What did you do today?

[dbhost]

I still haven't started organizing my hardware cabinet and instead ordered the plywood for my office cabinets. It is being delivered tomorrow so I can get the sheets into the shop to acclimate while I'm in South Dakota for Christmas. I have next week off so I should be able to get a decent start on the cabinets.

My sheet goods storage in the shop is sagging badly after less than a year. I overloaded it, I knew I overloaded it, and I kept overloading it. Since the top of it was supposed to double as an assembly table, the nearly 3/4" sag over an 8'4" span is unacceptable and it will need to be rebuilt.

Pretty sure we've all done something similar. My lumber racks are BADLY disorganized... I literally need to pull nearly every single piece of lumber off of it and organize, put it all back...

[Franco Lewis]

I live in a home built in 1962. The shop space is in the basement. Basement slab slopes towards center floor drain at an angle that is a bit hard to fight. I have the PCS model with a 36 inch fence. Original owner had it setup in about same space/situation but had the right side table legs installed. Based on how stiff the rails are I see little need for this (unless I add a router insert) at this time.

For my needs..

1 - Ability to move the saw
2 - Cabinet/outfeed/assembly structure that could be moved in and out of storage space under right side of table
3 - Dust control is shared amongst a few devices at this point.

I hate to reinvent the wheel so I opted for a simple sturdy platform to place the unit on. This will allow me to put more effort in to the secondary cabinet from point 2 above. Something like this...
https://cdn.popularwoodworking.com/w...S_IMG_4306.jpg



I looked at all of the portamate type solutions and the expensive saw stop bases and opted to use a server rack base the IT department had tossed at work to solve the issue.
Middle Atlantic CBS-WRK-32 - Skirted Wheelbase, Fits 32"

https://www.empirepro.com/pro-audio/...rk-series.html

I simply built a structure that sits over the top of this like a "hat" with a shallow well that goes around the base of the saw. 1300 pound capacity is more than enough. The slight bit of raise allows me to get the saw up a bit higher which is more to my taste. I will add some leveling / immobilizing for the base and call it done. I used this same base idea under my jointer/planer. Also I am thinking about getting some EV and thus I am reading different articles on some important aspects of having one.

I have read Jordan Peterson's book about 12 rules so decided to make my room perfectly clean. The task turned out to be more difficult than I had thought before

[twistsol]

Never heard of the book before, but it sounds intriguing Just bought it for my iPad.

[dbhost]

My international morning stand up call was cancelled, so I actually slept in today and started work when I was actually supposed to. Worked obviously. Spent a little bit of time cleaning the shop. Including at least TRYING to knock some of the surface rust off of the lathe bed and bandsaw table. I REALLY need to wax those more often! The tailpiece of the lathe hasn't moved in way too long and gack formed there. Need to spend more time with the scotch brite pad and WD 40, And the miter slot on the bandsaw still needs a bit of attention...

FINALLY set up at least SOME lights, just projectors, 3 StarShower motions, 1 of them the green laser apparently no longer works, 2 water ripple effects, and 1 caleidesope with various Christmas characters, wreaths, snowmen etc...

Made the mistake of agreeing to take the wife to Sams Club just up the road from us. A 10 minute drive took an hour...

Family wants to see me for Christmas, it better be a Zoom call...

I got curious. My wife managed to order something for me I actually don't know what it is...She usually can't stop herself from telling me.

[LCHIEN]

Darn T8 4-ft. dual Fluorescent fixture just blinks off momentarily every once in a while. Becoming irritating as it is distracting.

[dbhost]

Ordered the 4x2.5 branch wye and the 4x2.25 funnel adapter to complete the band saw dust collection. Also since Amazon had them on deep sale, ordered 2 4 packs of stainless steel straps for 4" duct. Looks like I am sticking with 4" for now.

Spent extremely little time in the shop today. I need to go to the laundromat. The dog beds need to be washed and my wife hates it when we wash them in our machine...

I've been watching performance dashboards at work, and boy you can tell folks are on vacation. If it isn't automated, it isn't happening...

As the house started heating up quite a bit this afternoon as the temps got up to the upper 70s, I had to make a decision between opening the windows for cross flow, but that meant taking down the Christmas decorations on same said windows, or switching the AC back on. Since the humidity is also high, and temps are heading for mid to upper 80s over the next 6 days, I guess I am going with AC and leaving it on...

Or as the Texas Christmas story goes...

T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house.
The AC was running
because we live in the south...

Meanwhile my family, and high school friends in the Pacific Northwest are bracing for an arctic blast....

Gonna be weird weather. I need to run my generators again just to keep them happy... Especially my Harbor Freight tailgator.

