Hammond Finished!

Another busy week in the shop! It's nice to be able to make some solid progress for a change.

Got the Glider motor parts back from the media blasting, painted them, then when I was reassembling I noticed there was still a substantial amount of lead in the windings. So it was back to the motor shop. I wanted them to either clean the windings again, or seal them up with some special electric motor paint. Instead, they gave me a spray can of the paint I wanted and suggested I go do it myself! Perfect, I got it done fast, done right, done cheap, and I still have 90% of a can to do future motors.

Blinged up the motor paint a bit!

So I got the motor mounted on the saw and took the first cut. First impressions are that the saw is quiet and very smooth and cuts at 90.0000 degrees. Exactly what I had hoped for - Hurray! I notice that I started the rebuild on July 14, almost exactly 3 months ago. There are a few small tweaks needed, and I am still waiting for a new Forrest blade, but the heavy lifting is done.

Using my sound pressure meter, the Hammond registers 73 dB, versus my Powermatic 66 at 92 dB. Quite a difference.

Was able to get to the beach last week for a day of chainsaw milling with practically the entire class from the IP woodworking school. Great fun, we had three mills going at the same time, cut up half a dozen logs.

Also making some progress on the General planer, some modest cleaning done as well as a sharpening. Discovered one of the gibs is different from the other two, not sure if I am going to need to replace it or not. Plus the bearings on the bed rollers need replacement. Luckily, the bed rollers are not a critical piece, I'll order them on line but they'll take a while to get here. I disassembled the planer from the base so my son and I could carry it from the garage down to the basement. Wrong! Looks like it'll take four people to move it.

Still contemplating the next project. The curved glass front display case is sill high on the list, but I am thinking I may use one of my 6' long 30" wide catalpa slabs to make a slab coffee table.

I also rediscovered how satisfying it is to rebuild an electric motor. I also noticed that the old motor I had been using to keep my kiln door shut tight was exactly the same the one I just rebuilt! I have started to rebuild it, should be way easier the second time round!

Soooo Clooooose!

I have had a real burst of activity in the shop the past week. The Hammond Glider is now rebuilt! Hurray! Now I've got the motor taken apart and taken it in for media blasting, then I will paint it myself and put it back together. I've got a new blade on order from Forrest, it takes custom blades due to the unique arbor. Won't be long now (I hope!) until I'm making sawdust with it.

The VFD for the General Planer arrived, and I tested it out on the planer - it worked great! I then wired the VFD into my shop. I need to get the planer moved from the garage into the shop now, get its knives sharpened, and do some minor cleanup and setup on it.

I finally got my recent load of slabs dried and out of the kiln, after a major struggle with the a/c unit. I reloaded it with about 400 bf of mostly oak, plus a few other odd 'n ends. I was planing to let the oak air dry another year, then I noticed that it was starting to split in the middle so I thought I had nothing to lose by throwing it in the kiln. A number of pieces are 30 inches wide, I guess if I cut them in half they'll still be decent.  However, I am running out of room in the garage now for dried slabs!!

I'm hoping for a major day of slabbing on Friday, some friends will be joining me, hopefully we'll get three saws milling at once!

Feeling Good!

I am feeling really excited about the Glider being close to being put in service. I took it all apart again, and my son and I moved it from my garage into my basement shop where I plan to use it. There I completed all the wiring, and started putting it back together for keeps.

The fact that the sandblasting shop lost a number of pieces quickly became an issue. I had to custom order several items from Fastenal. Several pieces had damaged threads on them, so badly damaged that I had to take them to a machine shop to be rethreaded.  I am also awaiting a portion of the tabletop from a fellow in Massachusetts, the sandblasting shop managed to lose my original, luckily for me this kind fellow is giving me a spare that he has. Anyways, the upshot is that the project is mostly stalled for a week or so until I get these parts all in.

I just hope that the saw lives up to its billing, unlike the Parks Planer which I have never successfully dialed in!

However, I did solve THAT problem by picking up a good condition General 130 14" planer. It's from 1966 I believe, and a more precision tool than the Parks. It has a 3 phase motor on it, so I have a TECO VFD on order and as soon as it gets here I'll put the General into service and then it is goodbye Dewalt plastic piece of sh*t planer and goodbye to Parksie too. And hello to a bit of extra space! I'll miss Parksie though, my son and I put a lot of time and $$$ into it. We did learn a ton from the process though too.

