The Chevron

I am taking a break from writing about my latest shop project and hope that I will be able to show you finished pictures VERY soon.

This week I was struck by an idea that I felt the need to share: “We don’t go past the Chevron.”

When we were in Kauai last August, one of the activities was SCUBA diving.  As many of you know, it went phenomenally.  The adventure was booked for us through Seasport Divers, a group I absolutely endorse, but that is not my point here.  When we went for the dive, we journeyed our way around the island and turned at a Chevron gas station down to a cove where our dive masters were located.  We liked these guys immediately.  They were comfortable in their surroundings and very good at what they did.  Each of the four times we dove with them was great and they handled everything expertly.

During the time we weren't in the water, we talked and got to know each other.  We talked about the island and where things were.  However, in the middle of one discussion, we discovered that our guides worked to make sure that they did not have to drive past the Chevron station any more than necessary.  They explained that this small finger of land we were on really had about everything they needed.  They even told us that in their circle of acquaintances it was common to announce if someone was going to Wal-Mart. They got lists together for the unfortunate soul who ended up shopping for the entire group.  It now occurs to me they should investigate online shopping.

Anyway, I remember laughing at the time and thinking how unusual it was to be so incredibly sheltered.  Then last week, Carolyn, the person with whom I work most closely and without whom I would get nothing done, commented about how far away a customer was located. We needed to test a new process and she thought maybe an easier customer to work with would be the one just down the street.  The customer located too far away is a twenty-five minute drive from our door.  The conversation really had an impact on me.

Although few of us use a Chevron station to mark the edge of the territory we are comfortable within, I think we all have a tendency to behave this exact same way.  We work, shop, and live in a small geographical area, which has become “home” to us.  We shop at the same grocery store virtually every time, and probably even go through the aisles in the same order.  We go to work via the same route, eat lunch in the same places, and come to know the same parts of our world intimately.  But in doing this, we miss a lot.  Since I am responsible for my organization’s sales, I am expected to travel and visit customers.  I love this part of the job.  I enjoy getting into shops and onto manufacturing floors to see the multitude of ways that people find to overcome problems.  Each person thinks their solution is the best, but truthfully, most times it is just slightly different than the method the next person has discovered to solve the same type of issue.  Neither is totally right, or totally wrong, they are just different.

So, why am I writing about this?  It is always good to push ourselves out of the boxes which limit us.  When I lived in Omaha, I used to drive my sales manager crazy because I used a different route to drive to work every day and then ask him about things happening along the route.  If I would settle into a routine, that would allow him to finally do the same.  I find that I settled into that routine, years later.

My grandfather prided himself on never going home the same way that he used to drive somewhere.  He always said you could see different territory that way.  That makes sense to me.  I have started changing things up again.  When I took my family to Culvers for ice cream the other night, I returned home using a route I’d never tried before.  Interestingly enough, no one said a word or asked questions about why I was going out of our way.

Go past the Chevron.  Shop in new places.  Drive the road less traveled.  We just might collectively make this big world a little smaller and find ourselves a little more interconnected.  That will make the world a bit better and a little friendlier.

OK, next week, back to work.

It's Alive

OK, I am four weeks into a project I thought would only take four to five weeks. It is going to take a few more weeks, but since I’m enjoying the project, that’s okay.  Last week, though, was a really big week at the Toybox.  It was the first time the sander began to look real.  Even more importantly, I plugged the beast in and it actually ran, assuring me there were no mistakes in the direction the motor revolved or errors in wiring. This was a monumental moment, akin to a car guy starting an engine he built for the first time. It was awesome.

