RIP Cal Bowman

This is a sad blog post to write.

If you live in Las Vegas, you know how damn hot it's been this week. It really bothers me when people complain about the heat here - I mean - YOU LIVE IN THE DESERT, what do you expect? 

(I complain about it too - and yes, that is stupid. It's a bad habit I am trying to break.)

It's easy to forget how dangerous this heat can be. Forget that your dog is in the car and it will die. Same with kids in cars. Every year, there are tragic stories about someone dying in a hot car. 

So yesterday, when I heard that some Boy Scouts and their Scout leaders had run into trouble while hiking out by Lake Mead, I thought - who would take kids out on a day when the temps were going to reach over 110 degrees? It's so easy to criticize or think something cruel about that, when the truth is - it was just an accident. No one would have ever scheduled something like that, knowing what the outcome would be.

That's why it's called an accident. We'd all do things differently if we could go back in time and change things - right?

Sadly enough - the scout leader who died during that hike was a student of mine at the school. Cal was a good guy - quick with a smile, or a kind word. Smart. Busy. Energetic. Wanted to build a ton of furniture. 

He was a member of the Sin City Woodworkers group, and at our last holiday party, he'd won a tool in our raffle, which is still sitting in my office. A month or two ago, he emailed me to say he'd be by shortly - for he was in the process of setting up his woodshop and needed the tool he'd won. Sad.

So - please - before you make a mean comment or a judgement about this tragedy, stop and think about this. These comments are mean spirited and unnecessary. At various times in our lives, we've all encountered dicey situations, like narrowly avoiding car crashes, or luckily - leaving the scene of a disaster, moments before it occurs. 

By some twist of fate or luck, we manage to stay safe. Lucky us. Be a better person, and instead of judging this situation, offer up a bit of thanks that you're still around. And - maybe a little prayer (if you're the praying type) for Cal. 

Who's been carving for 50 years?

Back to the start...

I love this video, not sure why, but it's just so damn clever. 

I've only eaten at Chipotle once (maybe ten years ago!) and from what I remember, it was pretty decent fast food. Makes me want to try them again. This is what I call successful marketing!

(Thanks for the link, Jen Yu!)

Changing the blades on the Makita 2040 planer

Believe it or not, I still had a set of unused blades for this old Makita 2040 planer. I purchased them in the 90's, and never found the need to use them. 

I'm so organized - I knew right where to find them! (I even found the credit card receipt for them, stuck in my planer manual.)

I've probably changed the blades on this machine a few dozen times over the years, and it's always struck me how archaic the directions are.  Really - the manual is so lame for guiding you through this procedure. 

You have to remove the top chip guard to expose the blades. Do that by loosening this screw and rotating that little tab 90 degrees.

Do the same to this one, 

and then pull the cover off. 

Now it's time to lock the cutterhead in place. There is a black plastic lever on top that locks into place when you have the blades rotated into the right place. 

There are two blades - and to get to each one, you have to remove the eight bolts that hold down the blade drum cover. 

Here I've removed the blade drum cover, 

it's easy to simply slip the blades out now. 

My sharpener engraved my name on my blades - I'm guessing this was done by Jim's Sharpening Service in Akron, many years ago. He was a terrific guy, did all of my sharpening until he died very suddenly and his apprentice took over the shop. I don't know if he's still in business, but they were a great company to use - friendly, reasonably priced, and always had a fun story or some silly joke to share. 

I've already drawn blood - I don't even know what I touched!

Time to blow out the 15 year old dust inside the planer, and install the new knives. 

Here's where it gets lame. 

LAME!!!

Makita gives you two high tech devices for setting the height of your knives - these blocks of wood. (Eye-roll.... please....)

Basically, you slip the blades in place, and secure them with all eight bolts - only hand tight for now. Then - rotate the cutter head until the blade is at it's highest point, and push the piece of wood down over the blade. That way - you don't slice yourself on the sharp blade. In theory, at least - I almost always get a little cut. 

It's a little complicated and I've probably lost a few of you with this - but the set the exact height, you press down slightly on the wood block, and leave it sitting over the top of the blade. Rotate the cutter head very slowly, and when the blade scraped the wood, it should push it slightly forward - about a quarter of an inch. Do that on both sides of the blade. When both sides advance that piece of wood the same distance, your blade height is set.

What a ridiculous way to set the height!

I am sure there are people out there with dial indicators that do this much more accurately - but this is the way I do it. It's old school -  but I'll stick with it. It works fine. For some reason, Lady Luck was looking over my shoulders - I set these blades in about ten minutes. 

I took some rust cleaner and wiped down the tables - they were in pretty bad shape. 

I can make a serious mess when working on tools. 

But the good news is - she is starting to get back into excellent shape. Next step - some adjustments to the bottom rollers and then reinstalling the top rollers. She's almost ready to use... 

Stay tuned!

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Fun with old tools.... let's rebuild a Makita 2040 planer

This old Makita 2040 planer is my pride and joy. 

