Project Update: New Switch Installed

The new table saw switch arrived yesterday and I got around to installing it today. The trouble with the original switch was that I could turn it on fine, but the red OFF switch in the photo below would jam sideways and I would be forced to bend down with the saw running and wood often still on the table to push the switch more squarely to turn it off. I always envisioned a piece of wood kicking back and driving through my left temple into my temporal lobe. Not scary at all.

I discovered that this switch had actually been recalled by Ryobi and contacting them would have resulted in a new, free switch being sent to me. I wish I had known this before I ordered it, but it wasn't that much - certainly worth the new safety standard it sets at Tortuga Ancient Instruments Worldwide Headquarters.

Once I pulled the old switch off, I discovered that it had two connectors while the new one had four. Because I know less about electrical matters than I do about building a harpsichord from scratch, I was in a serious dilemma, so I engaged my fallback strategy and posted a request for help on Facebook.

In response to my somewhat pathetic plea for help, Dr. Jerry Schlesser's wife, Christine, notified me that Dr. J is a wizard with all things electrical (in addition to many other things too numerous to cover here) and that I should call him for help. Once I called the Good Doctor, he instructed me to break out the multimeter to check continuity on the poles of the new switch.

It turns out I only needed to use one set of two connectors, or poles, on the new switch for it to work properly. Once I got the connections secured, I went ahead and installed the little bugger.

As you can see, it's a simple rocker switch with a cover that rolls the switch off when I tap it (it's natural position will be closed, resting the square on the cover on the O of the switch - I opened it for the photo). This is awesome. I can turn the machine on and off now without fear of a plank being driven through my skull. Not a bad thing at all.

Now, we wait for the other parts to arrive. Perhaps I should start a pool and invite my Facebook friends to participate. I see some holiday money arriving in my very near future, probably before the rest of the parts.

Until next time...

Project Update: Parts Arriving Soon

It turns out that I found the tilt gear available on Amazon! Because the vendors there only carry select parts, I assumed they wouldn't have the tilt gear, which is notoriously hard to find, and just checked on a whim. When I found the part there, I was able to cancel the eReplacementParts.com order because the Amazon shipping estimate said the parts would be here next week and they were a couple of dollars cheaper. eReplacementParts.com has been a great resource and I did end up ordering a riving knife assembly from them (for safety reasons).

Big Bertha continues to come together. I've ordered urethane tires from an eBay dude located on the East Coast, so they should be arriving some time next week, as well. Yes, the Craigslist dude sold it to me with the blade installed over bare wheels [insert rant about the state of machines I've purchased off of Craigslist here]. And the feet for the jointer should be here then, too. Oh, and I ordered up a switch conversion kit for the table saw because the off-switch on the current setup is horribly difficult to activate. Yeah, not scary at all. I know, it's Christmas week, so I'm giving them all a few extra days to arrive.

To summarize: The parts in transit at this time are

4 - Jointer Stand Foot
2 - Table Saw Tilt Gear
2 - Band Saw 17" x 1.25" Tire
1 - Table Saw Riving Knife Assembly
1 - Table Saw Switch Conversion Kit
1 - Table Saw Miter Fence End Cap

And a partridge in a pear tree.

In case you're wondering what the heck a "riving knife" is...it's a thin metal blade that is installed at the rear of the table saw blade; it mounts inside the saw case and extends above the table to help keep the sides of a cut apart. There are times when I've wished I had one in place, so now's the time to make it so. And then there's the table saw miter fence end cap. The last guy who owned it sawed through the end cap, which is indicative of the level of care with which he operated and cared for the machine.

The next purchase will be a resaw blade for Big Bertha. The blade length is enormous at 130", yet PS Wood Machines (recommended by George Vondriska of Woodworkers Guild of America) carries a 1" wide, 130" long resaw blade for $35.85, so it must not be that uncommon. The only remaining option I need for resawing is a Kreg fence and resaw guide. I'll explain more about these when it comes time to start slicing things up. Then, as Australian harpsichord builder Andrew Nolan was so kind to point out, the only remaining machine I will need is a drum sander to smooth down the slices. I'll be building a 30" wide model from a kit. Of course, I'll be detailing that process here, as well.

