Delta Contractors TS finally gets a real workout.

[Ken Kimbrell]

Did a little Slice & Dice routine on 25 of the 1x6x10’ pine siding boards to make about 300 1/2x2x5’ stickers to use for stacking the remaining 479 pine boards in the barn.


You know that old saying about having the right tool for the job???
Well it is for sure the old Craftsman tabletop unit that I have been using for the past 8 years would have never made it through this little chore. Of course, a couple of times we were wishing the Delta TS had even more power because the pine was cut at the mill less than two weeks ago, so it is still real wet and gummy, we even had to change out the blade about half way through the run because the first one was so clogged up with the wet stuff. (both blades were new)
<ST1:pNo DC</ST1:p installed yet, so as you can see in the picture we made a nice pile of sawdust.

The second pix is of son Mike as he stands on top of the first stack, he was a BIG help! Kind of dark in the barn, so the shot didn’t come out to well.

Ps: What's the best thing to clean the TS blades, MS, or what???

[Brian Hale]

Ken, I clean my blades with Simple Green and a stiff brush. Just wet the blade and let it work for a few minutes, then scrub and rinse. You can soak overnight if needed....

Brian

[Ken Kimbrell]

Thanks Brian, I will pick some up and give it a try.

[Corey Hallagan]

Wow, now that is a mess of saw dust. Glad the Delta worked out for you. Looks like you got the same saw I got with the stamped steel wings. You get it at HD for the 399.00 special? I see you got your splitter and guard set up, I take it that you got her to work okay without binding etc. for you? I think mine is close but we will see if I keep it or not. It is a pain in the rear. Good luck to you on your project.

Corey

[Ken Kimbrell]

Wow, now that is a mess of saw dust. Glad the Delta worked out for you. Looks like you got the same saw I got with the stamped steel wings. You get it at HD for the 399.00 special? I see you got your splitter and guard set up, I take it that you got her to work okay without binding etc. for you? I think mine is close but we will see if I keep it or not. It is a pain in the rear. Good luck to you on your project.

Corey

Corey, yeppers... the HD special it is!
And, this was the first time that I did a tuneup/alignment and any real work on a table saw. Before this my cuts had been made mostly with a CS, with a very few simple cuts on the old Craftsman tabletop once in a great while. The tuneup part took several tries for me to get right, but seeing as how my level of experience is practically zero, I figured that my goal should be to get the setup correct and keep all the safeguards in place before working with the saw. Don’t need to lose any fingers, ya know!;)

[Peter Mc Mahon]

Hi Ken. I have the same basic saw, and after several years I bought a link belt. I did not know that the saw vibrated so much until I installed the belt and reduced the vibration. I would definately recommend one. Peter

[Ken Kimbrell]

Hi Ken. I have the same basic saw, and after several years I bought a link belt. I did not know that the saw vibrated so much until I installed the belt and reduced the vibration. I would definately recommend one. Peter

It's on the wish list Peter, I noticed how bad the vibrations were when it was started with a metal square lying on one of the sheetmetal wings. It is a nice saw for the money and I like it, but it can for sure use a few improvements.

[Corey Hallagan]

I think I will ad that to my list as well. Peter, did you upgrade just the belt or the pulley as well?
Thanks,
Corey

[Maurice Ungaro]

Ken,
The link belt is a true blessing. You'll kck yourself for not getting it earlier - for less that $30, you'll be able to get enough link bel to fit your saw, and cut smoothly. I was amazed when I put it on my CS - I kept going over to thesaw about 3 0r 4 times a day just to turn it on and hear it hum.

BTW, CMT's Blade & Bit cleaner works like a charm too.

[scott spencer]

You've got some serious carpenter ants working under that saw Ken! ;)

[Ken Kimbrell]

:eek:

LOL... good one Scott.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Ken,

That is a heck of a pile of sawdust!

I am even more impressed by the pile of lumber!! Looks like a fun time.

[Ken Kimbrell]

One of our fellow Creekers was kind enough to point out to me that using the green lumber for my stickers was not the best idea because by it being wet as well there might be problems with staining, shadowing and other issues that it could cause.

As it happens one of my neighbors stopped by to introduce himself and look at the two stacks of pine and when he found out that I was looking for suitable material to replace the stickers currently being used he offered to let me have some old lumber to use… said it wasn’t much good for anything else.

When we arrived at his barn I just about passed out, he had told me that there were a few ‘little’ stacks of lumber in his barn, but his ‘little’ and mine must be different because there a lot of stacks of stickered lumber, some 7-8 feet high! Besides the pine he gave to me there were stacks of walnut, oak, wild cherry and two or three kinds that he didn’t ID. Some was cut as regular boards up to 4x12x10’ (or longer) and some was just cut into slabs. Don’t have a clue as to how many bf he might have, but it makes my 2,500bf of pine look real small.
Oh, and the 16 pieces of ‘junk’ lumber he gave me… it’s 2x6x12’, well dried on a stickerd pile and looks like the good stuff from the orange box.

Yeppers, having nice folks in your neighborhood is a good thing.