ron hill
01-10-2007, 6:01 PM
Hi everyone,
My name is Ron Hill and I've been visiting this site for about 4 years now and have made a couple of posts. I'm semi-retired and spend the winter months woodworking. I started woodworking 12 years ago as a weekend hobby. When I moved back to ND I decided to get serious about this "hobby" and run an ad in the paper and began making and selling custom pieces. It didn't take very long and the hobby turned into a full time job and it got so it wasn't quite as much fun. I wasn't trying to make a living at it so when some of the jobs didn't pay to well I wasn't out much but my time. The last two winters I went to AZ and ran a couple of jobs for a friends Construction Management Co. This year I'm building whatever the LOML wants plus I want to get into some different types of projects. I'm still getting phone calls to do some pieces for past customers or their friends and it's hard to say "not now but maybe next year".
From the posts I've read I guess I've made a lot of the same mistakes when it comes to equipment. I usually went the inexpensive route only to upgrade at a later date. Doing it this way does let you shop more for tools which is great but eats up a lot of cash too. The best purchase that I have made is a 3 hp Uni-Saw and it has quite a story behind it. When I took the saw out of the crate and was checking the adjustments I found that I couldn't get the blade 90 degrees to the table. I called Delta and they told me to take the saw apart and inspect the trunion. I told them to stick it in their ear, that I wasn't going to start wrenching on a a brand new piece of equipment so they agreed to send me another and when I received it to recrate the old one and put it back on the truck. In the mean time my wife passed away and they delivered the new one but I wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with it. I then decided to move back to ND and I called them and they told me that when I got situated to call them and they would send a truck to get it. After I had moved and unpacked I called them and they told me they had just made some major changes in their customer service department and they had no record of me or my problems. I ended up with two of them. I found that in order to fix the "bad one" I only needed to grind a little of the head of the stop bolt and it worked fine. I still can't believe they lost track of a saw.
My shop is to small naturally (18 x 28). I had the 3rd stall of the garage overbuilt when we had the house built but they screwed up the foundation and I ended up with the laundry room projecting out into my space. The wife liked it though, we ended up with more house and less shop.
I just bought a Jet 1100 DC and I should have done that years ago. I ran all 6" S&D pipe and use 4" hose at the jointer and planer. My longest run was to get to the CMS and it works OK but I still have to use the shop vac afterwards.
Attached are a couple of photos of my latest project. I saw Dave Marks do one on tv a month or two ago. I had some 8/4walnut left over from doing the dining table so used it up. This fairly simple project has been a nightmare. I put on a new Bosch rip blade and tore up the edge of the table top (blade wasn't flat), then I forgot to clamp down my jig when I was routering the 3/4" mortices and it moved so ended up making them an 1" wide and while doing that the bit came loose and flopped around so ended up with mortices 1 3/16". Decided to take a break from it and hang my hose reel and drilled a hole through the wiring to my shop heater so had to tear off the sheetrock and make sure I didn't have a fire. After two years off I guess I'm rusty.
Anyways I really enjoy this site and have picked up some very valuable info.l
My name is Ron Hill and I've been visiting this site for about 4 years now and have made a couple of posts. I'm semi-retired and spend the winter months woodworking. I started woodworking 12 years ago as a weekend hobby. When I moved back to ND I decided to get serious about this "hobby" and run an ad in the paper and began making and selling custom pieces. It didn't take very long and the hobby turned into a full time job and it got so it wasn't quite as much fun. I wasn't trying to make a living at it so when some of the jobs didn't pay to well I wasn't out much but my time. The last two winters I went to AZ and ran a couple of jobs for a friends Construction Management Co. This year I'm building whatever the LOML wants plus I want to get into some different types of projects. I'm still getting phone calls to do some pieces for past customers or their friends and it's hard to say "not now but maybe next year".
From the posts I've read I guess I've made a lot of the same mistakes when it comes to equipment. I usually went the inexpensive route only to upgrade at a later date. Doing it this way does let you shop more for tools which is great but eats up a lot of cash too. The best purchase that I have made is a 3 hp Uni-Saw and it has quite a story behind it. When I took the saw out of the crate and was checking the adjustments I found that I couldn't get the blade 90 degrees to the table. I called Delta and they told me to take the saw apart and inspect the trunion. I told them to stick it in their ear, that I wasn't going to start wrenching on a a brand new piece of equipment so they agreed to send me another and when I received it to recrate the old one and put it back on the truck. In the mean time my wife passed away and they delivered the new one but I wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with it. I then decided to move back to ND and I called them and they told me that when I got situated to call them and they would send a truck to get it. After I had moved and unpacked I called them and they told me they had just made some major changes in their customer service department and they had no record of me or my problems. I ended up with two of them. I found that in order to fix the "bad one" I only needed to grind a little of the head of the stop bolt and it worked fine. I still can't believe they lost track of a saw.
My shop is to small naturally (18 x 28). I had the 3rd stall of the garage overbuilt when we had the house built but they screwed up the foundation and I ended up with the laundry room projecting out into my space. The wife liked it though, we ended up with more house and less shop.
I just bought a Jet 1100 DC and I should have done that years ago. I ran all 6" S&D pipe and use 4" hose at the jointer and planer. My longest run was to get to the CMS and it works OK but I still have to use the shop vac afterwards.
Attached are a couple of photos of my latest project. I saw Dave Marks do one on tv a month or two ago. I had some 8/4walnut left over from doing the dining table so used it up. This fairly simple project has been a nightmare. I put on a new Bosch rip blade and tore up the edge of the table top (blade wasn't flat), then I forgot to clamp down my jig when I was routering the 3/4" mortices and it moved so ended up making them an 1" wide and while doing that the bit came loose and flopped around so ended up with mortices 1 3/16". Decided to take a break from it and hang my hose reel and drilled a hole through the wiring to my shop heater so had to tear off the sheetrock and make sure I didn't have a fire. After two years off I guess I'm rusty.
Anyways I really enjoy this site and have picked up some very valuable info.l