What I did at my house today...

[awomanwithahammer]

Sorry for the double post. It wouldn't go the first time, and then it went twice.

[Manalto]

Sorry for the double post.

Repeating yourself, huh? The years are catchin' up on you!

[Lily left the valley]

Bonnie, I'm glad you have someone to help you out. Some things really are just easier with that second set of hands, forget things like tiny crawl spaces.

[awomanwithahammer]

Thank you, James. I appreciate you, too.

Lily, Michael is an incredibly hard worker, and wants to learn from me, which I think is hilarious. I worked on the house we built the entire time he and my daughter were growing up, and neither had any interest in learning how to do any of it, or helping me with the big projects. Now? They both want to learn.

[phil]

Today I ran a 220 line to the workshop/chichier shed. It will be useful in case I want to put a dryer or stove out there. Right now, it's hooked up to the Delta Unisaw (1947) I got a while back but have been unable to use until now.



The interior of the shed still needs work, but I'm glad to have the table saw up and running!

===

Today I ran a 220 line to the workshop/chichier shed. It will be useful in case I want to put a dryer or stove out there. Right now, it's hooked up to the Delta Unisaw (1947) I got a while back but have been unable to use until now.



The interior of the shed still needs work, but I'm glad to have the table saw up and running!

I'm excited about the saw. I have the exact same one myself and I maintained a bunch of them until they were rendered obsolete. I still think they are better quality than almost anything new. If you remove the top and look at the trunions you will see how robust those parts are.

on the right hand side there should be a motor cover, did you get it? sometimes there is a dust hookup for the lower cabinet so you can connect it to a collector, or if it sees light use you can dump the dust from the door.

try not to let dust collect because if you happen to hit a nail , especially slicing one lengthwise that can start a fire, Ive seen it happen.

you cna check that the fence is square to the table slots. If it's a teeny bit wider at the back side its ok but you dont want the stock to pinch up against the blade as you push your stock through. the blade should also be parallel to the fence.

if you remove the handwheels there are some short pins in there. the way that works when you screw the knob in it has a point on the end, this pushes against the little pins and they move outward. the shaft there is surrounded by a collar part and they grab the collar. what happens is people forget to loosen the knob and wear out the colllar or if you arent' aware of the pins they can drop on the floor and roll away. I'd pit a little lube on those parts and check if the collar is worn especially if it squeaks or wont' grab. often you dont really need to lock the height but it is important if your cut depth needs to be consistent for a job.

they came in a couple versions. mine is the more rare right tilt, if you look at the blade and tilt it then it can either tilt to the right or the left. both have different motors. it wont matter which you have. if you are cutting triangular strips sometimes things can get lauunched if they bind against the fence due to the shape, It is possible also to put the fence on the left side of the blade for certain reasons but you dont normally run it that way.

It looks like the table is lined up with your window. you might need that to get long stock through. If you don't Id loos that stand. the saw cant roll around as you use it. if you really want the stand , get some blocks under there to get the wheels off the floor.

the side table ( on the right) can be extended. the further you can move the fence from the blade the wider things you can cut and youll wan that for example if you trim down the edges of a window or cut plywood. Often people make a separate back table to catch the stock, so you can cut plywood without a helper. you can also make just a roller support if space is tight. if you run long board when you near the end of the cut and the board wants to fall to the floor it is safer if you aren't running around to the backside and trying to pull it through the rest of the way. That's a bit dangerous.
what I did was built a platform with some lumber , about 2 inches thick . I flipped it over and drilled in 1 inch holes about an inch deep. then inserted nylon round stock about 1" x 1 1/4 so when the saw sits on the floor it is sitting on the nylon pegs, then I coudl drag it around and turn it , no need for wheels. that base is about 5 feet long so it extends over to the right of the saw and this also supports the extended side table.

the fence is nice, it will have a micro adjustment. later saws have a beismeyer fence, It came under different trade names. mine was missing that fence so I bought one , they work really nicely.

