What did you do today?

[dbhost]

Harbor Freight is clearancing out the Central Pnuematic fittings. I needed a couple for doing the overhead piping system, and figured having spares on hand for when something stupid happens and I manage to end up with a leaky one, so I grabbed all of the 4 pc quick connect packs my local HF had.

Grabbed a 10 spool pack of electrical tape while I was there. May end up wrapping Christmas presents with it... Just kidding, but it is sort of a lot of electrical tape...

Found my Snap On 15mm combination wrench, and my Snap On 15mm deep well 3/8" drive socket. Those sets are complete. Found my Crafsman SAE 1/4" drive set. Realized I have a storage problem. A college buddy of mine returned the metric set, and I don't have room for both. Need to figure out where my Husky 1/4 drive deep sockets SAE and Metric are. probably in the trunk of the car...

Finished emptying out the fridge, unplugged, found a huge ice dam on the evaporator. Yeah, dead fan will do that. However other issues can cause that as well. I know the fan is dead though. Waiting for the evaporator to fully thaw before I tear it down and swap out the fan...

FWIW, 3 year old Whirpool, top of the line unit. They do NOT make them like they did in my 20s that is for sure!

[dbhost]

I got the contents of the fridge into 2 ice chests. And tore the fridge down to get to the evaporator fan. Whirlpool lists 2 separate part numbers depending on the production run of this model.

Sure enough the one Whirlpool reassured me was 100% right for my model fridge is NOT right, and I need the other one. None of the appliance parts houses in Houston metro that carry anything related to Whirlpool are open.

I did recognize the sound of the faulting fan though, and now I know why. Once I got the evaporator cover off it was OBVIOUS, this thing is basically a large computer fan with a fancy wiring harness....

So more digging into the other part number, and got it ordered, but it will not be here until Tuesday.

I am okay with everything else, but the turkey needs to get taken out of the big upright freezer in the garage to thaw so I can cook it on Thursday.

It is a good thing I have an unhealthy obsession with coolers / ice chests / camping gear. I have 1 large 120qt marine coolers I use for deer hunting. No hunting this year, so down from the attic one of them needs to come, and into the bathtub for a good sanitization, lord only knows what is in the attic... Then off to the convenience store for a few bags of ice. Then move the turkey and ice to the cooler and by the time the ice melts the turkey will be thawed. Probably swap a bit of ice around but you get the idea....

[dbhost]

Wen impeller showed up today. Nothing else going on since I am waiting for fridge parts, so I went ahead and swapped it in. Including time setting up the 3 jaw puller, and then setting it up again as the arms were too long needed to swap to the short side, entire project might have been 30 minutes.

Suction difference is not scientifically measured mine you, but the difference is VERY noticeable. And oddly enough I think the DC might actually be quieter with the Wen impeller.

So this goes into the column of shop improvement projects that are HIGHLY recommended. If you have a Harbor Freight 2HP dust collector with the stock impeller. upgrade that thing. The Wen impeller was only $35.00 and the difference in suction is massive.

I spent a good amount of time as well continuing with the shop cleanup. Pitching the busted sanding belts, breaking down and stuffing into the recycle bin shipping boxes and packing materials for various household items, parts and the like... Found a couple more of the quick disconnect couplers as I go through my cleaning.

Finding more partial packages of screws here there and everywhere.

I really never should have let my shop get like this... But making progress feels good.

[LCHIEN]

Fishing all day again. Nice weather.

My buddy caught this 40+ inch redfish, I just held the net (which was hard, it was very heavy!)
.

[LCHIEN]

BTW, the fish swam away, its catch and release for the large redfish, you can only keep 20-28".

[dbhost]

Did volunteer work as the recording engineer for our church services this morning. Came home to my air hose ferrules, 2nd batch at my door. Sadly, wrong size AGAIN. Returning to Amazon. The hose measures out at .650, I got it backwards. I thought the Ferrules were .650 and the hose was .625". Rats...

Ordered a box of .750 and will call it good with some extra squish. Looking forward to getting this done, as it is right now I have a cut open jumper that is unusable, and I am just going straight from compressor to air hose to get air out to the system...

Going to play some video games with extended family. My wife and I are considered high risk, and we have family members on Chemo and other various reasons that put them even higher risk than us, even with the shot... so we do online gaming as a way to have something we all can do together... It works.

