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Building things
Jul. 26th, 2010 11:40 amBuilding things to build things to build things to build things.
So... Eventually we're going to redo the roof on our house.
But before that, we're working on the stairs.
But before we work on the stairs, we needed a masonry saw with > 18 inches of travel and a clearance of 10 inches in height. A table-saw design would maybe work except that those are dry-cut and burn through expensive blades more quickly than wet cut.
Most of the wet cut saws, of course, do not have the sorts of parameters described or cost a good deal of money.
So... Found a dry-cut saw on Craigslist for $40 that could optionally be converted to a wet saw. We have a submersible pump already so we're going to hook that up to it for the water feed.
Then there was the matter of the bricks not fitting in the saw. Most bricks you just want to cut straight across but these we need to cut off part of the lip that sticks up. The saw also didn't have sufficient travel.
So... Designed a jig to make the saw height adjustable. Went to router it and ran into frustration there. The router type I have (had) was a plunge router.
Before I could build the jig for the saw for the bricks for the stairs so we could work on the roof, I first had to redesign my router.
I'd hoped to keep it functional as both a plunge router and a table router but ultimately it was not destined to be. I had to cut some chunks out of it with the angle grinder so that it would work properly as a table router and this required tearing apart it's motor. Happily, I found the router at a community garage sale and only paid $25 for it. More happily, all my modifications to it work and I now have a rather decent table router. I think I may make a joined guide for it next but it's okay for now.
Started work on the jig but due to some scheduling getting flipped around, I won't get to finish building it until tomorrow.
THEN maybe I can start cutting some bricks and then we can get to work on the stairs.
Stacey says if we can get them finished before Burning Man, we might be able to go to burn. That's 32 days away and there are ~60 stairs. That's only 2 a day. I can do that, right? :)
So... Eventually we're going to redo the roof on our house.
But before that, we're working on the stairs.
But before we work on the stairs, we needed a masonry saw with > 18 inches of travel and a clearance of 10 inches in height. A table-saw design would maybe work except that those are dry-cut and burn through expensive blades more quickly than wet cut.
Most of the wet cut saws, of course, do not have the sorts of parameters described or cost a good deal of money.
So... Found a dry-cut saw on Craigslist for $40 that could optionally be converted to a wet saw. We have a submersible pump already so we're going to hook that up to it for the water feed.
Then there was the matter of the bricks not fitting in the saw. Most bricks you just want to cut straight across but these we need to cut off part of the lip that sticks up. The saw also didn't have sufficient travel.
So... Designed a jig to make the saw height adjustable. Went to router it and ran into frustration there. The router type I have (had) was a plunge router.
Before I could build the jig for the saw for the bricks for the stairs so we could work on the roof, I first had to redesign my router.
I'd hoped to keep it functional as both a plunge router and a table router but ultimately it was not destined to be. I had to cut some chunks out of it with the angle grinder so that it would work properly as a table router and this required tearing apart it's motor. Happily, I found the router at a community garage sale and only paid $25 for it. More happily, all my modifications to it work and I now have a rather decent table router. I think I may make a joined guide for it next but it's okay for now.
Started work on the jig but due to some scheduling getting flipped around, I won't get to finish building it until tomorrow.
THEN maybe I can start cutting some bricks and then we can get to work on the stairs.
Stacey says if we can get them finished before Burning Man, we might be able to go to burn. That's 32 days away and there are ~60 stairs. That's only 2 a day. I can do that, right? :)
