Weekly Blog - June 11th

john · Post by **john** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:06 pm

Well it has been another quiet week on the woodworking front.

I wish I could say that on all fronts! The Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix was held this past weekend in Montreal less than a mile upwind from my home, so we went through another three days of whining race cars going around the track. Interestingly, our local community has an anti noise bylaw that forbids excessive noise on Sundays. Montreal does not and really dosen't care about it's neigbours to the south. Now before all the NASCAR fans get upset with me, let me tell you I sometimes watch those races on tv but then I can adjust the volume. Just my RANT for this year!

I am down to the final sanding on the doll cradles so have slowed down considerably since it is not my favourite part of woodworking. I did manage to start two more breadknives, one maple and the other in oak. Some of the most interesting activity was dealing with a couple of requests from ex-employees. One has asked for a quote on a baby cradle based on seeing pictures of the doll cradle, another asked about making a wall hung CD cabinet. That should keep me busy for a while.

This week will be another non-productive one as we head off Wednesday to visit my daughter and family in Niagara Falls, Ont. However, I will try to drop into the Rockler store in Buffalo, N.Y. to "drool" and maybe pick up a thing or two. At the rate I am spending this year, I will never recover my costs no matter how many doll cradles or breadknives I make.

Have a fun week!

John

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:54 pm

Not much activity on the Blog this week. Guess we're all busy with other stuff.

Thought I'd take the opportunity to do a show and tell of what has been happening around here the past week. Tried out the OPR at shaping a shutter with some success. Didn't do much planning on the set up for the first two (top slopes) but didn't think there was much needed. Since I changed the size of the shutters to 3/8" thick and 3" wide. Just tilted the table to 5 degrees and ran a couple of slats through. took two passes to get one complete taper. (the slats were 33" long) After thinking about the jig needed to mill the other side - divorced the OPR (temporarily) to try the band saw. The band saw was quick and smooth both without a shim on the backside and with. (gives a more accurate cut with a shim).

Then cut the long louvers into 10" pieces and built a frame (out of scrap) and mounted the louvers into the frame. Wanted to see how 3" louvers at 2 1/2" spacing looked like. Thought this small prototype would give an idea. Didn't bother to put in staples and an adjusting rod. Just wanted to see if my Bride would like the "look". It passed!

In the meantime much time was spent surfing the net for info on plantation shutters. Found most have 3 1/4" louvers. Sent for a "New Yankee" plan, to see how Norm does it. Most importantly, found two sources for pivot pins and staples. One site has 1000 pins at half the price as the other. Surprising that woodworkers supply is the highest.

Oh yeah, Also while the OPR was set up made a few longer adjustable story sticks our of the 1/8" cut off from re-sawing the 3/8" louvers. These will come in handy for "measuring" the windows.

Here are some pix of the prototype and a couple about shop storage. I like the "L" hook (or right angle hook) method of hanging things onto peg board. This method allows one to move hangers or shelves or drawers from one set of peg board to another with ease. You can build all kinds of storage drawers, shelves or hangers out of wood and just hang them onto the peg board. In the Pix (close up of library cabinet) there is a sandpaper holder on the left side and a three partitioned drawer on the right. In the pix (prototype shutter and drawer) you can see the backside of the drawer and the "L" hooks.

That's enough for this blog - but I'm going to put in a Thread on the folding router table and expanding workbench, think some will enjoy it. After all we asked for more posts on woodworking and projects!

james.miller · Post by **james.miller** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:20 pm

I also modified the motor deflector for my Overarm Router Attachment to accept my PC 890 but had the cord come off to the right side (back) of the SS because that's where the outlet is.

[ATTACH]261[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]262[/ATTACH]

I may cover the smaller hole with the piece of plastic that I scroll sawed out of the large hole, I would glue it onto the bottom of the deflector. That way it will control the space between the bottom of the router motor and the deflector to the 1/8" it calls for in the manual.

Shopsmith doesn't sell the deflector separately, and that's not good because I may someday buy a different model router or want to turn my PC 890 around 180 degrees if I have the Shopsmith on the other side of the shop.

The Lift-Assist should be here next week and that will take a load off of my back when setting up the OPR.

Jim in Tucson

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 9:17 pm

Hi Jim! Any thing that works! Hey! Ascertained that the fan in the router blows out of the business end. So the 1/8" is to maintain air flow out the bottom. Suppose some chips could fly up into the fan blades and damage them, but that does not seem to be of concern when using free standing routers or those in a router table. Can't help but wonder why it is in this application

Bet you could order a deflector from Shopsmith via phone. Seems ED (reible) did!

john · Post by **john** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:13 pm

Chuck:

Those prototypes look pretty good to me!

Looking forward to see more of this project.

John