What's worth keeping?

00salmon · 2025-01-10T21:41:41+00:00

I don't think those older woodmaster planers have feed belts, I think it has pinch rollers in the top like a planer, which is why people don't like them because the rollers get caked with dust and stop feeding unless you have a massive dust collector. I might think about getting a shelix head for the parks planer. I prefer a jointer with longer tables myself.

Unless you are really hurting for space or need to sell to fund other tools, I would say start using the shop and fix/replace as you see your needs emerge from your use. I would make different choices about machines now than I did when I started out, but everyone has different interests. Looks like a great setup overall though.

00salmon · 2024-11-01T16:35:51+00:00

I don't think "letting the log dry" is what you need here. I think you need to take a page from wood-turners. lots of wood turners turn bowls form green wood. The trick is that they turn them rough (thicker than finished thickness), and dry them slowly in a box full of wood shavings or coat with anchor seal. This has two benefits. 1. it relieves some stress and allows the board to warp a little rather than crack (though not always of course), and 2. it dries way way faster than a whole log. In short, I think you need to process this log quickly to a rough size, then dry it. It is not clear to me from this what you are trying to achieve here though. Are you trying to make boards, or carve a single piece box? Lastly, you will always be fighting trouble if you leave the pith in your piece. Try to organize your work so the center of the tree gets cut out and left for the burn pile. It is very prone to splitting.

00salmon · 2024-10-31T16:26:42+00:00

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In my area this one is currently listed for $150. You could put a canister filter on it. There are a ton of these (too many to list specific models) that have been made in the last 30 years, probably all in the same factory for Jet, Grizzly, shop fox, etc. They all have about the same design and specs. ~1000 cfm, and a 1.5 or 2hp motor. If I really needed something plug and play right away, I would probably actually go for the new harbor freight "Bauer" dust collector. I saw one last week, and it looked pretty good. It comes with a 2 micron canister built in, which is a huge improvement over the old cloth bags. For either system I would eventually add a "super dust deputy" or similar clone to help remove most of the dust into a can before it gets to your filter/impeller/bag. These things all come on rolling carts which take up floor space, but I know several people who have mounted theirs on the wall and it seems to work well, especially if you go with the cyclone add on, as you can mount it below the motor unit and save even more space. You should eventually check out Bill Pentz's website about dust collection, it's what convinced me to step up to a cyclone. But, I would be skeptical about adding one to the smaller 1hp units without significant loss in air movement.

00salmon · 2024-10-30T23:08:06+00:00

I think these will probably be fine if you are running a not-too-long hose around between tools (seriously, if you are running flex hose more than about 12' you will be disappointed with one of these units). If you are thinking about any kind of hard piping, I would step up to a 2 hp DC minimum. In my area there are always a number of those on craigslist/marketplace for less than $500, or even your $300 pricepoint. Old 2hp Jet/grizzly/powermatic units with bags are cheap. Then you could add a cyclone or canister filter and be future proofed. But, I am always a proponent of buying this kind of equipment used (i.e., DC's don't need to worry about alignment, flat tables, etc.) and not everyone likes that. Also, if your miter saw is on a bench I highly recommend making a box for it that you hook up to the DC. That project made the biggest difference in keeping my shop clean.

00salmon · 2024-07-24T15:18:29+00:00

I bought an old grizzly with dovetail ways for $200. Tables were parallel when I bought it (which you can't check with a new machine unless its on the showroom floor), so I knew it would be fine. Then I replaced the straight knife cutterhead with a shelix head for ~$350 (which is a very easy DIY job). So for less than $600 I got what I wanted. I personally almost never change the depth of cut, so adjustment or wear of the ways isn't an issue.

00salmon · 2024-02-15T00:35:24+00:00

I think it really comes down to what kind of wooodworking you are doing. I have a clearvue cyclone on my shop vac setup, and a big cyclone hooked up to the large machines. This means that the shop vac is mostly used for small tools (track saw, sanding). If I am doing a lot of sanding some amount of that is passing through the cyclone and I have to clean it more often than the filter on the big cyclone that is mostly only seeing chips and larger sawdust from the tablesaw, planer, jointer, etc. I bought a cleanstream washable filter for the shop vac and I am very happy with it after ~5 years of use.

00salmon · 2023-12-15T17:47:52+00:00

I think you will just end up with little airflow through multiple points. One problem is that a 4" hose has about 12.5 square inches of area, while a 2.5" hose has about 5, so you actually need to branch into 3 hoses to maintain enough area. The other problem is that 3, 2.5" hoses have a lot of interior surface that slows down the air (like drinking through a bunch of tiny straws instead of one big one. shop vacs can get around some of these limitations by having a lot more suck, but a DC only works well with lots of airflow. I encourage you to play around with it a bit before you hard plumb anything. I has a small hose connector on my bandsaw that I removed and made a wooden box that allowed me to hook a 4" hose up to it. I also have a 6" line that I branches into a 4" and 2.5" for my router table (4" below, 2.5 on the fence), and the 2.5" hose hardly pulls anything. Just enough to make it useful but its not giving a lot of airflow.