Oh, she's not so pretty anymore, but damn - she does a hell of a job planing wood. When I graduated from college and hung up my shingle - this was the first big expense for me - nearly 16" of planing power. 

There have been literally miles of wood that have passed through this machine. Over time, I tired of sweeping up the piles of sawdust that it made. And I certainly didn't want to buy the dust hood that they made for this - I couldn't afford it. So I made my own out of some HVAC duct parts. It has served me well. 

But this machine has been sitting in the corner of my studio for a long time. My 24" Bridgewood planer seems to be the planer of choice, so this smaller one tends to get ignored. The last time we used it, I realized the infeed and outfeed rollers had deteriorated so much, the foam on them was simply falling apart. 

Time to pull this apart and give it a little TLC. There are two screws that hold the top in place. 

Loosen each one and rotate those little tabs to the side -

 and the top plate lifts off - exposing the blades.  

Two screws also hold the side cover in place - honestly, this planer is very easy to disassemble.  

You're looking at twenty five years of grease and sawdust on that chain.

Here's what needs to be taken out - that orange-colored roller seen from below. . 

I took a few pictures of the chain, especially this spring, so that reassembly would be easy. 

I've learned that lesson the hard way!

 I tried slipping the chain off around the gears but it just wouldn't come out. So the only way to remove the it was by taking out the master link.

While I was reading about this repair, someone online suggested placing a board under the roller, and then lowering the planer head down to the board. That's to support the rollers when they're removed. 

All that's left are four screws holding each roller in place. Of course, three of them came out really easily, but the fourth - stuck and rusted in place. So I pulled out my manual impact driver - if you don't own one of these - you have no idea how helpful one can be!  When you place its tip in a frozen screw and hit the back of the driver with a hammer, it delivers a strong twisting force to the screw - releasing it. It's perfect for working on old machinery. 

All four screws were removed and the rollers were basically free. As I lowered the planer table, each roller dropped down with the piece of wood blocking.

I'm not sure I've ever seen something so funky. Both rollers were misshapen and corroded with years of sawdust embedded in the rubber. 

Two options - replace or recover. Luckily, I found a place that would recover each one for about a third of the price of a new one. 

I gave them a call - and honestly - the fellow I spoke with was great - he even suggested that since shipping the two rollers was going to be expensive, I could bring them with me to the AWFS wood show coming up here in Vegas in July. He was planning on attending the show, so he could bring my rollers back home in his trailer, thus saving me the shipping. 



As I thought about it - I decided the AWFS show was too far away - I didn't want to wait months to get these rollers back into my shop.

So - I packed the rollers up and shipped them to Oregon today. The next time you see them here - you won't even recognize them!

Next step - changing the blades. Stay tuned!

A really great Tablesaw refresher lesson

Here is a terrific five-minute refresher on using a tablesaw. Everything contained in this video is stuff we discuss on the first night of the Basic Woodworking class. 

Remembering the ones we love on Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day - to all service members both here and abroad - thank you for your service. I always think of my dad on this day - I sure do miss Jimmy!

Thanks Ed!

In terms of some of the things I run into in the shop, this isn't really that big of a problem. But I'm starting to be overrun by blades in the shop. 

I'm a big fan of Forrest blades, so I have several of them - there are always a few sharp ones in reserve, in case one gets damaged. But - it seems like I always end up with a ton of blades. 

 This blade holder was full,  

and so was this one.

Rip blades, combo blades, plywood blades, melamine blades, you name it, I probably have one. Or two. Or six. 

I wanted to drop off some blades to the sharpener, and I usually put them on a blade holder, but every one of them was full. Time to make one!

I grabbed a piece of plywood and set up the plunge router, to rout a handle slot. This 1-2-3 block helped me set the edge guide very quickly.  

I cut the slot in three passes, each one deeper than the one before. 

Sweet!

This was one of those 15 minute projects, but I still wanted to make it nice. So I placed the blade on the plywood and marked the area where the center hole would be drilled. 

I double-checked the depth with the washer and bolt. 

I wanted to round the corners and shape the plywood a bit, so I grabbed a compass. 

Whenever I grab a compass in my shop - or anyone grabs one - I think of my buddy Ed Tognetti. Years ago, I taught a Roll-Top Desk class; it ran 12 weeks and everyone completed a full sized tamboured desk. In the course of that class, we needed compasses for designing the upper part of the desk. At the next session, Ed showed up with a compass for everyone in the class. 

He passed away shortly after that, and I swear - every time I look at a compass in my shop, I think of him and miss him. 

I rounded the corners a bit, 

and then started loading the blades on to the holder. I put a sheet of cardboard between each blade, to protect the teeth.

The last thing I added was a piece of plywood with my card attached to it. 

If anyone needs a specialty blade - I've got one for you! Seriously, I am trying to find a home for some of these - free of charge. I don't use most of these, but I can't bear to throw them out. (No, I'm not giving away my Forrest blades, but I've got a lot of other brands.)

Before hanging it in the shop, I left a little note on the back of the holder.