.
This past week was a "repair week". Got parts from SS and replaced the cutter head assembly on my jointer. Now- first time in a while the joints are glass like smooth. The worn part was the shaft of the cutter head itself. Evidently the bearing closest to the headstock failed and was wearing down the shaft, before I noticed anything was wrong. When I noticed a problem, I replaced the bearing and things got better for a short time. There was still a small amount of chatter marks on the jointed faces - thought it was from mis-aligned blades. When blade adjustment wouldn't fix this problem and in fact the problem was growing worse - took the jointer apart and found the worn shaft. Tried shimming the worn shaft with a wrap and a half of Teflon tape, but that didn't stay very long. Finally bit the bullet and bought a new cutter head. $Ca-Ching!! This replacement ate up a whole day.
Also replaced the power switch on the dust collector. This switch is not the same as the one it was to replace. I had to disassemble the left leg of the DC-3300 in order to have enough room to clip the wires onto the new switch. This operation also took the most of a whole day. Lets see if I can explain this switch fiasco. First- the power switch on the Mark V went bad. So I traded power switches between the DC and the SS. (These were the same switches with two connection blades on the back) The new switch has 4 blades on the back. Now my Mark V is running with the switch that originally came with the DC 3300. The 3300 has a new switch that will never get used because we use a floor switch.
I had thought I was going to leave the frozen switch from the Mark V on the 3300 forever, but thought better of it when after a two hour session of running, the DC motor smelled like it was melting the field wires. I reasoned that the old switch was causing a voltage drop - thereby causing extra amperage to flow through the DC motor. Glad I made the change - as the hot wire smell no longer happens.
In other workshop happenings - set up the overhead router and milled out the mortises and tenons for the next shutter. As I have reported earlier the OPR setup has many adjustments. You may find you will be adjusting much more than you had planned. Although this was the third or fourth time I set up this machine, it took quite a while. The learning curve on this machine is pretty long and shallow. To set up the OPR for mortising required an hour and a quarter. Trouble shooting took another hour! To cut the 6 mortises required only 30 minutes. Tenon making went pretty fast too, with good results, But not without many more adjustments. More on adjustments in a thread called "OPR Set ups" - Tool Review"
Has been, what we call cold, here in Southern Calif. We even had rain this weekend. Saturday saw .70" of ppt. This is more than we received all of last year! There are not any puddles remaining today. The ground was pretty thirsty.
This past week was a "repair week". Got parts from SS and replaced the cutter head assembly on my jointer. Now- first time in a while the joints are glass like smooth. The worn part was the shaft of the cutter head itself. Evidently the bearing closest to the headstock failed and was wearing down the shaft, before I noticed anything was wrong. When I noticed a problem, I replaced the bearing and things got better for a short time. There was still a small amount of chatter marks on the jointed faces - thought it was from mis-aligned blades. When blade adjustment wouldn't fix this problem and in fact the problem was growing worse - took the jointer apart and found the worn shaft. Tried shimming the worn shaft with a wrap and a half of Teflon tape, but that didn't stay very long. Finally bit the bullet and bought a new cutter head. $Ca-Ching!! This replacement ate up a whole day.
Also replaced the power switch on the dust collector. This switch is not the same as the one it was to replace. I had to disassemble the left leg of the DC-3300 in order to have enough room to clip the wires onto the new switch. This operation also took the most of a whole day. Lets see if I can explain this switch fiasco. First- the power switch on the Mark V went bad. So I traded power switches between the DC and the SS. (These were the same switches with two connection blades on the back) The new switch has 4 blades on the back. Now my Mark V is running with the switch that originally came with the DC 3300. The 3300 has a new switch that will never get used because we use a floor switch.
I had thought I was going to leave the frozen switch from the Mark V on the 3300 forever, but thought better of it when after a two hour session of running, the DC motor smelled like it was melting the field wires. I reasoned that the old switch was causing a voltage drop - thereby causing extra amperage to flow through the DC motor. Glad I made the change - as the hot wire smell no longer happens.
In other workshop happenings - set up the overhead router and milled out the mortises and tenons for the next shutter. As I have reported earlier the OPR setup has many adjustments. You may find you will be adjusting much more than you had planned. Although this was the third or fourth time I set up this machine, it took quite a while. The learning curve on this machine is pretty long and shallow. To set up the OPR for mortising required an hour and a quarter. Trouble shooting took another hour! To cut the 6 mortises required only 30 minutes. Tenon making went pretty fast too, with good results, But not without many more adjustments. More on adjustments in a thread called "OPR Set ups" - Tool Review"
Octogenarian's have an earned right to be a curmudgeon.
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
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perryobear
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- Location: Youngsville, NC
John,
I just wanted to thank you for the “weekly blog”, it always seems to bring out something of interest.
The photos of your table at the craft show were great. They really took me back in time as my wife and I used to do much the same thing each year around this time. Toy cars, trucks, and boats, trivets, holiday crafts, Frosty the Snowman candy cane holders, etc. all come back to mind!
Along the lines of reflecting on the past, I also wanted to mention that this coming Christmas Eve would have been the 75th birthday of Norm Marshall. Although I never got a chance to meet him (Norm passed away in 1982), his writings helped to introduce me to my favorite woodworking past time of toy making and to Shopsmith itself a number of years ago.
For those who may not have heard of him there is a short bio and interview with Norm printed in the Nov/Dec 2003 Shopsmith Hands-On issue in the web archives (California Dream Toys). Several of his toy plans are scattered through other Hands-On back issues and in the The Great All-American Wooden Toy Book.
Toy making is a great way to enjoy woodworking, so on the anniversary of Norm's 75th birthday – let's build some toys, because as Norm said, “the smile is worthwhile”.
Have a good week everybody!:)
Dennis
I just wanted to thank you for the “weekly blog”, it always seems to bring out something of interest.
The photos of your table at the craft show were great. They really took me back in time as my wife and I used to do much the same thing each year around this time. Toy cars, trucks, and boats, trivets, holiday crafts, Frosty the Snowman candy cane holders, etc. all come back to mind!
Along the lines of reflecting on the past, I also wanted to mention that this coming Christmas Eve would have been the 75th birthday of Norm Marshall. Although I never got a chance to meet him (Norm passed away in 1982), his writings helped to introduce me to my favorite woodworking past time of toy making and to Shopsmith itself a number of years ago.
For those who may not have heard of him there is a short bio and interview with Norm printed in the Nov/Dec 2003 Shopsmith Hands-On issue in the web archives (California Dream Toys). Several of his toy plans are scattered through other Hands-On back issues and in the The Great All-American Wooden Toy Book.
Toy making is a great way to enjoy woodworking, so on the anniversary of Norm's 75th birthday – let's build some toys, because as Norm said, “the smile is worthwhile”.
Have a good week everybody!:)
Dennis