Jun 29 2019 Full of Air

“I love being outside and getting fresh air.”

Marisa Tomei

A lot has happened since I last wrote in here, the least of all: I bought a new carpenter pencil sharpener and I just spent a few minutes sharpening every pencil I could find. What I can’t figure out is why I didn’t do that years ago. I have three sharpeners, none of them work very well. I have struggled with them for years.

The good things I made a deal for an old compressor, so I can finally start sandblasting. I didn’t need the compressor or motor, just the tank. The owner lived a hefty four-hour drive away each way. When I mentioned that he offered to meet me halfway. It was a generous offer. I told him I only needed the tank and that he could keep the old compressor and motor for resale to help pay for the delivery. That turned out to be a good decision the tank alone was massive and heavy the whole compressor would never have fit inside the old van.

I met his driver halfway, we used the crane on his truck to wiggle it to the van. I drove it home. In the picture it looked like a 60 gallon tank, but I am sure it is double that. Actually I think it is an 80 gallon from what I have been able to find on the internet. I still think its bigger than that. I did my grocery shopping for the month packed it around the tank and drove home. I did make a stop at my tool store described below.

Of course, I couldn’t wait to unload it. which I did. I wrestled the three hundred pound tank under cover just before our daily rainstorm. Next day I drove into town and picked up a few parts to do a repair and conversion to make it work for me. Did I mention that every muscle in my body hurts and even walking is difficult, from wrestling that old tank.

Home ready for refit

refit started

The next good thing I started to do research about a router table a few days ago. I have been talking about building one for a few years, but never got anywhere with that. I started to check reviews and I found two both made by Bosch ra1811 and an older cabinet model the Ra 1171. The reviews said hands down The ra1811 was better in a lot of ways.

Then I started checking prices the Ra1811 was $348.00, it was out of my budget. I thought I would settle for the cheaper one. Then I saw that the one I wanted was on sale half price at my favorite tool place it was only $229. In budget. I called and told them to hold the last one in stock on the last day of the sale. I knew that this item would never be that low again, so I thought.I just saw that the price dropped on Amazon to match. Too late Amazon. Next day the price went up even higher to $357.

I spent most of the day yesterday assembling it from very bad instructions. And off course they were also wrong for my router. I will admit it was a challenge, and I am still working on it. Still, I am very impressed with the solid aluminum table. I finally got my router to line up I have a Craftsman, bought it when they meant something in Canada.

The instructions said to use the e holes, that didn’t work, so I thought I would try them all starting with the (do I have to say it) the A hole when I got to D it worked out. Except my screws were too long. I had visions of driving another 40 k to find three little screws. There was a small baggy with screws that came with the table, my enthusiasm started to grow. Until I realized I needed fine threads and all of these seemed to be coarse thread. Then I saw three little black screws with fine thread. I tried them and they fit. Thank God for the man or woman on the Bosch design team that made sure those were there.

Last thing I need to do is build a cart that the router table-top would fit in. The same height as my table saw which has a 16-foot extension table, just waiting for this day, I am going to finish doing a bead and cove edge on some cedar strips meant to finally build my canoe I had planned so many years before.

The delay was caused by a table saw failure. Long story, you can find that here OMG that was 5 years ago, that long since I had a router table, it was built into my table saw.

I don’t need it right away but it will become one of the most used tools in my shop. I am excited about that.