Today's Dumb Move

[Andy Casiello]

My wife bought me a DeWalt 735 planer as a birthday present. Yesterday I built a stand for it and got it set up in the shop with dust collection, power, etc. I spent the rest of the night spit polishing the shop doing cleanup after my last project - a dovetail jointed guitar speaker cabinet made out of red oak. I really cleaned - down to taking the drawer protection mats out of the drawers in my SnapOn toolbox to clean them, etc.

Today I go down to try out the planer for the first time. I power up the DC, set the planer height adjustments, power it on, admire the setup and feed a piece of 1" cedar into the planer. The planer grabs the board and does it's thing - and it sounds like heaven! The planer is setup between the TS and the jointer. I finally have my own milling setup!

That smug satisfaction lasted about 850 milliseconds. That's when I heard a "pop" and saw a huge funnel of sawdust and chips spraying across the shop! Of course the board I picked for the test was about 6 feet long. I didn't want to shut off the planer mid-cut because I feared jamming the board in there.

I had forgotten to open the blast gate on the DC for the planer dust collection route. The fan assisted dust port on the DeWalt is very powerful and blew the hose right off the planer (it was just attached with a quick-release connector). DOH!

Even though I was only shaving about 1/16" off the board, the planer created a very impressive pile of chips and dust from that board. It looked like an ad for a Troy-Built chipper/shredder. I just got finished cleaning up the shop again for the 2nd time in 24 hours.

That's okay. Any time in the shop is fun, but there are certainly more productive ways to spend my time.

Anyone else have similar stories of bone-headedness? I'm feeling the need for reassurance that I'm not the only one who does these occasional dumb things..

[Charles Lent]

I wanted to try out my new DW735 as soon as I got it in the shop. I hadn't yet received the dust collection kit for it, but since it came with that reverse funnel type thing to put on when you weren't collecting the chips, I put it on, set the 735 on the workbench, started it up and shoved a 4 ft piece of 2X8 into it. The chips hit the wall 12 feet away and went all over the shop (my old Delta never did that). Like you I was shocked and wanted to turn the planer off, but didn't want to do so with a board still in the planer.

That was about a year ago and I think I'm still finding pockets of planer chips around the shop from that day. Now my 735 is mounted on a Delta planer/miter saw stand (a collapsable hand truck type) and it goes outside the shop whenever I want to plane any boards. I got the dust collection kit for it and use it to keep the chips in a garbage can instead of spread all over my neighbors yard.

Charley

[Matt Ocel]

Mine was when I first got my PM jointer.

I had a piece of black walnut sitting around.
About a year before I wanted to show a friend how hard it was by trying to put a nail in it. I hammered in a nail until it bent over, it wouldn't pull out so I broke it off and put the piece of walnut back on the shelf.

What do you think was the first piece of wood I ran through my new PM was?

[Steve Clardy]

Mine was when I first got my PM jointer.

I had a piece of black walnut sitting around.
About a year before I wanted to show a friend how hard it was by trying to put a nail in it. I hammered in a nail until it bent over, it wouldn't pull out so I broke it off and put the piece of walnut back on the shelf.

What do you think was the first piece of wood I ran through my new PM was?

Oops!

[alex grams]

I forgot to attach the bottom cap on the filter in my shop vac securely one time. Went inside to use it, fired it up and made a HUGE cloud of dust.

All of the stuff in the vac went right up into where the cap was supposed to be and blew ALL OVER the room I was working in.

Yeah... that was a mess...

[David DeCristoforo]

"...a huge funnel of sawdust and chips spraying across the shop!"

What? That's it? That's the best you got? Some sawdust? Scheech! I can be dumber than that without even trying.....

[Gary Lange]

Andy, If Woodworking shops were meant to be clean and pretty then God wouldn't have invented sawdust. We learn for ours and others little mistakes and we will laugh at them later in life.

[Robert Strebler]

My new Grizzly G0513x2 arrived recently and over the first week or so I spent some time fine tuning it and playing with it. A couple of days after it's initial setup, I adjusted the fence a bit and fired it up, but forgot to re-tension the blade.

Later, I got a new DC and set it up. I wanted to test the DC so I figured I'd run a couple of quick cuts through and fired up the bandsaw without re-tensioning the blade again.

I felt like such a moron that I now have a magnet with a big X on a hang tag over the start button to remind me when the blade is not tensioned.

