V4.4 - Does it shake your teeth?

Not the Boogie-Woogie…or firecrackers, I’m talking about wheel vibration in your stationary Bandsaw. Sometimes they get a little goofy and start rockin ‘n rollin worse than Elvis used to. Usually they are a 12”, 14”, or 16” size. For the purpose of this column, I’m talking about those Bandsaws that have a drive belt from the motor to the bottom wheel.

So, let’s say that you have one of those Bandsaws and you’ve always noticed that it seems to vibrate rather bad while you’re using it. You’ve taken the blade off and run it with just the bottom wheel in action and it still ‘shakes, rattles and rolls’. Or maybe you took the blade off and just running the bottom wheel shows that it runs as smooth as a Hunter ceiling fan. What to do?

First off, isolate the vibration – chase it down. If your saw is vibrating, take the blade off and run just the motor and the bottom wheel. If that smoothes it out, your problem is in the upper wheel. If you run the bottom wheel only and it still vibrates, the problem is in the bottom wheel or the drive system. Take the drive belt off and run just the motor. If it still vibrates with only the motor running, check the tightness of the motor pulley. If the pulley’s tight and yet it still has excessive vibration with only the motor running, I’d suspect you have a bad motor.

From this point, let’s say it smoothed out after you took the blade off. You’ve got the wheel guard open, so you can get to the top wheel. Give the wheel a good spin - enough so that it can rotate for at least 10 revolutions. When it finally stops, make a witness mark at the bottom of the wheel so that you can see it. Give it another good spin and let it stop again. Check where your witness mark is. If the mark is close to the same spot at the bottom, do the spin test again and see where the mark ends up. Do this 5 times and if the mark ends up stopping in the same area at the bottom of the wheel 3 times out of 5 tests, your top wheel is off-balance and needs to be replaced.

The test for bottom wheel balance is the same, but you will need to remove the drive belt before the test. The idea is to spin just the bottom wheel, not the motor and drive belt, too.

Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.

V4.3 - Drill Press Hints

 Ok, after a few weeks in never-never land, back to tools. I thought that for this week, I would just go over some of the little tidbits of information that I like to call ‘Tips & Techniques’, since we were discussing Drill Presses.

One of the areas that folks need some assistance with is that of choosing the correct bit speed for their particular project. The main rule of thumb is: ‘The harder the material, the slower the bit needs to turn.’ Right behind that comes this: ‘The bigger the bit, the slower it needs to turn’. How that plays out is like this. If you’re drilling the same size hole in wood and metal, the speed will need to be slowed down for drilling into metal because it is a harder material. By the same token, if you’re drilling into pine wood and making a ¼” hole and a 2-1/4” hole, slow it down for the 2-1/4” hole. It may be that not much speed change is needed between these two, but the idea is that you don’t usually want a 2-1/4” cutter turning as fast as a small ¼” bit.

Now, let’s talk safety. First and foremost, dress appropriately when using a Drill Press. Wear your safety glasses, roll up your long sleeves and pull your hair back out of the way (IF your hair is that long). I once saw a training film that showed what happened when a lady got her long hair tangled in the Drill Press she was operating. It was not a pretty sight. She reminded me of what Custer’s men must have looked like after being scalped.

After you have all those bases covered, here’s another ‘first and foremost’- ALWAYS clamp your work. I cannot over-emphasize this. Yes, it’s a pain and not always convenient but it IS necessary. I have a nice 2” long scar on my left wrist that is a constant reminder of the need to clamp your work. The very afternoon that I was going to drive my dirt track racecar for the first time, I was making an accelerator bracket and need to drill a hole in it. The bracket was just 8” long, ¾” flat stock, with one end bent at a 45 and that was where I needed the hole. So I go to my DP and hold the long part and place the bent area on the table under the bit. I started drilling the hole and OOPS…it grabbed and swung around 360 degrees and in the blink of an eye it made a few revolutions before I could get it shut off. Unfortunately, on that first swing, the top end of the stock sliced my wrist open and I wear that reminder to this day. It looks like I tried to commit suicide. So, I tell everyone - clamp your stock.

Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you

V3.51 - Christmas, yes it is - and stuff

This week I may bounce around all over the place. I wanted to just write about Christmas but some mentally deranged EVIL person decided it would be a good thing to murder some innocent people in Connecticut. Even sadder, some of those were children. As a nation, we display our shock and outrage that 20 children were brutally murdered, yet Each and Every day, around THREE THOUSAND-SEVEN HUNDRED (3,700) innocent children are killed by abortion. Where is the outrage and shock over that?

We hear politicians blow their horns about how it is time to ‘stop the murdering of our children’ and I could not agree more. It IS time to stop it…not by ‘banning guns’ as the grandstanders are yelling about, but maybe we need to start by banning the scalpels and the vacuum cleaners that are used to cut up and dismember the unborn.