you can make various jigs. for one of your first projects you could make a tablesaw sled. you'll find it very handy for sheet stock and for things like trimming the ends of longer boards. Here is a video but youll find better. I'd ignore the bit about the stop block you can just use a C clamp to clamp a block there if you need to. but this should give you the concept and you can check other tutorials. you can cut the slides from wood or if you want to go fancy use brass stock that fits the slots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebIOAaPhhU

if you cut somethign oblong, like say a piece of plywood 10 x 4" and try to put that through the blade so you are cutting across the end of the short dimension and you are using the fence as a guide, that will create a dangerous condition. what can happen is that the wood will then bind up on the blade, jump onto the backside of the blade and fire it at you like a bullet. Use the jig above instead. If that didnt make sense I can explain it differently. It happened to me once and wow it missed me but lesson learned. it sure hit the wall behind me hard and I was glad I was standing to one side.

another improved safety feature is that you could consider a second stop button, it would need a bit of wiring but basically , if you were cutting a sheet of plywood and it got bound up the switch might be hard to reach. we could delve into how to wire that up, it basically had a heavy duty light switch and perhaps no motor contactor originally.

If it has a contactor and you turn it off or unplug it then when you reconnect it cant' start up. otherwise if you had say a bad cord you could have the thing stopped, wiggle the plug and see it start running unexpectedly. you dont wan that to happen unexpectedly like while doing a blade change. for that reason any new saw will have a more safe start mechanism with a green start button and a red stop button. Its somethign you could update. some like to put a giant red stop button at a convenient place.

sometimes if you say go to rip a 2x 12 into two 2x6 pieces, especially if it is somethign with a twisty grain, then the wood itself can release it's internal pressure bind the blade and launch or start smoking and pushing back , when that happens getting to the switch becomes important.

I can find links but just try googling tablesaw splitter, sharks fin and tablesaw riving knife.
there is a little bracket located down under the red throat plate. it may or may noit be present. If you dont have it let me know. its a little metal block and it'll show in the parts exploded view. I'd suggest adding one of the above. it will help prevent the condition above. youll remove it for certain special operations but usually you cna keep it there without it affecting your work. it will tilt with the blade.

one way to demonstrate a cickback is to take a litttle scrap of wood, turn on the blade and flick it so it touches the backside of the blade. what will happen is it will climb on top of the blade and launch like a bullet. dont actually do this but it is the best way for me to describe what happens. that happens easily if your cut scrap get there and if you ever see that happen youll appreciate not being in the line of fire.
I saw two guys get really hurt that way, within a week , one got hit in his wristwatch and it smashed his wrist really badly and he was offf, then another guy did the same thign and got nailed in the gut by a cutoff scrap.
the sharks fin protects scrap from getting into that dangerous place by basically covering the backside of the blade. it also helps stop you from trapping the blade when ripping as described above.

the blade nut can be either forward or a reverse thread, that is different depending if it is a right tilt model or left tilt. you dont need to go crazy, snug is enough.

As you get using this thing and getting comfortable with it you will really love it. If the blade is sharp you can really cut thick lumber at a pretty high rat of feed, It has enough power for anything you'll ever need. the 10 inch blades are really common.

I added a jig called a tennoning jig. here is a video of a home made one which works differently. I havent used the commercial one much , it rides along the table slots not the fence and holds the stock in a clamp so you can cut vertically with precision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8h-1FRC6Ic
if I remember right you already have a different machine that will do similar. you can delve into this a bit more if you want o make your own windows and things like that. putting stock through the blade vertically is possible but there are safe and scary ways to do that.

you can get a molding head they have different blades for cutting moldings , picture rail , things like that.
you can get a dado balde, for slottign plywood , making shelves and things.

sometimes I mount more than one blade. I use coffee can lids to make thin washers to change the blade spacing. if you have new blades they will be the same diameter. sometimes I'll mount two or three blades to cut slots of hog out wide channels and things consistently. if you can cut a slot in one pass the width is more consistent than doing it is multiple passes. thats important for a precision fit sometimes.

