I've decided its time to stop bummin around and finally set up shop and start building more guitars. I started setting up shop, but had to move my tools yet again due to some personal business in my life. I finally got my tools moved and have since been working on setting up a legitimate, functional workshop.
About a year ago, I made an attempt to set up shop again, but progress was slow and financial constraints kept it so. I found a great plan for a rock solid plywood workbench on Fine Woodworking's website at http://www.finewoodworking.com/Workshop/WorkshopArticle.aspx?id=29507 and built the workbench to the plan with a few dimension modifications to fit my space and height requirements. It is built with a pretty simple and neat system of plywood lamination to make perfectly fitting mortise and tenon joints(see article for details). Here are a few photos of the workbench construction:
Glueing up the leg slats. The plywood pieces sticking out are spacers covered in tape to leave a gap which becomes the mortise:
In the photo below, you can see the horizontal slat with the center laminated plywood piece being longer becoming the tenon:
All the pieces glued up and ready for assembly:
The completed bench:
My tiny shop space was originally intended to be an extra bedroom, so the closet also became a workbench space:
At the same time that I built the workbench, I also built a router table using the same system of laminated plywood mortise and tenon joinery. Table top is a Rockler HPL table setup. I have a Bosch 1617EVSPK router mounted in the table and it works like a champ. This is one solid router table:
This years tax return was pretty decent, so I decided to blow it on a drum sander, which I will be using very shortly to thickness a guitar top and perhaps an electric body blank soon. They had a great deal on the sander, so I was able to get the infeed/outfeed table attachments, which I have read are a must for this sander.
With things getting serious and my shop being tiny, I decided that before I can use any of my fancy tools that I need to set up some dust collection. I lost a few parts from my el cheapo harbor freight dust collector, so I decided to seek out replacements. In doing so, I stumbled upon a canister conversion to improve efficiency of the dust collector as well as letting less fine dust back out into the air. The info on these kits can be found at Wynn Environmental's website. I also decided that, in order to save space in the shop, I would put the dust collector in the next room over, which conveniently happens to be where my breaker box is located with a separate 20 amp circuit perfect for dedicating to the dust collector. I picked up a dust-right through the wall port kit from rockler to make things look nice.
Here is the dust collector with the cartridge filter and wall port:
The next step was to also run the dust collection plumbing to my tools. This turned out to be a bigger and more expensive task than I anticipated. Most of the hose is 4" with 2 1/2" hose running to the drill press fence and the router table fence. I just have a few more lines to run along the back stucco wall and my dust collection system will be complete.
The shop side of the dust port. I have 2 blast gates on each side of the Y to isolate each half of the shop and save on CFM since the dust collector isn't the greatest piece of machinery. I have tested the system out and it takes care of most of the dust created by the machines:
There were just 2 upgrades needed on this bad boy. First off, the jointer only had a dust chute with no dust collection hookup, so I ordered a dust hood with a 4" port for a whopping $2.25 from Grizzly. Secondly, the knives were pretty dull, so I decided to replace the cutterhead with a spiral cutterhead from Grizzly, which is currently on sale for $25 off. Grizzly shipped my order out just a couple days after I ordered it, so I was able to get it in this weekend. The new cutterhead came with new bearing blocks and a pulley attached so
its just a matter of taking off the fence and cutterhead guard,
loosening a few nuts, taking the old one out and dropping the new one in.
The old cutterhead comes out...
And the new one drops in:
In my search for a jointer, I contacted a guy on craigslist who had a bunch of Jet tools for sale. The jointer was gone, but he did have a planer and an air filtration unit for sale, so I went to check stuff out. The planer was pretty rusty, so I decided to pass on it, but the air filter had never been used and I was able to score it for $150. Not bad considering these things retail for about $370. The filter was junk, so I decided to upgrade it to a washable filter and picked one up from Rockler with a coupon for about $40. Mounting the thing was a pain. Not only was it heavy, but the floor joists where I was mounting it were nowhere near 16" apart so I had to mount some 2x4s to the ceiling to attach the air filter.