What allowed this murder in CT was not a lack of ‘gun laws’. As I understand it, CT already has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the USA. Yet, it still did not stop this creature from STEALING some guns and using them.

Perhaps CT needs to rethink this. Instead of having signs that say “Gun free zone” outside the school, maybe they need to change to: “Armed and trained staff on site - enter at your own risk”. It only makes common sense. How many times have we heard of someone going into a Police Station and shooting the place up? Never…not even when they do have a death wish.

Anyway, back to what I really wanted to write about- Christmas.

Not “Happy Holidays”…um...which “Holiday” would that be? Christmas!

As the Go Fish Guys say: “It’s called Christmas, with a capital C.” (that’s really a kool video- check it out on Youtube). Some people will say ‘how can this be? Jesus wasn’t born in winter’ First thing, were you there? None of us were…and maybe He wasn’t. So we select this one day, December 25th, to celebrate the anniversary of his birth. A birth, without which, mankind would have no hope of eternal life. Some will say that the original Dec 25th celebration was a pagan ritual and the Christian Church took it over. IF that is true, I say, it’s about time that the Christians took something from the pagans. Lord knows the pagans have stolen many things from the Christians. Even today, it’s still going on. Every time some judge bans a nativity scene, it’s really theft. And while I am ‘tangenting’- did you hear about the judge who says a North Carolina “Choose Life” license plate is “unconstitutional” because the opposite view does not have their own plate? How absurd. But, hey, this is America. So here’s what to do, have the Choose Life plate show a baby and make the “Choose Death” plate show parts of a baby. Let’s see how many they sell.

Christmas will be here in a few days, and it is a joyous time, so I say celebrate to the utmost! Don’t tell me ‘happy holidays’ because I will tell you- Merry Christmas!

Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.

V3.50 - Keeping your Drill Press ‘chucked up’: part 2

Last week we talked about putting your drill chuck on your Drill Press. I ran out of room to fully explore the subject, so here we go again.

Let’s say that you get the chuck installed and all appears to be well. But then, one day, you turn your DP on and the chuck falls off of the spindle nose. Now, what to do?

Well first, you’d want to make sure that the inside of the chuck taper is clean and free from any oil or contaminants. Once you’ve checked/cleaned the chuck, check/clean the spindle nose also.

NOTE: while you are checking/cleaning those tapers, this is a good time to inspect the surface of the tapers closely. The tapers need to be smooth and free from any galling. ‘Galling’ is a machinists term that refers to the tendency of metals, scrubbing together under force, to grind and scar each other. If your chuck has been loose on the spindle nose (unknown to you) for a while, the two parts may have galled their surfaces. IF they have, it is usually useless to try to get them to properly seat again. (The prescription is to replace both parts and start fresh.)

Ok, let’s say that you’ve checked for galling and found both the chuck and the spindle nose to be smooth and in good shape. Now, you’ve cleaned them again and they are now absolutely oil-free and dry as a bone. Take the chuck and ram it sharply onto the spindle nose.

Now, it’s time for the 2x4 and small sledge hammer again. Swing the table out of the way so that you can get a pretty decent swing with your sledge. Retract the chuck jaws to prevent them from getting bent and put your 2x4 under the chuck. Hold the 2x4 with your ‘weak’ hand and use your dominant hand to swing that sledge upward and SMACK the 2x4 (which is against the chuck) very hard.

As I said last week, Tapers seat best with a shock to them. A good 3lb sledge and a 2x4 block will allow you to deliver that shock to the chuck without risking damage to your chuck or Drill Press.

If you continue to have your chuck fall off, there may be a misfit between the two parts, or you may be asking the Drill Press to do something it was not designed to do (like milling, or using an out of balance item in the chuck) and the design of the chuck/spindle taper was not intended to account for that.

Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.

V3.49 - Keeping your Drill Press ‘chucked up’

Well, after our short detour, let’s get back on the Tooltrack this week and talk about Drill Press chucks. Your columnist is always networking and open to new career opportunities. You can find me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tommurrah and I’d be happy to talk with you. If you’re aware of something, drop me a note and we’ll connect.

Now, what about those Drill Press chucks?

I was one of those ‘poor folks’ who didn’t have a drill press during my ‘learning how to work on stuff’ years and let me tell you what, by the time I got older and realized what I had been missing…Hoo-boy, was life in the shop so much easier with one around.

Most of today’s ‘home/hobbyist’ drill presses use a taper to hold the chuck onto the spindle. Some manufacturers have the chuck already installed, while others ask the buyer to do it. In any event, the following information will come in handy.

Drill Press Tapers & Chucks usually fall into one of two categories: A spindle with a male taper and the chuck having a female taper; or a spindle with a female taper, a chuck with a female taper and an adapter with a male taper on each end that goes between the chuck and spindle. Each style has their place, with the adaptor style being used more on the bigger Presses.