although obsolete it's a common saw, many were made and the design wasn't changed a lot so parts are available.

you might want o make or buy some feather boards. the intentionally trap the work so it cant' kick back. they can also help hold the stock tight to the fence for precision. you can check into that without my rambling on. It's a safety feature you should know about.

at first you may be acting cautiously and feeding the stock too slowly burnig the edges. as you get in tune with the power and what it can do you'll be zipping even thick stock through with more confidence. after that when people say they use a contractors saw for cabinetmaking you'll realize what you have there and why it is so heavy and that a cabinet saw is different machine than than a cheap portable contractor's saw. i'ts a sturdy and precision machine and the stability it has will come to light. i'd loose the wheels right away.

if you dont own one you'll probably want a jointer and maybe a thickness planer but you can wait for deals to come. you can use the saw much like a jointer by flipping your stock and using the blade to trim things square. you can do a lot with some flipping and kiss cuts to make warped new lumber actually straight and square.

one trick if you have a really bent piece of stock is to attach it to a straight board. let the straight piece ride the fence, then make one side of your warped stock straight and true, then put that side to the fence and so on. the jointer makes one straight side 90 degrees to the first, the thickness planer makes the other two sides true, but there are a lot of jigs and workarounds to fill the voids when you don't own everything or have the space for a lot of machinery. The tablesaw is the most important one.
Phil

[phil]

Update on the back storm door saga:

I painted the new brick mould on Saturday, and the guy came by today to install the door, and ran into one problem after another. He clearly had no idea what he was doing and admitted the same, and finally he said he would just take the door and walk away, with no charge to me and our relationship wouldn't suffer at all.

So now I'm going to take down that brick mould and touch up my original frame, and then I'm back at square one. However, I now know how to measure and install it, but unfortunately I can't order the same door myself for DIY. Hopefully I can find another local business who does storm doors regularly.

I think using that molding on top of your molding was a kludge that you'd never really be totally happy with. If you can hook up with a woodworker in your area you could have a nice door made to fit nicely. Even if you bought a commercially made wood screen then you would have a better time making it fit. resizing a wood door by adding a strip or trimming it down isn't too hard but since it was aluminum that made things difficult. one step back , two ahead

[phil]

plugged the bathtub cleaning a rug in there. Put a pipe wrench on the Ptrap downstairs and had a shower as the pipe crumbled because it was weak, Just snapped in two places. took me about 30 seconds to realize it would stop if I put the plug in. Duh ! Tried to cobble together some plastic parts but got close but not quite. put blowers down there and began drying things up in my workshop. Took a bird bath this morning. last night the bathroom sink was plugged up too. I put some TSP down there in frustration. It actually worked, at least for now.
The trap it has is the original super heavy casting. I know it's quieter but I'm now trying to make it easier to get into for the next time I screw up. Just a normal day Luckily I have a week off coming. Hopefully my girlfriend and I will find time to catch up on all the things I did wrong in the last couple years.

[Manalto]

Stripped vinyl wallpaper in the small bedroom. The vinyl came off easily enough, but left behind paper backing, which I removed by soaking with a sponge and hot water, then scraping with a putty knife. Must allow enough time for the wallpaper paste to soften and then removal is easy. In the past I've used vinegar in the water which seems to move things along a little bit more rapidly. This time, all I had was balsamic, so I did without. I've also tried this with fabric softener in the water; the smell can be somewhat noxious.

This is at the Connecticut house (1955). If this house is too new for discussion here, I understand, but thought that a discussion of wallpaper removal might be relevant since it's so frequently needed in renovations.

[awomanwithahammer]

The subject of wallpaper removal is never irrelevant!

[Gothichome]

The subject of wallpaper removal is never irrelevant!

And a discussion of your mid century modern is relevant as well.