Sawdust

The other day I found myself pondering how to cut some bits of wood down to size for narrow shelves.  In the past, I would have grabbed the first bit, measured it up, marked it out, and clamped another piece of wood with a straight(ish) edge on as a guide, while clamping the whole thing to the bench, or some extension to the bench, or something, in such a way that running a hand held circular saw down the guide wouldn't saw the bench in half.  And then done it all again for the next piece.  And so on.  This classic DIY technique will work, but... (step)son Leo has a table saw.  With a table saw you can just set the guide using the built-in rule, and push the workpiece through the saw - that's it.  To do the next piece, you just push it through - no tedious marking each piece out separately.  So, I thought, I could take the (few) pieces of wood to Leo's... or I could just get on with it the old-fashioned way...  or I could buy myself a table saw...

So I started investigating on the world wide web-o-net.  It turns out you can buy an entry-level table saw from Screwfix which has a desirable 40-tooth blade, a monstrous 2hp motor, gets pretty good reviews, and comes with free delivery, all for the princely sum of £99.99. Really.  https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb674tas-254mm-table-saw-230-240v/9486j

You have to assemble it yourself, and reviewers mention that there are lots of nuts and bolts involved (as if that's some kind of drawback!).  So, I got one.  And it's all true!  Lots of nuts and bolts, and it works pretty well. The guide is only held at one end, which is a bit junior, but it's not too bad really. It may not be the most accurate device ever, but it certainly works.

£99.99!

It also make a horrendous amount of sawdust!  As you can see, it's fitted with pipes for a dust extraction system, so I started wondering about making one - possibly using the nice universal motor from the old washing machine.  Poor thing, it had started to behave rather erratically, stopping in odd places, but only in certain wash cycles.  I was all for mending it (or course), whereas the lovely Jackie wanted to throw it out and buy a new one immediately.  I did have a slight concern that it might be a bit hard to find the fault, because individually, all the bits seemed to work OK.  There were a few moments of stalemate, but then she pointed out that the poor thing was more than 18 years old, so it had served us well enough (including a couple of repairs along the way to keep me amused), and I relented.  We bought a new one, and I stripped down the old one for interesting parts.

Anyway, I was going to need a whirly chamber thingy from a bagless vacuum cleaner to catch the sawdust, so the next time I was at the "recycling centre" I took a look in the "small electrical" skip.  Nothing.  Who'd have thought it? Usually there are a few dead Dysons in there at least, but not this time.  So I tried Gumtree - and got a VAX vacuum for a tenner, from near where we used to live.  Of course, this one actually works, somewhat spoiling the project.  In fact it's practically new; it was left behind in a rental flat by the departing tenants.

dearly departing tenants...

All that's needed is to connect the (small) VAX hose onto the (big) dust extraction outlet.

I thought of a few possible ways to do it before I remembered the washing machine.  It was a washer-dryer, so it had lots of ducting and rubbery bits around the drum.  And lo!  It came to pass that the perfect part was already on site.  Here it is, installed.  

Note the absence of any need for clips (Jubilee or otherwise), tape, or any other bodgery.  It's all self-supporting. The big end fits snugly round the saw fitting, and the little end fits snugly into the VAX hose.  The redundant corrugated hose sticking out to the left is blocked by a snugly-fitting plastic bottle top.  Sadly, although the picture below make it look like evidence of my successful achievement of cold nuclear fusion, it's really just a green plastic bottle top illuminated by my phone camera's flash.

Cold nuclear fusion

Anyway, the whole arrangement works remarkably well.  There's a footswitch on the vacuum cleaner to turn on the extraction while you're busy at the saw controls, and with the handle removed, the whole thing fits underneath the saw table.  Marvellous!

The saw tilts, so I was able to make two 6ft long 45 degree wedges to stabilise the piano room's new IKEA Billy corner bookcase installation.  Unusually, the IKEA solution was not really good enough,  and left gaps between the upright edges.  No gaps for me!

Writing about the project being spoilt by getting one that still works reminds me of an episode from my youth.  When I was about 15, I started to get interested in electronics.  My father, who was an accountant, had a client who ran a TV shop with a repair shop in the back, so I asked if I could get a scrap TV to take to bits - you know, for "projects".  When it turned up, it was a fully working TV, which was obviously too good to take to bits.  Also, I now had a TV in my bedroom.  Thus were my early ambitions of earnest industry turned into idleness and lethargy by the generosity of a kind man.  Still, the idleness and lethargy are turning out to be quite useful in the long run.  They have much more application in today's world than a modest understanding of thermionic valve circuitry.