Alright, there’s your ‘taper background’, now let’s get specific. Drill Press tapers engage (‘seat’) best with a shock. I know some manufacturers who tell you to just push them together, but that’s not the best way. Let’s say that you have a Drill Press with a female tapered chuck and the spindle has the male taper sticking down. First, clean the tapers completely to remove any oil, grease or coating that could prevent metal on metal contact. My favorite solution to this is an old rag saturated with acetone (NOTE: if you use acetone, be aware that it is highly combustible). Next, once the tapers are cleaned, turn the chuck so as to retract the chuck jaws. Next, Place the chuck onto the spindle taper by hand. Finally comes the ‘shock’ part. Put a small 2X4 underneath the chuck jaw opening and use a small mallet (I have a 3lb sledge for this) to hit upward on the 2X4 (chuck bottom). One good sharp whack ought to do it.

Once the tapers are seated properly, they will usually remain engaged unless something too large or out of balance is put into the chuck.

Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.

V3.47 - Winter Time Static

You might have read this one before, but as we get into winter, static becomes and real issue so, here’s your (maybe twice yearly) reminder.

This week let’s talk about static electricity in your woodshop. I’m sure we’ve all experienced it when using our belt sanders, but it can show up on all rotating equipment and especially in your dust collector ducts.

Static electricity in a wood shop is mainly caused by two things. First is low humidity in the air. Static is especially troublesome in winter when the outside temperatures are low. A rule of thumb is the colder it is outside, the lower the humidity is inside a heated shop. As a result, static charge builds up easily and causes shocks when the electricity discharges through contact. The problem is even worse if a shop’s dust collection system exhausts its air outside the building. This builds an additional requirement for fresh air coming in and the fresh, cold air will have low humidity once it has been heated indoors.

The second thing that causes the static electricity problem is motion between two things. In the case of a belt sander, it is the motion between the belt, platen and pulleys that causes the build-up of electricity. In the case of the dust collector or Shop-Vac, it is the motion of the particles through the hose. There are two places where the charge can build up. One is in the machine the dust collector is attached to and the other is on the person who is operating it. Fortunately, grounding the frame of the machine will eliminate the buildup of the static charge. All fixed machinery, such as a table saw, jointer, planer etc., should have its frame grounded to a water pipe or at the very least, to the ground conductor or conduit sheath of the machine’s electrical wiring. Sometimes this is not possible, especially if the machine is electrically double insulated, as is the Shop-Vac.

Beyond grounding the machine, the best cure for static problems is to try to keep the humidity in the shop from getting too low. This can be done by using bag-type dust collectors that re-circulate the same air within the shop after the dust has been removed. These collectors will also reduce your heating bill. Other ways of adding moisture to the air, such as using humidifiers, are worth considering. Another thing you can do is wear shoes that bleed off the static charge rather than allowing it to build up.

Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you

V3,45 - Straightening Warped & Bowed Stock

We were talking about Industrial Planers (IP’s for short) and snipeing, but there is so much more to them than just snipe. Perhaps we had better start at the beginning. Some of this stuff is going to be good info for ALL planers.

So, we’ve discussed that planers are really ‘thicknessers’ and to let them do the best job they can, they need a flat board to start with. Let’s talk about shop setup. I’ve often been asked ‘when I’m putting a shop together, what are the first machines I should buy?’ It does depend on what your shop’s purpose will be, but just for this week, let’s say that the goal is a decent little Woodshop.

Your shop’s heart is the Table Saw. You really can’t get anywhere without one of those and a 10-inch Table Saw will be fine for all but the largest projects. I believe the next purchase is a good Jointer. The bigger, the better if you will be doing larger projects. Naturally, if you intend to build model airplanes, a 4-inch jointer would be fine. After that, it’s the Planer. Again, you’ll need to choose an appropriate size. Follow this up with a good Drill Press and then perhaps a good Bandsaw. Most projects can be done with this group. Sanders, Shapers, Lathes and Hand Power Tools are also part of a complete Woodshop.

Alright, so you now have a basic woodshop and have this board you need to make flat, so you can run it through your planer. First, use your Jointer and surface one side of it. “Surface” is the technique of flattening one of the wide ‘faces’ until it is smooth and flat. Once you’ve done that, place your surfaced face against the fence and make passes until one edge has been jointed. At this point, you will have two parts of the board flat and smooth, and they will be 90degrees to each other.

Now, take your piece to your Table Saw, place the surfaced face on the table, and the jointed edge against your fence. Rip the board to the width you need. Now you have a board with 3 flat and straight surfaces. Now you are ready to place the surfaced face on the Planer’s bed, set your thickness adjustment and run the stock through the Planer.

You now have a straight board, that is flat and the proper thickness. All that remains is to cut it to the proper length. Remember, measure twice, cut once.

Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you