The Tortuga Ancient Instruments Holiday Maintenance Program is nearing its end and I can see light at the end of the tunnel, though I have yet to clean the chop saw and Delta 12" band saw; I'll get to them this weekend. Once all parts have arrived and are installed and everything is back in place, I'll call it good and get back to the reason for all of this: building a Flemish-style harpsichord!

Until next time...

Project Update: Please Welcome Big Bertha!

The Tortuga Ancient Instruments Holiday Maintenance Program continues with a new addition to the shop: Big Bertha! She's a beauty with an 18" throat, 12 full inches of resaw capacity with blade guard and guides installed, and a 2 hp motor. All that for $200 from a dude on good, old Craigslist.

I think I'm in love.

In the photo above, she is somewhat unclothed for a thorough cleaning, as she just arrived last night and needed a little work, but not much - certainly nothing like the jointer. In this view, I've removed everything but the table, fence, and motor. The wheels will always remain intact, unless they throw a bearing, but let's not manifest that.

Interestingly, she came with a 3/4" blade that was mounted on the wheels with no tires! My first improvement for her will be to purchase urethane tires and get them installed, which can be a bear, but is completely necessary. Then, I will seek out a no-kerf slicing blade and a good, solid Kreg resaw fence (both recommended by Mark Roberts of Mark Roberts Guitars and Ukuleles).

I was able to sell the 14" band saw I had purchased for resawing (mentioned in a previous post), covering most of the cost of Big Bertha. Had I kept the 14" saw, I would have purchased a 6" riser block ($100) to get a full 12" of resaw capacity and a beefier motor ($60 or more) and still would have been left with a smaller saw. Bertha will accommodate super-large billets and planks that I will resaw with abandon. The first thing I will cut with her will be 1/4" slices of quarter sawn red oak for the inside and outside laminates of the instrument case.

This is my last acquisition for a while, but you have to admit, this was a good one. When I ordered the tilt gear (ordered 2) for the table saw, the shipping estimate said 19-25 days, which means I'll see them some time in February, if I'm lucky. In the meantime, I'll get the new team member a into shape and continue completing the keys. I'll post up a photo of Big Bertha when she's fully clothed and ready to rock.

Until next time...

Project Update: My Kingdom for a Tilt Gear!

One of the concerns that prompted me to embark on the Tortuga Ancient Instruments Holiday Maintenance Program was the difficulty I had tilting the table saw blade when cutting the sharps a couple of months ago. I needed a 10-degree tilt to make the cuts, which was fine, but once I was finished, I couldn't get the blade to return to 90 degrees without a lot of effort. Too much effort, really, and it was very difficult to get the height adjustment gears to reengage.

Before taking the saw apart, I went ahead and read an online manual about how the tilt mechanism should operate. Yes, I read a manual, a document perilously close to a map - please alert my wife to this fact. Anyway, the manual says the crank handle should tilt the blade by moving a gear that meshes with the teeth of a "gear rack." This was not the case when I turned the crank handle - it just spun with halting movement of the blade, so I would have to manually jam it into position.

After reviewing a schematic of the saw, I was able to identify the potential part - a Tilt Gear - that might be the culprit. On closer inspection, I could see that a couple of the teeth were indeed missing on the tilt gear. On even closer inspection, it became clear that I would need to take one of the sides completely off to get at the gear, which resulted in the photo below.

What a mess.

The good news is I removed the tilt gear with the side benefit of cleaning parts and areas that clearly have not been cleaned in a long while. I removed the entire crank assembly and was able to pry everything apart in order to get at the tilt gear. As you can see, not just two, but four, of the teeth had been sheared off.

