Carl's Notes

Varnishing is hard. Especially since almost every woodworker I've been following on YouTube entirely skips over the whole process, going straight from "this is what it looks like before" to "this is what it looks like afterwards" in one jump cut.

What I really need is a text tutorial (NO, video tutorials do NOT work for me! I should write a post on why eventually...) that explains every step in the process. Also what to do when things look particular ways.

The very first thing I'd varnished was a small (four-inch in diameter) attempt at a wooden coaster, so a full paint brush basically drank more varnish than I was able to spread onto the surface. So I'd used a sponge brush instead, and it worked better in that situation.

In this situation, it didn't lay down enough varnish, and two thin coats didn't look like much.

Given the larger surface to cover, I brought the paintbrush back out, and it actually laid down enough varnish to almost look professional!

If it had been a smooth enough layer, I would have left it at that, but it needs sanding smooth again. Which means I need to know what grit of sandpaper to use to avoid making it worse...

So, today I took my benchtop drill press outside, and used a hole saw set I'd bought years ago to cut the slots in the support pieces for my monitor stand.

Turns out, I forgot to drill the holes for screwing the top part to the sides, so I'll need to pull it out again at some point.

First cut was like a hot knife through butter. Second one, the drive belt popped off twice, as apparently the screw holding the spindle pulley in place had loosened enough to allow said pulley to slide upwards, and eventually off the shaft entirely. Hence why the pulley cover popped open.

Once it was fastened back down again, I was able to continue with the other cuts. Not quite as smooth as the first one, but I think that was the speed it was being run at.

Anyway, I have some sanding to do to smooth out the edges of my cuts, then I can drill the screw holes in everything, and then I can coat the whole thing in varnish to see how it all looks in the end. Though I'll probably sand the whole thing lightly before the varnish, and probably do two coats of vanish to see how that turns out.

When my maternal grandfather passed away, he left no Will of any sort (or, he left everything to my mom before he went mental with the last thing he was sick with), so we cleaned out the place ourselves. This meant we could take things we wanted, as otherwise it was all getting thrown out anyway.

I got a few tools, including a vice, a drill press, a bunch of electronics parts, and an old Dremel-brand skill saw.

The vice needs some more bolts, as it was missing a few of them when I found it. Fortunately, I also found a box that looked like it fit (might even be its box, I'm not sure), so it's nicely contained on top of a shelf right now. But it's a really solid vice, enough that I'm pretty certain it'll be able to hold metal for drilling operations, so I'm pretty happy I have it.

The drill press works well. I've already used it to drill holes in an aluminum plate (the work plate for my Snapmaker Original, so I have more holes to clamp things down through), and had absolutely no problems with it at all. Definitely glad for that, too.
(I think the vice was actually screwed down to the drill press when we found it, so they should, apparently, work together)

The electronics parts have already been added to my collection, though I haven't done anything with the backlit LCD displays yet.

Now, the scroll saw. That has been a weird one, to be honest. First, since I don't know the history of Dremel, the company, and my first introduction was the rotary tool that (intentionally or unintentionally) bears the same name, I didn't know that they'd done anything else before that.

It's technically more than "just" a scroll saw. They've labelled it as a "Moto Shop" tool, as it does both scroll saw work, and has a power take-off for a sanding disk and a flexible-shaft tool that I'm pretty certain would eventually characterize their products.

Anyway, the first time I'd looked for its manual online, I'd found something that initially appeared to be what I was looking for, but certain details didn't match up. Eventually, I noticed that the depicted parts diagram had way more parts than mine had (including a blade release lever on top of the arm, among other things), and the document's title actually mentioned a different model than what I was looking for.
(also, to make things worse, the manual actually directed you to read the inside of the box it came in for certain things, like attaching the work table)

A further look (and ignoring all the links that pointed back to my initial find) found me a manual for a slightly older model, but all the parts I could see matched up very well, and it explained everything far better than the first manual I'd found. And with more actually descriptive words, too.

So today I finally took it to the backyard, took it apart slightly (mostly taking off the table, the lower arm cover, and the motor), and used a can of compressed air to blow all the sawdust out of it. Well, most of it, at least. I was able to blow at the majority of the mechanism, but the upper part of the arm isn't exactly accessible without turning the whole machine upside-down and taking the bottom plate off to reach everything. Then I lubricated the only joint I could find, that also had a felt pad to hold onto extra oil.

Then I brought out some wood I've been trying to cut with insufficiently-adequate hand tools, a pair of safety glasses, and an extension cord and gave it a try.

It's, well, apparently not intended to cut plywood as thick as three-quarters of an inch. The blade doesn't move quite far enough to properly clear the sawdust, so it was like pulling teeth to get it to cut. I'm pretty certain the blade actually isn't straight, either, and I don't have any spares at all if it'll be a problem.

A tool I'd also obtained from my late grandfather's place was an old, adjustable mitre saw system. And when I mean "adjustable", I mean that it's not your modern box, but a back plate, a wooden surface to cut through (should that happen), and an angle-adjustable brace to hold onto the back of the saw. Unfortunately, despite all my attempts, I haven't been able to get it to get close enough to a proper ninety-degree angle, so I got as close as I could, then stepped the cut away from where I wanted the cut to happen, and made the manual cut.

So I only had to "straighten" out the existing cut, but even then, the blade kept getting caught enough to vibrate the material somewhat alarmingly. Oh, and did I mention that we didn't find the spring-loaded brace that is supposed to hold the material you're cutting down? And that my grandfather had the blade in upside-down?

Anyway, to keep the blade from being trapped by the length of the cut I was trying to make, I notched into the area beside the cut I was trying to make, and would cut off each piece to make sure I wasn't trapping the blade for very long. Hopefully it also kept the sawdust moving more easily as well.

But still it wasn't quite enough for me to think that it was a feasible option. I did get nearly halfway across the eight-inch piece, and while the cut quality in the end was pretty good, I didn't have anywhere near enough accuracy to think that this was going to be the right option. My fingers had to get relatively close to the saw blade, and while I know for certain that the blade doesn't have enough power to pull the material in, this is the first time I've ever tried using power tools to cut wood, so it definitely made me a bit nervous.

I'll probably give it another go at some point, as it probably wasn't as concerning as I'd thought it was, but it's a bit more work than just having the initial mitre saw cut being at the right angle in the first place...