Woodshop Improvements

[lukecyca]

After his very well-received woodshop demo night, @Hekseskudd dumped a bunch of good insight into Slack about things that need improving. I’m going to repost it here so it’s less ephemeral and so that more people (especially new members) can discuss and get involved to make these a reality.

Thanks folks, I realize that I tried to cover a lot and may have overwhelmed a few people with the barrage. I also wasn’t happy at all with the equipment/ set up in the shop. We really need to put some work into the set up in there. You can’t do good work with dull blades or misaligned equipment. Having said that, the good news is that it’s not all that far away from being awesome.Here are four tools which need some attention and that once they are dialed correctly, should provide solid basis for quality woodworking. I surely missed others that I didn’t try out; compound mitersaw, bandsaw, etc?

Tablesaw needs better dust extraction, cross cut sled, blade maintenance (sharpening), zero clearance inserts. Probably a face on the fence to increase its area and provide protection from inadvertent blade contact. Feather boards, push boards, tenoning fixture.

Joiner needs the new blades installed, stand is rickety and allows the machine to move across the floor when it’s in use (dangerous).

Planer may be out of alignment with the bed, head lock mechanism seems to be connected to a cloud or a dream and not much else.

CNC is not currently functional.

Also the workbench is rickety and the vice doesn’t securely clamp. Where to start? I pledge to help out with this but I can’t devote the amount of time required to get all the things the way they should be. The shop needs multiple champions initially to get this going. I can devote a single night every other week for workshop maintenance and improvements, if another keyholder can bottom line it. We can use my CNC and workshop to build tooling and furniture for the spaces workshop. I could charge a small fee for each attending person to be applied towards the shop for things we need (mostly plywood for fixtures and furnishings). What do folks think of that?

I forgot to mention the outfeed table is lower than the tablesaw height. In a tight shop a good solution is to integrate the tablesaw and main workbench as a single unit. The workbench provides outfeed support of cut parts such as plywood in addition to being a workbench.

[smunky]

I was just in the process of writing up a post about Wednesday night woodshop work parties I’ll link back to here for the useful info!

Edit: Wednesday Night Woodshop Work Parties