What did you do today?

[dbhost]

Didn't sleep for **** last night, so I have been slogging through my day job all day today... Going to make some pasta for dinner and bomb out early tonight...

[mpc]

I have a Freud FT2000E plunge router with the Router Raizer RZ100 kit... that I hardly ever use. The RZ100 tries to turn this plunge router into a "through the table height adjustment" capable router while preserving the basic plunge router capability. Well... when hanging from a table, the RZ100 did not quite work right: the FT2000E has beefy springs in each of the two plunge shafts. With the RZ100 cranking inside just one shaft, the router had a tendency to tilt and bind during adjustments. Reaching below the table and giving a helping push upwards made the RZ100 work. But the whole point of "through the table height adjustment" is that you shouldn't have to reach below the table while adjusting bit height! The Router Raizer folks suggested removing one of the springs to cure this issue. That somewhat worked when the router was table mounted (it would still cock/jam at times but now in the other direction) but made the router useless as a hand-held plunge router: with only one spring it won't un-plunge (whatever you call it) by itself. Removing/re-installing a spring is not an easy task. I tried cutting one spring by 1/3rd... that didn't help the table operation much and made the hand-held operation borderline. Un-plunging was iffy.

I have the smaller Dewalt DWP611PK kit (an awesome router by the way!) for smaller hand-held jobs. Since I now have another router in a router lift (Bosch 1617 in the Incra lift - a sweet combo) the Freud was more or less redundant. Given its problems, it was not worth dealing with the Freud... ergo it sits in the cabinet unused until some desperate situation requires this router.

Well, today I decided to futz with the Freud a bit to see if I could make it work better. It's been a long time since I messed with it so I didn't remember all the details on how the RZ100 installed and the steps necessary to remove the motor part from the base - i.e. to get at the plunge springs and the plunge shafts. After fighting with it for nearly two hours, I was able to give it a good cleaning plus new lubrication on the shafts. The plunge action is better than it's ever been. And this router won't ever be table mounted again so that issue is a non-issue. Although the RZ100 operation, at least on my bench, seemed better too. ?? The springs are back to factory by the way. The Boeshield T-9 lubricant + rust preventative spray is a far better lubricant than gold ol' Johnson's paste wax it turns out. I had been using JPW on the BT3's shims and elevation mechanism for many years; for the last 2 years or so I've use the Boeshield T-9 spray instead. It's easier/quicker to apply (just spray it through the throat opening - no need to remove the saw's side panels); plus it seems to work better and last longer than JPW.

I got the FT2000E as part of a package deal at Lowes: the router, a laminate table, a plastic/phenolic insert plate with a few different insert rings, and Freud's SH-5 fence gizmo. It seemed like an "instant router table package" long ago, at a clearance price no less. Besides the router being a nuisance to adjust when table mounted (hence the addition of the RZ100 that almost fixed things), there was an even more annoying/stupid issue: the size of Freud's router plate is a) non-standard, and b) TOO SMALL FOR THE FT2000E that it came with! To fit the router through the table, one has to remove the router's handles first. Stupid. I still have this table and insert plate and dug them out once in a great while when I needed a second router table - when my Bosch router was already setup for something and I didn't want to loose that setup. You can see the Freud table, the stupid insert plate, and the FT2000E in the following picture... there's no way to fit the router, with the handles attached, through the tabletop hole.



One of these days I'll "edit" that table to accept Rockler sized router plates. The Incra lift that I use is the version built for/sold by Rockler that matches their table inserts; I have Rockler plates for the Freud and my other routers. The stupid undersized insert plate in the picture will be trash. This way the old Freud table will serve as a second/backup router table for those occasions when the Bosch is set for something else. While I'm at it, I'll "edit" the table to accept the router table fences I use on my primary table... they use T-tracks. Should be a simple edit.

mpc

[dbhost]

I have had a lot going on lately pulling my energy down quite a bit, I went to bed early last night after taking something to help me sleep, and woke up literally 13 hours later... I needed the rest. I am refreshing the old 9K winch that was on the front of the truck. Checked that the stainless hardware at my local shop was at least grade 5, so replaced the mounting bolts that had rusted. Cleaning up, removed the old aircraft steel wire rope, bolted together a receiver hitch winch cradle, and installed a Hawse Fairlead, and the winch to the cradle. The new synthetic rope is in the box waiting for me to plug the winch to the receiver hitch, and wire it up, not going to happen for a bit... The idea here is when I am going somewhere I expect the conditions to be a bit rougher than usual, drag the rear winch with me. National forest roads in particular. Too many idiots hit the mud puddles with 44s and floor it digging holes my 33s can't clear. Should I encounter those. I need to be able to extract myself.

Continuing cleanup but at a slower pace for the old tool cabinet / drill press stand. It is going to end up being a bit higher than I would like, but pretty sure I can make it work.

[capncarl]

I’ve removed a lot of labels off wine and liquor bottles that were destin for the kiln to be melted into flat cheese servers. Heating with a hot air blower, probably hotter than a hair dryer softens up the glue and they come off easily. It’s hotter than you would want to use on a painted car but on a tool box that you are going to paint, it might work.

