RockDoggy’s Woodshop

How many of us have suffered this fate: the basement, or garage, workshop that is a shared space with other uses, gets taken over?

My shop is in a part of my basement that is a bit of a walkway to the washer & dryer. It houses the circuit breaker panel directly over my workbench. The telephone and cable TV drops are right next to the electrical panel. Plus, it is situated directly under my kitchen. So you can imagine the rat’s nest of plumbing and wires that go through my space.

Due to a plumbing job, my space has been taken over by the detritus of copper pipes and solder that represents my attempt to fix a leaky spigot whose outlet is also directly over my workbench. Come to think of it, that seems like abysmally poor planning on the part of my home’s builders.

Anyway, I’m not really good as sweating solder joints for plumbing, but I’m good enough at it that I refuse to call a plumber for something as simple as a spigot replacement. But I’m bad enough at it that I take two full days to accomplish what a plumber could do in two hours, even if said plumber took a leisurely coffee break in the middle of the job.

So I haven’t done any woodworking in quite some time. But I do have some projects on tap:

• New table saw base with better dust containment
• Make a wing of the table saw into my router table
• Build a new rolling storage cabinet for some of my larger power tools, and a rolling base to set them on when I use them

Yeah, it’s all shop projects. But they’re things I’ve needed to get to for quite some time, based on experience and observation during past projects.

I’m hoping that once the month of May is past, I’ll get to these. May is loaded with events in my family, including my birthday, my son’s birthday, Mothers Day, and my father’s birthday. We spend most of May either driving across town, or hosting events for which others drive to us.

In the meantime, I have a few blog posts stored up that I’ll share soon.

Just a quick update… to say there is no update on the coat center project.

Part of the reason that I needed a deadline of January 5th was that the month of January is a tough one for me. Following on Christmas and New Year’s Day, I have the birthday of my triplets, which is a week-long challenge to schedule parties and visits. Then is my mother in law’s birthday, then my mother’s, and finally my wife’s at the end of the month.

So I haven’t done any work in the shop since my last post here. It may be February before I make any more progress, but hope springs eternal. I do have a 4-day weekend coming up this week, so I’m hoping for the best. And February brings a new fiscal year at work, which means a new raft of vacation days that I may use for more frequent 4-day weekends this year. Still have to talk that idea over with SWMBO (she who must be obeyed). Just kidding, I couldn’t ask for a cooler spouse. And I might get into trouble if I did. Kidding, again!

So I’m hoping for something interesting to talk about later this week, but I’m not holding my breath just yet.

As promised, this post is about the fence on my Sears Craftsman 10″ stationary table saw, model 315.228310.  It’s got a fussy fence.

I suspect the problem is related to two things about my fence.  First, the fence is relatively narrow, about 1 1/2″ wide, made of aluminum.  Second, it hooks in both the front and the back of the table saw.  Lets take these characteristics one at a time.

The first problem is the narrow width.  Now, I haven’t noticed it flex while I push a workpiece against it, so despite its narrow width and aluminum construction, it seems solid enough.

The trouble is that it hooks on a back rail as well as the normal front rail.  I believe this design was necessary because of the fence’s relatively insubstantial design - it wasn’t strong enough to be rock solid hooking only to a front rail like the Biesemeyer fences do.

These two features combine to make a fence that is particularly hard to count on.  Because it hooks on both the back and front rails, it is easy to get the fence canted either away from the blade, producing sloppy cuts, or toward the blade, producing a situation ripe for kickback - and serious injury.

On every single cut I perform, when I set the fence distance from the blade, I am careful to take precise measurements not only from the blade (to set the width of the cut), but also I measure the distance from the miter slot at the front of the table and at the back, and make sure they are identical.  If not, I tweak the fence position until it is correct.  I never skip this step!

Since the fence is so temperamental, this is a large reason why I think the splitter is so critical.  The splitter, when properly aligned, will help you avoid the kickback situations if the fence is set wrong, and the anti-kickback pawls on it will also grab the wood if the blade does want to kick it back, and will keep you safe in most situations.

So, needless to say, I would really like to replace this fence with a Biesemeyer or similar fence, that is substantial enough to stand on its own, and that I can trust to be rock solid once I set the distance from the blade.  The time I’ll save will be wonderful.

One last note about this.  Because the fence is so bad, I never use the measuring tape that is attached to the fence’s front rail.  In fact, I ultimately ended up moving the rails and the fence to the right by 6″, so that I could turn the space to the right of the blade from 24″ to 30″.  So the ruler is irrelevant anyway, even if I could trust it.

Next: A zero-clearance insert dilemma.

As with many (but not all) woodworkers, my table saw is the most used power tool in my shop.  For the interested, it is officially a Sears Craftsman 10″ stationary table saw, model 315.228310.  It has a left-tilt blade, which I never realized was a feature to be coveted (or hated, depending on your views) when I bought it in 1999 or so.  Sears didn’t seem to recognize it as a significant feature either, since there is no mention of this in the owner’s manual.  It also has a rip fence that locks down in front, and grips at the back tightly to a rail that runs along the back parallel to the front rail.  It is, in my opinion, a bad rail system that is prone to kickback and bad cuts, but I’ll discuss that in a future post.

That’s not what I wanted to tell you about.  I want to tell you about the saw’s splitter, which I use religiously.  For about the last two months, anyway.

