Shopsmith Forums

mickyd wrote:My conical disc is also just shy of 3-1/2°. Wixey just resolved just how shy. Where this comes into play is obviosly setting the table angle. I use a square to set it perpendicular the actual angle. If however you setting the table based on an assumed angle of 4°, it would be wise to verify it.

Being an old (that is, consistent) "3+" degree proponent (not sorry I brought it up), I'd only add here that I had a wee bit of trouble getting a good reading (digital level & Square process) until I firmly pinched the square's blade to the disc,as pictured. Due to air humidity/quality issues when mounted, my paper is not solidly fastened (imagine a layer of cottage cheese between it and the disc), and unless the paper's not forced against the disc the reading can be off as much as a quarter of a degree (horrors!). (Eyeballing square-to-disc used to be imprecise as you can imagine, prior to this discovery.)
[Yes, of course I should remover the paper, clean the disc, take all to an air-conditioned room and reinstall the paper. But I'd rather spend hours trying to figure out why it takes me five minutes to align the table.]

By the wayside, if I align the Square's blade more vertically precisely, the reading is 3.3 degrees.[ATTACH]8880[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]8881[/ATTACH]

I can't help but hear Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) and Jane Curtin in the back of my head:

"What is all this fuss I hear about comical disks?"

"Emily, that's CONICAL, not comical."

"Never mind."

I love my comical disk... er.. I mean conical!!!

Last night I started working on all the rails and stiles... actually just the stiles... for my kitchen redo. Well - I want them all about 3 inches wide. I cut them all on my table saw (stand alone - I think most folks agree the SS is not too good for sawing - esp resawing)... well it's cherry and the TS burns them - so usually I just take em over to my jointer and a couple swipes the the burn is off...

Well - I started thinking "What if the changed wide at one end or the other - how can I be sure they remain 3 inches top to bottom... 36" end to end?"

I looked at my handy SS Planer on the floor... Hmmm... if I bunch a few all together I can fit up to 4" in the planer (trust me - I've pushed it ALL the way to 4, and slightly higher by removing the metal top guard thing - kids don't do this at home!)

The planer is good, but I've been getting SNIPE at the front and back of pieces I send through - haven't had time to troubleshoot that. Plus, my blades need to sharpened because i get lines through the pieces that I have to go sand off afterward...

Wait... sand off... OH - Hi there newly beloved conical disk sander thing-a-ma-bob!!!!

Set it up in seconds... well - cuz it was on there from being the last thing I did on my SS. And about 1/2 hour later was done with 44 Stiles! No more sanding required - and every piece EXACTLY the same width!

Love it - I'll keep looking to it for more stuff... recently I (still) have been working on a mothers day keep sake box for the baby - The lid I wanted tapers on the edges... just changed the angle on the table and ran through the conical disk a few times... I suppose I could have done it through the table saw... but I only wanted a slight taper... make you look closer to see it!!!

So - my SS is slowly becoming one of the most expensive sanders and planers a person can have!!! HAHA - I do plan to use the drill press when I need something that big... and bores... also to for some lathe stuff...

Why doesn't SS make the drum sander thicknesser thing instead of supplying plans??

Mine is about 3.4 degrees.

Today I used my conical disk for the first time. I've got to learn a bit about making proper jigs, but WOW - I'm so surprised Shopsmith is the only company making these things.

To be honest, when I first read the descriptions I thought it was a near worthles variation of the flat disk, useful only in some highly specialized circumstances. Not any more!

Now my current question to self is whether to make a saw insert for it as described by SDSSmith, a drill-mode jig as shown in the sawdust sessions, or both!