Project Update: Smooth Operator Gets a New Belt

I bought a lot of link belt material; more than I needed, really. In my defense, I thought I was going to be able to replace Little Buddy's belt, but it's a funky proprietary thing that will not accept a link belt. I guess I should have checked first. Instead, I installed a link belt on the jointer and finally gave it a name based on its new status: Smooth Operator. I know, it's cheesy, but I'm sticking with it unless and until my wife tells me to pick another.

As you know, I love nothing more than naming a machine, so it was a good day, indeed.

Speaking of good days, I was able to get a nice, tall resaw fence installed on Big Bertha. Now, Mark Roberts of Mark Roberts Guitars and Ukuleles tells me I will need another fence with a balance point on it, but I disagree. Once the 1" blade arrives, I believe it will be stiff enough to work through anything I have in mind. At this point, I'm just considering slicing up a few logs to make some boards. I think Mark is referring to cutting much thinner stock for instrument soundboards, backs and sides. Perhaps this will cause the blade to drift, but I really don't think so.

The first step was to locate some scrap from which I could cut the fence.

The fence that came on the saw has three holes in it, probably to allow the mounting of an additional board for resawing and other purposes. In this case, I went ahead and countersunk three holes in the scrap board after cutting it to size on the table saw and used wingnuts and lock washers to mount it to the fence.

I'm going to wait until the new blade arrives to resaw anything because the one currently on the machine is in very, very poor shape. If I need that single point Mark mentioned (this allows one to compensate for blade drift during a cut by tilting the feed material), I'll simply mount a piece of dowel to the board and, voila!, I've saved $125 by not purchasing a Kreg resaw fence.

When I told my wife I was using the same accounting principles as the federal government and that this allowed me to start a Tortuga Early Instruments Shop Reinvestment Program in which I could promptly reinvest the money saved back into the shop, she just looked at me.

I think she's on to me.

Until next time...