Well, that is where I'm at. I think that on Monday, I may find some new overhead lighting, because the current lighting situation is very poor. It's pretty nice when the sunlight is coming through the window, but it's nearly impossible to work there after the sun goes down.
Here are a few shots of the tight space I have to work in. Luckily, most of the bigger tools have casters, so I can move things around depending on what I need to work with. No space will be wasted.
Several months ago, I purchased a plan from LMI for a Selmer model 807 guitar, the original Gypsy jazz machine I also got a top, but still need to find some veneers for the back and side laminations. I started making a full body template, which just needs a little bit of final smoothing, and it will serve as the template for making a mold and side laminating forms. I'm hoping that I will have a finished mold for the next post.
About a year ago, I made an attempt to set up shop again, but progress was slow and financial constraints kept it so. I found a great plan for a rock solid plywood workbench on Fine Woodworking's website at http://www.finewoodworking.com/Workshop/WorkshopArticle.aspx?id=29507 and built the workbench to the plan with a few dimension modifications to fit my space and height requirements. It is built with a pretty simple and neat system of plywood lamination to make perfectly fitting mortise and tenon joints(see article for details). Here are a few photos of the workbench construction:
Glueing up the leg slats. The plywood pieces sticking out are spacers covered in tape to leave a gap which becomes the mortise:
This years tax return was pretty decent, so I decided to blow it on a drum sander, which I will be using very shortly to thickness a guitar top and perhaps an electric body blank soon. They had a great deal on the sander, so I was able to get the infeed/outfeed table attachments, which I have read are a must for this sander.
Here is the dust collector with the cartridge filter and wall port:
The next step was to also run the dust collection plumbing to my tools. This turned out to be a bigger and more expensive task than I anticipated. Most of the hose is 4" with 2 1/2" hose running to the drill press fence and the router table fence. I just have a few more lines to run along the back stucco wall and my dust collection system will be complete.
The shop side of the dust port. I have 2 blast gates on each side of the Y to isolate each half of the shop and save on CFM since the dust collector isn't the greatest piece of machinery. I have tested the system out and it takes care of most of the dust created by the machines:
A while back, my little craftsman jointer was stored in a wet basement and got some nasty rust accumulation. A couple weeks watching craigslist and I found a Grizzly G1182HW 6" jointer for $200. Not bad, considering they are around $450 plus freight on Grizzly's website.
The old cutterhead comes out...
An hour or so of setting the outfeed table, squaring the fence, and getting the motor re-mounted to minimize vibration, and it's cutting quite nicely:
In my search for a jointer, I contacted a guy on craigslist who had a bunch of Jet tools for sale. The jointer was gone, but he did have a planer and an air filtration unit for sale, so I went to check stuff out. The planer was pretty rusty, so I decided to pass on it, but the air filter had never been used and I was able to score it for $150. Not bad considering these things retail for about $370. The filter was junk, so I decided to upgrade it to a washable filter and picked one up from Rockler with a coupon for about $40. Mounting the thing was a pain. Not only was it heavy, but the floor joists where I was mounting it were nowhere near 16" apart so I had to mount some 2x4s to the ceiling to attach the air filter.
Well, that is where I'm at. I think that on Monday, I may find some new overhead lighting, because the current lighting situation is very poor. It's pretty nice when the sunlight is coming through the window, but it's nearly impossible to work there after the sun goes down.
Here are a few shots of the tight space I have to work in. Luckily, most of the bigger tools have casters, so I can move things around depending on what I need to work with. No space will be wasted.
Several months ago, I purchased a plan from LMI for a Selmer model 807 guitar, the original Gypsy jazz machine I also got a top, but still need to find some veneers for the back and side laminations. I started making a full body template, which just needs a little bit of final smoothing, and it will serve as the template for making a mold and side laminating forms. I'm hoping that I will have a finished mold for the next post.
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