The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

Tag: stay-at-home

  • Table Saw Upgrade

    Table Saw Upgrade

    In early March I finally felt worthy to upgrade from an inexpensive Hitachi jobsite table saw to a real one. The inability to consistently create accurate and repeatable cuts on my little Hitachi was causing so much frustration that I was finding myself avoiding projects. The fence was garbage, the entire thing wobbled, and I had had enough.

    I placed an order for a SawStop, the contractor model with upgraded fence system, cast iron extension wings, and a 36″ extension table. It arrived a little over a week later, and took 7 hours to assemble, but I have been completely satisfied with every aspect of the tool.

    It took me a while to finally make the purchase of a SawStop. The increased cost of this over other really good saws is not insignificant. That said, I hate to call those other saws competitors because the SawStop technology is available nowhere else. Being a software developer who makes a living on a keyboard, the technology is invaluable. For the uninitiated, this saw detects when flesh touches the blade and instantaneously drops the running blade below the table – giving the operator a vastly improved chance of having no life altering injuries.

    The purchase was timely. Shortly after delivery Illinois enacted their stay-at-home order, so I’ve had plenty of time to putz around the basement, learn, and put it to good use. I have spent several ours in the basement in each of the 7 weeks or so that we’ve been confined to the house. Projects abound!

  • Fabric Organizer

    Fabric Organizer

    One of my recent projects was an organizer for Ana’s sewing room. She has been overrun by fabric and was in need of something to unstack the piles.

    Plans

    Earlier in the year I started making the transition from SketchUp to Fusion 360 for my woodworking plans. Since I’m so new to Fusion 360, it probably took about three hours to get the model built how I wanted and plans generated.

    I don’t recall having to run back to the computer during the build to check dimensions or fix anything, so I’m satisfied with what I produced with Fusion. A copy of the plans is available upon request.

    Build

    This build was great for learning how to use my new dado stack. And learn I did. I spent a long time getting the dado stack installed (along with the appropriate SawStop brake) and fence setup for the cut. I made the first two cuts on the board which would later be ripped into two equal halves for matching top and bottom boards, and quickly found that the two dados were too wide.

    I was furious.

    It wasn’t the common mistake of mistakenly cutting to 1/2″ thick for 1/2″ plywood that’s actually thinner than 1/2″. Nope. This is when I learned there were specific left and right blades!

    What made this so frustrating was that I had just enough wood on hand for this build, and now I was going to have to get more wood. During a stay-at-home order.

    Sigh.

    Later the next week I placed an online order for new wood, which was delivered a few days later, just in time for the next weekend. I don’t think I’ll ever forget about the left and right blades, lesson learned.

    The rest of the cuts went well. With my new saw I was able to make precise and repeatable cuts, and for the first time just assembly line the cuts. It was such a pleasure.

    Dry fit before final assembly.
    Stack of all of the shelves, 1/4″ birch plywood.
    Of all of the dados, I had little one cutting mistake. I refuse to point it out.

    Paint

    Procuring paint and materials during the lockdown also delayed the completion of this project. It seems as if nobody ships paint, and buying even white paint online causes pause because you just have no way of telling exactly what shade of white you are going to get.

    I placed an order at Menards.com, and they proceeded to somehow ship the order to the entirely wrong city. I later ended up doing curb-side pickup at Lowes for the paint. As an aside, after more than a week of no response from Menards about the order, they shipped a replacement. It arrived at my door just two days ago – but it was not my order.

    My original plan was to paint the large sheet of 1/4″ plywood before cutting the shelves, but the ordeal in procuring paint interrupted these plans. I knew it was going to be a pain to paint 26 individual shelves but I didn’t want the project to sit while waiting for paint.

    I painted the entire thing without the shelves inserted. In order to allow the shelves to be glued after installation, I applied tape along all of the shelf edges which would later get glue and painted around them. It worked well and didn’t turn out to be a huge problem.

    Completed

    The completed organizer has been in Ana’s sewing room for about two weeks now and is quickly filling up.