New Tool - Laguna 14/12 Bandsaw

 I just finished putting together the new band saw a Laguna 14/12. Big machine and it should serve me well for a lot of years to come. I already have an old Craftsman band saw but since I anticipate working with a lot of rough cut hardwood I needed something with a better resaw capacity. The throat on the Craftsman is impressive but the horsepower is just not enough for my wood working plans.

It really didn't take me long to put it together, although I would say the instructions are only adequate, they could use a little help. Good enough to get the job done though. This thing is heavy weighing in at around 250#, which means you really should have two people for some of the assembly. I didn't really have anyone that could help so I did it all myself. Not recommended but possible, you just need to pay attention to what you are doing and think through all of the steps first before applying muscle.

The main body comes assembled. With a little careful thinking I was able to get it out of the box on my own. Basically I just cut the end of the box off and tilted up into position.

Putting the base together. I have never seen screws referred to as "fixings" before.

Here I have laid the main body on its spine supported by 2x4s, with a couple extra under the motor to keep it straight. The base is ready to be attached. They sell you the mobility kit at the same time, another quick $150 bucks...ouch

Like the body I used 2x4s to support the base while I adjusted everything into position and attached the bolts.

Base attached and upright again. To get it back to standing I placed the back wheels into one of the expansion joints in the garage floor and tilted it up, carefully!

All assembled. The table is a heavy slab of metal and the fence is aluminum and moves using a sliding bar. Pretty effective.

The few tools I used to get it all together, 12 and 14mm sockets, a couple of different sized allen wrenches.  The final assembly need a 5/16th socket and yet another allen wrench to deal with a set screw. I think I made notes on the sizes of the two larger allen wrenches for reference on the back of the manual.

I was pretty happy being able to get it all together and relatively quickly on top of that. Like I said the assembly can be done by one person but you do need to be careful so that you don't hurt yourself or the band saw. I am annoyed that it didn't come with a blade, I figured for that much money they could have at least included one blade.

Something a little Different - Tool & Paint Spinner Racks

Normally those titles means my wife has projects for me. This time its a project for me. While I was going through the last round of weathering on the U304(f)s I was continually misplacing the different bottles of what ever I was working with at the time. Mostly because I have managed to create three distinct work areas across the long counter in the workroom, which I must point out I share with my wife. In addition to misplacing things on a regular basis I tended to leave my tools spread across said counter as well. So its time to do something about it.

I have always been fascinated by the spinning ranks for tools, paints and such but I needed something a bit more compact than what seems to typically be available. I  envisioned two different sized spinners; 6" and 5" in diameter. Two different sizes seems excessive but the requirements deem that necessary. I have four items that I want to use these for; tools (including paintbrushes), the standard dropper paint bottle, the Oilbrushers (from Ammo by Mig), and the larger bottles that most pigments and enamel paints come in. Micro Mark has a tool spinner that's the right size so I'm using that as the model. The 5" version can handle three of the hole sizes I need; 1/2", 3/4" and 1". The 1/2" spinner will have 16 holes which should handle most of my tools and brushes, I'll make two of these. For the 3/4" and 1" I can only fit in 8 holes of each size comfortably. I'm planning to make 3 of the 3/4" spinners which, like the tools, will only have a single level. For the 1" I'm planning on two spinners each of three levels so they will hold 24 bottles of paint each for a total of 48 paints in a small area. The 6" spinner will have the larger 1 3/8" holes  and again will hold 8 bottles on each level and I'm planning on three levels.

For this first run I'm using Baltic Birch plywood, if I had a planer I would use something else because I have discovered that plywood tends to splinter when I use the big paddle blade style drill bits. While the 5" spinners can all be made from 1/2" plywood the levels for the 6" spinner need to be made from 1/4" plywood. I can drill the holes all the way through the top piece and then glue a bottom piece to it. First because I couldn't find a paddle blade the right size but I did have saw toothed drill bits but with these you can't just drill down a 1/4" and stop like a paddle blade you have to be able to cut all the way through and then pull the "plug" out of the bit. Its a pain when you are doing drilling so many holes but I'm happy with the result.

At this point all the pieces for the 6" spinner are drilled and glued together and the pieces for the 5" spinner with the 1/2 holes are drilled as well. I had started the 3/4" holes but ran out of time. After I finish the holes I will cut out the circle on the band saw and then figure out the best way to mount the different levels together. Dowels are the obvious answer but the width of that center hole needs to be determined, and I'm thinking that something a bit more decorative would be nice. I won't actually assemble anything till after I have applied some finish so I have a little time to think about it.

The spinners themselves are relatively inexpensive, I'm currently looking at 4" spinners that come on a square base which should fit under both the 5" and 6" spinners.

Here's some pictures so you can skip the rambling

This will be a six inch spinner. All 8 holes have been drilled and the bottom has been glued on (with five clamps, one in each corner and another in the center, I need more clamps).

Loaded up with eight of the larger bottles in my collection

You can see the line for the final shaping cut here. Hopefully a steady hand will yield something that at least looks like a circle in the end.