Thursday, February 11, 2010

SHOP. FEB 2010

Here is what the shop looks like these days. (Click on any of the images to make them bigger.)
This is the switching on one of the blast gates that activates the dust collector when one of them is opened. The micro switch activates a 30amp relay that I salvaged off of an A/C unit.

The top of the router table. The hole behind the router sucks chips from the fence into the cabinet and out to the dust collector. That really worked out well.

The top and front of the router table with the fence installed.

This is at the end of the outfeed table of for the table saw. There are air nailers and staplers in the drawers along with the bullets for each.

This is around the corner on the out feed table. There are sanders on the shelf to the right. The top of the outfeed table is plumbed up to the dust collector and will be a down draft table as soon as I get around to drilling a few hundred holes in it. I was not in a hurry before because the filter in my dust collector sucked and it would just blow fine dust through it anyway.

The bench on the left was built for that space. The one on the right used to be a downdraft table at the other shop and is going to stay there until it gets replaced with something that fits better and is more functional.

My saw. Love that beast. I wanted to move the rail to the right for years, and finally got around to ordering a new self sticking measuring tape to put on it after it was moved. I went to peel off the old one and then and only then did I realize that it was metal and I could just re-stick in on the rail. (duh) I used the tape I bought on my miter saw so it was all good.

Here is the hillbilly cyclone. It started as a 35 gallon drum. There is a HF 2 hp (yea, right) motor and impeller on top of it. I just recently added the Wynn filter. I was not sure how much stuff would get through the cyclone, so I made a collection box below it. When I tested it out I dumped out all of the dust from the collector on the floor (it was about 2/3 full) and swept it into the floor sweep. Then I checked the white box below the filter. There was not a single bit of wood in there. Well that was just dumb luck, but I will take it. I got the blue barrel below the cyclone at university surplus with a lid and a hose attached. They gave it to me free since they "lost" the rest of the dust collector that came with it.

Just another shot of the router table I guess.

The miter saw and drill press. the extension on the right of the saw hinges down so I can stow 4x8 sheets behind it. The cabinet that the miter saw sits on is open below the saw. It sits on a couple of rails inside the cabinet. There is a trash can inside the cabinet below. The heavy dust just falls down into the trash can and the finer stuff gets sucked up to the top mounted dust collector port. I like this setup because it seems to work well, but also because then I can just toss cut-offs behind the saw and they go into the trash below.

Here is where the downdraft table will be. The planer is there for now, but I have a better solution down the road.

This is a bench I just finished up. The legs are 3x3 pine (glued 2x4's). It is all made of 2x4, but the joints are pinned mortise and tenons and I was happy with the results. I am going to make some cabinets for below it that will have drawers and perhaps some shelves.



The last 2 photos are of the hillbilly cyclone being made last summer. The one photo shows an old shirt that was cut up to make a funnel shape inside of the drum. That was then fiberglassed and sanded to make it as smooth as I could with my limited fiberglassing skills.



So there you have it. When I had my old shop I wished that I had built it bigger. My space is smaller now, but I am so glad that we moved out of the old neighborhood. I guess that no matter how big your shop is, you probably wish it were bigger. So I just look at it as a challenge to make things fit and to do the best with what I have.
There will always be more tools to buy, but the only big one I have left is a good bandsaw. I really want one of the Griz' saws and perhaps some day...

1 comment:

Armpit Studios said...

Nice job getting it all to fit in the smaller space. The DC construction is pretty cool, what with the fiberglas shirt cone and all.