 14" General 130 Planer

 12" Parks Planer (AKA Parksie)

Slowly Coming Together

The Glider re-assembly continues. I have spent a lot of time removing paint from machined ways, threads, etc, but I think/hope that it's getting close.

The tables are all cleaned and fitted, the ball bearings are in, the micrometer gauge, finger and clamp are fitted on the tabletop, and the arbor is (temporarily) attached. Last is the raising mechanism, then I want to go through the motor myself before I attach it.

 

Meanwhile, the kilning has gone slowly. Who knew that it would take time to 'dial in' a new dehumidifier?? I thought you bought them, plugged them in, and forgot about them! However, the present load is getting close to being ready to take out, maybe even this weekend.

I did get out and slab up some beech the other day, first slabbing of the fall season and also the first beech I have ever slabbed. It was a bit short, but tough and hard work. The wood has some nice spalting in it.

Hammond Glider Goes Back Together

I put a second load in my DH kiln. A mix of catalpa, elm, and Monterey cypress. Winter '09 was definitely the year of elm/catalpa! The dehumidifier died though, after four faithful years of hard service. I replaced it with a new one and things are dehumidifying away!

The Glider finally came back from the powder coating shop this week. It is very green! When I selected the colour at the shop, I swear it was a lot darker. Ah well, it's done now.

Stand on Wheels

Underside of Tabletop

Infeed Table of Jointer Makes a Fine Assembly Table!

I've started the reassembly, only to quickly discover that I did not document well the disassembly, so it's a bit of a challenge. Also, a couple pieces have gone astray, so I will need to replace them somehow. 

I am super happy with the media blasting, it took all the crap off and got right to the bare metal. It left an attractive texture on the bronze/aluminum pieces. Chrome did not fare so well but is still salvageable.

The jury is still out on the powder coating though. Clearly it saved me a ton of time, and I am happy with the finish. The shop did not do a good enough job of covering up threads, machined surfaces, etc. which means I will be spending some time removing paint from these areas. The areas they did mask, when they removed the mask, it tended to rip the coating and leave a very rough edge. I had to buy a pint of matched paint at a local paint shop for touching up these areas.

Lastly, it appears that log cutting season is here already, a full 5 weeks ahead of last season's start. I'll be down there tomorrow, hope to cut some beech and possibly alder. There is some oak, plenty of maple, and some PO Cedar down there ready to cut up over the next while. I will have to learn to be more picky this year, I really only have room for 20 new boards right now!

Focus!

A problem I frequently have is getting bogged down in multiple projects. I  have to constantly avoid the temptation to start a new project before the current one is finished, otherwise I find myself overwhelmed with a shop full of uncompleted projects.

This week has been a good lesson in that.

The current project is the Hammond Glider restoration. The unexpected arrival of the Morrison saw last week and the commensurate excitement for it almost threw a wrench into things. But when I realized that there is more work on the Morrison than I originally thought, I decided to leave it for now and stay focused on the Hammond.

The Hammond has a number of parts that need painting. I learned the hard way that trying to repaint something like this with spray cans of Rustoleum is an exercise in total frustration. And a false economy.

Powder coating is the way I have decided to go, and I have dropped off the parts at a local powder coating shop.  I am anxious to have the powder coating completed so I can commence reassembly.

For the yellow cedar-lined cabinet that I am planning, I continued to search for the 'ideal' piece of wood for the outside. As I pawed through my wood pile again and again, the realization slowly dawned that  perhaps I don't actually possess the piece of wood that I want for this cabinet! I understood then that I was approaching this process the wrong way. It should be more  with the with the selection of the wood influencing the design of the cabinet, rather than trying to force a certain design on a piece of wood.

This insight was tremendously liberating and reinvigorating, and actually increased the number of possible candidates for the outside. Of course, the shape and design of the cabinet will now be somewhat different depending on the wood I choose, its pattern, colour, texture, weight, etc. But that's all part of the journey.

Crabapple                                          Red oak

In any event, my intent right now is just to select the wood and cut it roughly to size. My hope is that it will dry more while I finsish up the Glider, then I'll be ready to focus on it!

Lastly, my first kiln load is now dry, it's down to around 8.5% MC. I am happy it only took two weeks. At this rate I should have three more loads done by the middle of October when the wet weather settles in for fall.

 Two Pieces of Catalpa in Kiln After Drying

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.