My New Toys

I thought I'd do a quick post showing off some of my new toys that I've acquired thus far this year.

We got rid of a few of the older tools: 1960's Craftsman Wood Lathe, 1960's Craftsman 6" Jointer and my Delta 14" Bandsaw with riser and Carter guides.

We added:

Delta DJ-20 8" Jointer with 76" (I think) bed. I picked this baby up at an auction sale for $400. We discovered that the casting assembly that holds the fence in position had been busted in half and very carefully epoxied back together. The auctioneer had stated that the machine was in full working order and when we showed him the casting he immediately offered to replace it. Completely blew me away that he would do that. We replaced the casting and brought the jointer into service a few months ago.

In May we went to Grizzly's Tent Sale in Muncy, PA. We ditched the kids and had the weekend to ourselves. Who ever said I wasn't a romantic - what could be more romantic then celebrating your eighteenth wedding anniversay with the bride of my youth and a tool sale. Anyhow the scratch and dent part wasn't that great though we picked up a 1.5hp electric motor reasonably cheap and an air filtration system to help get the dust out of the air. We got it over 50% off - perhaps a bit small for the size of the garage but we've done other things to reduce the dust in the air.

We also bought a brand new bandsaw, one that should work much better for the resawing that we do and the large blanks that Mattheus cuts for woodturning. We got the Grizzly 19" bandsaw. It can resaw ~ 12" height. The power it has makes the old 14" bandsaw look like a toy. Mattheus found out the hard way that you have to make fewer errors. He tried to cut up a large 10" tall chunk of maple log, and then cut a bowl blank out of one of the pieces. He was using the wrong blade for the job (perhaps partially my fault) and when going got a bit slow, he pushed a little harder. The blade flexed inside the cut but the motor didn't even slow down and kept pulling it through until it got so hot it melted the "tires" on the bandsaw. Only had the saw a few days :-(

Finally I've been working on building a surface sander for the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately I didn't document the build process. Its uses a 30" drum and the 1.5 hp motor we got at Grizzly. Its not completely built yet but what is left is cosmetic and accessories. The core part is built and functionaly. Here are a few pictures:

I still need to a door to the front left side, a drawer in the right open section, end panel and a drawer to catch the sawdust. I also plan to add a longer outfeed table as well that will fold down. I bought the drum and bearings from my father who also gave me the plans.

I have a few other toys that I will share in a future post.