[twistsol]

After a Sam's Club run this morning, I Cut alot of stone today. I discovered the black walnut slab I used for the mantel had a twist so the back of it is mounted 1/4 inch over 48" out of level and the front is out the same amount but in the opposite direction. You cant tell without a level, but i had to taper the stone above and below the mantel, then cut around the TV mount, and finally cut around power and cable boxes. Four hours to install 8 square feet of stone veneer. Just to make things fun, my blade guard is missing from my tile saw so it throws a stream of muddy water at you the whole time you are cutting.

[dbhost]

I slept like excrement last night. Still dealing with shingles and it kept waking me up with insane itchiness. So I have been lazy as all get out today.

I have however been sorting through Amazon and my Amazon wish lists for things to put on my "I want this for Christmas" list... The problem is I want to keep my what I want for Christmas cheap, and everything I really want is at least $200.00

[dbhost]

The evaporator fan for the fridge came in, slapped it in and reassembled the fridge, at least functionally. Letting it cool now. Compressor cycled on immediately and evap fan kicked in shortly thereafter, a good STRONG contstant stream of COLD air was coming from the fridge vents and ice makers which is what is supposed to happen.

Letting it all cool off, and then going to put the shelves etc... back in, and drop a thermometer on the top shelf to see what the actual temperature is... Probably honestly, take most of the day before it is down to proper temp as it has been unplugged and disasembled since Saturday.

Bunch of stuff for work involving users. And then nada. About to be a bunch more stuff for users. It comes and goes like that.

Waiting for the proper size ferrules for my 3/8" air hose. Annoyed by the fact they don't give a great description on Amazon, and there is NOBODY that knows anything about their products... Life in modern times I guess.

Kept one of the smaller sets of ferrules. I have some slightly smaller diameter silicone and vinyl 3/8" tubing I am using for custom RV plumbing for the camper build I am working on. Reminder to those that forgot, one of my big projects is I am building a poor mans fiberglass (canvas / gripper) over foam king size camper shell for my truck. It's a funny design but minimzed the weight additions to my half ton truck, and maximizes, at least I think, my ability to set up / break down camp quickly. Too bad it wasn't ready for Ren Fest this year...

As I go through my shop cleanup, I am doing maintenance activities / inspections on the various machines. Inspecting the bandsaw revealed that I need a fresh set of tires on the thing, the originals are starting to craze and crack. So I ordered up a pair of the urethane upgrade tires from Amazon.

Need to try to swipe one of the scotch brite sponges from my wife on a permanent basis so I can hit the cast iron with some WD40 and Scotch Brite to clean up some surface neglect before it becomes a bigger problem.

Looks like I need belts for the drill press as well. Not sure how to size those up.

Literally hauled out 2 large trash bags of recycleable materials, mostly boxes, from the shop to hit the curb for, ugh. Recycle day is Thanksgiving. Dang...

Continued testing the fridge. Cold food section is holding at the set temp. Freezer is still warmer than the set temp, by a big margin, but it is also empty, and I know it is going to take some time to get to temp. But as of now, the temp is set to 0, and it is at 15 deg. Of course my temp probe may be wrong as well as it is an oven thermometer Might try the non contact thermometer and aim it at the middle of the freezer drawer..

Neither ice maker is producing ice yet though.

Dug through my sheet goods, which is mostly cutoff stock right now. I think I need to dig out the rabbeting bit, and get the calipers out, and do some fine measurements, and do a shiplap. I need a 19" square to make a 19" circle out of. The widest piece of stock I have is 16". All this for the Thien baffle...

Scratch that. Looks like my local Home Depot has 24" x 24" 1/4" poplar plywood panels on the relatively cheap. Might just save myself some labor run and go grab one. I need to get this rig DONE.

And lastly, From the look in the current drum, it is time to empty the collection drum.

[twistsol]

Something completely insane. There is a walking / bike path that goes between our house and the neighbors. My wife didn't like that there were Christmas lights on only one side of the path so I spent the afternoon putting up lights in the neighbors yard.

[LCHIEN]

Made some Sriracha Party mix. My favorite snack.

Grocery store.

Watch the neighbor's roof being replaced. Making sure I get no nails on my driveway!

Surf the internet.

Made some whistles - actually finished them as I've been working on then a little bit for days.
https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...-wood-whistles


https://www.sawdustzone.org/filedata/fetch?id=846305 download to play short (six second) whistle video.