With any start-up  whether a project like this, a hot rod built from the ground up, or a company purchased, there are always necessary tweaks. In the case of this project, I encountered an issue with the drive belt rubbing against the side of its pathway. As is many times the case, the issue was really created because I had been a bit short-sighted.  I decided that in order to get the correct speed at the face of the sanding disk, I would use the small diameter pulley on the motor and
the large diameter on the sanding disk, giving me RPMs I wanted. The problem was that this allowed the belt to rub at the top, making slightly more noise than hoped for. Classic shortsightedness. So, I did what you do in those cases.  First, I tried to convince myself that it was really okay and the extra noise would be part of the sander’s character.  When I realized that wasn't true and it would actually drive me crazy, I spent a few days thinking about what I could do. It struck me that if I used the second groove on both pulleys the amount of reduction achieved would be the same, yet I would then pick up about a quarter of an inch allowing the sander to run much more quietly. Tweak achieved.

Working through this exercise caused me to consider the manner I work through things in other areas of my life.  Generally before I move forward on something I spend time thinking about the way the task should be achieved, and I am usually self-confident enough to believe I have the right answer. I suspect most of us are like that. But when I stop and think about the real world example I just worked through, it occurs to me that usually, maybe even always, there is a better way to be discovered. Maybe I should look at the problem through fresh eyes or review the work with someone else.  There is nothing exceptionally new or profound there, but it is good to relearn things.

My challenge going forward is that even if I know I am the smartest person in the room, I should still listen and process information that comes at me so the end product is the best it can be. After all, that is really what we are going for … right?

Now that I am past this sticking point, I think the rest of the project will come together nicely. All I really have left to complete is the table and the dust collection box under the table. The parts are already roughed out it should go quickly. I am excited to finish this and be able to start using it. It will make my woodworking much more finished and cleaner than it has been to this point. It is also going to be a necessary tool when I start working on my next projects. These include building a router table for the shop, doing restoration work on my dad's old Delta lathe, and then begin the process of restoring an old treadle sewing machine into a case. These projects all have their own challenges and their own rewards.

Stick around. I can’t wait to see how they turn out.

The Pause

Throughout this project, I have learned something quite powerful about myself, and I wonder if others, particularly you, might be just like me.  I have found that in the middle of a project, I need time to pause and re-evaluate where I am and what I am doing.

Although I have moved forward in little ways on the Multi-Purpose Disk Sander over the last couple of weeks, I haven’t progressed as quickly as I did in the first couple of weeks.  Does this happen to you when you are working on something or are you a person that can get started and push on through to the end?

As I came to this realization, I began to wonder if I had always been this way, and even more important, is it something I can change going forward?  Is it something that I want to change?

The answer to the first question is yes, without question.  In 1975, I took apart an oak secretary my mom wanted to have refinished.  To be clear, I don’t like refinishing and always prefer to build new, but this particular piece of furniture had been around since long before I was born and was important, so refinishing it was the thing to do.  This secretary now has a place in my home and I am sure will always have a place in the home of some member of my family.  But after taking the piece apart and stripping the finish, I took about 25 years to finish the work.  I moved the disassembled secretary no less than six times.  Incredibly enough, when I put it back together, I still had all of the pieces.  This is an extreme example of a very common behavior for me.

Sara has always referred to me as a 90-95% contractor.  When I get just about to the end of a project, I tend to take my eye off the ball and focus somewhere else, leaving the current project to languish.  I did this with basement remodels and re-painting projects alike.  Sometimes I think that I found a reason for the family to move so I would have to “push” to get the last of the projects complete.  Sara had to watch an armoire sit in the shop for 6 months or more before I completed it.  It is a lifetime way of doing things for me.

But why?  I believe I finally understand my process now.  This project has let me look a carefully at and really think about why I do things: I stop so I can let things bounce around in my head. I make sure how I will finish a project and ensure I am not missing anything.  The secretary had some carving on its front that I wasn't certain how to handle.  When I finally decided on the right way to deal with it, I moved on and finished.  In the current piece, there are a lot of intricacies that have to work together.  I have taken some time to think through how all of these will work together, and how I will service them going forward.  The sander will be a better made piece because of the time I've taken to process on the entirety of the project.

