This week was a week of tool breakdowns. The 40 year old router I was using in the table gave up the ghost and had to be swapped out. Then, on Thursday the table saw motor failed to start up. It just hummed. The roughing knife and the gouge needed to be sharpened to cut clean again. The latter part of the week was dedicated to fixing these issues in the shop.
| Thursday I had a short day in the shop. I had lessons in the afternoon and a gig that night. I only had a little time so I was going to trim some "B" stock and practice with my new router jig. I got to the shop, got my jig ready to trim chuck ends on the table saw, then switched on the saw and got a hum/buzz with no rotation. I was bummed. I spent my short period of time deducing what could be wrong. Friday morning I went to the parts house and bought a new capacitor for the motor and installed it with hopes it would fix it. Nope! I spent the afternoon diagnosing and finally brought the motor to Judice Electric. They rebuild electric motors there. They told me it could possibly be a dirty start up contact "in" the motor since its in a table saw. They wouldn't be able to get to it for several days. I asked them the difficulty of disassembling an electric motor and they explained it to me. I went back to the shop and opened it up, cleaned the contacts, reassembled and wired in the on/off switch. It fired right up. I was very happy that It was that simple. | 
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Friday also had the delivery of the much needed stones for sharpening the roughing knife and gouge. With the motor work, I didn't get a chance to do that. Saturday I went to the shop rather late since I'd played yet another gig Friday night and had another Saturday night and needed to sleep in a bit to get some much needed rest to think clearly. I had to make a vacuum hose holder for he grinder since I would be shaping the wheel for finishing the roughing gouge I'd started earlier in the week. It will make a lot of nasty dust in the room and it's not good for the respiratory system. Got that together and started shaping the wheel with the dressing stick I'd received Friday. YeeHaw, that was really kinda cool. I formed out an old "fine" wheel and the proceeded to finish sharpening the gouge. I got the gouge ground out and then put the finishing touches on it with the "India" stone and stick. I did a little touch up sharpen on the roughing knife and got them both back in the machine and made some adjustment trial runs. It was nice to see the gouge and knife I'd retooled from scratch were now cutting clean and I was getting a nice ribbon of woodcut from the gouge. It was very pretty to see.
I had pulled the back knives from the lathe to adjust the knife and gouge. I decided to sharpen/hone the tip/taper piece I'd been turning with. It was fairly easy as I used care not to cut myself in the process. I've been getting lots of requests for longer sticks and decided to try the longer straight back knife I had. I installed and made some adjustments. I made a trial cut and was very concerned when I saw lines cut into the turning and also many issues with diameter. What was going on? I pulled the knife and brought it to the workbench with good light. Upon closer inspection, I saw that there were imperfections in the blade edge from when it was sharpened at the machine shop. There were small areas missing out of the edge. Almost as if there were artifacts on the wheel that was used to sharpen it. I also discovered the diameter issues. It was not a totally straight edge. It looked straight to the naked eye, but as soon as I started honing the edge I could see what was going on when it cut. After cleaning up the bulk of the issues, I installed the knife and made some cuts. It was cutting much better and much cleaner. There is still some areas to "fix" but it will have to wait until the medium stone arrives next week. I'll have to hone out some more of the imperfections in the straight knife sections to get a truly straight drumstick. I had a good discovery lesson Saturday with the back knives.
Overall, it was a very productive week despite the challenging setbacks. I'm happy all of them were relatively easy to fix. I'm taking the day to do some house work and some much needed administration work. Thanks to everyone that has been showing tremendous support and interest in the drumstick endeavor. With the setbacks experienced this week, I hope to have some product ready to ship by the end of the week coming.
Hope y'all are well!
'til later....
I had pulled the back knives from the lathe to adjust the knife and gouge. I decided to sharpen/hone the tip/taper piece I'd been turning with. It was fairly easy as I used care not to cut myself in the process. I've been getting lots of requests for longer sticks and decided to try the longer straight back knife I had. I installed and made some adjustments. I made a trial cut and was very concerned when I saw lines cut into the turning and also many issues with diameter. What was going on? I pulled the knife and brought it to the workbench with good light. Upon closer inspection, I saw that there were imperfections in the blade edge from when it was sharpened at the machine shop. There were small areas missing out of the edge. Almost as if there were artifacts on the wheel that was used to sharpen it. I also discovered the diameter issues. It was not a totally straight edge. It looked straight to the naked eye, but as soon as I started honing the edge I could see what was going on when it cut. After cleaning up the bulk of the issues, I installed the knife and made some cuts. It was cutting much better and much cleaner. There is still some areas to "fix" but it will have to wait until the medium stone arrives next week. I'll have to hone out some more of the imperfections in the straight knife sections to get a truly straight drumstick. I had a good discovery lesson Saturday with the back knives.
Overall, it was a very productive week despite the challenging setbacks. I'm happy all of them were relatively easy to fix. I'm taking the day to do some house work and some much needed administration work. Thanks to everyone that has been showing tremendous support and interest in the drumstick endeavor. With the setbacks experienced this week, I hope to have some product ready to ship by the end of the week coming.
Hope y'all are well!
'til later....
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