Back in the Saddle

Well a month of summertime activities are winding down for me and I am getting back focused on shop stuff.

I continue to go through my wood inventory looking for a suitable exterior wood to work with the yellow cedar interior showcase cabinet I am planning for my next project. No winner has emerged yet, although rift sawn oak is the current front runner.

The Hammond Glider tablesaw has returned from the media blasting shop. I am very happy with the results, all the parts are completely clean, and the shop did careful and sensitive work on the many smaller parts. I have decided to powder coat it, I will need a few days to prepare it for this step. A few parts will need to be rechromed as well, then I will be ready to commence the reassembly.

Saw As Purchased

Stand After Media Blasting

I managed to score yet another printer's saw, this one an even more obscure brand, Morrison. It does not have the ball bearing sliding table of the Hammond, but is still a precision instrument for crosscutting. It had already been converted from lead type cutting to woodworking, so I thought there was no lead dust left on it. Unfortunately when I got it home this proved not be the case, I will need to spend some time cleaning it but it is nowhere near as bad as the Hammond was. I am excited about this one and hope to have it up and running in the shop quickly.

I put my first load of the season in my dehumidifier kiln recently. These are slabs that I cut the winter before last so they have had two full summers air drying outside. Several weeks of gentle drying in the DH kiln should bring these slabs' moisture content down from 14% to about 8%. By Christmas time hopefully I will have run a couple thousand board feet of locally harvested spalted maple, catalpa, elm, cypress, etc. through the kiln.

Finally, a small triumph.I was able to level the tables on my antique 8" General jointer and set up the cutterhead so as to completely eliminate snipe, thanks to a 4' Starrett Machinist's level I recently purchased. I look forward to using this simple but fine tool to help me dial in a number of my other antique woodworking tools.