Make your own push sticks!

Since we have three SawStops in the shop, we go through a ton of pushsticks. For anyone who doesn't know what that is - it's a device that you use to push wood when making a cut that's too narrow for your hand to travel safely past the blade. The "width" of a safe cut is completely subjective - I make 3" or 4" cuts all the time without a push stick, but some people won't even make a 6" cut without one. It's all about practice, competency, and what your level of safety entails. 

Of course, I jumped down a rabbit hole when I was starting this post, curious to see some other designs for push sticks. And I found some ridiculous and/or cute ones, 

and then there are these dick sticks... boys will be boys. 

And these... 

For the life of me, I just don't "get" who would buy a push stick. It's a completely disposable item, designed to be cut into, and then thrown away, when it doesn't have enough meat on it (no pun intended) to safely hold your wood anymore. 

So - we make our own. And since there's always a ton of material around the shop, when we make them, we go big. 

It starts with a piece of plywood around the size of a sheet of paper.  These pieces happened to be about one square foot, but honestly anything will work. 

I like to use 1/2" material - anything thinner doesn't seem beefy enough, and thicker seems like overkill. A taper jig makes quick work of cutting them into a better shape - 

we cut one from one side, 

and then flip the piece over to one off of the other side. 

We could probably get a third stick out of that piece in the middle, but I didn't bother this time. 

So now we have a ton of these pieces, 

and when ganged together, it's easy to cut a notch in them.  

About a half inch is perfect, so I use a set-up block to adjust the blade to the correct height. 

A few cuts widens the notch, 

although I could put a dado blade in the saw and make one wide cut.

 Whatever... you can do it either way... but you need the notch about an inch wide. 

Please don't pull out a tape measure and measure an inch... if you don't know what an inch looks like, I don't know how to help you.

Having a bandsaw with a wide (resaw) blade makes this next step pretty easy. I added a "fence" to the tabletop, 

and set the distance at about the depth of that notch.

One quick cut gets rid of that piece that needs to be removed. 

Finally, just for comfort, I clip the corner of these blanks, so that it just feels better in the palm of your hand.

 I hit them on the belt sander, to round them out a bit, 

and then drill some holes so that we can hang them on the pegboard near each saw. 

Boom! We just made around 30 push sticks in about 10 minutes.

 Please - if you're a woodworker - don't buy these! 

Make your own!

I'm tempted to laser them with some cool design on them, or our logo.... but the truth is - there's never enough time to do fun stuff like that! 

These went into use the same day we made them!

 

I just discovered helicoils, and I'm in love...

It's time for a little maintenance, and not just recovering our stools. These stools are a mess, but luckily - should look much better soon. 

But one of the more pressing repairs is this Sawstop tablesaw - the PCS in particular. 

Maybe a year ago, the brake was activated, and when that happens, the future elevation of the blade can be affected.

After activation, you have to reset the retraction of the arbor block.... mostly it involves lowering and raising the blade to its maximum limits, until it "clicks" back into place. If you don't do this, the blade has definite issues, which is what we've been experiencing for a while.

I thought we were losing our minds! 

Every time the saw is turned on, the blade drops a bit. Just a smidge, but if you're trying to cut dados, this problem with the blade dropping becomes monumental.

Good news is - I had the parts, and had some time, so I decided to tackle this for the third time.  Chances are - if you see the shop like this, 

or my head buried deep in the cabinet, 

there's some serious repair stuff going down. 

Turns out - it wasn't good news.

This bolt has to thread into a block of cast iron and...well... I probably stripped it the last time attempted this repair.

 Here's the hole, underneath this retraction plate, where that bolt belongs. It's a tight squeeze to get inside there, and a little awkward to access.

I felt like I was getting ready to perform cast iron orthopedic surgery. 

Did I mention...  the tech support team at SawStop are awesome?

 Seriously, I have them on speed dial, and they even recognize my voice when I call. I'm not so sure that's a good thing, but ... they're amazingly helpful.

So here's the good news - I had suggested simply retapping the cast iron with a larger diameter thread, and then using a more common bolt to attach the plate back in place. But my tech guru suggested getting a helicoil kit.

Ever heard of it?

Neither had I, but within minutes, we located one online, and it's coming tomorrow. 

AND - it's a brilliant solution to stripped cast iron parts. Anyone who works on cars probably knows about these, but I'd never heard of them. Basically, the kit comes with everything you need. 

It includes the drill bit to drill out the cast iron. A tap, to cut new threads into the iron, and these inserts to create new threads in the iron. 

I don't have the faintest idea who invented these, but they're ingenious, and allow you to use your original bolts. 

I'm so relieved that we don't have to tear the whole saw apart, and glad that I have small hands, so I can work inside the saw cabinet, without too much trouble. Keep your fingers crossed for me - I'll be tackling this in the next few days!

