Wife gloat

[David Klink]

First, I'll fill in some holes before I get to the main part.

We've had it tight around here lately, so if I buy anything major, I have to be creative about it. I saw a great deal on a chipper/shredder/yard vac, which was when I asked everyone's opinion on the Yardman brand. The issue was paying for it.

I borrowed the money to buy for it. I had a BT3100 table saw, and I'm just now finishing "parting it out", which will almost completely erase that debt. I don't use my TS on a daily or even weekly basis, so I figured I could live without one for a couple, few months. When fall rolls around, I don't know that I could make it back there without my yard vac.

Anyway, today the phone rings. It's Sears, and they ask if this is the Klink residence. After I said, "Yeees?" They said they wanted to confirm that the table saw I had ordered was in the store ready for pickup. I said "O...Kay. Thank you."

Off to find my dear Vicky.

"Vick, Sears just called and said I have table saw ready for pickup there."

"I figured that when I saw it was them calling."

"What did you do?"

"I saw you looking at it a few times at their website and ordered it for you."

"Alright then. And just how did you pay for this?"

"My father paid me back some money he owed me, and this is your birthday present early."*Jaw drops and hits floor.*
Her father has a penchant for gambling, and evidently had a lucky streak at a local casino. He's accumulated a debt to her over 20+ years, and he actually paid her back $10,000! She said he owes her more than that, but at his age, she'll take it. Neither of us can believe he paid her back anything, hence the "jaw hits floor" comment. She waited to tell me so she could spring this on me.

So, she wants to run out to Sears this afternoon and pick it up and our next dialogue goes like this.

"We can go out and pick it up, then I'll come home and finish the laundry."

"Uh honey, do you realize how big and heavy this thing will be?"

"We can probably get it in the car."

"It weighs over 350 lbs."

"Oh."(As the color drains out of her face.)

So she gets on the phone and calls her one sister, who has a little Chevy pickup. She talks for a couple, then says we can stop by Tracy's house, and she'll drive it back in her truck.

*Jaw hits floor again.* (Asking Tracy for a favor is generally like going to the dentist for a root canal.:))

We're just leaving her house, and this torrential rain starts falling. First real rain we've had in a week, of course. Thankfully, once they get it loaded on the truck it stopped.

Anyway, the reason why this is a wife gloat is simply because any man lucky enough to have a wife this great deserves to gloat a bit. The tool is secondary. What a woman!:D

As a footnote, the one she ordered was the midrange of their new line, the one that's $649. That sucker was a bear to get off the truck, that's for sure. I haven't taken it off the metal pallet yet, so nothing interesting to report yet, save the fact that I'm still in one piece.;) I'll likely start assembling everything tomorrow.

Another cute little footnote. As we were watching the evening news, we saw that a funnel cloud was sighted about 1 mile from where we were about 1.5 hours after we left. It may have been straight line winds, but it did some pretty decent damage, including the pumps at a Marathon station. Pays to shop early!

[Jerry Olexa]

Lucky you! You are fortunate and also have a caring wife willing to share w you. Enjoy your new saw! Just don't get a hernia lifting it!

[Jim Ketron]

Lucky Man!
Congrats
Jim

[Jim Becker]

Woah! She's a keeper, for sure! No doubt about it. You better ask her what she wants you to make with that saw for the first project...if you haven't already!

[John Miliunas]

Awright, David! :D Yup, you may want to consider hangin' on to her. Like as in, "forever"! :D It's great when your spouse supports your "habit" to the point of providing you the means with which to continue that "habit"! Too cool, indeed! :cool:

[David Klink]

Thanks Jerry. I am a lucky one, that's for sure. Oh, and don't worry about the lifting part. My doctor told me a couple of years ago I had the beginnings of a hernia, so I get pretty creative.


Thanks Jim and....Jim. :) Don't you worry, I already know what the first real project will be, once I'm done playing with it.

If anyone's ever been curious about one of these new Craftsman saws, I'll take some pictures of anything of interest, or post any answers to any questions that might be out there. Right now the only thing I know is, it's heavy. Dang heavy. Real heavy. Real dang heavy. :)

[Tyler Howell]

She's a keeper for sure.
Is this the new Cman cabinet model???? Pix.....;)

[Randy Moore]

David

Hang on to this woman, there ain't many like her. I got one so when she says something I pay a little better attention than I did with other wives.

[David Klink]

Tyler, it is one of their new ones. It's the one with the 3/4 cabinet style body and the cast iron wings. Right now it's just a steel framed pallet with some boxes and plastic wrap, but I'll take some pictures of the guts and what not as she's going together.

