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View Full Version : A couple of gloats, and my Weekend Accomplishments



Bill Lewis
06-13-2005, 3:15 PM
I figured I could save some time and just combine all my short boring posts in to one really big boring post. Grab hold, this might get kinda long winded. At least there will be lots of pictures!

First let's start with a gloat. I was in HD on Friday running errands, and finally decided to go ahead and breakdown and buy the DeWalt 6 tool 18V cordless kit. My one and only cordless tool has been a 12V DeWalt drill that I have had for an eternity, and after building my driveway gate, and borrowing my neighbors generator several times, I decided it was time to upgrade. I went ahead and signed up for a HD CC to get a 10% discount, and 12 mos. to pay with no interest and a "free gift" (a husky circ-saw blade organizer/pouch, :rolleyes: woo hoo!)

So now I have to figure out what FREE tool (promotion) I want to get. Suggestions? I'm leaning toward the jig saw. I have one, but I always hated the cord on it.

Now on to the good stuff, some accomplishments. Ok, this is where the story could get really long. I have to include some background first, bear with me.

Some of you may remember that I bought a Unisaw back in February, but I have been complaining that I never received the mobil base from the dealer as part of the package. Basically I couldn't "build" the saw until I had the Mobil base. Well I've been calling the dealer for months, and I got quite a few excuses. Finally about a month ago, they said I should call Delta to complain to them directly. So I did.

The following occured over a 3 week period.

I called Delta, I spoke to someone who directed me to another's voice mail, and I dutifully left a message. I didn't hear back so a few days later I called again and left another message. Still no response, so I call again this time I told the woman about the lack of returned messages so she offered to help. She heard my story, and took my information, and at her suggestion, she was going to get her boss to ship the Mobil base directly to me. After all, it was IN STOCK.

Another week passes, I didn't hear back so I called again. I asked for the same woman, she shuffled some paper, and finally remembered me. Whoever was supposed to take care of this problem, never did. So she then connected me to that person's voice mail. I left another message......

This time I didn't wait too long to call back, just a day. In the mean time I called the dealer one last time, and they told me they had the extensions, but not the bases. I tried to see if maybe they'd be kind enough to deliver it when they did arrive vs. re-shipping it, nope, they wouldn't!

Well, after all this, I had no fuse left, let alone a short one. So I called Delta one more time. This time I told them I wanted to speak to the highest level customer service person that they could put me in touch with. I got another voice mail, I left a somewhat stern message regarding the problem, and someone needed to take ownership of it. I went to lunch not expecting to hear back.

Lo and behold, I actually got a voice mail returning my call. I called her back and laid out the story to her. To sum it up, she got it shipped out to me that same day. It arrived this past week, and I was finally able to assemble my saw. :) :)

Now for the other shoe to drop...

Guess what the UPS man brought me today! You got it, another mobil base and extension, so now I have two. The funny thing is, the two components were shipped in the same box as a package, so the dealer was either telling me "another one", or didn't realize that they actually had them because they were familiar to dealing with 2 boxes, not one. I can't decide if I should sell the base, or use it on something else. Forget any suggestions of returning it. I'm calling this one a gloat, or at least a triumph over customer support.

So my big accomplishment for the weekend was getting the saw assembled, and tested. Fortunately, it was also dead-on from the get go. The miter slot was perfectly aligned with the blade. I did have to adjust the fence, and tweak the bies splitter, but now they are set.

Now for more weekend accomplishments. I finished the installation of the Wixley DRO for the DeWalt 733 planer. I wasn't sure I wanted to use the foam sticky tape, or use fasteners to attach it to the planer. I ended up using the tape. I calibrated the DRO with a short piece of cherry that I had. To confirm the calibration I planed down a 4/4 x 4 oak piece to check it out. First, I faced it on the jointer, then I edged it up on the jointer and tablesaw. This also gave me a chance to try out the tablesaw DC hookup. Finally, I planed the piece on the DeWalt, and dialed it down to read .75 on the DRO for the finish pass. To check it I put the dial caliper on it. Absolutely right on at the first reading. I was impressed!

