Drill press repair

If you get bored reading about tool repairs, you may want to skip this post.

This drill press has seen better days.


In fact, I could barely believe my eyes when I discovered that every time I turned it on, the direction of the rotation reversed. One flip of the switch and it was drilling properly; turn it off-and-on and it would drill in reverse. Of course, this causes the bit to completely loosen up and fall out, so it posed a bit of a problem.

A little research, a few calls to locate the part (a capacitor from WW Grainger) and it was mostly back in working shape. All except for a nagging little issue - the chuck had very small amount of play in it, from side to side. As you can guess - drilling with a wobbly chuck results in slightly over-sized holes. Not a good thing, as Martha would say.


Over a couple of beers, my buddies suggested that it might be time to replace the bearings on it. Never one to argue with taking a tool apart, I grabbed the manual, and started the tear down.

First- off with the chuck, which was surprisingly easy to pry down.


And then depth gauge rod.


And the bracket that holds it in place.


Next comes the handle which has to disengage from the spring,


which was an interesting (i.e. - an "oh shit!" moment) part to disassemble. When you pull the handle out, the quill falls down.


Rather rapidly, I might add.

I kept I hoping that I would be able to get that same amount of tension back on it.

I could see three of the four bearings that I needed to replace, but the fourth was stuck up, under this top pulley.


Removing the pulley was the biggest problem, it took me a week or more just to locate the right sized deep socket. Thanks to Eddie and Thomas, I borrowed one from a local tire repair shop.


And with the help of Thom's big ass impact driver, we had the nut off in no time.


When you're working on something, does your workbench look like this - a big jumble of crap?



After the nut was off, the pulley should have slid right up and off the shaft, but it just wouldn't cooperate.

No amount of prying, cussing, penetrating oil or muscle would budge it. And finding someone with a pulley puller was even more problematic.

When all else fails... call the manufacturer.

The tool tech I spoke with felt there was no way that my machine needed new bearings, despite it's age (born in 1994) or the fact that it's drilled thousands of holes. Maybe tens-of-thousands. He said he'd never heard of one of their drill presses needing new bearings, so he suggested another remedy. A thorough cleaning of all the parts, to dislodge years of sawdust and grime was the first step.


From this


To this.



And this


To this.


And then reassembly. This particular drill press has a set screw rides in a slot on the quill. Here's the slot.



If the set screw either becomes loose, or wears down a bit, it can cause some side to side wobble of the quill. Here's the set screw, housed within a locking nut.


So once the drill press was reassembled, I adjusted the set screw. Too tight and it inhibited the action of the quill spring. Too loose, and it allowed that slight sloppiness.

In the end - simply adjusting the set screw solved the problem.

So the moral of this story? If you're experiencing a problem with one of your tools, a simple phone call to the manufacturer might save you a lot of time and aggravation.

This weekend was all about maintenance and cleaning. Classes start up again tonight, and the woodshop was a mess. Although it's not very glamorous, someone has to clean the bathroom and vacuum out the tablesaw cabinet.


And like almost every woodworker I know, I have more than a few projects sitting around, in various stages of completion. One was a base for one of my filing cabinet benches; the pieces had been cut six months ago, and - truth is - I just got tired of seeing them sitting on a shelf, collecting dust.

This was a perfect time to pull out the Domino and get the base assembled.


In the past, I've used mortise and tenons. Machining those would have taken me about and hour and a half.


With the Domino - maybe fifteen minutes, and that includes figuring out the metric equivalent to inches. (Note to self: make a sample board of the various height settings on the Domino, so I don't have to struggle with this every time.)

As my buddy Phil would say - Bing, Bang, Boom - and it's ready to assemble.



Next project - tearing apart the drill press.

Why Wood?

Someone asked me recently why wood became my material of choice. Not metal, not marble, not paint, not fabric; why wood?

I decided to explore the “why” more closely.

This requires a trip back in time. When I was in college I worked in a variety of media: casting bronze via the lost wax method; centrifugal casting for jewelry making; glass blowing; clay; marble carving. But I kept coming back to wood.

Sometimes we’re lucky enough to find a niche in life when we’re young. Just like falling in love, you just know when you experience it. For me, that passion was wood.

Niche found. Love acknowledged. But why??

All artists and craftspeople bring a unique perspective to their work, colored by personal interests and psychologies. My own needs demand that I work with materials that complement me personally. For me, wood combines three qualities that no other material can match: spontaneity, forgiveness and sensuality. Other materials might possess any one of these, but the combination is uniquely captured in wood. Again, for me, these characteristics are essential to my creative voice.

First, spontaneity.

Since no two boards are the same, the grain becomes the voice of my work. I’ve blogged before about James Krenov and his use of grain to enhance his pieces. Once I understood this concept, my work was never the same. Wood, on any given day, gives you a different message. Exploring patterns with the grain allows me to create a little magic within each piece.

Even if that is corny, it’s still true.

But perhaps more important to me is wood’s forgiveness. When building a piece, sometimes you come across issues (or defects) that need to be addressed immediately: a small knot, a change in the grain, a mineral streak or a line of sapwood. It’s possible to eliminate or correct those defects along the way, providing two benefits for me - a mental challenge and, in the end, a flawless piece.

