Finished up another dovetail saw today and started on a joiners saw.

Last time I posted I was working on my frame saw kits. Blades I used to cut slots were unfortunately heating up and warping. So I decided to use my bandsaw. My 10 inch craftsman. I have a pulley kit that slows it down and my results were much better. Slot isn’t wide enough so a new blade got ordered today. New ones are on the bottom, 1st prototype on top.

Speaking of bandsaws. If you recall, I bought another craftsman for $20 bucks a few weeks ago. Well I sold it for $50 and bought a grizzly 14 inch one for $100. Couldn’t believe my luck. Local older guy was clearing out his garage I guess. Selling some nice tools really cheap. I didn’t think it would hurt to ask if he had a bandsaw. He did! Early 2000s one but much bigger than what I had with a 1hp motor vs the little 1/3. He was using it to resaw. And then after I got it in he said oh yea here this goes with it, a riser kit! So yea, I brought it home and sold one of the craftsman.

I also recently got an older shopsmith setup as a drill press. Fantastic drill press too. And then a couple weeks ago I was driving past this shop. I go in sometimes to talk to these two semi retired guys, talk shop. They are clearing out the place. Big trash can and everything. They are expanding it and out with the old and in with the new. Laying on the ground are a couple 16 inch delta floor drill presses. I figured they were trashed but was thinking I might want to cut a base off. They said I could have them. Said they run too but they have their issues. One had a bad base, one had a bad quill. One had a motor that might need bearings soon, one had a seized idler pulley and one was missing the table track. I swapped bases, freed up a stuck pulley, swapped motors even though it actually sounded decent, shined up all the metal and for the last couple of weeks I’ve been using a great drill press. It’s a beast and weighs a ton. A days worth of work and I couldn’t be happier. The shopsmith is now a dedicated lathe and I couldn’t help myself, I got another one I’m using as a sanding and buffing station.

Frame saw hardware is coming along nicely and will be tested soon. I wanted to make sure cost, time, and labor all worked out well before really posting these. Thankfully I’ve worked out a few things that I think will make this worthwhile. Overall they are pretty basic but consistency is important if I want to offer them to people. I also have two more frame saw plates ready to tooth and two tenon saw plates.

I have the beginnings of hardware for frame saws on the bench. Recently got a D12 sent out and today I made a good bit of progress on some saws. I do things in small batches, or at least try to.

I’m waiting on some material to arrive but I still have plenty to do while I wait.

I’m not selling finished frame saws, so it’s up to the customer to drill the holes in the end of the plate. But…. I like to test my plates before I ship. I needed a way to stiffen the plate and hold it at the same time. A couple clamps and a scrap piece of wood works wonderfully! Can’t cut all the way through but I know the teeth cut and the set is good.

I keep finding small things I need to do or setup in order to do these 4 foot plates. I just moved my setter. Originally on one end I had enough space for a long miter saw, but turned out not enough for one of these plates before I hit the garage wall. So it got moved. Not really a hard thing to do but because my bench top is so thick I had to crawl under and recess a small area.

I’ve also had to wait for larger files to arrive in the mail. They showed up today and I’m officially ready to knock out these plates. Now time to play with making hardware. While I waited on files, I have kept busy with other saw stuff. 9 handle blanks were prepared today. I start with a rough cut out. Mortise and slot them, and then I cut out the rest of the shape as long as the mortise and slot are spot on. Lucky for me, all 9 are good to go on to the next stage.

Lastly, I cleaned up this D-8 this morning. Toothed it to 5 tpi.

I prefer jointing a plate in nice full strokes from one end to the other. On the backside of my bench I added a pivoting piece of wood and with some clamps I can now do just that. 4 foot plate just got jointed! Very happy at how easily and simply this went. Each step i get setup makes future plates easier and faster to do.

I couldn’t help myself, I bought another shopsmith. This is an older 1953 10er. For now it is setup as a drill press. Great thing about these older ones is that there are no secondary way tubes. So it can have a small footprint as a drill press. Everyone needs a big heavy drill press!

As for saws, I planed down some curly maple adding to my stock of ready to cut handle stock. This was my first time planing small pieces in the planer on a sled with double sides tape. Very happy with the results.