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Doc

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Everything posted by Doc

  1. Just an opinion but I think that Porter Cable pretty much has everyone else beat day to day for belt sanders. I have had Makita's and my main complaints have been part availabilty and then part cost. They also tend to be a bit clumsy to handle I have had very few B and D tools that have held up to day to day use in the last 25 years. I have some really old ones that are tanks but the new stuff is home handy man grade. I have one of the old PC beasts that looks like a locomotive and has a 4x24 on it, but it's a bear to use and isn't even made anymore since Dewalt bought them out. I have a regular 3x21 PC that I have had for over twenty years and use constantly to do stuff that I don't need the 800 pound gorilla to do. It works just as well as it did new. Last summer I got one of the new PC mini- belt sanders and it is one of the neater tools I've gotten in years. It has nearly as much power as a full sized one and will go all kinds of nifty places and really is a one-handed tool. I've abused it for nearly a year now on solid surface counter top work and it's still kicking.
  2. Maybe I'm out of line here but what you have there is a horizontal metal cutting bandsaw. It really isn't designed to do anything much more than do a really good job of cutting through metal. It is essentially a motorized hacksaw. The guide systems, table and darn near everything else will be a pain in the butt to get to cut curves in wood. Remember that one of the most common functions of bandsaws is to very efficiently cut meat for butchers. Like sides of beef, carcasses of turkeys and fingers of woodworkers. All of the horizontals I've worked with are made to not have your fingers anywhere near the business parts when it's doing it's cutting thing.
  3. Bandsaws sure do cause a lot of worry. I go to the IWF show in Atlanta every two years just to walk around and see everything made by nearly everybody and drool a lot. I have an Inca 10 1/2", an old Grizzly 14 and a really old Parks 20". The Parks did come from Sears in the early 60's, but I just haven't liked their stationary tools for the last thirty years or so. This may be a personal shortcoming that I have. The Grizzly saws of today are on a par with any of the Taiwanese saws available. In the past they made some pretty unforgivable junk but not any more. A 14"with a riser kit will do nearly everything that you need to do as far as sawing guitar parts goes. They are well made machines that are decently finished. I own an old one that I got at a yard sale for $100 because the owner couldn't get it to work halfway right. I've been doing this stuff for thirtysome years and it took me and the machinist across the street a while to get it right, but this is a 1987 machine. Don't let this kind of story influence you as far as the new stuff goes. The new ones at the Atlanta show last year were on a par with Delta, Powermatic, and Jet. Another plus for Grizzly is the speed that they get out replacement parts if you need them. They developed very good customer service in the days when they sold very mediocre machinery. The Laguna's are quite a step up, but you would expect that from the cost difference. This is a professional grade machine. Well machined, heavy duty plenty of oomph. I know a bunch of cabinetmaker's that have them and they all love them. I think that they are absolutely worth the extra money if you are going to do production work. Somewhere in between is the Rikon. This is a good machine that is a little underpowered, in my opinion. Woodcraft sells them and has sales fairly often. If the shop burned tomorrow I would buy the Laguna if I had the money, and the Grizzly if I didn't. I'm semi-retired now but I'm still a tool junkie. The Grizzly should be a safe and satisfactory choice.
  4. I've got an old Inca 10 1/2 which takes a 73 1/2 blade. Garrett Wade used to be the only place to get them so I bought a bandsaw blade brazing kit rom Woodcraft and make up my own. All it takes is a mini-torch, a grinding wheel and a kit. If I can braze them up, anyone can. It takes me a total of about 15 minutes to make one. I bought the bandsaw blade stock from the guys who sharpen my blades for me. It's really great to be able to have a shrp blade when I need it without waiting.
  5. Twenty years ago I shared a building with a guy who was doing reproductions in quantities from 12 up. They made beds, chests of drawers, tables, all kind of applied archaeology stuff. He had a shop full of old equipment of a similar vintage to the ones in the post. His family had been in the business for years and this was the stuff that they didn't use because they had replaced it with modern equipment. His guys were generic woodworkers many of whom had a lot of experience and were pretty meticulous workers. About once a month they had what I would call a serious incedent involving a problem with one of the old death traps. I know and have worked with guys from the era that these machines were almost new in and a lot of them were named "Stumpy", "Three finger Jack", and the ever popular " Billy One-eye". I actually have known guys with these monickers. Most of them earned their names in the 20's and 30's before safety standards.The stuff can be used, but any room for error shrinks to non-existance. I've already lost a finger to doing something that I shouldn't have with a tablesaw, so I'll leave open frame bandsaws and square head planers to more adventurous types. On another note, another guy I worked with made a reciprocating saw to do just what we all do: cut guitar faces,sides and backs from big ol' boards without the cost of a 20" bandsaw. 25 years ago they cost a lot more than they do now. Like about double even without counting in inflation!! He used a bowsaw blade, a bunch of springs and 3/4" plywood. The feed used rope and weights. It was powered with a 1/2 HP motor and it worked really well. It was essentially a giant wide blade scroll saw. Last I heard he still used it. These days a decent 14" bandsaw with a riser costs so little, relatively, that it makes sense to just get one and tweak it out.
