AskWoodMan

38/365: This is 3 Biesemeyer table saw fence guide rail setups I am making for VerySuperCool Tools t-squares. I used 3m (black) Scotchbrite pads (hook and loop) on my angle grinder to remove all the scale and oil. They are not cheap, but compared to the pain of a knotted wire wheel, or the glazing of sandpaper discs, they are a bargain. Short of sandblasting I have never seen any abrasive that works as well. The scale on the angle iron was ridiculous. I did all these parts in an hour with 4 pads. 

36/365: A little German dog checks out a big German router.

35/365: I have to hinge bore some holes in some long cabinet doors. My new extension support to the right of the drill press is really a great addition to this setup. It took just minutes to get this dialed in level. I just clamped some reference boards to the press table and brought the supports in line. Solid and easy.

34/365: My Superbowl kimchi tradition continues. I pulled all the daikon from my garden and add Napa cabbage, sweet onion, red onion, beats,garlic,carrot,broccoli leaves and soaked it all overnight in sea salt/water. Rinse with cold filtered water and add General Tso’s chili paste and press it into glass jars. It will sit in the dark cupboard for 2 weeks and then  go into the fridge. I doubt I can wait a week (2 days more like it) before getting into it. I made a video series about my method I will post later.  I always laugh to myself about showing up to a Superbowl party with, “hey everybody, I brought the kimchi”.

Day 32/365: The grackles get really noisy at sundown in Austin during the winter. They have very loud pre-roost meet up rituals and then they all fly to the The UT Campus by the thousands and crap on cars and everything else all night long. The campus is the warmest part of the city because UT has a vast underground network of tunnels that deliver heat to all the buildings from central boilers. Smart birds.

31/365: Edge sanding is always pain. But ganging the panels together with spacers really speeds up the process. And nothing helps clamping setups like Bessey Rapid Action Clamps. For my woodworking and my metalworking, the time these clamps save is money in my pocket.

30/365: These 8x1” crimped wire wheels from Harbor Freight for $9.99 are a great value for cleaning scale and rust off of steel parts. I used to mount this wheel on the bench grinder, but this setup has so much more flexibility because of the open access of the wheel. I really like this arrangement.

29/365: Another pill bag masterpiece from Denise at Veterinary Cardiology. Martin anime style.  

27/365: I have a lot of steel drilling coming up on long stock. My Grizzly drill press sits on this mobile cart I can move around. I have a nice support on the left side but have had to rig supports up on the right side, until now. I love to use 1.25 and 1” schedule 40 steel pipe. These two sizes sleeve so well that I use them over and over for shop fixtures. So here the bottom receiver is 1.25 and the upper horizontal is angle iron and u-channel welded to 1.25 pipe sleeves that move up/down on the vertical 1” pipes. Nuts welded to sleeves and handles welded to bolts making locking simple and low tech. The tool tray is nice. I used angle iron on the top so a cantilevered extension arm can get clamped on for more capacity. Crazy paint job to come.

Friday night party down with my cross slide vise, step clamps and the new drilling tapping fluid I am really impressed with. The Union Butterfield has the viscosity of honey, and just a few drops makes cutting steel really a pleasure. Must stock up.

24/365: Austin by moonlight taken with my phone camera.

23/365: My Hitachi CB75F resaw band saw is an amazing machine. But for 24 years that rack and pinion fence has been an irritant. It does not plumb easily and the tightening knobs shift the fence when locking. So this evening I roughed out a mini Biesemeyer guide rail so now my VerySuperCool Tools t-square fence jumps effortlessly between my table saw and band saw with no adjustment. I am going to attach the 3x2 tubing with a two position drill and tap pattern so I can shift it 10” to right when needed. What make me really happy is I used all existing tapped holes in the saw so I can put the original fence back on if I like. The whole thing just drops off with 5 8mm bolts. There will be a complete video about the build.

21/365: My friend Jerome Little (no relation) came by my shop today to have a strategy session on building new angle iron and 3x2” steel tubing Biesemeyer style guide rails so he can use a VerySuperCool Tools t-square fence on his older Unisaw. Gerome is a master guitar maker whose unique designs are woodworking wonders. Please spend a moment to check out Jerome’s website, Little Guitar Works. Thanks.

20/365: A little Sunday night post football trim gluing.

19/365: I have a half dozen framing squares and not one of them is worth spit. All I have to do is test one with my Mitutoyo combination squares to one to know that using one to set or test squareness is a prescription for introducing compound error into a project. This two ruler method is what is use for checking, in this case the cut off accuracy of the Festool MFT. The little wood pieces are of two different thicknesses. The difference is the thickness of the ruler blade. The thinner one (foreground) is exactly the distance from the bottom of the blade to edge of the square head. This allows the square to be supported and the blade parallel. The other stick that keeps the blade parallel is the thickness to the top of the blade. Simple but Mitutoyo accurate.