So, through the process of building a multi-purpose disc sander, I have discovered there really is “method to my madness” and that I need time to make sure everything will go together as perfectly as possible.  It is part of my creative process.  Now that I understand it, I will not worry when it happens.  I will not feel that I am lazy or do not have the ability to finish things.  I will know that I am taking time to consider the project and its final outcome, in order to make it as perfect as possible.  It may take a little longer, but it is time well spent.

What about you?  Have you thought about your creative process?  Many times we do things because they are the right thing to do without really knowing why.  Now I know why I pause in the middle of many projects.  I know this will help me as I continue to do more and more projects for lots of different folks.

Irony

In building my new Multi-Purpose Disc Sander, there have been moments of frustration, fun, joy and even laughter.  One moment of laughter came when I was reading through the project instructions.  At several different parts in the project there are call outs to round corners or ease edges.  The ironic part is that the best single way to do this is using a disc sander. Well, guess what - I don’t have one yet.  You have to wonder if this ever crossed the minds of the authors of the article.  In order to write the article they actually built the sander, so when they came to items which called for rounding, what did they think?  While they were using their other disc sander did someone ever say, “I wonder how they will do this?”  Of course, this won’t stop the progress of the project; it is just one of those things that reassures me I've made the right decision in building this project.  I actually need this tool.  Good decision.

Now, the second irony regarding this project came from a conversation with my friend, Jim Bradrick.  Jim and I have consulted on and completed numerous home improvement projects over the last 3 decades.  We have either independently or collaboratively tackled decks, garages, basements, and millwork replacements in at least six states.  He has always been my go-to person when I need help tearing something down or getting over the resistance to get started.  Jim is much more exacting, though, than I am when it comes to finish work, so at that point, we have had a tendency to go separate ways.  He does beautiful work, without question.  Anyway, one of the “rules” that Jim and I have always believed in is that a new project is a reason (read: excuse) to buy a new tool.  If the project is a deck - buy a new screw gun or miter saw; if the project is a bathroom, you might need a tile saw.  When I told Jim I was building a tool, you could feel his level of concern.  If I was building a tool without buying a tool, would the balance of power in the universe be thrown off?  Maybe - we will have to see.

One thing that has come with building the sander, and this may help with the concern Jim has, is there is a LOT to buy in order to complete it.  When all is said and done, I will have invested nearly $500 and I was lucky enough to already own the motor it requires.  That saves me about $300.00 and is also the largest ticket item.  If I were to build these sanders to sell; considering shop time, my time, cost of wood and accessories, I would have to price them in the $1500.00 range.  Now, if you check costs at Grizzly.com (my go-to shopping location) you will find a comparable unit for less than $1000.00. While that seems to be a significant savings, their sander doesn't have all the features as mine does, nor is it as downright cool.

Well, there’s the third irony in this project. In a way I have also faced the challenge from Jim Bradrick.  I am spending money to buy a tool for a project.  I could have spent less money and come close to the same functionality.  The tradeoff is that I am having a blast while building this; it tests woodworking skills I haven’t used for some time, and will be a wonderful conversation piece when I am finished.

For those who are around my age, you may remember Heathkit – a company who sold kits to build anything from crystal radios to televisions.  I used to spend hours searching through the pages wishing I could afford to buy kits so I could build things, rather than just buying them.  Today, I have come full circle and I am finally building something I could have just purchase and the experience is joyous.

Look out - I am sure there is a computer build somewhere in my future.

Begin With the End in Mind

And ... so starts the actual construction of the disc sander.  As I start, I am reminded of something I learned clear back in the days when I did “Face to Face” training for Payless Cashways.  One of the earliest things my boss taught was to “Begin with the end in mind.”  This has always served me well in the business world and, as I think about it now, my most successful shop projects typically hold to this maxim as well.  To this, I re-read the plans just before starting the project so I could visualize the assembly as well as exactly how things would work when I put the sander to use.  And with that, I dove in.

