Trying to make a start

Timbuck

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Yesterday I serviced the bandsaw and fitted a new fastcut blade ready to start resawing a batch of Honduran mahogany slices for my 2018 first sopranos :)...This morning I decided to wait a while until the weather improves :(...Put the kettle on Janet we'll make a pot of tea instead !
PICT0049 (2) by Ken Timms, on Flickr
 
i bet the workshop smells lovely after all that mahogany re-sawing. I love that smell
 
Yesterday I serviced the bandsaw and fitted a new fastcut blade ready to start resawing a batch of Honduran mahogany slices for my 2018 first sopranos :)...This morning I decided to wait a while until the weather improves :(...Put the kettle on Janet we'll make a pot of tea instead !
PICT0049 (2) by Ken Timms, on Flickr

Looks a little bit like Santa's workshop on Christmas Eve. Soon the little elves will be busy making ukuleles.... I hear you on the wet and cold shop. Humidity? Ha! Cold? We laugh. Ha, ha, cough, ha, cough. If my fingers don't go numb I just don't feel like I'm getting into the spirit of the thing. Perhaps I should have two shops: One in Australia where winter is summer and one in North America where summer is winter? Since I make so much money selling ukuleles I can afford to have my own private jet and travel between my two shops... Speaking of downtime and servicing vital equipment, I really need to change out my band saw blade. It is time. I truly dread this chore. Plus I don't really know what the dimension of the damn thing are which means I need to take the old one off and measure it before I can order a new one. Somewhere between 80 and 100 inches is all I know. I love my bandsaw, but I do not enjoy servicing it. These are the things we do in winter.
 
When you find out the blade length...get a marker pen and write the size on the inside of the saw somewhere then you won't have to measure it any more :rolleyes:
 
With full tension on the current blade, measure...

The radius (R) of each wheel (a 14" wheel would = R 7") multiplied by 3.14 Then multiply that x 2 (since you have two wheels)

The distance between the center of the hubs of the two wheels (D) x 2

(R x 3.14) x 2 + (2 x D) = Saw blade length.

So on a 14" basic saw where the wheel hubs are 27" apart:
(7 x 3.14 = 21.98 x 2 = 43.96) + (2 x 27= 54) = 97.96 (98 inch blade)
 
With full tension on the current blade, measure...

The radius (R) of each wheel (a 14" wheel would = R 7") multiplied by 3.14 Then multiply that x 2 (since you have two wheels)

The distance between the center of the hubs of the two wheels (D) x 2

(R x 3.14) x 2 + (2 x D) = Saw blade length.

So on a 14" basic saw where the wheel hubs are 27" apart:
(7 x 3.14 = 21.98 x 2 = 43.96) + (2 x 27= 54) = 97.96 (98 inch blade)

Thanks for the tip. Here is another method that I think I'm going to use: Take off the blade. Take it to a flat spot like your shop floor. Hold the blade down on the floor with your foot and mark the blade and floor with a black marker. Then roll the blade along the floor until the black mark touches the floor again and make another black mark on the floor. Measure between the two black marks and you have your radius and thus your blade length.

How did I ruin my blade? Cutting 30 year old blocks of Gaboon west African ebony. Really, really beautiful stuff. Totally jet black with no grain lines. In a way I hate ebony. Looks and feels really nice but absolutely destroys my steel tools. Not only is it hard as hell, but contains minerals too. Never again. I score this one as Ebony one point, luthier zero.
 
Thanks for the tip. Here is another method that I think I'm going to use: Take off the blade. Take it to a flat spot like your shop floor. Hold the blade down on the floor with your foot and mark the blade and floor with a black marker. Then roll the blade along the floor until the black mark touches the floor again and make another black mark on the floor. Measure between the two black marks and you have your radius and thus your blade length.

How did I ruin my blade? Cutting 30 year old blocks of Gaboon west African ebony. Really, really beautiful stuff. Totally jet black with no grain lines. In a way I hate ebony. Looks and feels really nice but absolutely destroys my steel tools. Not only is it hard as hell, but contains minerals too. Never again. I score this one as Ebony one point, luthier zero.

Measure a broken blade.
 
I some times change over the bandsaw blades two or three times in a day..depending on what type of work I'm doing i'ts no big opperation..takes about 5-10 minutes in all...and keeps the bandsaw in good working order. :)
 
I some times change over the bandsaw blades two or three times in a day..depending on what type of work I'm doing i'ts no big opperation..takes about 5-10 minutes in all...and keeps the bandsaw in good working order. :)

Yeah, like a lot of things it is no big deal once you get comfortable with it, but I have never changed out a bandsaw blade and I'm filled with fear and loathing. I'll figure it out in the end as I always do. As I've pointed out before, I'm not really a tool guy and see them as a means to an end and not an end in themselves. I just want them to be quiet and do the job so I can get on with the job and make things. I couldn't care less how beautiful a smoothing plane is or how antique it is, I just want the damn thing to plane wood efficiently. Thus, I am not a true woodworker because really the efficiency of your tool means, if not everything, means a lot and I fall short here. I'm getting better at sharpening however and might actually enjoy it a little bit (just a little bit). I do get it, but I don't have to like it.

PS: I need to hire a tool sharpener. Valuable people.
 
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Started to get somewhere now on these two ..Well! that's the easy bit done ;) I was supposed to do a batch of six but I have now run out of kerfed linings :( and it looks like production will come to a halt until i've made some more "always something holding the job up" "and the workshop could do with a tidy up" "and the dust extractor needs emptying cos it's clogged up" ...I think I could be getting too old for this game :eek:ld:
PICT0005 by Ken Timms, on Flickr
 
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I thought you were Ken the King of Kerfing? Didn't you make a machine that turned them out by the mile (kilometer)?
Thats right..But first I have to re-saw the sticks...But! before that the dust extractor needs emptying..Then next I have to drum sand the sticks to size..But! before that the dust extractor needs emptying..Then I have to set up the kerfing machine on the bandsaw ..But! before that the dust extractor needs emptying.. Then I have to set up the bandsaw with the table at an angle to trim the kerfing to a triangle shape...But! before that the dust extractor needs emptying :wallbash:...Guess what the first job will be today? :anyone: ..Yes! it will be first go for a haircut..then! take wife to the dentist..call in at Tesco's for some groceries..walk the dogs..have lunch..Then ??? :confused:
 
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Ken,
have you thought about emptying the dust extractor?

That pairs lookin' mighty fine.

h
 
Now I'm starting to get somewhere today...I managed with the help of Mrs T to produce enough Kerfed linings to make twenty plus ukuleles this year..But I only have six ready made neck blanks in stock...and end blocks are running low as well :(
 
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What y'all don't know is Ken is managed to fit a little toolmaking job for me in-between all the above. Some ebony fingerboards coming your way my most excellent friend.

If you wan't to see what Ken did for me then tune it to my live broadcast on FaceBook tomorrow morning 9.00am BST. The man is a genius!
 
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