[twistsol]

I looked at the picture and thought they were sitting on a pickup truck bed which set the scale in my mind. Then I read the description and couldn't fathom whistles of that size. It took me a minute to realize I'm an idiot.

[dbhost]

Something completely insane. There is a walking / bike path that goes between our house and the neighbors. My wife didn't like that there were Christmas lights on only one side of the path so I spent the afternoon putting up lights in the neighbors yard.

I sincerely hope you had permission from the property owner. I know if my neighbor tried decorating my property without my input / permission at the very best they would have a pretty serious legal problem.

[dbhost]

So the proper size ferrules for the 3/8" ID rubber air hose FINALLY came in. Custom sized and crimped a jumper to go from the 29 gallon air compressor to the manifold. I eliminated the quick connect coupler at the compressor, and screwed the hose directly to the shutoff valve for the compressor relying on the coupler at the manifold itself. This eliminates 2 potential leakage sources. The coupler itself, and the added thread connection between coupler and nipple that makes the female coupler meet up with the female valve.

Inspected hose run that goes from the manifold to the hose reel for cracks etc... Looks good so far.

Tested air system for leaks, no issues.

Started pulling the Great Value LED T8 tubes and swapped in my NOS T12 tubes that were left in storage. I need 4 more tubes and appear to be missing a partial box. The bulbs that are left work, but they are less than ideal... I really wanted the added energy efficiency and lower heat production afforded by LEDs, but these specific tubes are just worthless. I am about halfway done with the bulb replacement. The other half are above the table saw, camping gear stash, and between the drill press and lathe. Need to mvoe things to get to them.

Did some shopping for 4ft LED shop lights. Found a set of 6 linkable on Amazon for $109.00 with a 4.5 star rating. Not sure I trust Amazon reviews much any more though due to extensive astroturfing...

Started digging the dust bin out of its corner, losing interest fast.

Part of the reason I wanted to do the Thien baffle in the separator ring is that I do NOT want to keep emptying a 55 gallon drum, even half full, it is a royal pain in the tail.

Found stashed away a set of new radiator and heater hoses. Not sure i they are for the Malibu, the Saturn, or the F150. Need to double check the part #s in the application charts. Mark them, and arrange proper storage or installation. The F150 needs hoses, but I suspect these are for the Saturn which has new hoses already...

So the project panels that I thought were in stock, are not. I had to order them with in store delivery, so next Friday is when it shows up. Bleh...

Did some shopping to price up larger dust collection pipe and fittings. Apparently 5x5x5 wyes are not super common, nor are 5x5x4. I am looking at the different ducts, and comparing costs between 5" and 6", financially, and item availability wise, 6" is far more doable.

Started recovering the 1/4 MPT x 3/8" barb fittings from the old crumbly sections of rubber hose, and organized storage for the fittings and ferrules.. I have 2 more fittings to recover. Now that I have the ability to, in the future, just souce up bulk air hose and crimp my own replacements. Considering cutting the cracked ends off of the 50' hose, making it a 40' hose and gifting it to my brother in law, he trashes hoses in his body shop, and uses the screw type hose clamp method to repair them anyway. This will at least protect his and his employees hands while they are working a bit.

Dragged the trash out, as well as the multiple giant recycles bags, they need to sit and wait I guess until Friday and HOPE the city makes up trash day, although I suspect it will be Monday.

I was drooling over a set of accura roller bearing blade guides for the bandsaw, when I realized, I have a set of the fancier design that unfortunately was sized to fit a Delta, and the post for the upper guide is quite larger on a Delta than it is on my Central Machinery, but I noticed the yoke is the same size and design, and the Accura bearings I was looking at were simply a yoke replacement with no lower bearing. I quickly figured out that if I took the yoke out of the fancy one, and swapped the yoke with the cool bocks, over for the yoke with the roller bearings, and swap the full cool blocks bottom guide assembly with the roller bearing one, well, I tried it, and sure enough, spot on. I need some minor adjustment to the bearing width on the top but aside from that, I am spot on...

I likewise figured out how I can mark, and drill the rail for the fence. I hadn't noticed if the table itself is tapped, if it is, figure out the thread size and get some bolts, if not, find a suitable tap, tap the holes, and match bolts to it.

I have an old, unused safe-T paddle switch that I never wired up. Seriously considering wiring it up instead of the one down on the base, but it just hasn't been problematic enough to worry about...

