The New Cardinal workshop

:-) Making things is fun.

My father-in-law, Stu, is a former shop teacher. He likes making things, and probably likes teaching others how to make things even more. He's made me a fabulous workbench, and decided it was high time I learned about power tools.

Now, I've spent years watching Norm Abrams's New Yankee Workhop, marveling at the things Norm can do with his keen eye, instincts, and...uh...$100k of power tools.

So, Stu had a project for us: Build some peg-boards to mount tools on. Sounds simple enough, but for a guy who's never used a table saw, it was pretty neat!

First, we ripped 4 pine two-by-fours on the table saw to make eight 1.5" pieces, then we ran the milled edges across a joiner to even-up the edges. If you've never seen a joiner, imagine a steel 'L', only the L is 3D and about 2.5 feet long with a steel blade in the middle at the bottom of the L. The whole works reminded me of an angry beaver, trying to rip off my fingers as we used it :-)



But hey, that's half the fun.

then lowered the blade to cut a 1/2 groove in each to hold the peg-board. We then used the radial arm to cut each piece to length

Aside: Proper use & employment of a radial arm:

1. Place your right hand firmly on the handle controlling the blade assembly


2. With your left hand unlock the blade assembly


3. With your left hand, turn on the saw.


4. Brace the wood with your left hand firmly against the fence, AWAY FROM THE BLADE


5. With your right hand, guide the blade assembly out the arm and through the piece and back, completing the cut.


6. Turn it off with your left hand


7. Lock it back in place with your left hand


8. ONLY then, remove your right hand.

Tip: DON'T TAKE YOUR RIGHT HAND OFF THE BLADE ASSEMBLY. Stu, in his quiet, instructive way, drilled that in my head. :-)

Radial arm:


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Then we learned how to make a lap joint. I was a bit ahead of the game here, having used a carpenter's square + pencil before. Gotta get one of those myself soon. Had a few 'light bulb' moments there. :-)

So, after everything was joined, screwed, and glued, I thought it was downhill from there. Then Stu mentioned we'd be trying out his new belt sander. Here's one exactly like what he has--3"x21":



Things I learned about belt sanders:
1. They're evil
2. They're hard to use
3. Don't ever just sit one on a worksurface with 80 GRIT SANDPAPER :-(
4. They work much better when you put them on the work, then turn them on, so you don't rock back-and-forth.

I got much better with it as I progressed through the piece, but there is a nice dip on one corner.

* * *

Overall, how AWESOME it was...reminded me very much of building things with dad, though we mostly did rough construction around the farm.