[dbhost]

So I dragged the bottom box out of its niche, started the cleanup. I have several Snap On 75th Anniversary decals on the box, as well as like I said gas pump decals that I want to save. I think I am going to mask those off and paint around them. The others on THIS box I want to save are a Wynns Xtend decal on the largest drawer, and a KC Hilites decal on the top lip. The KC Decal is in pretty rough shape though... Going to spend some time tonight cleaning the box up, probably mask off the decals that need to be saved and see if I can maybe just sand / paint in a sort of, well... touch up paint manner...

[dbhost]

As you might recall, if I talked about it here anyway, my first careeer was as a mechanic, starting off in a full service Texaco station / garage. Some of the decals were spare pump decals from that time period... I could probably get reproductions made...

[capncarl]

DB, since you mentioned old stickers on your tool box. Recently a friend mentioned the same problem you are having, not wanting to loose your sticker and said he had repainted his toolbox and had been able to find replacement stickers online. I Googled replacement automotive stickers and found that it is actually a thing! There might be hope yet!

[dbhost]

No details yet, but some scary health stuff going on.

Cleared top box, it's oily and needs to be cleaned.

The bottom box is almost cleared. Starting to de crud the thing and finding i am not certain on the repaint...

[twistsol]

Rearranged the shop this morning and then started on the last 8 drawers for my office. The first three are glued up and and clamps removed. The next set of two are glued and clamped and I should be able to get another two done tonight. I'm suffering the age old woodworker's curse ... I don't have enough clamps.

[dbhost]

So day job, then working on the 27" roller cabinet. The bottom 2 drawers still have junk in them, genty motivated the stuff into 5 gallon buckets, still need to complete emptying and cleaning out the top box... I need to move it aside so I can finish refinishing the bottom box. I did install the new lock in the bottom box.Tested it out, it's nice to use a lock that the tumbler isn't falling apart...

The fun part because of how this lock installs, I am going to mask around that sucker to paint because I am NOT going to remove that again!

Moving forward as soon as I can get the box out of the corner it is wedged in, with stripping it down and priming...

I have some VERY old decals on the box, I am looking for a replacement as they are in bad shape. Likely will put them on the new box. (Automotive themed, Rancho Suspension, Bosch, K&N, KC HiLites, Warn Industries, Explorer Pro Comp, BFGoodrich etc...) I don't think the old ones are saveable, and they wouldn't make sense on a drill press rolling cabinet.

[twistsol]

My neighbor needs to get his motorcycle serviced so I pulled my trailer out of the snow and ice for him to borrow. The last person to borrow it parked it at such a weird angle so close against the house I wanted to be sure it got off its parking pad without damaging anything. It's in the 40's around here so snow is finally melting.

Otherwise it has been a busy week with zero shop time. Got a shiny new grand daughter on Saint Patrick's day and my dad's 100 birthday party is tomorrow. He actually turns 100 on the 28th.

[dbhost]

Mounted up the solar panel for the shed light. Boring the hole through the OSB siding was actually quite a bit tougher than I expected. That stuff is mostly glue! Ran the cable through, filled the hole with silicone and am letting it / hoping it will dry before the rains hit. I had to wait until my yard was dry enough to support my fat butt on a ladder, and rains are in the forecast today I think, we will see...

Mounted the light itself and made the cable connection. I had to use a quck 2x4 cutoff to give me a horizontal mounting surface for the light. Dummy cut the corners at 45 degrees, the roof is at 22.5 degrees. Oh well it works...

Letting it charge up and the silicone to cure. Then I can go ahead and tidy the cable installation up and be done with that part.

[dbhost]

Pulled the lock from the left garage door thinking I would just go to Home Depot and pick up a matching pair so I can have keys to both doors. I have never bothered as that was the door that used to have the garage door opener, and then was blocked by too much junk prior to the shed...

Mind you I made this decision when I bought the house because matching keyed pairs were mot avaialble when I bought the house. Well I couldn't even find one with a different key I could get rekeyed... I think I might have to order a pair online from Ace Hardware since they don't offer them in store.

Why are garage door lock cylinders so hard to come by? I mean aren't dual or even triple garage doors common?

Feeling kind of lousy, lots of sinus drainage, causing lots of coughing. Pretty sure with the itchy and very watery eyes it is allergies, but, well boy I feel like crud.

Changed the oil in the Nissan, and ran in through the car wash to hose off the pollen...

Make my grocery order, doing curbside. Pretty simply. Frozen dinners and breakfast stuff. I need to fix or replace my fridge, and then replace the door gaskets on my standing freezer...

[dbhost]

So I am as I get 5 minutes here and there, moving the tool box OUT of the living room, and into the workshop. As a reminder, the shed was needed to make room for the toolbox, and other stuff, well the toolbox is loaded, so I took the drawers out of and unloaded the sockets from the chest so it was a LOT easier to get over the threshold and over to the shop. Now I get to put drawers back in. Since this pic, I have moved it over closer to the track, I need to vacuum in there though, apparently the potting soil back busted back there....

As the day goes on, will repopulate the top with sockets, and put the drawers back in... Getting closer to time to work on my smaller cabinet / drill press cabinet. Those have a different style drawer slide that I am not a fan of...

[dbhost]

So the solar powered motion activated lights came in, and went back the replacement came in. The solar panel uses a captive nut on the inside of the framing with a thumb screw. And just how is the nut captive? With hot glue. Not super secure and one was missing on the first one.

Going to set it up, test it out and if it works, remove the hot glue and at least epoxy the things in place...