1950's Craftsman Lathe Restoration

I don't know how I missed posting this, since I did it back in 2010.

If I can remember more details, I may do a proper writeup. But for now, enjoy the pics.

Chinese 3040 CNC Machine

I can't believe I haven't done anything about this machine I picked up a little while back. I did a quick ugly video though, so here it is.

Once I get to spend some time on it, I'll post more.

Here's the video:

Upgraded Table Saw with Fence and Router Extension

I'm not sure how this happened. I did these upgrades to my saw back in October of 2014 but never posted about them.

Medicine Cabinet Shelves

Just a quick post because I haven't posted in a while...

The cheap plastic shelves that were in my medicine chest were cracking and sagging. I made new ones from scraps of birdseye maple and aluminum bar stock. Finished with spray poly. Took no time at all and looks great.

I would have preferred to replace the whole cabinet, but this is a rental. So rusty old cabinet it is!

Craftsman 10" Bandsaw Bearings

New bearing on the left, old bearing on the right.

Over the past year or so I had stopped using my Craftsman 10" bandsaw. I never thought about why, but I cringed a bit whenever I thought about using it. Turns out that the thing had gotten pogressively noisier. But like boiling a frog, I tolerated it for way too long.

Here's how I fixed it.

Harbor Freight 4" x 36" Belt / 6" Disk Sander 97181 - Woodscrub's Mods

Straight out of the box. The sander came with the sanding belt pre-installed
and tracking correctly!

This is my second one of these sanders. I had one around 10 years ago, and over time had modified it to work better. Then I sold it to move back to California from Colorado. So it was time for a new one, and I can modify it all at once!

Ambrosia Maple Side Table

Perfect for that morning coffee.

This table uses an oval shaped top, mitered box, and tapered legs. All made from a single board of ambrosia maple. It also has inlay of padauk and walnut in the top, and is finished with Formby's Tung Oil Finish.

Stanley No 70 Box Scraper late 1800's

Stanley Rule & Level Co.

I picked this up a few years ago and played with it some without doing much to sharpen it. This weekend, I decided to sharpen and hone the blade and see what I could do with it.

Small Mallet - Sycamore and Black & White Ebony

A small mallet for the shop.

After moving, I couldn't find any of my mallets. I needed to tap something into place, and using a steel hammer didn't appeal to me. So I dug up some scraps...

Craftsman Table Saw from the 80's

So I've officially stopped working on the Harbor Freight saw. I picked up this mid-80's Craftsman contractor's saw for $65.

HF 10" Industrial Table Saw Tuning Part 1

Best I could get without modification.

The Harbor Freight 10" 15 Amp Industrial Table Saw is cheap and should be pretty capable. However, it takes some modification to make it right.

The Outdoor Workshop

Working with the lathe on a beautiful sunny day.

 Is it possible to have an outdoor workshop when you live in an apartment?

Grip Rite #305 Stainless Steel Exterior Screws Review

I'm building a workbench out of redwood 2x4's to keep outdoors. So I bought some stainless steel screws to put it together.

The included bit is a #2 square drive. But the screws aren't a snug fit for a #2 bit. I had my own #2 bit that I've used with other screws no problem, but it also is too small for these screws.

After rounding off both bits, I'm done with these useless screws.

I'll contact the manufacturer... Perhaps it's simply a bad batch.

PSI's Shock Absorber Kits

Well, I finall got some time to work on the lathe, and thought this would be a great opportunity to try PSI's new Shock Absorber pen kits.

First off, these look more like either coil-overs or McPhearson struts to me. But that's neither here nor there. ;)

Fit and finish appear to be decent. Plating looks good. My only real complaint about the quality is the choice of refill. They used @#$%^ mini refills! That pen is pretty large, and there's no excuse for using the mini refills. They're crap, and I'm pretty bothered they made that choice.

The pens are very much a gimmick. They're not comfortable to write with, and don't have a pocket clip. This is something a mechanic or gearhead has laying around to look cool.

And they do look cool!

The barrels are my black/silver swirled poly resin.

No posts for a while...

We had an emergency move in October 2011. Sold most of my tools and such to facilitate the move from CO to CA.

I'm keeping this blog up, but won't be posting for a while until I get settled somewhere that I can start making stuff again.

Sorry!

By most I mean that I only kept:
Rikon lathe
Cman 10" bandsaw
Delta 12.5" planer
Cman grinder (to sharpen lathe tools)
Hand tools
Casting stuff

Everything else was sold, including my table saw, miter saw, compressor, etc etc etc...

Review: Rikon 70-050 Midi Lathe

I recently sold my Delta 46-701 lathe. Two primary reasons:

1. Too bloody big for my one car garage.
2. Needed the money (I've been out of work).

But I use a lathe a lot, so I needed to sell the Delta for enough $$ to buy a smaller replacement as well as have some cash.

Making a pen using a CYOC blank (Part 6)

Carefully press the furniture into the polished barrel.

And the end result, a beautiful pen!

As you can see, the red showed through the clear areas beautifully. And it influenced the black areas to create what I call "Red as Night".

I hope you enjoyed this little peek at my process for making pens. There are, of course, many steps I didn't discuss. You'll already know about most of them if you're a penturner. If not, feel free to ask!