  6. I've been real busy so sorry for the delayed response. I've shot a ton of this stuff. It's a good quality production lacquer primarily intended for the kitchen cabinet industry. A lot of furniture guys swear by it. You'll definitely get the best results using the vinyl sealer. This stuff does not sand as well as regular lacquer sanding sealer, at least in my experience. Some of the folks here who like to sand to 6000 or so may find it gums the paper even sanding wet. The lacquer does resist yellowing really well. It doesn't buff as easily as nitrocellulose, but it cures much faster and harder than nitro. After about a month at normal temps it fully cross links and is hard as a bowling ball. Not too many folks make heavily finished high gloss kitchen cabinets. I don't think that there is an appreciable difference in between-coat dry time. Stay far far away from anything with the name "conversion". Shewin-Williams makes good consistant finishes, but I've found that their customer service is friendly to only large production shops, at least in the middle Atlantic area. You won't get a lot of problem solving help with a couple of guitars.
  7. I don't have any references for you on this. It does seem a little weird, but I have had two different physicians that I do furniture work for ask me about long term hearing loss and both have mentioned the skeletal transmission thing. One is an orthopod and the other and ENT specialist. I think at this point it's just one of those "wonder what's going on here" things that doctors tend to kick around. I do wear hearing protection and I'm still getting pretty serious tinnitis.
  8. I've got a couple of pieces of Festool equipment and as some of my older stuff dies I'll probably be getting some more. The stuff just works better than most other equipment. It's really made to use. It is the only tool line that I can think of that has no weak links, and I can't even think of anything that I would change on my Festool sanders. The Triton router is a super piece of equipment. You don't see many of them in the US. Pricey. I have seen them at the last couple of IWF shows in Atlanta and they seem pretty well thought out.
  9. Choosing tools is very much an individual thing. We all have different ways of getting to the same end result. Ask other woodworkers. Most of them are opinionated and with shre their opinions. I am a certified tool junkie and I have unreasonable expectations of performance. I wind up with what I can afford and tolerate. That all said, here are some other nuggets. To protect your hearing you also need to isolate yourself from the high speed vibration of the tools,especially routers. There are some current studies that are suggesting that skeletal transmission of vibration can permanently "scramble" your inner ear and degrade your hearing. Many newer routers have padded handles. I wear padded gloves when doing aggressive routing. Make sure that your collet is absolutely clean outside and in and that the seat for it is also clean. Make sure that the shank of your bit is spotless. You haven't lived until you've had a bigass bit loosen up, pop out of the collet, hit the floor, bounce up and climb up your arm. I have. If you have to scrimp, buy a cheaper router and spend the money on professional grade bits. Start saving and when you burn up the cheapie router, buy better. For most of the work that you do on a guitar I've found that you need at least a 1.5 hp router. Understand that the Japanese manufaturers, in my experience, are very generoous when they rate their routers. The Germans, Swiss, and most American manufacturers tend to be more conserevative and accurate. I'd recommend for a starter to strongly consider the Porter Cable 690 kit with the two different bases. Bosch makes some strong contenders, and Hitachi (yes a Japanese Co,) has come out with a new one that I haven't used but have held and it seems to be a lot of bang for the buck. It also looks really cool. Go to the Taunton Press website. These are the folks who publish Fine Woodworking and a bunch of other craft related magazines. They also have books which are very reasonbly priced that discuss tools and tool use. The CD's of back issues are wondereful tutorials on how to do high quality woodworking and still keep your fingers and eyes. I do plug thewe guys a lot, but it's because I've gotten maybe a third of what I know and use from them, one way or another. Get yourself a good work apron, I wear a heavy leather one. Sometimes routers grab and kick out heavy sharp cunks of material. They sling them at very tender places below your belt. Buy goggles that are comfortable to you. If they're not you won't wear them all of the time if at all. Same thing with a dust mask. Always make sure that your workpiece is secured to your work surface, even for that "quick pass". A good clean stable secure work surface is as important as any other tool to do quality safe work. Especially if your are using a 3 hp router. The router mats sold by woodworking catalogs are good for a lot of things, but you can't beat workbench with a woddworkers vice and bench dogs. Big routers are essentially electric lawnmowers with small blades. Think about that one for a minute. They can sling a poorly secured piece at you at 700 mph (that's a whole bunch more kph's) Wear goggles. Even for a "quick pass' that doesn't seem worth walking back over to were you left the goggles. The majority of the serious injuries I have sustained over the fourty years I've been wood butchering have been doing quick and dirty 10 second jobs. Hope this isn't too redundant or boring. Happy Holidays, all
  10. If you don't mond spending some money the Festool sanders leave everyone else in the dirt. The 6" Rotex is, in my opinion the best sander made. It switches between random orbit and rotary and is variable speed If you want a cheaper alternative the Porter Cable 5" random orbital is a good pro quality choice. If you have a real compressor (one without wheels that weighs about what I do) air power is great. Most cabinet shops use Dynabrades. They make sanders for Klingspore and Mirka that are marketed under their names. They are simple strong and rebuildable. Cost is about $200.
