Checking Over My New Woodworking Tools

 Once I got the band saw and a scroll saw home I went online to search for some manuals for these two machines.  I was lucky enough to find manuals for these machines online and I downloaded them. I have manual for reference.  I wasn't long learning that the band saw was 35 to 40 years old and the scroll saw was 30 plus years old. The bandsaw needed a little bit of work to get it back to newer condition. The scroll saw didn't seem to need anything so that was good. After giving my new to me woodworking tools the once over I learned that the band saw needed the tires replaced on the wheels. Also the thrust bearings that guide the blade needed to be replaced as well.

 After doing some research online I was trying to source out where I could get the parts that I needed to make my band saw back to newer condition. I ended up finding replacement tires on eBay. Now for the thrust bearings there I couldn't find any listing for thrust bearings online so I decided to go to a local bearing place and see if they could help me out. The bearing place could get me bearings similar to what I needed in size but they didn't have any in stock. So I ended up ordering them which turned out I had to pay for shipping. The shipping was more than the actual cost of the bearings. So I ended up making it worth while and buying extra bearings which I never really needed.

As I am writing this I have found I that could buy thrust bearings on Amazon.

Learning the Bandsaw

 I was pretty excited now that I have a band saw.  This will make my life easier so I thought. I don't have a lot of experience using a bandsaw. I did use a bandsaw a few times in school woodshop. It was the only time that I ever used a band saw. My new band saw was a table top style bandsaw. I wanted it to sit on the floor.  So I bought a stand to mount the band saw on. Now that I had a bandsaw. I decided I was going to make a doll cradle for my oldest daughter. I learned that this band saw was much easier than doing it with a jigsaw but I also found out that the table size was too small. I was limited to the size wood I could cut. The bandsaw only had a 9 inch table. I manage to get the head in the footboard of the doll  cradle cut out. I didn't do the greatest job. There were some pretty rough cuts that needed some serious sanding.

 I found out that maybe the blade that came with the band saw wasn't the greatest so I purchased a new blade hoping that this would make the bandsaw cut a little better and give me a much better cut. The new blade did help. It didn't take me long to figure out that I really didn't like the way this band saw was cutting. I found that this bandsaw was frustrating to use. I kind of lost interest in using it cuz it wasn't going the way I thought it should go.

As time went on I thought maybe I could get a better bandsaw with not a lot of money to spend I kept my eye out for a better bandsaw. Several months went by and I saw that there was an auction sale at a house not too far away. This auction sale was 10 minutes from where I lived. I thought it was worth checking out. It has been a long time since I've been to an auction sale. So I thought this could be fun. Once I was at the auction sale I looked around at what woodworking tools were available. There was two things that I saw that I had that I would like to have one was a 10 inch Rockwell Beaver bandsaw and 16 inch Delta scroll saw.  As I patiently waited for the auctioneer to get to the items of my interest. The wait was worth as the auctioneer got to the bandsaw I was interested in. The auctioneer had a hard time getting a bid of $50.00 on the 10 in Rockwell Beaver band saw.  I blurted out to the auctioneer a bid of $10. It turned out there was no other bid on the Rockwell Beaver bandsaw. I was pretty happy my starting bid of $10.00 was the winning bid. 

As we move down the row of items. The auctioneer came to the 16-in delta  scroll saw I was interested in. Again the auctioneer started the bidding at $50 for the Delta 16-in scroll saw. Just like before I decided to bid $10. It wasn't long the auctioneer got another bid higher than mine. Then the auctioneer looked at me for another for a higher bid so I bid higher. The other person that was interested in the scrollsaw made bid higher than mine. so my next highest bid was $25.00. It turned out my bid of $25 was the winning bid for the delta scroll saw.  This point I was pretty excited to have a new to me scroll saw and bandsaw. There was anything else I was interested a in at the auction sale so I eventually paid my bill and loaded my items in my pickup truck and went home. 

As My Interest For Woodworking Was Taking Off

 As my interest for woodworking was taking off. I thought I needed some more tools. I thought I needed a router. This way I could rout out signs I saw people make. This would let me put nice profiles on the edges of wood.

I received a 2 ¼ hp router with a fixed & plunge base for my birthday. Boy I thought I was set now. Here I go I now had a router with no router bits. I went online and ordered a router bit set. By buying this router bit set I figured I would never need another router bit. I learned several years later this wasn't true. I had to replace router bits from the router bit set ass I hit brad nails while putting profiles. There are router bits in this set that I haven’t used. I am not sure I will ever use. Years later I purchased another router bits set. These router bit set have different sizes or should I say different radius of round over bits. This set of round over bits gets used alot. I now have 2 different shaft size roundover bit sets. I use the 1/2 shaft set in my router table. The 1/4 shaft bit set in my palm router.

Ok back to getting my first router. Now that I had a router I thought I would try some free hand sign making. so I grabbed a scrap piece of wood and started to do some free hand sign making.  Making signs freehand didn't go as I thought it would. It was a bit awkward as the router was a little bigger than it should be. So I decided to abandon the idea of freehand making signs as it didn't seem to be as easy as I thought it would be.  I found it very awkward and I didn't seem to have a steady hand to maneuver the router around the piece of wood.  I definitely didn't like the outcome.