The base of the project is just a tall narrow box with several interior blocks adding stability for the moving parts once the project is complete.  This is attached to a very heavy base which adds more strength and stability.  I did make one change to this part of the plan.  The plan called for rubber feet to keep the unit from moving around, but I have had more than one shop where the floors were uneven, so I added leveling feet (the kind you find on a washing machine) in threaded inserts so they are fully adjustable.   A wobbly piece of equipment is worse than a table at the restaurant which keeps moving around on you.

Construction technique is relatively straight forward.  The interior blocks are attached in dados on all sides of the box to give strength. Two of the sides have rabbets along their length for the adjoining sides to sit in, again for strength and support.  Many times the sign of a good project that lasts the test of time is that a majority of parts are installed in so they can’t move.

There are a couple of tricky parts to this section and I just want to talk for a minute about them.  The first is the use of brass threaded inserts.  These amazing pieces of hardware actually thread into wood and then provide threads to receive other threaded items.  They come with a slot in them, which implies you could drive them in with a screwdriver, but don’t get sucked in by that.  I've read many discussions about these going in crooked and ruining the insert as well as the wood.  To avert any problems, insert a bolt in the threaded insert first, and then drive with a socket or a wrench.  You will be much happier with the installation.  Plus, at $2.20 per piece, these things are a little pricey, and I didn't want to screw any of those up.

The other challenge in this part of the construction is the pivot blocks which require a 4-1/2” hole in all of them and a curved ½” slot in a couple.  The instructions did a great job of showing how to cut the slot using a router and auxiliary base with a straightforward setup.  The biggest thing to remember is to cut the slot first since the needed center point will be removed when drilling the large hole.  As for the hole, there are probably other ways to do it, but I cut them with a large hole cutter on the drill press.  From a safety standpoint, you need to remember that this is a LOT of spinning steel and a lot of force, so take time and figure out how to clamp the thing down.  I created a jig to hold the pieces one at a time in perfect alignment to allow drilling the hole.

If you are building this project while reading my thoughts, the base column is finished and you’re ready to build the head of the unit.  This is where all of the action really takes place, and it is time to ensure all of the hardware is purchased.  And don’t forget, when you have the end in mind, know your instructions and can see each of the pieces and how they work together, you will be able to make better decisions about the items you purchase.  I found really good alternatives for the aluminum knobs at Menards for less than half the price of those suggested in the article.

As this article finishes, I have some final assembly to do on the base.  The joy however continues.  This project is going together very well.  Will I save a lot of money by building rather than buying this piece? No, I won’t.  But, how cool to have a piece of stationary power equipment in my shop that I built myself!

Maybe that was the “end” I had in mind when I began.

Accuracy and Joy

Well, I started building my Multi-purpose Disc Sander last weekend, and the joy and excitement I shared with you concerning the journey of the idea has continued into working on the project.

I've shared some of the things I have done in the shop, from layout to tools, but other things I have just done as a matter of course.  One of the ongoing processes has been to check and match the accuracy of all of my shop equipment so when I cut something on one machine; it accurately matches work done on another.  This is basic “blocking and tackling” in a commercial operation, but I think those of us in the hobbyist ranks don’t often take time to do this. It is one of the most important things you can spend time on in order to produce items quickly, efficiently and accurately.

Another woodworker once told me the most enjoyable part of any project for him was doing the rough cutting of all of the parts for a project.  The only true rough cut I do is to cut initial strips from a 4x8 sheet of whatever type of panel goods I use.  In the case of the Disc Sander, I’m using MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard).  After the initial cutting of strips, every other cut I make is a finish cut to the final size of the needed part.  Because I use tools such as Turbo-Cad and Cut List I know these parts will go together flawlessly to produce the results that I want.  As I finished cutting parts on the first day of this project, I knew I had created a pile of parts that over the next few weeks would go together without issue to create my end product.  I won’t need to fine tune and fiddle with every part to get them to fit right.

