Frankie Hunt
07-11-2005, 8:49 PM
Thought it was about time I introduced myself. I have been mostly "read only". My Dad was a cabinet maker so I have been around woodworking all my life, however I am really just a novice. Sure wish I had of paid more attention while helping him work! I have a standalone woodworking shop in my back yard, a 2 car garage, that Dad and I built about 15 years ago. I do woodworking as a hobby only. I do service work on computers for a living. (VMS and Unix boxes, this should be a clue about which company I work for). I live near the TN/VA border. I have 2 great teenage boys (the eldest just started driving), a wonderful wife and an overactive border collie. My other hobby is ham radio. My call is K4TEN.
I hope I am not breaking any rules by combining an introduction and a gloat! I have upgraded a couple of my tools this spring. It does seem that my shop is getting smaller and smaller! Thought this would be a good time to show some before and after photos.
The Unisaw is my 3rd tablesaw. My first one was a very old Craftsman left tilt. I got rid of it because of its fence and its arbor runnout. I upgraded to the Delta Contractors saw which has served me well. I really like the JetLock fence on it, although I don't very often hear of anyone else liking it. I have my router in the right wing on that saw so I guess I will keep it as long as I can spare the floorspace. I wanted a better blade guard and did not want to add to the contractors saw, so I talked myself into the Unisaw. By the time all was said and done I added the Dewalt sliding table and the Uniguard. I really like these 2 additions! I know it is traditional to have a right tilt saw with a sliding table but thats not what I wanted. I prefer the left tilt saw and felt that most of my non verticle cuts would be with the fence and not the sliding table. The table was pretty easy to install. My Unisaw came with only one cast iron wing so I moved it to the right side. I had to cut the table board down which was no big deal. I also had to modify the front hanger for the Dewalt so that it would mount to the Unifence. I had to find a way to mount the rear hanger too. I went to the local steel company and got a piece of 2 inch angle iron. It is the width of the entire saw. The Unifence does not come with any steel for the table support like the Biesemeyer version does. I didn't like that so I added the steel, which provided a mout for the Dewalt hanger and also beefed up the table extension. I also added a couple of pieces of steel under table so that I can build a small cabinet and mount it there.
The old Craftsman jointer had very small infeed, so small that it was really limited in what it could do. I only used it for edge work. I use plywood on a lot of my larger projects, only using solid wood for banding or face frames. Doing so allowed me to use the planer for the entire surface prep of all my solid lumber needs. I hope to start doing some larger projects using all solid wood and the DJ-20 will allow me to do my surface prep work differently.
Anyhow, thats my story and I am sticking to it!
Frankie
I hope I am not breaking any rules by combining an introduction and a gloat! I have upgraded a couple of my tools this spring. It does seem that my shop is getting smaller and smaller! Thought this would be a good time to show some before and after photos.
The Unisaw is my 3rd tablesaw. My first one was a very old Craftsman left tilt. I got rid of it because of its fence and its arbor runnout. I upgraded to the Delta Contractors saw which has served me well. I really like the JetLock fence on it, although I don't very often hear of anyone else liking it. I have my router in the right wing on that saw so I guess I will keep it as long as I can spare the floorspace. I wanted a better blade guard and did not want to add to the contractors saw, so I talked myself into the Unisaw. By the time all was said and done I added the Dewalt sliding table and the Uniguard. I really like these 2 additions! I know it is traditional to have a right tilt saw with a sliding table but thats not what I wanted. I prefer the left tilt saw and felt that most of my non verticle cuts would be with the fence and not the sliding table. The table was pretty easy to install. My Unisaw came with only one cast iron wing so I moved it to the right side. I had to cut the table board down which was no big deal. I also had to modify the front hanger for the Dewalt so that it would mount to the Unifence. I had to find a way to mount the rear hanger too. I went to the local steel company and got a piece of 2 inch angle iron. It is the width of the entire saw. The Unifence does not come with any steel for the table support like the Biesemeyer version does. I didn't like that so I added the steel, which provided a mout for the Dewalt hanger and also beefed up the table extension. I also added a couple of pieces of steel under table so that I can build a small cabinet and mount it there.
The old Craftsman jointer had very small infeed, so small that it was really limited in what it could do. I only used it for edge work. I use plywood on a lot of my larger projects, only using solid wood for banding or face frames. Doing so allowed me to use the planer for the entire surface prep of all my solid lumber needs. I hope to start doing some larger projects using all solid wood and the DJ-20 will allow me to do my surface prep work differently.
Anyhow, thats my story and I am sticking to it!
Frankie