Now I get it...I'm in stage two

You know those five stages of grief that Elisabeth Kubler Ross wrote about years ago? 

I remember reading her book - On Death and Dying - in a college class, and at the time, my 20 year old brain didn't really comprehend much of what she wrote. 

But I did remember the stages - which are: 

denial

anger

bargaining

depression

acceptance

Well let me tell you - I'm in the anger stage. 

In mid January, I was on a video podcast, invited by my good friend Rick, to discuss entrepreneurialism and how Covid has affected being a business owner here in Las Vegas.

Now - I've known Rick for years - he's not only one of my students, 

but I call him my friend. A good one. 

We've shared meals, and margaritas, built things together, had long talks about business, and family, and life. In fact, as I was going through all my texts from him, I found dozens of things like this: 

That's the kind of guy he was... always thinking about others. He married his childhood sweetheart, and often told me he didn't know he got so lucky to have convinced her to marry him. They were the perfect couple, and I don't say that very often.  

Beyond that, you wouldn't find a guy more devoted to his grandkids.

 In fact, a few years ago, he made two walnut rocking chairs for them, and in fact, with a new baby added to the mix, he was planning on building another rocker. Sadly, he didn't get that opportunity.

The podcast we did together in January - The French Workbench - featured a panel of five real estate experts here in town, discussing their insights into current market trends. It was a fun interview - lively and often hilarious; you could feel their respect and affection for each other. 

If you're interested in hearing the podcast -  Click here.

After the session, Rick walked me to my truck, and we caught up with the usual - how our families were doing, what we were currently building in our woodshops... our usual conversations. It ended with an - I love ya, buddy - and I drove off, unaware that it would be the last time I ever saw him. 

Rick contracted COVID shortly after I saw him, and passed away last week. I don't want to get into a debate about vaccinations, but I have no doubt that had he been vaccinated, he'd still be here. 

Honestly, I'm broken hearted at Rick's passing - we not only lost another talented woodworker, but I lost a great friend.  

RIP, buddy. 

Festool - love 'em or hate 'em?!

It’s about to get pretty intense in the shop here - I just put four new classes on the schedule, and they filled up like this:

So the next few weeks will be all about prepping materials and cleaning up the shop a bit. And maintenance. Getting the tools in order. And restocking. And... well, you get the idea. 

The other day, a customer walked in with a broken headboard, not an uncommon repair. The leg had broken off.

 It wasn't surprising, due to its age and poor joinery.  There was a poorly designed mortise and tenon that connected them, and it simply failed. 

Now I've done a few repairs like this before, and knew it was a relatively simple job - trim off the existing tenon (the "poor joinery" part of this equation), fill in the mortise with a piece of solid wood,  

 and re-attach the pieces using dominos. 

No, not these...  

...I meant Festool's dominos, like these.  

This tool makes repairs like this amazingly simple. And strong. 

I used painters tape on the two pieces, so I wouldn't mark them with pencil lines, and cut the slots. 

The alignment was spot on, 

and they fit perfectly. 

A little glue and some pressure, and this old headboard was good as new.  

This quick repair got me thinking - I don't know if there's another tool in the shop quite as valuable as the Domino. It's the best $1000 I spent in the last ten years. OK, maybe a little LOT more, since I bought the vacuum and the assortment of Dominos. 

It seems like every year, tool manufacturers come out with the latest and greatest widget that everyone HAS to have. 

It's easy to fall into that way of thinking - that your work will get better with any of the following:

A Kreg jig

A router lift

 (I literally know three people who purchased router lifts, only to abandon using them, BC they were too difficult to install in a router table.)

Anything from Woodpeckers

I could go on and on... and I'm amazed that people still buy these things. 

But you know what? The best woodworkers I know don't need a ton of tools and new inventions. This isn't rocket science, and it's more about SKILLS than anything else. 

Look at my buddy Dennis Patchett.

 He's possibly the most skilled woodworker that I know in Las Vegas, and his shop has none of the "latest and greatest" gimmick tools. He just relies on simple tools and gets the job done with a high degree of proficiency.

That's it, folks... just develop some skills by practicing, and I promise you - your woodworking will get better.

 

Here's one way of dealing with insects...

Those juggling spools were shipped last week, but before they left the shop, I fooled around with a slideshow.  I wish I had been able to figure out how to add background music,  but I felt like just producing the slideshow was a small victory. 

And finally - on a completely unrelated topic - I saw this clip on YouTube. I've started working in the garden just a bit, prepping it for planting in a few weeks. Maybe it's because I was searching for ways to get rids of insects in the garden, but this popped up on my computer. 

I swear - my computer "listens" to me, and suggests the similar topics. I know you know what I'm talking about...

So - here's ONE way of dealing with pesky insects!