Shopsmith Forums

Another week of slow but steady progress. One of the things that slowed me down was plumbers in on Thursday to install a circulating pump on my furnace/boiler. Part of our government's plan to help get out of the recession. They rebate 13% of renovation projects until February 2010. The good part about that was with a tip of $5 each, the workers moved my new jointer from the garage to the basement workshop. The downside was that I cannot make head or tail of the Chinese instruction manual so it is not yet put together. I have several parts that are not shown anywhere so I guess I will make a trip to the tool store on Wednesday, with my parts and manual, to see if they can guide me. It ticks me off, that the North American companies that sell "made in China" products don't bother to write the manuals here so we can understand them.

As to work on the harvest bin, I thought I was having problems until I read Jim's post on lessons he had learned over the weekend. I almost felt better.

The first problem I encountered was whille routing a profile on the edge of the base trim. a large splinter of wood came off ruining the top edge. I was thinking maybe a dull bit caused this mishap. It was even more frustrating since I had found a clear piece of pine in the cheaper knotty pine bin at HD and I was planning to have the grain wrap around the three sides of the bin. I may be able to save the piece but I haven't tried yet as I was in cool down mode and moved on.

The next phase was to drill 5/8" holes in the BB side and backs of the drawers. I had the depth set to drill so only the point would pierce the back side and I would finish drilling from there to avoid tearout. After several holes, I ran into a problem I have experienced before and which others have mentioned in that the holes became shallower as I progressd. I tried to stop this by supporting the table with the extendable leg but no such luck. With a total of 36 holes to drill, adjusting the depth after every one or two holes became more than a little annoying. But they did get done.

After connecting the holes by cutting a slot on the scroll saw, the next step was to rout a roundover on the slots. This was not called for in the plans but I thought it would add to the appearance. While doing the first one, my router blade started jumping wildly. Fortunately the router was table mounted so there was no real danger. When removed from the table, the blade/spindle cannot be moved from side to side by hand, but it sure has plenty of movement when spinning at 10,000 revs/min. I was able to finish the job with my old router but I think the newer one is now scrap. Maybe my previous splinter problem was really the start of this major breakdown.

I have attached picures to show work in progress. The side of the bin shows where the base molding is supposed to go.

Next up is to start on the face frames that complete the drawers. Then I will have to tackle flattening the top which is made up of three cupped boards. Of course they would not be cupped if I had had my jointer working:(

Have a Safe and Fun week!

John

Nice looking set of bins! I was able to finally finish up a few boards needed to hang a rack in the kitchen.. I visited my local Rockler store to get a countersinking bit + some decent looking screws to attach the boards to the studs in the wall.. The unit itself was purchased at the local Container Store about 4-5 years ago and remained in a bag until this weekend.. Anyway, I ditched the supplied screws and used the same brass colored screws to attach the brackets to the 1x maple boards. Not tons of effort here but it WAS my first Shopsmith project since buying it >1 year ago.. Sheesh.. Anyway, I was able to use the (properly aligned) table saw and jointer for this project..

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John - Hey! that bin is coming right along! Lookin' good too! Must be a pleasure working with straight, rather than bowed, plywood! Sorry to hear about your router, wish I could guess what went wrong, but can't.

Rick, nice lookin' rack, mounting looks good! Also a slick (pretty) kitchen. Glad you were able to use your Mark V.

My shop has been pretty quiet for the past two weeks. I'm waiting for the Danish oil to cure in order to apply water based polyurethane. It (and the shop) still smells of the oil even after being wiped down with dry rags daily. Another week or two should do it. It is an easy stain to apply, but just takes time to cure.

Did get the DC cleaned out. Took it apart again and made sure the noise I've been hearing is not motor related. There was a bump, bump, bump noise of the fan hitting on something while coasting to a stop. Was glad to find it was the installation of the fan blade on the motor shaft. I think the key sneeked too much toward the motor and slid into the sloped part of the keyway. Then when the fan was tightened, it wasn't fully on the shaft and was jammed where the key protruded, allowing the fan to sit catywampus on the shaft.

Presently scraping/filling/painting our front porch - the sun has raised havoc. Thinking that next time the wood rails will get tossed in favor of metal or PVC.

Hi, this struck a memory for me:
"The first problem I encountered was whille routing a profile on the edge of the base trim. a large splinter of wood came off ruining the top edge. I was thinking maybe a dull bit caused this mishap. It was even more frustrating since I had found a clear piece of pine in the cheaper knotty pine bin at HD and I was planning to have the grain wrap around the three sides of the bin. I may be able to save the piece but I haven't tried yet as I was in cool down mode and moved on".

I don't remember if it was either last year or the year before I got some "pine" from HD. It had a label that said Sweden or maybe Finland and it was the worst wood I have every had to work with. When you tried to edge it would split off in large pieces. I ended up having to make many many passes taking off very small amounts on each piece. The wood you have sounds just like that. Haven't gone back to check to see if they still carry that wood but I plan to avoid it. Even end cuts splintered badly...

As far as the router, remove the bit and look for some damage on the cutter. That would be my first guess, and if you put in another bit and it runs smooth I'd even be more sure.

Ed

Hi,

Now that you have that job done you can expand and start your second project. I have a wine glass rack I made about 10 or 12 years ago for under the kitchen over head cabinets... now when I find the wood again I'll finish it and put it up. So from my prospective you really got on this project.

Looks like you guys are eating healthy, good for you.

Ed

osx-addict wrote:Nice looking set of bins! I was able to finally finish up a few boards needed to hang a rack in the kitchen.. I visited my local Rockler store to get a countersinking bit + some decent looking screws to attach the boards to the studs in the wall.. The unit itself was purchased at the local Container Store about 4-5 years ago and remained in a bag until this weekend.. Anyway, I ditched the supplied screws and used the same brass colored screws to attach the brackets to the 1x maple boards. Not tons of effort here but it WAS my first Shopsmith project since buying it >1 year ago.. Sheesh.. Anyway, I was able to use the (properly aligned) table saw and jointer for this project..

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Ed:

I'll try your advice about a different blade, but I think it is something else. When I turned the blade and spindle(?) by hand, it seemed to catch a bit every few turns though I could not get the side-to-side movement I experienced when it was running.

Dear wife has already suggested maybe I need a new router for Christmas. Maybe I should take her up on it.

John

John, I like your shop. Looks like you are taking over the living room... Or is that a sun porch?

Mike:

That's the basement playroom. It becomes an assembly area quite often as my shop is really pretty tight for space. Of course the Dear Wife dosen't always appreciate the clutter and dust, but she refuses to move to the country so I can have a full shop.

Have fun

John