[Matt Ocel]

Robert -
When I "de-tension", I always leave the cover open to remind me. Its worked for me so far.

[Brent Smith]

Try this one on for size. I work out of my garage shop, usually with the door open when weather permits. So, a few years back I'm in the shop getting ready to crosscut some Cherry for a dresser I'm building. My rip blade in the saw making a blade change necessary. I grab my new 80 tooth crosscut blade and get ready to make the change. just about then a couple of the neighborhood beauties come jogging to a stop in front of the shop. Now, my mind is trapped between to things, checking what I'm doing and trying not to ogle a couple of ladies in shorts and tank tops....you guess which one took up most of my concentration. Anyway I get the blade on, plug the saw back in and set up my stop on the miter gauge. Ready to go...the ladies are still there. Turn the saw on and start my first piece into the cut. HEY, what's going on!!!! It's taking a lot more pressure than it should and it's screeching...and now it's starting to smoke............you got it, I put the blade on backwards . The two ladies look over, look at each other and quickly move away from this guy whose polluting the neighborhood with noise and smoke. Moral of the story.....keep the garage door closed on hot days when young nubile joggers may be passing by .

[Rick Fisher]

Biggest mess ever for me was forgetting to re-install the bottom bag of the DC right away. Going out the next morning and firing up the Planer and turning on the DC with the wireless remote.

The DC is hidden away behind a large tool.

I had my back to the DC so the change in Air quality was what caused me to stop production.

[Matt Ocel]

Brent -
If they were blondes, they probably thought - well you can fill in the blanks.

[Steve Clardy]

Well my story's pretty fresh. About 2 this afternoon I get the splitter on the tractor behind the shop, then pick a place to park it close to the firewood chunks I've just sawed up.

Tractor parked, shut it off. Decided I had better block the wheel beings its ever so slightly down hill. Leave tractor out of gear so I can just reach over and start it when I need the splitter operational. Released foot brake and it stayed still.
I head to the rear of shop, procure a couple of blocks and......

30 foot away was my tractor fixing to roll through an electric fence.

Behind the fence sits my pristine 94 f-150 with a trailer load of hay.

I take off running, see the electric fence slow the tractor to a stop.
Wheeeeh.....wipe forehead.....then snap goes the fence. Tractor continues on downhill through the fence, missing my truck by inches

Something said, Clardy ya better get yer butt in gear before your tractor smacks into the trees below or veers off into the dump hole.

So off I go again chasing the tractor and manage to climb aboard and turn it to the left to miss everything.

Wheeeeew

[Dave Rose]

Well my story's pretty fresh. About 2 this afternoon I get the splitter on the tractor behind the shop, then pick a place to park it close to the firewood chunks I've just sawed up.

Tractor parked, shut it off. Decided I had better block the wheel beings its ever so slightly down hill. Leave tractor out of gear so I can just reach over and start it when I need the splitter operational. Released foot brake and it stayed still.
I head to the rear of shop, procure a couple of blocks and......

30 foot away was my tractor fixing to roll through an electric fence.

Behind the fence sits my pristine 94 f-150 with a trailer load of hay.

I take off running, see the electric fence slow the tractor to a stop.
Wheeeeh.....wipe forehead.....then snap goes the fence. Tractor continues on downhill through the fence, missing my truck by inches

Something said, Clardy ya better get yer butt in gear before your tractor smacks into the trees below or veers off into the dump hole.

So off I go again chasing the tractor and manage to climb aboard and turn it to the left to miss everything.

Wheeeeew

That will get the Epinephrine flowing.

[Matt Hutchinson]

So I had my first show this weekend for my turning. I had been working my butt off, but a week ago there was a ton left to be done. I needed to finish the bottoms of all the bowls, so I made a donut chuck. For those who don't know what that is, it's a large round jig designed to hold a bowl while turning the bottom/foot. See attached pic.

During its construction I temporarily screwed the clamping plate to the support plate, that way I could turn them true, as well as drill holes for the carriage bolts. In a moment of sheer genuis I decided that after turning them true, while the machine was still on, I would take some 80 grit paper to clean up the split out from the drilling.

Well, I managed to forget I had screwed the plates together and that the said screws were protruding from the back 3/8 of an inch. Needless to say, at 1300 rpms I quickly remembered they were there. And my fingers are still healing from that not-so-friendly reminder.

Hutch