Alaska Jim's Comments of the Day #16: Some work on the sled, and Sharp Objects......ouch...........

Published Feb. 20, 2010 at 3:19 a.m.

Recovering from a week, and last weekend, of hard work. Finally got out to the shop today. Mid afternoon. The job stress and my age makes for many days of recovery…...

Pared down the width of my sled from 48 to 44 inches...more about the reason for that in later entries. Then I put the angles on the little fence...I never know whether to call it the front or the back fence…...furthest from the operator.

Well, goofing around with setting the blade angle on the TS I came in contact with the extension fence supports that came with my Vega fence, and got a minor though irksome cut. Love the fence, hate the supports. They are very sharp mild steel.

So out came the huge rasp, and I filed down the corners and the edges. I am not quite ready to make an extension table. There will be an intense planning process there…...more later. So I said, I need a place to put my push sticks, calibration block for the Wixey, and the wrench that I occasionally use to remove the guard.

So I made a tray, out of warped 3/4 inch ply and some junk MDF for the rim to keep things there.

Most of the stuff I need for the saw is low profile, including the push blocks, so the fence will pass right over it. Now instead of sharp objects, I have a tray to hold stuff, untill I make the real extension. The TS cabinet will have drawers, a router table, etc.

So spent a couple of hours in the shop, and got some worthwhile things done...some project stuff, some temporary things for protection and utility.

Thinking about the old tools, the RAS and the TS, I almost think of them in a personalized way. Kinda goofy. They are old friends.

Like Kermit, my 20 year old Mitred Conure. He plucks his breast feathers, he is not pretty. And neither am I. We are old in our life cycle. The saws cannot express feelings or talk. But Kermit, that’s a differnt story.

Of course, Kermit talks to me, and sometimes he makes sense.

As I was changing clothes yesterday after work, and, like I always do, I put him on the exercise machine in our large bedroom, looking out a giant 13 foot window onto the back yard. I call it the Big Sky whenever I sit him there. A wonderful crab apple tree lives in our back yard, probably about 40 years old. We always leave some fruit on it for the Bohemian Waxwings that come every winter to dine on the frozen apples. And much to my surprise the Waxwings had arrived.

Kermit becomes animated, and excitedly blurts out ’Birdies’, in his unbelieveably loud and piercing voice. Never heard him say that before. Unreal.

Do our tools talk to us. No. But somehow I think they have personalities, after long use. Friends like Kermit…...

Guess I am hopelessly romantic…...

Back | Read more at Lumberjocks blogs