In the process of turning a big piece of MDF into many small pieces of MDF, there were also a couple of other things I learned, or maybe relearned.  First, the product cuts and mills beautifully.  There is no grain to cause any type of deviation or movement of blade or bit. All holes and cuts are very crisp.  This is the good news.  The bad news is that the amount of fine dust created from working with MDF is absolutely amazing.  For those of us with some type of rudimentary dust collection system, MDF is overwhelming and leaves you with a larger than normal mess to clean up.  If I balancing the pros and the cons for this type of project I think it is overall a win, though.  I get a durable and heavy end product which will accept paint like a dream and will serve me well as a stationary machine.

On another topic, I learned something AGAIN last week.  Always search for all any possible sourcing you might have at your disposal. My drill index has been missing several sizes for a long time now.  Every time I looked into replacing those individual bits at Lowes, Home Depot, or Ace, the price scared me into not making a decision.  Last week, I finally made a list and brought it into work and ended up buying everything I needed for about the price of 1 or 2 bits in any of the large box stores.  I continue to learn to look at places that handle large quantities of what I need.  Look to Amazon.com (my “go to” shopping location), but also places like Grainger, McMaster-Carr, or other industrial supply houses like DMB Supply.  These companies handle industrial products daily, not as accessories for hobbyists who need to purchase them once or twice in a lifetime.  A little investigation might save a lot of money and build new supply relationships.

Just thoughts for the day.  Construction starts next…

The Long and Winding Journey

I told you a couple of weeks ago I would begin a new project at the Toybox and that I wanted to share the process with you. That starts today and I hope that it will only take a month or so. It seems important, though, for me to talk about the journey the idea has taken to get to this point. I am sure all of you who are woodworkers or hobbyists could recount stories where you faced the same thing.

This project first presented itself in November of 2007 in Issue #96 of ShopNotes. If you haven’t subscribed to this publication, I would recommend checking it out. It has good articles and tips in an easily understood format. On page sixteen of the issue, I read an article about building a multi-purpose disk sander. It was a thing of beauty. I remember being transported back to the day when reading the Sears Roebuck catalog offered all the possibilities in the universe. That’s how I felt when I read the article about this project. This item would change my shop and give me capabilities I only dreamed of, AND I could build it myself.

I couldn't wait to get started on this project in 2007. The first thing I needed was to understand how I would cut the pieces out and what materials would cost. I took the cutting list from the article and loaded it into a software package I use called Cutlist, a fantastic tool to decide how to minimize waste and make correct cuts first. So, I got that work finished and saved, and the project stalled. My world, with all of its requirements, stepped in and other things were more important.

Now, I kept thinking and dreaming about this project. In January of 2010, when I started working on the Toybox in earnest, it was one of the first projects that came to mind. I remember sitting at my computer and pulling up the Cutlist document thinking it would be really easy. The tough part - in the move to Des Moines, I had packed away the prized Issue 96, and I couldn't find it. You might ask why I didn't just go to the Internet and download a copy, or order a back issue from the publisher? Truthfully, I am a bit of a cheapskate (use whatever phrase you are comfortable with). I couldn't spend good money for something I knew I already owned. So started one of the most intense scavenger hunts of my life. I continued to open boxes from the move, hoping that I would find Issue 96.

Finally, about a year ago, I opened a box to find several ShopNotes, and lo and behold, Issue 96 was included. I was moved to actually let out a little yelp of joy. This wasn't the end of the journey though, there were two more stops for Issue 96. The first happened when I read the article again and put it on the coffee table, only to have the rest of the items on the table swallow it for a few months. Then, when I finally got the magazine to the Toybox, I put it in a safe place and forgot where that safe place was.

But now I have Issue 96 in place at the Toybox ready to get to work building a multi-purpose disk sander. This Saturday morning I will buy a sheet of ¾” MDF, and begin turning one big piece of material into several small pieces. I will start ordering the accessories so I have them when I need them. I am sure to get harassed at home a bit when all of the Amazon boxes begin showing up, but let’s be real…I have waited to start on this project for more than 5 years.

It is time. I hope you enjoy the project with me.