Yes, other media may approach this quality, but never to the extent of wood. When working with clay, you can spend hours on a piece only to pull it out of the kiln after its final firing and find any number of irreparable things: a crack, a glaze defect, a warping, just to name a few. These pieces, sadly, end up in a scrap pile. I’ve lost some fabulous ceramic pieces because of these problems.

But I’ve never lost a piece of furniture due to circumstances beyond my control. See? Forgiveness. Wood allows you to figure out the ways in which it needs to be worked so that most things remain in your control. It allows you to work with it, instead of against it, and it will reward you every time.

Finally, wood appeals to so many senses. It is warm where marble is cold. It is fragrant where fabric is bland. It is resonant where clay is silent. Running my hand over a piece of wood; looking at its chatoyance, feeling it's softness, examining its grain — these actions give infinite sensual gifts. I like to brag just a bit that my pieces are just as gorgeous when viewed from the underside as they are from the top. Try that with mass produced pieces - you'll probably be surprised at what you'll find.

So that’s why wood.

Perhaps the better question is - how could I have chosen anything else?

No woodworking for me this weekend

Did you ever get a burst of energy and just go crazy for a day? I've been nursing a sore back, but it's finally starting to feel better. So when the Fourth of July rolled around, I went a little insane.

First, I unloaded two of my kilns that I had fired a few days ago. Every potter knows it's like Christmas when you unload a kiln.






Then I started working in the garden, trimming the artichokes back




and harvesting the spaghetti squash.


I stupidly planted too many onions. Way too many, like 160 total. Who knew they'd sprout up like demons and overtake the whole garden?


Let me tell you - the only way I could get through cleaning onions for two hours was to promise myself a reward at the end.

On top of everything else, the "kids" wanted to play, despite it being
really hot outside. They usually like to stay inside, where it's cool, but if I'm outside, that's where they want to be.

Stella is my "special needs" child.


I can't tell you how disgusting she gets when she plays with her favorite toy - a racquetball. I have to rinse her beard and mouth and paws with the hose before she can come back inside.


The first honeydew of the season!


I've never had luck with cukes, this one could use a little TLC. If anyone has some tips about growing these, I'd appreciate your help.


Everything is starting to sprout all over the yard.



On top of everything else, I made fresh dough in the morning, let it raise all day, and baked a couple of sheet pizzas for dinner.


You can bet I slept like a baby that night!

Hope your Fourth of July weekend was as fun (and productive!) as mine was. I'll get back into the woodshop soon - I'm replacing the bearings on my drill press, so I hope to blog about that soon. And I have a nice commission in the works, so stay tuned.

Let's talk about Finger Joints

At last month's Sin City Woodworker's meeting, I gave a short demo on cutting finger joints. I have a portable Dewalt Tablesaw that I keep outfitted with a stacked dado blade set, and showed the group how to set up the jig for cutting the joint.



My buddy John blogged about the demo here. John teased me a bit in a recent e-mail, as when I did the demo, I had to make a slight adjustment for the fit of the joint. The best adjustment tool I have is a small hammer, and with one whack, I was able to get a perfect fit for those corners. Or as John says - I lead a charmed life in the woodshop.

Cutting all four corners is a breeze when you've got the jig properly adjusted. You can make a box in less than three minutes. Sweet.

But this post isn't about cutting finger joints - you can find info about how to do that in many different places. Tage Frid's book on Joinery is one of the best investments you can make, if you're looking to add new joints to your woodworking arsenal.

This post is about something a little more obscure - how to machine the dado around the inside of the box, to hold the bottom in place. I shared my secret weapon with the group, and I've already heard from several members who have gone on to purchase it.


When making a box with mitered corners, you can simply run your dados from end to end on the box sides. The dado will never show, so it's simple. But with finger joints, you have to machine stopped dados, and since you're working with short end grain, it's quite easy to blow out the ends of the grain. That's where this slot cutting bit comes in - from Lee Valley.

It's available in a few different configurations, but I just use the simple 1/4" slotting bit.


It's simple - just cut your corner joints and assemble the box. The run the router along the inside of the box, where you want the slot to be cut. There are only a few things to think about - you have to be careful when exiting the cut. Pull the bit away from the wood before you lift it up, or you'll end up cutting out an area of wood on the bottom that you shouldn't cut.

John said he did his machining on a router table, but I usually rout mine with a handheld router.

The slot that you wind up with has a rounded corner, matching the radius of the bit. You can either square off the slot with a chisel, or round the corners of the bottom panel. I prefer the latter.


See how the bottom has square corners, but the dado is rounded?

I usually just trace the radius of the bit onto the corners of the bottom, and sand them on the stationary sander.

A perfect fit!


Once everything is sanded, it's time for the gluing process. It usually takes a lot of clamps, since you want your joint pulled tightly together in each direction.


I applied the glue with a small paintbrush, and felt like I was putting a very light coat on all the fingers, but you can see, there is still quite a bit of oozing out. I'd rather see that, than a dry joint.

Eight clamps on a small box - can you ever own TOO many clamps?

And finally, after the glue dried, I sanded down the fingers that were proud of the surface.


Is there anything easier to cut and more attractive than this joint?


With all the gluing surface, this corner joint is exceptionally strong. People can argue all they want in favor of dovetail joints, but I find the set-up time for machining them to be too labor intensive. I can set up my saw and cut finger joints in a matter of minutes, and they're every bit as strong and attractive.

Anyone disagree with that? Let me know.