I used the jig saw blades I bought as they did fit in my jag saw. Cutting through the three inches thick wood was VERY slow. Then I went to cut my tenons. I set the fence on my table saw to 2 inches, and the blade to 3/4 inch high, and ran the uprights through cutting a single line around. It wasn’t as even as I would have liked. I then used my router which I had never used before. I set the depth to 3/4 inch as per the instructions, and cut the tenon right up to the cut I made with the table saw. I was not happy with the results due the uneven line cut with the table saw. I got my square out, and drew a line around about 1/8 - 1/4″ in from the table saw cut. I clamped a guide 2 1/2″ from that line, and ran the router along that. Now the shoulder of my tenon is nice and straight. When I measured the tenon, I was surprised that it thicker than 1 1/2 inches. Hmm. Three inches minus two 3/4 inch cuts equals 1 1/2 inches. Apparently the router was set to slight les than the 3/4 inches I thought I set it for. I’m learning. I can either re-router the tenons, or cut the mortise wider. I haven’t decided yet. Okay, I decided. I reset the router to 3/4 inch (measured it manually), and re-routered the tenons. They now are 1 1/2 inches thick. Later today, I will lay these on the feet parts, and draw an outline of the tenons. I will router them, and then glue the pieces together. I hope to have the stand done sometime this weekend. BTW, I really like my router which is a Porter & Cable 690LR. I did a lot of research on routers before I bought it, and it seemed the Porter & Cable routers were the best. Many of the other power tools I own are DeWalt.
I have a small shop vac with the smaller size hose (1 1/4 inch?). The thing is constantly getting clogged when I am vacuuming my garage. So I bought a 12 gallon 5.5hp Shop Vac with the 2 1/2 inch hose. How do they measure the horsepower anyway? My lathe with it’s big hurkin motor only has 1hp with 2hp max developed.
I found some Bosch Progressor type jig saw blades that have something called a T Shaft. I am hoping they fit my Black & Decker jig saw. They are over 4 inches long, so I think they will cut through the 3 inches of wood I need to cut.
I bought 2×6s and 2×8s last night and worked on making a stand for my lathe. I cut and laminated some pieces. The planer I ordered is supposed to be delivered today, so I can plane the edges. I am going to use my router to make a blind mortise-tenon joint. I don’t have a band saw, or a dado blade for my table saw, so I will just have to set the fence to 5 1/2 inches, and make repeated 3″ deeps cuts on one hunk of wood till I get the part cut out. Maybe I will check Lowes to see if they sell longer blades for my jig saw. I am hoping to have my stand done this weekend, and get the lathe set up. The duplicator is also supposed to be delivered today. That will help set up patterns to reproduce the martial arts weapons I want to make.
I was thinking about how to laminate woods to use with the lathe, and thought about a planer, though a larger stationary planer. I started thinking about the hand planer, but then I thought about my house. I have worked sanding the beams in my house that were stained an ugly dark brown that just suck up the light. I have been sanding them using belt sanders, but they create a huge amount of dust so I do it with the windows and doors open. That limits me from doing it in the winter, or middle of summer. It is also very time consuming. The dust has also set off the smoke detectors even months after the actual sanding. But with a planer, I think there will be less dust since it shaves wood. I ordered the Dewalt DW680K heavy duty planer through Amazon.com which does price matching. I went to dealtime.com, did a price search, found the same model for $20 less than Amazon. I called Amazon, and they beat the price by 10% of the difference. So I got it for $146 something. Way cool. Hopefull it will create less dust than the belt sanders, and I can do planing in the winter time!
My buddy helped me get my lathe home, now it is sitting on the floor of my garage. I ripped apart a rickety old work table, and build a newer sturdier one. I built shelving over the weekend, so now I am going to work on getting my shop more organized. After I get things cleaned up, I am going to start building a stand for my lathe. I searched the net for plans for a lathe stand, and kept coming to one plan that was selling plans. I bought some plans for $5.95, and downloaded them as a PDF file. The stand is more involved than I need, but I may build it without the drawers. I like that it has a hollow beam that runs down the center that you can fill with sand to make it heavier. I thought it was cool that someone is selling plans like that on the net. I could always produce some plans, and sell them on the net. Great idea. I got a nice set of tools from a place called Woodcraft. Apparently they are a chain. I got a set of five basic tools for $125. They seem to be of very good quality. So hopefully soon I will have my lathe set up, and I can start playing with turning wood. I also want to work to get a few of the non-tapered bo’s listed on eBay of on my martial arts web site.