Made a pot of refried beans, will be making fresh Pico De Gallo and grilling chicken Fajita breast for dinner. Ah fresh Tex Mex for dinner!

Did a little bit of shop cleanup. Mostly trying to figure out where my loctite blue went. Probably have to buy a new bottle after the holidays.

[dbhost]

My Dust Collection wye, funnel, and upper guard port arrived, and installed. I dug around in the attic and found the 4" hose and 2.5" fittings / clamps I needed. The dual port setup on the bandsaw is now in place... Now all that is left is the tires...

I discovered somehow I have a 2 spare 4x4x2.5 wyes. UPDATE. Make that 4 spare 4x4x2.5 wyes. How I ended up with that many is anyones guess. I think they are breeding in my attic...

I found the box of dust collection spares. I am good with 4" and 2.5" stuff, and to a point, I have too much. Except for hose. The 2.5 hose is getting, well, sticky with age. The plastics must be decomposing. Need new hose there. And the 4", I simply do not have it allocated properly. Once I move the ducting around I will reassess the hose allocation.

[dbhost]

Got up today, tossed my part of Christmas dinner in the oven and in the instant pot. I messed up and did not pre boil the sweet potatoes so I had to instant pot them.

Wife and I had Christmas dinner, cleaned up, and watched a few Christmas classics, and then she nodded off. The turkey took its toll.

Still waiting to do the gift exchange. We are off kilter REALLY badly since her dad is no longer with us to do Christmas.

As she naps, I am scrolling through Home Depots website. I want to get the ribbed flex hose between the DC and the 5x4x4 splitter gone. I need a segment of 5" duct, and 2 adjustable elbows to make this happen.

Here VERY soon, I am going to be moving my floor level ducting to just at about the level of the DC inlet. I know where the studs are in these walls, and I have proper U clamps to make this happen.

So for now I am sticking with a single 5 split to 2 4 inch, well, mains. And I am working on reducing the up and down dust has to go, and make things as straight as possible.

[LCHIEN]

I did not go to bed until 3 AM staying up to make sure the refrigerator was back to normal. Yes, at 11 PM my wife told me it didn't seem to be cooling properly. Sure enough the internal temperature was 33 in the freezer and 46 in the fridge. The Panel was reading OF OF instead of the temperature. Looking at the book this signified Store demo mode where the lights and buttons work but cooling is disabled. OF(f).

Now I've had this Samsung fridge for 10 years, and it never did this before. We had a whole bunch of family getting ice and drinks pushing who knows what buttons but you have to press two of the 6 buttons simultaneously for 5 seconds to switch to this mode. I just don't know what happened. But anyway I returned it to normal mode and it cooled down by 3 AM. I was pretty sure it would work. Hope none of the Christmas food and frozen food spoiled... because it probably shut down around dinnertime or soon after.

Son and DIL and kids came over about 9:30AM and we visited and played and set up for lunch.
Noon my Sister and BIL came over, so did my daughter and SIL and their 2 boys and the newborn girl; they just got out of the NICU and hospital the night before. Had ham lunch, played Croquet and ladder ball, played games, exchanged gifts watched TV and everyone had a good time. Took pictures, enjoyed the one YO walking around exploring, held the newborn. Everyone had fun the kids were all very good. Only a few things were broken (haha).

Ended up eating dinner too and then everyone went home. No time for woodworking, just family time. And then a lot of cleanup.

[dbhost]

Family is pretty dispersed. Wife and I had a quiet Christmas and fell asleep to George Bailey talking to Clarence. Set up the compressed air outlet blocks. Too many holes. Ordered some 1/4" npt flush plugs...

Cat was hiding. Found her in my filing cabinet...


I need to take some of my wife's gifts back. Brand to brand sizing differences are massive....

[dbhost]

Did post Christmas grocery shopping, Exchanged wifes gifts for ones that fit, first time I had been inside a Kohls that wasn't a dump. This one was actually pretty nice...

Went to Home Depot, picked up a segment of 5" duct, 2 adjustable elbows, set the elbows, cut the duct to 24" since they only had 5' joints in stock, and removed the corrugated hose from dust collector to the 5x4x4 wye, taped everything up with HVAC tape. Tested it yet again.

With each update, DC performance is improving. Pretty sure for at least the next year or two, I am going with the dual 4" mains, just straighten them out as best I can.

We need to make dinner, but I am not feeling it, and I am sure my wife isn't either. So Chinese take out it might just be....

[twistsol]

I get the dinner thing. I've been cooking for two weeks straight with the wedding and Christmas. I threw a frozen pizza in the oven tonight and called it good.