  11. I started using planes when there was no Lie-Nielson. I have a LN block plane and a No5 bench. Superb tools right from the box. I also have an old (1900 or so) Craftsman that was made by Stanley. I used it for years in the condition that I inherited it from my grandfather. A couple of years back I followed the Fine Woodworking article on tuning one up. I also replaced the blade with an aftermarket. It is ugly. After you've been beaten by heathen woodworkers for a hundred years or so you'd be ugly too. It cuts beautifully and accurately, and feels as good as an LN to use. My point is if you have a decent quality blade and the rest of the parts are adjustable you can come out with a good quality plane. Tune up is everything. The advantage of the more expensive planes is that you've paid someone who really knows what they're doing to tweak out the plane ahead of time. That and they use a really good blade to start out with. Most planes (I'm not even considering a no-name Home Shop junker) have flat sides and will accept a fence. LN, Clifton, Stanley (even the modern junk) and Veritas all will,to my knowledge. There are a couple of companies that make them still. You can also make up a shooting board. For jointing tops and backs this may be the best way. It's simple cheap and accurate. Damscus steel and ebony infilled $2000 planes are for Doctors to build astounding replicas of Federal period furniture with, not for woodworkers to make a living with. James Krenov, one of the deans of American Furniture during in the late 20th century (he's still building) makes his planes from wood. Read up on this. It isn't anywhere near as hard as building a guitar and all it costs you is the blade.
  12. The polyshades products are the moral equivalent of paint. The natural grain and color of the wood will be buried. Bad idea. You can use five minute epoxy, but you can also mail order either epoxy wood filler or traditional wood filler on line. The five minute type can be tinted to any color that you want, but it's really glue not filler. I know lots of the folks here swear by it as a filler, but not me. I haven't used the wipe on poly, but last month's Fine Woodworking rated it as the best of the wipe on products that it tested and their articles are usually spot on. Look at the Guitar Re-ranch web site. They ship to the frozen North.
  13. Just out of curiousity what kind of dye was it and how much did you mix in the alcohol? Usually the two part will kill it in two applications tops. There is a concentrated Sodium Hypochlorite bleach that the dip and strip furniture guys use that's about 20X stroger than Chlorox. It'll kill even hundred year old dark purple analine. I think Minutman is a distributor.
  14. Try a test board and wipe it down with Armor-all, then finish it with whatever you're using. Some stuff doesn't like Armor-all. I haven't used a lot of purpleheart, but when I have I've used the Armor-all trick and it has worked pretty well. I made a hand mirror for a customer about 18 years ago and it has turned a bit browner than when it started, but it still has a definitely purple cast.
  15. Squirrel cages will move plenty of air. That one has open electronics so I wouldn't advise using it. The other question is "what is the impeller (blade) made of?" It needs to be aluminum or other sparkless material.
  16. Try wiping it down with Clorox bleach. This will usually "erase" analine dye. Do it once let it dry then do it again. If that doesn't work go to Oxalic acid. the next step is to try peroxide bleach. This is a two part bleach. Kleen Strip makes a kit that I am pretty sure Lowe's and Home Depot both sell.
  17. Okay, I'll put in my 2 cents worth. There are a lot of grades of carbide. The best cutting tools that I am aware of use C-4 grade. In router bits you pay for the quality of the carbide, the quality of the brazing and the quality of the bearing. And quality control. The "bad" bits don't get out of the factory. You get what you pay for. Whiteside, CMT, and Freud make good stuff, on the whole. So does Amana. This is an Israeli made product that is mostly sold to pros. The problem with Grizzly et al is quality control. Some of their stuff is great, Some out of the same batch is not great. There is a U.S. company called Ridge Carbide out of New Jersey that makes professional grade bits and saw blades. They sell on the web. The real deal. I rarely sharpen router bits. The profile or diameter changes just enough that it aggravates me more than the savings. Saw blades I have sharpened, by a local saw shop when the carbide will no longer shave a little cleanly off of my thumbnail, or when I'm just not hapy with the cut. Router bits, and all other cutting tools for that matter, need to be cleaned frequently. How often depends on what you're cutting. Use a bit and blade cleaner, not oven cleaner as the latter attacks the brazing and weakens it. When pitch builds up even a little the bit heats up and that is the main enemy of sharpness and longevity. Use a lubricant coating, like Boshield, onm the cutting surface of everything carbide. Use a bearing lubricant on all of your bearings. Every time. And check the Allen screw to make sure it's tight. I made a living slinging a router for over twenty years and learned that you can woork with almost any grade of tool, but to do reasonably paced high quality work with limited frustrations you need to not scrimp on your cutting tools.