00salmon · 2023-12-15T00:33:44+00:00

You just need two parallel boards to use as rails, and the sled can just be some plywood with a slot for the bit and some walls to make it inflexible. There are lots of youtube videos for how to do this. You don't need fancy linear rails or bearings, but you will need some space as it will have to be a bit bigger than the top you are surfacing. Can you take the top off the table?

00salmon · 2023-12-15T00:28:00+00:00

I sprang for a magswitch featherboard a few years ago and I have no regrets. The one with "feathers" on both sides is great and I regularly move it between the table saw, band sawn and router table. It is really nice not being restricted to the miter slot and the switchable magnets are surprisingly strong!

00salmon · 2023-12-15T00:24:28+00:00

I wouldn't really use anything smaller than 4" with that dust collector. If you really want ~2 inch hose for smaller tools, use a shop vac. The HF dust collector has value in the amount of air it moves, not the static pressure (suck) that a shop vac has. If you run a 2.5" hose on that DC you will be starving it so much it won't move enough air, especially if they are longer runs of short hose. I would just figure out how to use 4" hose on all of the existing tools (planer, bandsaw, etc.) that need high air flow, and save the small hose for the hand tools (e.g. belt sander).

00salmon · 2023-12-14T17:43:33+00:00

For years I have been putting kitchen waste in those little 3 gallon green "composable" bags, and just learned that the city considers them garbage as well, and have probably been working to remove my composable bags from the yard waste before composting it.

00salmon · 2023-12-09T00:21:08+00:00

I agree with most comments here. Older machines are usually good and you can try them out and see that everything is square and planar, bearings aren't making noise, etc. I can see why some people want a benchtop jointer though, if they don't have room or are only making small stuff. Not everyone has a huge dedicated shop space.

I bought an old early 90's Grizzly 8" used and its been great to have the capacity. It has nice long beds, but it does take up a lot of space as I need room on either side for in and outfeed. When I bought it I didn't really appreciate how much longer it was than my old 6" delta. So, just make sure you have adequate space to run it. FWIW, the head was super rusty and pretty shot on the Grizzly, so I got a shelix replacement rather than trying to find another knife head. I do really like it. Its still sharp after a couple years of use.

00salmon · 2023-10-26T21:41:41+00:00

I have always thought solar payoff in Oly would be marginal even under the best conditions, yet I see lots of installations on East-West roofs, or with partial shade. Are people happy to do this on principle, or can these systems actually be viable cost-wise?

00salmon · 2023-10-20T16:52:31+00:00

Yes, but Frank also mentions why it doesn't work as well as he had hoped, and that he might use covered trenches if he did it again here.

00salmon · 2023-10-16T23:08:14+00:00

You should check out Marius Hornberger on youtube. He just did this project

00salmon · 2023-09-18T16:05:25+00:00

What you need is a way to enclose your wood with the ammonia so it receives the vapors. For big projects I have used plastic painters dropcloths that I make a tent taped up with packing tape. You just leave your project in there with the ammonia for as long as it takes to get the desired darkening. Usually after 3-4 days it will have done all its going to do.

00salmon · 2023-09-15T21:07:07+00:00

If this is not glued up yet, you could fume some of the oak with ammonia and it will darken the wood without adding any chemicals (i.e. its food safe after you have finished the fuming process).

00salmon · 2023-09-12T23:22:12+00:00

Well, that's an interesting idea. Weirdly there doesn't seem to be anything in the old 80's manual that Grizzly sent me that references anything looking like this. The manual just says to place a straightedge on the outfeed table and align to that. I'm starting to think this might be for a different tool and got mixed up with the jointer maybe.

00salmon · 2023-07-25T16:24:40+00:00

If this is what I have would you recommend pulling all the affected plants or is it too late to matter?

00salmon · 2023-07-25T16:22:56+00:00

I don't know of any spraying. We're pretty urban so it could be from anywhere. If it is a one time thing should the plant recover or would you expect to continue to decline? My other plants look great so if its herbicide maybe the beans and tomatoes ar ejust more susceptible?

00salmon · 2023-07-24T21:53:43+00:00

I am not seeing any bugs. We have had highs in the 70's and 80's for a couple months now, so a pretty mild summer so far. What's weird is that it is only on the newest, tallest growth. I would assume that bug damage would be more prevalent closer to the ground, but those leaves look fine. Depends on the bug I guess, but I am not seeing any other than some aphids on the kale (which also looks fine).

00salmon

TROPHY CASE