Oh Randy...You'd best believe I'm hanging onto her. Funny thing...I saw your signature line "Take your time and it right the first time, we don't have to do it a 2nd time.", and at first I thought it was part of your reply, pertaining to wives.:)

In my case she's my third go round. The 1st was a liar and a cheat, and the 2nd was an irresponsible, gold digging liar and cheat. Vicky's even passed the mother test! :D It took over 25 years before my one sister-in-law managed that, another still hasn't, and the other's always been nice but "kind of snooty". My one brother-in-law has, and with my one sister, "Every man she's been with has been an *expletive*", but at least her kids turned out great.

Vick's a definite keeper, but I already knew that. She just keeps coming up with more reasons why!

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Cool story! You have a great wife there buddy. Congrats on the new saw...tell us how you like it when you get it set up!

[Rich Konopka]

Great news David !! It sounds like the Mrs. is a reall classy woman. One thing you have to do this week is to order up a dozen roses for the Mrs !!

Your a lucky Man !!

[John Bussom]

David,
Congradulations on the new saw and glad to hear you are going to keep the wife, that is a great story for you to remember for a long time to come.

I gotta chime in here and let ya know there are a couple of other great ones around too, mine to be more specific!

Yesterday, I received my bonus check from work and of course my wife had some uses for the extra so off to the bank we went. I wanted to stop at Gander Mountain to pick up a new life jacket for the grandson so I could teach him to waterski, which she agreed to!

Then on leaving the parking lot she says why don't you just go across to Grizzly and get the lathe chisels while we are here, I says "I can wait" No she says I want to look a something else anyway!

After getting the Sorby chisels she says now I know it isn't the best but gave me the order card for a new 14" VS lathe, then went to the van to wait for me.

Well I really didn't want to replace my antique Montgomery Ward 12" lathe that wobbles cause the brass bushings are wore out but when I got to the van without the lathe I really got a lecture!

Of course I tried to defend myself with what she said about it not being the best but I can be weeak at times when I want to and finally gave in!

Now I know that Grizzly brand is made in China and may not be the best but it is better than what I had, so for the time being I'll be sure to keep the wife I got too!

Good luck with that new saw!

John

[Randy Moore]

Oh Randy...You'd best believe I'm hanging onto her. Funny thing...I saw your signature line "Take your time and it right the first time, we don't have to do it a 2nd time.", and at first I thought it was part of your reply, pertaining to wives.:)

Well, my first wife was to young to be married and was also irresponsible, second was a big time cheat. I spent 10 years between #2 and #3, just lookin' for a good one and boy did I find her. AND I also learned a lot about women in that time. I have been under-employeed for going on 11 months, she has stood by me the whole time without raisin' her voice

Therefore, I guess maybe my signiture does apply to wives but I did not take my own medicine for about 10 years. It really applies to my job, construction, if you build the buildings too fast the're liable to fall down with little or NO help.

Randy

[David Klink]

Well, my first wife was to young to be married and was also irresponsible, second was a big time cheat. I spent 10 years between #2 and #3, just lookin' for a good one and boy did I find her. AND I also learned a lot about women in that time. I have been under-employeed for going on 11 months, she has stood by me the whole time without raisin' her voice

Therefore, I guess maybe my signiture does apply to wives but I did not take my own medicine for about 10 years. It really applies to my job, construction, if you build the buildings too fast the're liable to fall down with little or NO help.

Randy
You don't know how close we are. Pretty similiar except I was 6 years between #2 and #3. Third time's the charm, huh?:)

Great story John. It sounds like yours and mine are cut from the same cloth.

Here's a few pictures I took during assembly. Nothing earthshattering The biggest PITA was actually the dust chute on the bottom. At the back, it sits about 6-7 inches lower than the base of the saw. They want you to drive in two bolts right in the corner where the legs are at, with about 1.5 inches between the dust chute and the leg. I guess they expect you to have munchkin hands or something. I have an extension for my socket wrench, but the dang thing was too short! Took me 20 minutes for two bolts, with a few choice words scattered here and there.

The extension wings were a bit of a hassle, but not too bad. I cut part of the frame of the steel pallet off with a reciprocating saw, laid a piece of 1/4 ply on top, and sat the wing on that while I adjusted it.

Rip capacity is around 25 1/2 to each side, and there's around 11 inches between the front of the blade and the front edge of the table. The slots are .752 inches wide, but short of 3/8s of an inch deep, at .350.

