Shopsmith Forums

They'll never find them all. I practically live there and I'm forever looking for a tape measure. Sometimes even the one I just got through using.

Hey Ross, did you get your planer table adjusted. If you haven't, doing it will certainly test your patience but it is worth it. It'll also help you to remember to blow it out now and then.

DC Ross, I don't know if have tried the adjustments suggested by Nick yet, but before you do, check and see if you need to clean the rollers.

I planed a lot of pine for a shelving unit. When I started to plane some oak for the rocking horse I am making (SS plan), I had that same pulling problem. I opened some panels and removed some panels and unplugged the cutter motor (I have the pro planer) and evenually found easy access to the rollers. It tood a brush to get some of the wood shavings out of the rubber recesses, but once the rollers were clean, everything worked normally again.

It's worth a shot and doesn't involve any iotas, smidegoens or tads.

Ross, have you managed to get your planer to perform satisfactorily?

You now know how to measure iotas, smidgeons and more. The boards that you are thickness planeing should now all come out equal, close enough for government work at least. To within +/- a gnats-hair.

Nick wrote:You know, folks, this will all change when we switch to the metric system.

With all good wishes,

Is this like when the country was supposedly switching to the metric system about 15 years ago?:)

I work in the civil engineering field and I vividly remember such a push, but it was not meant to be (except by some state government entities) since all the experienced equipment operators could look at a pile of dirt or stone and tell you how many cubic yards were there with exceptional accuracy, but they didn't have a clue what or how much a cubic meter was!

As I remember the metric push/scare, it happened around 40 years ago. Sometime 70s. What I remember was my boss at the time, who was a bureaucratic engineer. He was trying to get us (in the line organization) to spend our money on conversion tools. (Measuring tapes, new level azimuth circles for levels and theodolites) Being among a good group of field foresters, we knew no one, even the Federal Govt. would be able to change land measurements in acres to become hectars. The whole West was originally surveyed in square miles (640 acres)(80 chains to a mile) How could any government change that to meters and hectares? Let alone changing the entire lumber industry from board feet to cubic feet.

It was laughable to us - all except for our boss, who was always frustrated about something anyway.

It seems the topic has strayed somewhat so I will keep it going in the wrong direction!

We (Canada) converted to the metric system about twenty years ago. Most of us old timers have not, but all of our children learned it in school so they don't know what inches are, and the media will still sometimes tell us the temperature in both metric, and very quietly, in imperial measure. Snowfall can sound much more impressive as 30 centimetres instead of only 12 inches

Oh yea, wood is still sold by the board foot, or as 2x4, etc.

Have fun

John

John - How about land. Is it sold by the acre?

P.S. This metric stuff is just a small waver of subject. Feel free to get back on subject anytime!

Have you ever noticed that even metric sockets are used with ratchets designated as 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", or 3/4" drive?

I think some of you are missing the point. When the "Company" wants to manufacture overseas it is a lot easier to move that way when the conversion to metrics is done.

I just said that to see if anyone else has seen this. If not it should give you another thing to think about.

I think you would be shocked to see the amount of things that are dual measurements already. Drawings that you might not often see are done that way and have been for a long while. Most current packaging has dual labels, and we are even being converted in more ways then one. So did you just go buy a 2 liter bottle of pop/soda??

Most of the designs I worked on in the last years before I retired the convension was to work in the metric world. The drawings were full metric and were designed around base metric dimensions. In other words the piece was 100mm by 200mm by 300mm, much the same as one would have done a piece 4" x 8" x 12". When you work in it for a while you get the feel for it and even start thing of things in pure metric... when you start you are always thinking of conversions but soon as your experence grow you do the whole design thinking in mm.

So the moral of the story is, if I could do it so could you. It is just a matter of if you want to or not, or if you have to or not. I think it was once put to us that "if you are to old to learn you are to old".

3d

3d - I still can't find a 5.5mm allen wr3nch! And no the fractional conversion doesn't fit tight enough.