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!

Wait - I am a miracle worker!

This is proving to be a challenge - but a good one!

Someone wandered into my shop, with pieces and parts of a broken-down, much abused base to a pool table. Sometimes, when a furniture component arrives in pieces, it's difficult to figure out how it is supposed to look. So a little research brought me to this photo - a vintage Brunswick Billiard Table, specifically - the "Celebrity" model. 

"Celebrity" indeed - this base has long seen its glory days! One of the best parts about the internet is doing research on things like this - and I loved this old advertisement for the pool table. 

These parts came to me in the worst of shapes - it almost appears that they've been repaired before, and it's possible some of the mounting holes have been re-drilled. 

In this case, I'm a woodworker, 

not a miracle worker! 

I had to re-assemble this base, to get the correct spacing of the mounting holes. 

This piece was SO wonky and warped, it was a challenge to get it to fit back together.

Not to mention that the entire base was made of compound angles. 

It's a good thing I love geometry! I was running out of workbench space in the shop, so the trash can pulled double-duty that day.

Here's the new base, bolted together upside down, so that I could check for the correct hole placement. 

I'm assuming this fella didn't want to get four of his best friends to lift the slate top onto the base, only to find out that the holes didn't line up!

 And once again - I neglected to shoot a photo of the base assembled and UPRIGHT... but you get the idea. (Too many people in the shop this week, I was completely distracted about shooting good photos, but I think maybe one of the visitors might have one of the base.)

This piece was a challenge - both in its design as well as its construction. Part of the challenge was computing all of the angles. Figuring out how to make the base strong, with more modern joinery was a good exercise for me, too. 

How do you get better at woodworking? Build a piece like this!

Juggling my commissions....

Bam! 

And just like that... I'm back. 

I've been hunkered down, producing a ton of work in the shop lately. From re-storing a vintage pool table, to building out a Mercedes Cruiser van, to turning massive table legs - the shop is anything but dormant. 

One of my favorite repeat commissions has been working on these juggling "barbells" - I don't really know what else to call them besides that.  

I've made dozens of these over the years, and I'm not sure why I never did some research about the fella who orders them. Here he is, with a few of the "barbells" in the lower center of this array of his "tools."

I've never met him - everything is done via email, Zelle, and the good old USPS. 

Unfortunately, these "faceless" transactions occur much more frequently during these Covid times, but that's OK... work is work. 

Just like the TV cooking show - Chopped - I start with a few "ingredients" - blocks of plywood, 

and dowels.

The blocks are laminated together,

 three layers high, 

and then drilled for the dowel "handles."

I've found that it saves some time to rough out the round shapes, so I trim them on the bandsaw, with the table tilted. There are a few tricks to gluing this 3-piece assemble together, and luckily, I've figured out how to do it efficiently and perfectly.

I'll be on the lathe for the next day or two, finishing these up... meanwhile, the only video I could locate on this juggler is this old, grainy YouTube clip.   

Enjoy!