M
Well, my woodworking has turned a new corner, so now I have new questions! And instead of finding and joining some new forum specifically for woodworking, I thought I'd try here first and see if I can maintain my forum sanity.
I just bought a Hitachi table saw and Hitachi 12" mitre saw for $400 total on craigslist, and I'm quite pleased. Those were the 2 items I was missing, so I consider myself pretty well complete now with the most basic of tools.
I fired up my Grizzly 14" bandsaw for the first time this weekend (I won't tell you how long I've had it) and enjoyed what I could do with it. And so the questions begin:
1) I noticed the wood I cut with the bandsaw was highly grooved. Is that the norm, or is it more likely a result of using the Lowes bandsaw blade I bought? With that amount of grooving, it seems like I'm going to be spending a lot of time sanding or else have to look for a planer (not likely to happen there). As it turns out, I have access to a planar with my cousin next door, so for important stuff I have that outlet.
Start buying him six-packs now. ;-)
Yes, it is pretty much the norm. You may be able to improve it some by using a fence that is set up just right to cancel the inevitable lead of the blade, and by improving your feeding technique, and possibly by tuning up your saw, but it is kind of inevitable. Oh- are you using a wide blade? For re-sawing, you want as wide as your saw can handle. Make sure you have the tension set right too- as well as your blade guides and bearings.
You will also need access to a joiner- hopefully a wide one. Does your cousin have one of those as well? If your stock is not flat and square, you will be limited in what you can do. The other approach is to get a couple of apprentices and teach them to use a hand plane. ;-)
2) We have a ton of fallen logs on our property that we have just begun cutting up for firewood. Somehow I got the crazy idea that maybe some of these smaller logs could be cut into planks and then used for various things, like gifts, and picture frames. I got on the web and found that this isn't so wild or new an idea. Do any of you do that? The things I read on the net seemed to indicate you should be cutting fresh wet wood. I've got a ton of nice sized logs sitting on the ground for close to 2 years now and it would seem a shame to have to wait until we cut new logs to be able to use some of these.
I did it once with some ash. You can do it, and it does save some money, but you need to dry it for a long time, outdoors, then indoors, then surface it, etc. A lot of work. Also you will have some loss. Unless you have a really big saw, you are going to end up with like 5-6" wide boards too.
You could try it with the down stuff- probem is it hasn't dried evenly, so you will have lots of checking, rotting, etc. I wouldn't bother, unless some of the trees have special sentimental value.
Trunks only, btw, branches will twist up like prezels when the tension is released.
3) I know that releasing the tension on the bandsaw blade is major important, and so I'm trying to think of some way to ensure I do that when I'm done with the thing. I had thought about mounting a mercury switch on the handle connected to some light or something else. I also thought about connecting the mercury switch to a relay for the saw itself so that I wouldn't accidentally start the saw with the tension lever released...that seems like it would be bad. Any good suggestions or trickers/reminders you guys use?
Nothing special- I do have a spotlight that I turn on manually when I use the bandsaw, so when I turn it off, I'm reminded to release the saw. It is not really quite as critical as some put out, but I tend to release it if I am not going to be using the saw again soon.
4) Do I need to clean the bandsaw blade? I thought I read somewhere about cleaning the blade when you first unpackage it to get the gunk off, but I didn't do that. I see an awful lot of sawdust sticking to the teeth now, but I don't know if that's normal. *shrug* it seems to cut just fine still.
Dunno. easy to clean when installed though. I mounted a brass wire brush inside my lower cover to brush off the blade and keep the dust from accumulating on my tires.
5) Do any of you use the feather locs by bench dog? Those seem awful useful for keeping the board against the fence, and also preventing kickback on the tablesaw. I've got $50 to spend on amazon if I want, and I could get 4 of those things doing that. Just wondering if they're all they're cracked up to be. Ive heard other sights praise them and their usefulness.
Featherboards are very useful. . . but I don't buy them, I just make them. Easy with a bandsaw. then I clamp them wherever they are needed.
6) I had hoped to make a tablesaw crosscut sled as one of my first projects but I ran into an immediate problem. My hitachi table saw top doesn't have a perfectly open grooves for the mitre gauges. Instead, in two places, there are little tabs that stick out over the groove...apparently to keep the mitre gauge that came with the table from being easily lifted out. Now...I think that's just stupid. But the bigger question is how should I then create my table saw sled? The only way I can think to do so is to shape a piece of wood like the mitre gauge..where its wider at the bottom to fill the slot, but then narrowed at the top to miss the notches. It's a pain too because then I can't just drop the sled into place I'll have to slide it on from the end. Grrr.
If it is a true T-slot, that is exactly what you need to do. If it is just a couple of tabs, you could just get out the file and remove them.
I guess if it is a full T-slot, you could also use a narrow rail and ignore the bottom of the slot.
7) I'm concerned that the tops of my bandsaw, drill press and table saw are all either corroding or dirty. Im not sure exactly what the metal is but they all seem very sturdy....so maybe cast iron?? Anyway, how do you guys recommend cleaning and maintaing those surfaces so that they stay in good shape for a long time?
Typically cast iron. Some of the less expensive stuff might be aluminum. I clean my iron with steel wool and wd-40 if it gets rusty (mosty when I do stupid things) then remove the wd-40 with paint thinner, then coat with hard automotive paste wax to make stuff sliiiide over it nicely.
Markd
ps- ok, I tried on two computers- is the editing window working ok for other people? Cause it sure sucks for me! No cursor, no cut/paste, no arrow keys.
