Some days I just love being in the workshop puttering around a doing a variety of things that need to be done, repairs, small builds, and generally making things safer and easier to use ...
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/b4xySiKGdAo
Today I needed to clean out the insides of my table saw. The blade is getting hard to move up and down and that usually signals me that there is some sawdust build-up that needs to get cleaned out ...
The last time I did this I used a toilet brush that I bought specifically for this job, it works OK, but there are still some areas I cannot easily get into and so I am taking tips from one of my subscribers, and making an "air wand". It has taken me several weeks to get the right parts together and during that time I have misplaced the contributor's name .. sorry, maybe he will get back in touch.
>> Breaking news, I finally found the tipster for the "Air Wand" ... thanks Crieghton, this tip saved me a ton of time cleaning the trunnions inside my cabinet table saw !!
What this build need is of course an air compressor, an air hose, and a blowgun nozzle. Some of you might already have some of the metal tube extensions that can be used on the blowgun nozzle. I ended up purchasing a kit of accessories that had three nozzles of varying length and as I found out later, also different end diameters. I took my largest end to a local hardware store to find a thin plastic pipe that I could glue into place. Somewhere in the plumbing found the near-perfect match about 24 inches long. I still needed to drill out the inside of the plastic pipe slightly, but that was easy.
Then I used some Medium Starbond CA glue to glue the steel nozzle to the plastic pipe ... let it sit overnight and it is very well attached.
Next, on my hands and knees, with I struggled to get the nozzle into place under the table saw to those impossible places in the trunnions, and a few zaps of the blowgun trigger and no-more-compacted dust. What's also nice is that it doesn't really blow dust around my shop, it's a concentrated pressure of air and in my cabinet saw it confines the dust. If you have a contractor's saw, it may blow dust around so watch for that and wear good dust protection glasses and a mask.
Then it was on to a repair. My push pads that I modified a few weeks ago with "Great Tape" for the anti-skid pads on the bottom have come loose.
As it turns out I had a large number of boards to run through the planer and the sticky back anti-skid, although it stood up very well, finally near the end, began to curl under.
The easy fix to this is simply to round over the ends of my push pads, and apply more Great Tape, but this time make it so it overlaps on TOP of the push blocks so I can staple it down. That way it can curl under and in the event, I want to change the Great Tape in a few years, it's easy to remove and replace.
It's a bit hard to see the stapes on the top of the push block, but if you look close you can see them.
During one of my recent modifications, I needed to use my Jig Saw. I don't use this saw very often but in some cases, it is the handiest tool. The problem I have is that I never seem to remember where the blades are for it. Due to so many people sending me tips on how to store these blades I kept putting them in different containers. The problem with this is that first of all can't remember what the last container was that I put them in, and then where on earth did I put that container. After a frustrating 10 minutes trying to find blades <again> ... decided a quick fix is to put the blades WITH THE TOOL and the only quick and easy (and secure) way of doing this was to use hook and loop fabric. I always have some of this on hand. Often it comes with a sticky back, peel off the backing so you can stick the 2 different sides where ever you need.
In this case, I used an old medicine bottle that was long enough to hold the blades ... one bit of h&l on the bottle and another strip of h&l on the handle of the jigsaw, and presto, now the blades are stored with the tool ... I will never have to look for them again.
When I was looking for my jigsaw blades I stumbled across my scroll saw blades, which I remembered I have the same "where are they?" issues with, which prompted me to apply the same technology to my scroll saw and its blades. easy to find, out of the way, and always accessible.
Well that was my Sunday morning in the workshop, ... a nice cup of coffee ... a little bit of everything, making, repairing, and modifying and a lovely easy morning in the woodwork shop
Copyright Colin Knecht
woodworkweb