So once those tires come in, and they get installed, as well as wiring up the paddle switch in the upright Grizzly like position, and lastly add a 2.5" dust port to the lower blade shroud, my bandsaw will be as done as it needs to get. At least until the motor dies.

I will have.added...

#1. Central Machinery riser block kit.
#2. Grizzly G0555 tension release assembly.
#3. Carter Cobra Coil tension spring.
#4. Carter wheel brush.
#5. Accura roller bearing blade guides upper and lower. Not as fancy as the $200.00 Carter setup, But certainly workable.
#6. Harbor Freight mobile base.
#7. Paddle style safety switch on upright post / easier and safer to operate.
#8. Urethane tires.
#9. Craftsman fence, with shop made resaw fence accessory
#10. Funky sized who knows dust port at lower glade guide replaced with 2.5" port, 2.5" dust port in bottom of lower blade guard, and 4x2.5x2.5 wye / hose connecting it all.

As I continued with my shop cleanup / maintnenance, the chuck on my drill press has gotten loose a few times recently. Cleaned the taper, and the inner bore of the chuck with copius amounts of carb & choke cleaner, and reassembled with a hunk of 2x4 and a sledge.... It is slips again, weld it I guess :-P

[mpc]

For dust collector piping - if you are using metal HVAC pipes - the wyes are designed for air flowing backwards compared to dust collection setup. The crimping will end up catching tons of sawdust. "Flue wyes" are designed for airflow from two heat/exhaust sources feeding a single exhaust pipe; these have crimp joints facing the correct direction for DC. I used several in my system and it works well enough. They cost significantly more than plain 6x6x4 wyes though.

mpc

[dbhost]

mpc, I was doing a comparison between apples to apples of different sizes, so metal HVAC duct since DWV PVC isn't available in 5".

Looking it up, DWV 6" fittings are steep priced these days... As I think I mentioned previously, I have access to the following 6" DWV components for free.

3 @ 10' joints of 6" DWV pipe.
4 @ 6x6x6 45 degree wyes
4 @ 6" DWV 45 degree elbows.

I currently have the following 4" ports that need to get connected to an upsized main.

BT3100 Belly pan / blade shroud. The 4" and 2.5" are connected via a standard dust collection reducing wye.
BT3100 shark guard. I still can't say enough good about the Shark Guard. Still oving it all these years later!
Workbench overhead drop / router table overhead drop. I simply move the hose connection to connection on this.
Router table lower pickup.
Miter saw dust shroud hood.
Band saw. Planning on changing 4" lower blade guide pickup to 2.5", add 2.5" to bottom of lower blade guard, and 4x2.5x2.5 wye.
Lathe
Drill press

So I am short 4 wyes, 4 45s and all reducers.

[dbhost]

Waited up until the wee hours of the morning so that I could talk to my boss on the other side of the planet to straighten out a snafu before I could take the day off. Yay...

Slept in sort of, until the cat determined I must be awake. Anyone want a cat?

Got up, fed the cat, gave her a death glare that she, and I know means diddly squat.

Made sausage egg and cheese breakfast tacos on low carb tortillas.

Spent way too much time going through Amazon for Christmas gift ideas to give to my wife. As in gifts for me, I have her gifts already. We are not going ultra cheap, but not spending 2K either.

Had dinner with bro in law, and his girlfriend.

Spent more time cleaning the shop. It looks worse than it did before. I need my trash emptied but sadly, today would have been trash day...

Rerouted power for the Grizzly ambient air filter, and swapped in fresh batteries to the remote.

Pretty sure that is about it for now. Need to get the coffee maker cleaned, and loaded, timer set for tomrrow morning and go to bed.

[dbhost]

Well, I received the tires for the bandsaw, and tapped the table (1/4 - 20) and drilled the rail for the fence. It is now SECURELY mounted to the table after all these years.

Working on the switch, the ground configuration isn't as straight forward as I had hoped. Posted a question about that, may have to go back to MLCS about that one...

And now I need to install the tires.

Wife instructed me to order up my own Christmas gift, so I already know what Santa will leave under the tree... That's another issue knocked out. My price limit was low, but Amazon black friday deals were decent, and I was able to snag a knockoff Rapidair 1/2 inch system for cheap. The big issue I am trying to sort out here is moving air from compressor, to manifold, from manifold to hose reel, without any leakage, and I would also like to add an air coupler at the workbench. Pretty simple really, and probably less than 25' of tubing.