Finally managed to make time to move the tablesaw storage forward. Still needs the side drawer made and drawer fronts but should provide much more usable area than the shelf it replaced. No more stuff getting pushed to the back of the shelf and forgotten about. And with casters, it’s easy to roll out of the way to sweep! (Sorry it’s taken so long!)
Since somebody failed to change the dust collector barrel, a lot of debris made its way into the filters. They needed to be cleaned anyway, but the filters had about a foot of dust accumulated in the bottom.
After getting the loose debris out, I knocked more dust out of the filter pleats.
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Do the dust collection lines still have issues with debris getting caught in the line reducing suction? I used to turn off the sawstop snd vacuum out the saw base and the connection fitting when excess sawdust occurs when using the saw. I also noticed that the lines to the bandsaws no longer exist. Could this be remedied with reattachment of dust collector lines? I believe a couple of hard 45’s and someflex might fix this. As for the band saw guides on the blade of the big band being putnof alignment, this is an ongoing challenge, only remedy would be a manual realignment of the blade on the pulleys.
btw, ive recieveda new adjustment tool for the micrometer tool, i just need to drop it by, a sign should be made above a dedicated holder stating that it stays in the woodshop and should always be returned to its storage spot. Ill see if i can make a dedicated holded for it and would like to know if its ok that i attach said holder to a permanent location in the shop.
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Thank you.
Bummer you had to clean out the filter, I guess you had to pay the price for someone’s laziness.
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Thanks for buying another 3/16” hex key especially for the miter gauge. You keep calling it micrometer tool. I don’t know where you keep getting that name, since it has no micrometer adjustments on it. It is just an Incra miter gauge. I don’t care if you mount it somewhere with strict instructions to put it back where it came from.
I don’t know what you are referring to when you say “debris getting caught in the line reducing suction”. I know of only two situations that has ever been a problem. One was when users of the planer or jointer failed to open the blast gates and the chutes filled with chips. Once plugged, they would not unplug themselves and had to be manually unplugged. The other was when the dust collector was allowed to fill completely and then users continued to use machines, filling the filters with chips and dust, completely blocking them and allowing for no suction to occur. Blast gates were removed by Aaron several years ago and have never been reinstalled. The dust collector filter filling happened last year, shortly after I became the lead. If you know of other situations that cause this, please enlighten us.
Yes, the bandsaws could be reattached to the dust collector system as you described. Of course, having more dust sources to pull dust from will reduce suction even more. That was Aaron’s reason for disconnecting the dust collector from the bandsaws and the miter saw. The thought was by isolating the dust collector to only the 3 machines it now serves, the suction to those will be maximized and by removing the blast gates on the jointer and planer, no more issues should occur from people not opening the blast gates. Adding the bandsaws back to the circuit seems to counter this approach. Aaron had planned on adding shop vacs and the mini-cyclones by the big dust collector to the bandsaws, but never got to it. Similarly, I have not had time to devote to improved dust collection, though it has been on my to-do list since day 1.
In addition to the dust collection for the East shop, I have wanted to plumb the small dust collector in the west shop to the router table and sander permanently and buy a bigger dust collector to connect to the shop bot. I have modeled and 3d printed a prototype shoe for the shopbot router, but have not gotten past that stage. There are other items that also need to be addressed with regard to the shopbot, but I have not had time to do any of them.
I’m not sure what you mean by “manual realignment of the blade on the pulleys”. The blade rides on the tires based on the tracking adjustment. I have found over the past year that users seem to try to correct for other, sometimes unknown, problems by misadjusting the blade tension so that it is far too high or by adjusting the tracking so that the blade is being pulled hard into the guide bearings. So, I would prefer that nobody messes with the tracking to “realign” the blade. Maybe I don’t understand what you mean by “putnof alignment” (out of alignment). I did make some adjustments last weekend when I flipped the rear guide bearing while I wait for a new one to arrive. (The existing one has grooves worn in it, likely from people incorrectly setting the tracking.) There is a new blade on order for the big bandsaw, as I believe the issue people try correct for is a dull blade. While the existing blade does not seem particularly dull, it does seem to have some damage to it, as if somebody maybe tried to resaw a log without a fixture and the log tried to roll. So, it will be replaced when I get back from my work trip and hopefully that takes care of whatever issue you think needs to be fixed by manual realignment.
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For dust collection at the Shop-bot, I bought a used whole house vacuum and donated it. Aaron was never able to get that hooked up either. The last I saw it was in the northwest corner of the West shop.
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The shop bot needs more air movement than a vacuum provides.
New blade is installed on the big bandsaw. It cuts nice and straight.
Don’t cut logs (or anything else that can roll) without a fixture to keep the work from spinning.
Check wood for metal such as screws or nails and remove them if found.
Clean up your mess after using the saw. (Clean up your mess period! If you’re old enough to be turned loose in the woodshop, you are old enough to know how to operate a broom!)
Stop ducking with the tracking and blade tension adjustments on machines you don’t know how to adjust. I continue to find the tension way too high and the tracking pulling the blade into the guide bearing way too hard. If something isn’t working right, TELL SOMEBODY!
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tell ya what.
ill put up my little tool holder, it’s in my car bouncing around and leave it at that. the other things were suggestions based off of observations. ive got a question pending an answer concerning dust collection elsewhere on the internets. I do remember that at the old location everything was hooked to the dust collector. as for slicing logs on the 1/2” bandsaw, there was a jig made for that. Ive always have run logs on the joiner to get two flat sides perpendicular to each other before slabbing them out. the blade alignment issue might happen when and if people pull back on the wood if they notice an uneven slab happening. it might be easier to show than to describe.
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