When I bought the saw, I had a little experience on a bench-top saw, and quickly found its limitations for the kind of woodworking I had wanted to do.  So, being a devout follower of Norm Abram, I bought a new contractor style table saw from Sears (money is always an object), and never took the splitter and blade guard out of their plastic bags.  I put them in a drawer and promptly forgot about them, and began using the saw Norm-style, sans protection.

I can already imagine the fright half of you feel at reading that, as well as the chorus of “me too” from the other half of you.  Well, as much due to luck as care, I have never had a table saw accident of any kind.  No severed fingers, no serious kickbacks, nothing.  Not that I didn’t deserve it, because I did some crazy things from a safety perspective.

It was the table saw class with Frank Klausz a couple of months ago, as well as episodes of Matt’s Basement Workshop podcast where Matt Vanderlist conversed with guest Hendrik Varju regarding table saw setup, use and safety, that finally converted me.  I searched my shop, and miraculously found the splitter, blade guard, and mounting hardware all hidden in my shop.  This is amazing to me, because I am really good at not being a pack rat, and I throw stuff away all the time.  Also, I have moved twice since purchasing this table saw, and I really cannot believe that I didn’t misplace anything!

I mounted the splitter, and verified it was parallel to the blade, and began to use it for the first time in nine years!

Table saw splitter and blade guard

Its features include the blade guard, which swings up and out of the way for blade setup; a splitter (not a riving knife, even though that’s what the saw’s owner’s manual calls it) that tilts with the blade’s tilt; and anti-kickback pawls on both sides of the splitter.

I have found the usage of the blade guard and splitter to be far less irritating than I expected, once the apparatus is installed on the saw and properly set up with the blade.  Of course, it isn’t usable with my crosscut sled, and can’t be used while my dado set is installed.  But for all rip cuts, it is in place and has not proven to be a problem.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  I find the leading edge of the blade guard to be a welcome reminder of the position of the spinning blade, and it makes it easier to keep my fingers away from it.  Now, I’ve always been scrupulously careful about my fingers while using the saw, but really, isn’t that what we all say right up until the first time we have an accident?

This apparatus does indeed have a down-side, though.  While it’s easy to use once installed, it is the installation and uninstallation that is the biggest problem.

Splitter attachment to the table saw

In the photo, you can see that the splitter is attached to the saw via three thumbscrews that are tightened and loosened with a supplied allen wrench.  There is no quick attach/detach mechanism.  Each time the splitter is to be installed, these three screws must be installed.  The two on the back support aren’t too bad, but the one under the blade insert (seen in the photo to the right near the blade) is almost impossible to get to, and is the crucial one for setting the splitter’s leading edge directly behind the blade.  The other two are manageable. Uninstalling the splitter requires using the allen wrench to completely remove all three screws.

With practice, I have managed to get the installation and setup time to less than ten minutes, though I must say, I’m not racing to get it done quickly.  I tweak it until it is right, regardless of how long it takes.  Removal is a matter of two minutes or so.

So what did Frank and Hendrik say that convinced me to dig out the splitter and use it?  Well, they discussed in great detail the importance of the splitter or riving knife in preventing kickback.  Honestly, though I may have heard it mentioned before, I never realized with any clarity that the splitter played such an important role.  But when properly aligned with the blade, it keeps the rip cut firmly against the rip fence, making kickback much less likely.

Though I had never experienced kickback myself, I had come close a few times.  My saw’s motor is no more than 1hp, and so when the workpiece binds against the blade, most often it just stops the blade.  Like I said earlier… I’ve been lucky.

So add my voice to those advocating the splitter.  I haven’t had to lose a finger, or suffer a kickback punch to the gut, to come to that realization.  But my experience with this saw, combined with the words of these woodworking masters, made their impression on me.

I got in the shop for a few unexpected hours today, since the kids were finally healthy (and in full fighting form).  I was able to get most of the pieces cut to final size, with the exception of the sides and back panel, and I have yet to cut the board for the coat hooks.  This is mostly due to not having decided what wood to use for that part.

I mentioned in my previous post about this project that I am using an existing stock of poplar plywood.

My stock of birch plywood

However, I remembered today that this wood is actually birch plywood.  I had purchased this wood about 4-5 years ago in a quantity large enough to build a set of bookshelves in the den of our previous house.  Luckily I had no time to start this project due to the birth of the triplets in 2004.  When we moved in 2005, the wood moved with us, and has been parked in my workshop ever since.  I used a large quantity of it for the beds I built for the kids this year, and since there is much remaining, the coat center will also be primarily made of this wood.

So, the cuts are mostly made, and I have begun cutting the dadoes and rabbets I’ll need to fit the top and bottom to the sides, as well as to fit the dividers and center shelf in place.  That process has not been completed, and there is much left to do.

Also mentioned previously was my intention to fit the coat hook board to the shelf box using a sliding dovetail.  Once I saw the bottom piece, though, I changed my mind.  Instead I will use pocket screws, since they need not be seen by anyone as they’ll be in the back of the board against the wall.  I know not everyone cares for pocket screws, but I think this is a place that calls for their strength.  Flame on if you have an opinion.

I am unlikely to have any shop time until the new year (Saturday) since I’m back in the office on Monday, and New Year’s Day will likely be spent at my parents’ house across town for a much delayed Christmas.

Until then, I have a few other things to post that may be of interest.  Enjoy!