Lastly, a "somewhat anticlimatic" accomplishment to share and another off topic gloat.

First the accomplishment, I banged out all of the dents and bends in the sheet metal for the metal-cutting bandsaw that was the subject of a previous gloat (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=20704) of mine. I also put it back together with the coolant re-circ tank open to the front. I also installed the hydralic feed cylinder. This saw works great!

Now the off topic gloat, my neighbor gave me his unused DVR satellite receiver to add in to my system. He switched to cable TV, and put in DVR boxes at every set. I have a receiver just like it already, but two will work better with the whole house setup. DVR = Digital Video Recorder. It's got a built in hard-drive and will record 35 hours on it.

Bill Lewis
06-13-2005, 3:19 PM
Here's the rest of the story....

The first couple of pictures are the Wixley DRO, and the results of this installation, then a couple of pictures of the metal band saw back together, and lastly, just in keeping with picture police is the satellite receiver.

Andy London
06-13-2005, 5:07 PM
Congradulations!, Boy I REALLY like that floor.....

Jason Tuinstra
06-13-2005, 5:18 PM
Bill, congrats!!!

Sam Chambers
06-13-2005, 6:22 PM
Congrats, Bill! New toys are always fun, even if you can't play with them right away.

Am I missing something, or does your 0.75" stock actually read 0.50" on your dial calipers?

Vaughn McMillan
06-13-2005, 6:52 PM
Sam, what you're missing is that the calipers read to a thousandth of an inch...the "5" you see is the last part of 0.75". To the left of the dial you can see the scale is reading about half a tick (actually, it's exactly half a tick) between the 7 and the 8. Thus 0.750".

BTW, nice gloat Bill. I'm assuming your DVR is for Dish Network (as opposed to the TiVo used with DirecTV). I had a friend who owned that setup, and he was very happy with it. I know I couldn't live without my DirecTV TiVo.

- Vaughn

Bill Lewis
06-13-2005, 7:21 PM
Vaughn,
You're right on both counts. The the bar reads "7" for .700 and the dial reads 50 for .050 , or 50 thousand'ths, and yes that is for Dish Network. I'm going to put that receiver in the basement to feed the MBR and shop. We'll never be watching both at the same time. You're also right about DVR, I'll never be without one. It's the only way to watch TV and not watch commercials etc... I could go on, but then I'd sound like a commercial, and they don't pay me.

Andy,
Thanks, but which floor? the shop, or the kitchen. The shop is Rust-Oleum basement epoxy with the sprinkles on top.

Sam,
It's been really killing me to be unable to use the new saw. I've got so many things I want, and need, to build. I was actually hoping to do a little more stock prep, and wood selection for a project, but I didn't get that far.

Sam Chambers
06-13-2005, 8:23 PM
Bill:

If you decide to sell that extra mobile base, let me know.

Andy London
06-13-2005, 8:49 PM
Andy,
Thanks, but which floor? the shop, or the kitchen. The shop is Rust-Oleum basement epoxy with the sprinkles on top.



Sorry, I didn't notice the kitchen floor :rolleyes: :D ......the workshop floor. I have wood but when I put a garage on the house next year, that is what I would like it to look like, really nice!

Andy

Bill Lewis
06-14-2005, 6:57 AM
Andy,

You'd have to use the Rust-Oleum Garage paint instead if you intend on parking a car on it. However, I think I would go one step further and use the U-coat it (http://www.ucoatit.com/) epoxy paint. It appears to have a better shine than the Rust-Oleum paint. They also have way more colors and color chip combinations. It's worth a trip to their website just to check out the "Color Selector". I used the rust-oleum because it was inexpensive, and I was in a hurry. It's very durable, I just wanted a glossier finish that would clean up even easier.

John Hart
06-14-2005, 7:07 AM
Geez Bill...that's some weekend accomplishments story! Whatcha got on tap for next weekend? Congratulations on all your toys and Well Done on all your persistence!!