The fence is two pieces, and attaches to the body with four square headed bolts. There's a back rail that supports the end of the fence, and also provides a nook for a little hook on the end of the rip fence that hooks on. It's said to help keep the end of the fence down when using a featherboard. You could probably shift the rails to the right 6 inches or so and give yourself 31 in. capacity on the right, 20 to the left.

The fence aligned with the blade perfectly as well as being square to the table right out of the box, and the wings matched up to the main table very nicely. Negligible play in the miter slots.

Then the first test. Turn it on....*PFFFT*. Blown fuse. :rolleyes: Sucker hardly made a peep. It's 15 amps on yes, a 15 amp circuit. My planer and miter saw both are 15A, so this one must draw more than they do on startup.

Soooo I go down, change the fuse, and come back up. This time I turn off my floor fan, since it runs at around 2-2.5 amps. Give it another go. This time, the light flickers a little, but is fine once she gets going. Crosscut on a 2x4, nice smooth cut. Next one, rip on a 2x6. No problems there. I didn't gve it the nickel test, but it runs nice and smooth. The fence locks down solid, no play in the end. The miter gauge has a clamping attachment that works real nice.

She even knew to get a base for it. She knew I had checked out this one, and one that was "on wheels", to qute her. She asked them if they had something for it to roll on, and they pinted her towards the one in the picture. I may end up doing something with it, because I have to have it offset for it to work with the legs. I may end up drilling a couple new holes. It works, but it's kind of awkward to move, being off-center. I'll get 'er fixed. I basically was faced with putting that base on, or moving around 350 lbs of iron, steel and plastic. Uh-uh.

I'm going to end up doing something with the electric. I've wanted to for awhile and maybe if I blow enough fuses, I can sway Vick into it.:D Even if it's just upping it from a 15 to a 20 amp circuit.

I wouldn't have gone into such detail if it weren't for the fact that these new saws are such an unknown commodity. Sort of a 1st look, if you will.

Here's a few miscellaneous pictures:

http://home.comcast.net/~dklink913/WoodStuff/boxed.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~dklink913/WoodStuff/rearbox.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~dklink913/WoodStuff/motorfittings.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~dklink913/WoodStuff/motorside.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~dklink913/WoodStuff/pulley.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~dklink913/WoodStuff/underside.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~dklink913/WoodStuff/done.jpg

[Dennis Peacock]

David,

You have a "keeper" there!! Congrats on the new saw setup. Really nice! Now I guess you'll need to be making something for the LOML now.!!!

[David Klink]

Yep, she's a keeper Dennis. A kitchen table is in her future!

Gonna have to resolve this little electrical issue though. If we had circuit breakers it probably wouldn't trip quite so easily, but the main panel is a fuse box. I've got a time delay fuse in there, but that light flickered pretty good.

I remember when I was younger, a house down the street caught fire when a fuse had a major overload and really blew. My BIL was a volunteer firefighter, and said something about the vapor cloud from a fuse that explodes being a conductor or someting like that. Anyway, I'm verrrrry wary of such things.

Thanks!
David

[Tyler Howell]

Too Nice Dave,
Interesting how it was crated up for shipment, have to say that's a first I've seen like that. Got a lot of respect for the Cman and I know it has graced the homes of many. When I think of the hours of my youth spent in the show room dreaming years ago, never thought I'd be going to the next generation.;)
Now some Pix of the talented and lovely we all agree you should keep:D .
Have to know what to look for while I'm out shopping for a new LOML:rolleyes: .

[David Klink]

Too Nice Dave,
Interesting how it was crated up for shipment, have to say that's a first I've seen like that. Got a lot of respect for the Cman and I know it has graced the homes of many. When I think of the hours of my youth spent in the show room dreaming years ago, never thought I'd be going to the next generation.;)
Now some Pix of the talented and lovely we all agree you should keep:D .
Have to know what to look for while I'm out shopping for a new LOML:rolleyes: .
I thought it was interesting myself. It was a 1 1/4 inch steel tube frame, and the body of the saw was bolted to the frame on the bottom where the dust chute bolts on. The boxes with the wings, fence, rails, etc. were shrinkwrapped to the side.

The talented and lovely would tan my hide if I posted a picture of her.:) She's very self conscious of her weight, and absolutely abhors having her picture taken.

Listen to Smokey R. and the Miracles when you're "shopping round." Also, I found out the hard way that when you're shopping, the best deals you find are the ones you aren't really looking for. The harder you look, the less you'll be satisfied if what you find isn't what you really wanted. Make sure there's a lifetime warranty, too.:)