  18. There's a product that I pick up at Harper Hardware Co in Richmond, Va called De-Glue Goo. It is a nasty slimey looking mess that will dissolve any glue that was originally water based, especially if it hasn't set for years. The set yp stuff takes longer but will eventually give up. Costs about $5. Turns the glue into jello.
  19. My wife has agreed to teach me the ins and outs of posting pictures so , when i get some time I'm going to do a couple of quick tutorials, mostly with routers. Till then, 1) get yourself a decent compass. By this I mean one that will pretty much lock in place. Make a paper pattern for what you want to rout. Make it the exact size. 2) set the width of the compass point to the pencil by putting one against the cutting edge of your bit and the other against the outside of your collar. 3) draw a new line inside the edge of your pattern by running the point of the compass along the outside edge while you keep the pencil at as close to 90 degrees to your outside edge as you can. 4) Cut out the new pattern. No math this way.
  20. I know my opinion doesn't mean diddly to you guys, but 1) If you don't know the difference between two part and regular poly urethane you shouldn't even think about using it until you do. 2) Not only will the toxins (meaning stuff that will kill you) go through a standard respirator in amounts that will hurt you but if you are standing around in fumes the stuff will go through your skin in dangerous amounts. 3) Spraying in the back yard is a bad idea for a lot of reasons, many of which have been discussed here. It's not nice to poison mother nature. 4) I bought a kit from my local auto paint supplier with three guns and a bunch of extras for $99. The three guns aren't the same guality as my Bink's No7 or No 69 but I get absolutely great results from them. I can see that they will wear out in a couple of years where my No 7 is pushing 30 but who cares at 3/99? Again, listen to Jeremy's advice about safety. I have a significant amount of nerve damage from years of cavalier behavior, and I have had friends die over the last few years and the cause was chemical exposure. Ain't no guitar in this world that looks good enough to die for guys.
  21. I'm gonna risk the wrath of the gods here and say that gorilla glue is a terrible choice for this kind of repair. I've found it to be a terrible choice for a lot of things. It is good for stuff that's going to have water exposure and not a whole lot else. It dosen't have the shear strength of a good yellow, white or hide glue, and is a gooey, nasty mess to work with. It will gap fill by bubbling up, but then it loses a whole lot of it's strength. They do have great looking advertising, and every hardware store and Big Box Mart pushes the stuff, but it just isn't as good a woodworking glue as Titebond et al. You also can't undo it if you need to. Heat or Deglue-Goo will easily unglue yelow or white glues, but nothing will unglue polyurethane.
  22. Good morning, What are you going to do with this collector? What kind of machinery are you using? How long a run are you going to have on your collection pipe? Since almost all of this stuff comes out of China these days there probably isn't a great deal of difference in the quality of the two. I have a Grizzly like the Harbor and a Jet like the Delta, and I'd go with the two hp model. They just seem to move a whole lot more dust, and the cost is the same.
  23. I'll second the second opinion. A properly done glue joint is stronger than the wood. Cutting a spline in will, in my opinion, weaken the joint. I would dry fit it, and while it's together drill two holes the size of a small finishing nail. Glue it up, put the nails in to maintain the alignment, and clamp 'er up. I'd use a couple of spring clamps. and let it set up for a day or so. The teeny holes are easy to hide.
  24. One of these days I'll figure out how to post pictures amd links. Till then, a template guide is a type of bushing that fits on the bottom of your router base. They come in a huge number of diameters. Think of it as a tube that sticks down frm the center of your base and the routher bit sticks down futher through the center of it. I thnk that this will get you to one. http://www.porter-cable.com/index.asp?e=3399&p=3864 I use the one 1/16" larger than the diameter of my bit and make my pattern that much smaller. Most of the guys who post here don't like them for no stated resaon other than you have to undersize your pattern. The advantages are: 1) you use straight cutter bits which are bunches cheaper than pattern bits. 2) You never have a bearing go bad and have it either scorch your work, or even more fun, have it pop off all together and the bit digs into your work ruining it. I've done most of my routing this way for a long time. I have pattern bits, but I only use them for weird applications.
  25. Craftsman bits are okay if you're somewhere that you can't find a top shelf bit and have to have it now. I've used them when I'm doing an install in the boondocks and need the bit that I didn't think I could conceivably need and left at the shop. They have always done an acceptable job and are priced appropriately. This same review goes for darn near anything in the Sears tool section.
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