Project Pipeline

This family is keeping me busy with projects! Or is it just me trying to make most out of the sizable collection of woodworking tools i have amassed over the last few years? I am not sure, but i do know that Home Depot and Lowe's have been taking big bites out of my paycheck every month over the last 6 months or so. Maybe this explains our hole in the budget that C has been trying to fix desperately.

Besides the plexi glass easel and various repair projects at J's school i have been ordering supplies to rewire our phone lines, replace the station protector and add a DSL splitter to put an end to our spotty DSL service once and for all (thanks to 'linksys' there was always backup Internet service available), a small carry-on chalk board for J, and a swing set for J, of which you can see the the first 'A' taking on shape (2 more to go plus a 4x4 post on top and a ladder plus platform, and, if J gets his will, a zip line to one of our trees in the backyard).


The compost bin shown above had been my first big wood construction project (not counting the smaller crafts and cabinetry stuff like J's bed, stool, blackboard easel and doll house), and i learned a few lessons along the way: 1) always paint your work pieces before putting them together if you really want achieve good protection of the wood from the elements, even though this requires a lot more patience and takes quite a bit longer for the project to complete 2) always measure twice and _always_ use a framing square when putting the various pieces together. at that time i did not have a large enough square so i ended up using a metal frame i found in the shed, which worked OK then, however, i did screw up at least one right angle and the trained eye will be able to tell if they look at the bin in person.

what i am proud of is the fact that i got a $89 Ryobi contractor table saw to work for most of my projects (so far). a good table saw has a large table, an accurate miter gauge, a 60 teeth blade, extra material support for cross and rip cuts, as well as a motor that's powerful, quiet and without vibration. while there is nothing i can do about the vibrating, loud motor (except for wearing hearing protectors) or the inaccurate mite gauge (forget angle cuts completely, i figured out a workaround to do so-so 90 degree cuts by pushing the miter bar firmly against the miter slot while performing the cross cut), replacing the 24 tooth/10" standard blade with a 60 tooth/7 1/4" blade allows me make much smoother cuts. i also added a table extension to be able to rip longer boards without having them fall off the end of the table). to be fair, the rip fence works pretty well on this saw, although the range is limited to less than 10".
lesson learned: don't go with a $100 saw if you are planning to do any serious woodworking projects. $500 or more for a good cabinet saw is where you should start looking.