My Gara... um I mean my Shop.

Dan Mule' — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:21:00 GMT

My modest and humble wood shop. It used to be a single car garage. but that was "back in the day". Now the 12' wide by 24' deep and just about 8' high block structure has been tranformed into a functional wood shop. The shop has undergone many rearrangements, all in the hope that flow will be easier and more efficient. But that will probably never happen. I started with a Craftsman bench top table saw. Eventually that thing got so beat up that I had to hit the side of it with a piece of scrap to get it to start. Then my wonderful wife agreed that it was time to purchase a new one. I got the Rigid 3650 from HD. This thing is sweet. Especially when I added the Forest WW2 blade. Cuts like butter. I added my router to the right side of the TS to consolidate space. Going from a bench top to a stationary saw meant it was time to rearrange. A year later I bought a Rigid Band saw. It was a lot bigger than my bench top band saw so yet again I had to rearrange. I have a Dewalt RAS and Ryobi chop saw incorporated into one bench. Under that bench is an old 4" Rockwell jointer that I put on a mobile base. I slip it under the RAS bench when not in use. My Ryobi planer is installed on a flip-top cabinet, when not in use it's folded into the cabinet giving me another flat surface to work with. I built my dust collector using plans from a magazine article. I piped 6" HVAC duct to 4" ports with blast gates. It works pretty well. I knocked a window out and re-placed it with an exhaust fan with louvers. I just recently built a new workbench. It's smaller than my first but alot sturdier. I had to incorporate some where to store my wood. I built a wood rack on one side of my shop so all the wood it hung on the wall high enough for me to reach yet the space underneath is able to be used. For my hand tools I built a fold out wall cabinet. By having it fold open it stores alot of tools and requires less space. Until I reach my goal of owning a 30x30 shop there will always be rearrangements and revisions but I will deal with what I have and build the necessary cabinets and such to deal.

Wide Belt Drum Sander

Dan Mule' — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:30:00 GMT

I've finally completed my wide belt drum sander. It is a hybrid of one found in another magazine. I purchased a 16" wide 100 grit belt from Supergrit for the conveyor. I had a 1/2 HP compresser motor, 2" & 5" pulleys with a belt. I scavenged and found an old Dayton gear motor for the conveyor. Hardware for this project was minimal and can be found at most big box stores. I bought a roll of 100 grit sandpaper from Harbor Frieght to wrap the drum. As for the drum, it consists of 23 3/4" disks cut out of MDF. They are Gorilla glued to a steel shaft . Two 1/4" bolts with heads cut off are sandwiched between the last two disks on each end. This is to help lock the drum to shaft. For height adjustments I modified the plan a little. Originally called for a hand-cranked threaded rod to push or pull a wedge against the bottom of the conveyor table. That worked, but call me lazy....I wanted automation!! So instead I took apart an old variable speed drill stripping the trigger from the handle and rewiring it. I chucked the end of the rod in the drill, set the trigger on the slowest speed and squeeze. This works pretty well but I think I need a fine tuning adjustment. So much for automation!! The Drum is covered by a hinged hood made out of aluminum flashing with a dust collection port centered. I use a household vacuum for the collector. I rewired everything to a single plug and the drum, conveyor, collector to their own switches. The conveyor is controlled by a potentiometer so I can adjust the speed to whatever is best. It's basically a bathroom fan switch. I mounted the whole thing on casters so I can move it where ever I need to. I need to add a belt guard still. Also I I need better sandpaper around the drum. That HF stuff just doesn't hold up to well. Here's some pics, let me know what you think.

dannym

My Gara... um I mean my Shop.

Wide Belt Drum Sander