I got the idea maybe if I bought a sign making template. Where I could insert letters and make words for the signs. Using this sign making kit It was good for smaller signs When I got into bigger signs it got a little complicated.  Eventually I banned the idea of using the sign making kit. It just didn't seem to look what I wanted it to look like and it was a bit complicated to use.

I started using the router to put roundovers on projects  that would require a round over.  Using a handheld router to put  the profile around over profile on the edge of a board. This was a bit awkward.  as the router was only riding on one side of the  router base.  I thought to myself there must be an easier way. 

Getting A Router Table

 As I mentioned I thought there was an easier way to put profiles on my projects other than using a handheld router. Maybe this way could be much safer than doing it by hand. 

So after doing some research I thought I needed a router table. This would make my life much easier and safer using a router table so I thought. Then from my research I found a lot of Woodworkers make their own router tables. My mindset at the time I thought buying a new router table would be the way to go other than making one. So one day I went to Home Depot and bought myself a Ryobi router table.  this router table would sit on top of a workbench or table or a makeshift work table. 

After I got the router table at home I had to find some free time to assemble it. Then mount the fix base for router to the table.  I finally got the router fixed to the router table insert and then I decided to try out some roundovers on the router table. I wasn't long finding out that this router table wasn't perfect there was some sag in the router insert that goes in the table that holds a router.  I wasn't long learning that this router table wasn't perfect but I was going to make do with what I had got.  it definitely did help putting round over profiles on my projects. I use a router table for other with other profile bits like chamfer bits and template routing.  I still have this router table today I do find it handy for projects and it hangs on the wall in my workshop. It has advantage as it portable.

While I was buying the router table I just decided that I maybe I need a band saw.  so I bought a Ryobi 9 inch band saw.

 After I got the new tires & thrust bearings installed on the 10 inch Rockwell Beaver bandsaw was ready to make sawdust. This little Rockwell Beaver was a step from the 9 inch Ryobi bandsaw I had. Over time I learnt this bandsaw had some flaws. The wheels that the blade rides on were plastic. The wheels had no bearings. Only brass bushings that needed oil every use. The saw blade didn't track very well. Even with these flaws the bandsaw did what I need to do. I knew I would want upgrade to a better bandsaw some day

The Delta 16 inch scroll saw seem to be in pretty good shape.  So this was a plus. I order some scroll saw blades to give the saw a whirl. I was fun to use. I found a project online to make. So I tried my luck out making bowl with the scroll saw. I glued a template on a board cut rings in a octagon shape. When the cutting was all done. All the parts were cut to make the bowl including the bottom of the bowl.

Now the bowl was ready for sanding a glue up. The glue up was alittle tricky as there wasn't alot room for glue. Each ring was glued to corner of another ring. Then next ring would be rotated to offset the next corner until the bowl was complete. These bowls turned out good. The upper blade clamp flew apart. Now i was on the search for upper blade clamp for 30 plus year old scroll saw. I started off looking online. I didn't have much luck. I did that someone was making replacement blade clamp. It was a bit pricey and with shipping I didn't worth it to buy.  I remembered there was a place in my area that sold Woodworking Equipment. I drove there to see what they had. I was lucky they had one on the shelf. I learnt there they would be hard to find as Delta when out of business. 

The Next Project

The next project I would build was a bench. The bench was for a Christmas gift for my wife Sarah. She was my girlfriend at the time. The bench wasn’t too hard to build. There was one design flaw. I didn’t make the legs wide enough. So the bench wasn’t too stable. I remember my niece loved sitting on the bench. I believe she likes the bench so much. That she could rock the bench due to the unstable legs.

The following year I made her a bench for birthday. This time she got her gift on time.

My First Project

After getting the planer and jointer to my place I started to select the one lumber I was going to use for the toy box project. Not knowing much cupped and twisted lumber. I thought having a wood planer these boards would be perfect. This was not the case. I remember watching a wide board with a cup in the middle go through the planer. As the board entered the planer the board would flatten out. Then when I saw the board exit the planer the cup was still there. This was disappointing. Many trips through the planer to get the board to ¾ of an inch the cup wasn’t as bad. I tried putting several boards through the planer one after another. This turned out to be a nightmare. The rough thickness of the boards started at 1 inch to 1 ½. Some boards on one end would be 1 then the other end would be 1 ¼. My problems didn’t end there. While running the boards through the planer. I noticed the planer was getting pretty loud as the boards went through the planer. This noise that came from my planer  got the attention of my neighbors. Then I knew something wasn’t right. I shut the planer off and got the manual out to see how to replace the knives.  I end up buying a new set of knives and installing them. Then I was ready to finish planing the lumber.I remember  this experience was frustrating and exhausting. The lumber was ready to glue into panels for the toy box. I now remember the gluing up of the panels was another interesting experience. As I am writing this I remember the toy box wasn’t done on time for my niece’s birthday. I believe I lost interest in this project. The toy box did get completed several months later. The toy box ended up making a great Christmas gift.