The tilt mechanism was problematic from the day I purchased the saw, so it's nice to be able to fix it and move on. The really nice thing is that the part is available from eReplacementParts.com for $3.99. I'm going to buy a couple of them to keep one in stock, though I intend to treat the saw with more care than its previous owner. So far, I've replaced several key parts and found stand mounting screws missing or quite loose. I've replaced so many parts, I feel like I've done what my dad recommended I do with one of my first cars: "Jack up the radiator cap and drive a new car underneath it."

For now, the Tortuga Ancient Instruments Holiday Maintenance Program continues. Next on the agenda while waiting for the new tilt gear to arrive is cleaning the 12" chop saw and tuning up the 12" Delta band saw. When those are completed, I'll build a folding assembly table on braking casters in anticipation of starting the instrument case in the next few weeks.

Until next time...

Project Update: Mission Accomplished

I was able to complete the cleanup of the new Delta 6" jointer tonight. As you may recall, I purchased it in a state of disrepair that included lots of rust and a few missing parts.

Once I disassembled the stand, I cleaned it up with the new bench grinder using a wire brush wheel and spray painted it with some of the paint I had left over from the sharps.

While the stand paint dried, I put the machine up on blocks and finished polishing the bed using a heavy duty Scotch-Brite pad.

It ended up nice and shiny, like brand new.

My two youngest sons, Trey and Reed, are pretty handy in the shop. They both have solid woodworking experience and have helped me with some great suggestions along the way. Tonight, they helped me put the stand back together and get the machine remounted.

I ran a piece of scrap through it and it worked like a charm. It's even quieter than my previous machine. Very exciting stuff.

The only steps left are to install the feet that are in transit to Tortuga Ancient Instruments Worldwide Headquarters and then to build a mobile base with locking wheels. For now, the machine will be stored off to the side of the shop until I need it (which will be soon - I'll be starting the case in the next couple of weeks).

Now, I can get back to cleaning up the table saw and starting the assembly table.

Until next time...

Project Update: Holiday Maintenance

I've decided that I'm going to take this holiday season to slow down a bit and start a mini-maintenance program on all of my shop tools and machines. I don't have a dust collection system, other than a shop vac and cyclone collector, so the nooks and crannies are pretty badly in need of a dusting and cleaning.

I've been having some trouble with the blade tilting gear on the table saw, so I decided to start there. In the course of taking it apart to check the gear, I discovered that a couple of bolts were missing or loose. Not cool. Clearly, I need to do this every couple of months.

The inside was caked with sawdust. The sense of purging was exhilarating when I brushed and vacuumed it out. The next step is to check the tilting gear and try to figure out why it won't go back to 90 degrees very easily after a tilt. I discovered this when cutting the sharps at 10 degrees; this is mainly why I switched to the band saw to cut the remaining sharps, which I will never do again (it left painful little blade kerf marks on the sides).

Along with this, I'm going to thoroughly clean the chop saw area. I'm also going to look at the bearings and tires on the 12" and 14" band saws and start preparing the 14" for the riser block and new blade. The 12" planer is due for a cleaning and the new jointer is going to be sparkly after this week. Speaking of which, I took the stand apart because the wire brush wheel should be sitting in my mailbox as I write this.

The only other maintenance project I intend to complete is to build a portable shop table, one that I can fold down and wheel out of the way when I don't need it, which is most of the time. There are times, though, when I've really needed a table larger than my workbench, which is only 24" wide, for things like looking at plans, assembling pieces, etc. I have a couple of other small projects in mind, but I'll hold off on those until I see how long the jointer cleanup and assembly table take.

Until next time...

Project Update: Bench Grinder Procured

I was able to secure the $30 bench grinder from a dude via Craigslist. It's brand, spankin' new, which is nice. It also has a built-in light, which is very nice.

I've ordered a wire brush wheel from eBay, scheduled to arrive at Tortuga Ancient Instruments Worldwide Headquarters by this Friday. In the meantime, I'll take the jointer stand apart so it's ready when the brush wheel rolls through the door. I'll also continue working on filing and sanding the naturals.

Until next time...