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Woodworking Shop

Fall/Winter Upgrades
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Quick update, the upgrades are coming along well. We have a new jointer and sander, and the old ones have been sold. With the approval of the membership at the last meeting, I will be using our KMS rewards to purchase the bandsaw today, and that can be installed in the coming weeks. For the old saw, I already have someone interested in it, so that will probably be gone soon after. We also have a new fence and rails on the table saw, this is Sawstop's new base model fence that was launched last year, which is much smoother to operate than our old one.

The other big thing completed over the weekend is a flip-top cart to hold our planer and sander. This means no one will have to lug the planer up onto the bench, or worry about the old sander cart catching on a divot in the concrete and tipping over. The planer has a new Sheartak Helical cutterhead installed in it, both of these items and the labour to complete them were provided by Enbridge, through their employee grant program. A massive thank you to our member Mauricio, along with Narz and Nathan for coming out to work on these.


In total the new items are:


-Rikon 50-120 Belt/Disc Sander

-Craftex CZ06X 6" Jointer

-Laguna 14BX Bandsaw

-Sawstop Premium Fence Assembly for our table saw

-Sheartak 13" helical cutterhead for the Dewalt DW735 Planer


There is still work to do, the knives on the cutterhead still need to be installed (maybe we can do that on Wednesday?), the cart needs a drawer or brace on the underside to add some more rigidity, which needs to be at a specific height so that the tools don't bang into it as they flip around. The handle from the planer's crank wheel has been removed to save on width for the cart, a new shallow one can be 3D printed or turned on the lathe and installed back on.


Lastly, I want to thank Grant for installing the cable/breaker for a 220v hookup to power our new bandsaw. You might have already felt it keep our Space warm by powering the heater in the Hackitorium, and it can be moved once the new furnace install is completed.

At the front of the shop, you might see that we have a slowly growing pile of items for the woodshop. These are upgrades for existing tools we have in there, and I'd like to make sure everyone knows before I make too large of a move.


The three tools I've been looking at are the jointer, belt/disc sander, and bandsaw. At our next member's meeting, I'd like to get approval on using our Space's KMS rewards points to offset the cost of a new bandsaw, along with deciding what would be done with the old tools. If all seems well, I could have them in place by the end of that weekend, November 9th


Part of this upgrade will include a flip-top cart for our thickness planer and belt/disc sander (either old or new) This is what we are working on with Enbridge, along with a helical cutterhead for the planer. We would just need less than a sheet of plywood, following the common designs you can see online, I have a set of locking casters for that in one of the boxes up front. I'd like to have the cart ready for Enbridge to build/assemble by the end of next weekend is well.


After that, I think in November I'll run a few nights of workshop re-orientations for any members who wanted to familiarize themselves with the Industrial Arts room, and showcase the recent changes.

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