What did you do today

[Tom&Shelly]

I have a gizmo on the table saw that automatically turns on a shop vac. Like it so much I decided to get another one for the band saw, and installed it this morning



Trick is that the band saw (and table saw) are connected to a 20 amp circuit while the vacuums are connected to a 15 amp circuit. That way they don't trip the breaker. Makes the gizmo a bit more complicated and expensive. Had to tweak the sensitivity a little so the vacuum doesn't turn on from the current of the lamp integrated into the saw. Now it works well.

For a long time, I wanted a central vacuum and chip collector for the shop, but eventually decided that would be difficult and expensive, whereas finding old shop vacs in thrift stores is easy, so one per tool is okay.

Tom

[MickinOz]

Very good mate.
If I ever get out of procrastination mode, I may do the same.

Here in Oz, where we have twice the volts and half the amps, we can buy shopvacs that have a power outlet built in. I dunno exactly how they work but as soon as you start the power tool, the shopvac starts, and runs until you stop the power tool.

[Tom&Shelly]

Very good mate.
If I ever get out of procrastination mode, I may do the same.

Here in Oz, where we have twice the volts and half the amps, we can buy shopvacs that have a power outlet built in. I dunno exactly how they work but as soon as you start the power tool, the shopvac starts, and runs until you stop the power tool.

Another reason we should have gone with the higher voltage in North America. All Edison's fault!

I have another box for tools that draw less current. On that one, you plug in the tool and the vacuum. The box senses current flow from the tool, turns on the vacuum a few seconds later (to avoid simultaneous power surges from the motors in the tool and vacuum), and then has a time delay after the tool is turned off so the vacuum cleans out the hose before shutting off. Single plug, and it works off of the same circuit. That box must be built in, in the Australian shop vacs.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Spent the morning on one of my favorite activities: making something useful for free out of the junk in our basement!



Many shop vacs take a hose with a 2 1/4 inch plastic pipe on the end, that simply fits by friction. Unfortunately, many of our thrift store finds lack the hose, and replacement hoses seem to cost around $25 or more, making the net savings not as much as we would like. However, when taking apart a Dirt Devil upright vacuum, I discovered that the part the bag fits over is also 2 1/4 inches, and, once removed and a sort of half round part sawed off, fits shop vacs nicely!



For the other end, I had a hose to a Hoover vacuum that had a piece that clamped on the bottom, under the carpet brush. That vacuum was stolen when some kids broke into the cabin 15 years ago. (They lost cool points among their druggy friends for stealing a vacuum. They also, inexplicably, forgot to steal the attachments.) Shelly had previously sawed the clamp part from the rest of the hose, trying to make some sort of drainage system for a planter. It wasn't used in the end, but I discovered the sawed off part jams very nicely into the non-standard vacuum port on the scroll saw. (They are all non-standard, or more precisely, each tool seems to have its own standard. This one was an inch and a quarter.)



Incidentally, the Dirt Devil hose flexes better and is much higher quality than the Hoover hose. Go figure.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Finally made a good home for our shop's scroll saws



The table frame was actually something I knocked together at the beginning of our teardrop build. I'd bought a bunch of the electrical fixtures and wanted an organized way to test them, and verify my wiring plan.



Eventually, everything came off and went into the tear. I did make one improvement to the frame: I added leveling casters that came from a stove we replaced last year.

The "new" top came from a K-Mart desk (yes, it's that old!) The plywood reinforcing the sides and holding the outlets came from the scrap from voids cut into the tear walls. We bought the cat litter to use as weight on the tear walls as we glued things together. This is both a convenient place to store them, and mitigates the vibration from the saws.

That thing between the saws is a router table for a Dremel tool. Looks nice. Shelly bought it and neither of us have used it yet, so I can't comment on performance.