[dbhost]

The pipe plugs for the back sides of the compressed air outlet blocks came in, finished those up. Trying to figure out mounting locations. Mostly trying to figure out where the kicker studs are hiding so I can attach to those and move on...

Looking at the parts is parts for the comrpessed air piping system, The screw / nail holes in the elbows aren't super useful. I will have to use the cable clamp style clamps and drywall anchors instead. Oh well...

I am planning on getting rid of the quick couplers between the 29 gallon compressor and manifold, and from the manifold to the piping system. This will free up 2 brass couplers. I might have to swap the steel ones for brass. Not sure yet. Still debating on moving the hose reel to between the overhead door tracks. Hanging the hose reel is a pain in the tail, but I would like to buy back say 12 feet of usable hose, that way I can get everywhere in the driveway out to the street without adding on a second hose...

Not sure if I mentioned it, but we found one of those plastic rolling drawer contraptions a neighbor was throwing out. Woks perfectly for my rotatry tool stuff, angle grinder, jig saw etc... Good storage option and free. Hard to beat!

Going to heat up dinner, and then watch the new Matrix movie with the wife tonight, I think...

[dbhost]

Pulled the 5x4x4 splitter out of the DC lines to fit a short piece of DWV, and a 45 degree elbow. Somehow butterfingers me dropped it on the shop floor, and it shattered.

Found a replacement on Amazon.

Since the ports are intact, I am using the heat gun to soften up the DWV and cinched it down to shrink fit it so I get a friction fit. Hopefully the incoming Big Horn adapter 4" ports are actually the same size as the HF ports...Probably going to end up friction fitting and wrapping with foil tape.

[dbhost]

Went out and got our tamales for new years celebrations. Made frijoles a la charra (For the pork), did some grocery shopping for missing ingredients for Hoppin John (Black eyed peas), and tomorrows breakfast. I need to start cutting vegetables and frying up the house fries for the Bratkartoffeln mit Kraut (cabbage).

I managed to squeeze by Home Depot as well to pick up a few thin wall DWV 45s. which were a ROIYAL pain in the tail to find. Lowes is WAY more organized, but out of my way, and more expensive.

Since the 45s I got were not street 45s, I took the DWV I heat shrunk yesterday, and fitted them to 2 of the 45s, when the Y fitting comes in on Tuesday. I will do the install. The point of this bit of work is I am trying to eliminate the sectons of flex hose that I had on the Thien drum separator. One leg goes up the wall, and over to the workbench, and table saw, the other leg is getting picked up off the floor and will be taken, almost directly at the height of the lathe bed, across the wall to just at the overhead door where it takes a sweeping 90 to the drill press.

I would prefer to avoid lifting as much as possible, hence why I am trying to put the duct along the height literally just at / below due to the Y of the 5" on the DC itself. I can't avoid that in any way I have seen.

I fished through my parts bins, and realized I need more 1/4 -20 screws. Found the ones I needed at 1.5" and ran out of them putting my old Woodcraft shop stools back together. The OE hardware walked itself out. I repalced it with 1/4 -20 hardware with nylock nuts to keep it from unscrewing itself on me... So now both shop stools are usable again!

Swept the bandsaw area / corner, and started picking up the obscenly large amount of gack that collected over the years. I think I need a shovel, not a broom!

Sister in law called. Wants to go out to dinner. I have things to do. I am losing the debate with my wife on that one. F*#$!

[twistsol]

While I was painting some cabinet drawer fronts in the shop this morning, I heard a Nissan ad for ultra short 18 month leases, so I leased a very basic 2022 Nissan Frontier and got rid of the Ford Flex.

I'll now have a serviceable truck until the chip shortage is resolved and the GMC Sierra I want can be purchased with the active fuel management, auto start/stop, and 10 speed transmission that have been removed from the current trucks because they aren't functional without the custom chips. GM does discount the $60k+ truck about $150 as compensation.

[dbhost]

While I was painting some cabinet drawer fronts in the shop this morning, I heard a Nissan ad for ultra short 18 month leases, so I leased a very basic 2022 Nissan Frontier and got rid of the Ford Flex.

I'll now have a serviceable truck until the chip shortage is resolved and the GMC Sierra I want can be purchased with the active fuel management, auto start/stop, and 10 speed transmission that have been removed from the current trucks because they aren't functional without the custom chips. GM does discount the $60k+ truck about $150 as compensation.

The more new computer controlled junk gets into things like trucks, the more I want a 1978 International Harvester Scout 2 with a P pump 6BT Cummins and an old school pre computer Allison automatic, backed up by an Atlas T-case, and a pair of Dana 60s.