The metal Shop Vac vacuum is set up to turn on automatically when the Ryobi scroll saw is running



I mounted the Senctrl box upside down because the cord seemed to fit better that way. I wired the outlets upside down because that's the way we do things in New Mexico! (My father-in-law was an electrical contractor and told me they were required by some statute to do it that way in commercial buildings in case a metal ruler fell down straight into a badly plugged outlet. Then, it would hit the ground first. My guess is that some inspector somewhere was teasing a new electrician, and he didn't get the joke, but grew up and wrote the statute. Whatever!) The outlets are white and the plates are tan because that's what was in the junk in the back room, for some reason.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

This morning I translated some Chinese and read a description of computer networking suitable for an introduction to a basic undergraduate text book. Amazing what you can find right here in tnttt.com!

No opportunity this time to quote my favorite old* Russian Proverb: "Oligarchs should beware of windows in tall buildings". Perhaps it will come up with some future spam.

Tom

* Almost a year old.

[bdosborn]

I updated the electrical warning labels on the inverter. I wonder which one people will pay attention to?





Bruce

[TimC]

I updated the electrical warning labels on the inverter. I wonder which one people will pay attention to?
...
Bruce

Thanks for that post Bruce. That reminds me, I need to get a label for my solar array combiner that notifies any utility/firefighters that the array is NOT connected to the grid.

[bdosborn]

Thanks for that post Bruce. That reminds me, I need to get a label for my solar array combiner that notifies any utility/firefighters that the array is NOT connected to the grid.

Yeah, I think I might have gone a little overboard on the labeling but Amazon has pre-printed PV labels if you need some.
Bruce

[noseoil]

[Tom&Shelly]

We had some nice weather days last week, so I went out and thinned a few trees behind the garage. Then Winter returned, which is good since the freezing weather keeps the bark beetles from being attracted to the smell of fresh cut pinion, and so I've been in the workshop with a draw knife, peeling the bark from the poles



Lumber, completely free, except for a bit of work getting it! I've thought about going after some large ones to use as legs for a miter saw station (for example) but, since you can only cut them in the winter, and they need to dry for weeks (longer for larger diameters), the price of 2 x 6's really doesn't seem so bad after all.

On the other hand, if you want rustic log furniture, you can either buy vigas and latias--although I haven't bought any in years, and am not sure one can still get them, or for what price--or you can go out in the woods and hunt your own. I'm concentrating on the smaller stuff this year because I recently discovered there is a market for doll house (1/12 scale) rustic furniture. I know of a dozen or so folks around the country who make full size rustic furniture, but as far as I know, I'm the only one working (or about to be) in the miniatures market.



Of course, this is Shelly's main business these days. She's busy designing and making 3D resin printed doll house lighting and furnishings. Then, come Summer, we become itinerant doll house furniture salesmen, traveling to a few shows back East.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Today I stuck a platform above our scroll saw bench and installed some surplus under-counter lights under it. Also gave us some light weight storage, for empty boxes we're keeping to transport our 3D printers to Upstate NY and back.



It's stuck up there with hooks in the ceiling in the front and two angle brackets in the back. Plenty strong enough; unless it comes crashing down someday, then it isn't.

Tom

[bdosborn]

Is that a Luxo light on your bench? They tended to get thrown out with the drafting table they were attached to, at least that's how I got mine.
Bruce

[Tom&Shelly]

Is that a Luxo light on your bench? They tended to get thrown out with the drafting table they were attached to, at least that's how I got mine.
Bruce

I'm not sure. We found a box of them at a thrift store in Taos and bought three. Might have originally come from a drafting shop classroom at a high school or college, or perhaps a small engineering business somewhere in Northern New Mexico. Didn't have the clamps they probably originally came with, so I made some bases out of 8 lb weights (also from a thrift store).

No branding, and they are a little annoying in that no matter how tight you make the finger screws, they won't always stay where you put them. The switches are a little stiff too, which would make sense if they came from a shop classroom or someplace else where they had minor abuse.

Tom

PS--Just looked up the cost of the equivalent looking Luxo light, and we didn't pay that much!

PPS--The Caution label (75 watt or smaller), says "Made in China" so, with the quality of the lights, I'm guessing cheap knockoff.

[bdosborn]

PS--Just looked up the cost of the equivalent looking Luxo light, and we didn't pay that much!

So I had to look up how much the Luxo I have is and holy cats! I had no idea. And I almost threw it away awhile back...
Luxo Light

Bruce