Archive for the ‘DIY’ Tag
I have used a DeWalt 735 planer for years … and used it enough that I’m now on my 2nd one. So far, so good.
However, the unit is not perfect. Last year, I replaced the cutter head with the Shelix spiral cutter, and that was a HUGE upgrade. At the same time, I added the Wixey digital gauge, and that was a welcome upgrade as well.
Today I’m dealing a simpler problem: the onboard Cursed Circuit Breaker that’s well known to wear, and then thermal out easily. And, once the breaker starts breaking, it breaks more easily every time.
My Cursed Circuit Breaker was worn out. It was popping every few minutes with practically no load at all on the planer. So, it’s time to change the breaker for a new one. The problem, though, was that even with a machine as common and sought after as the DW735, I could find no precise guidance online on how to swap the tired circuit breaker out for a new one.
Here, then, is a photo guide with notes for you to take into the shop when you want to make a similar switch. Start to finish, this took under 30 minutes … and I was searching for tools and taking pictures for you at the same time!
First, UNPLUG THE UNIT.
14 screws have to be removed to access the circuit breaker behind the front panel. To start, take off the top, just as if you are switching out the blades. That will give you access to 3 Phillips head screws across the top of the unit.
Then, take off the hex bolts on the bottom corners of the front face. The allen wrench I used must have been metric; it was larger than 7/64″. 3mm, perhaps?
Then, take off the toggle for the blade speed. Finally, take out the 3 screws holding the depth gauge face plate in place … so you can access the single Phillips head screw behind it that’s holding the front face in place.
Now you can gently lift and rotate down the front face plate, exposing the wiring for the switch and circuit breaker.
Slide the 2 spade plugs off of the circuit breaker, and you’re ready to unscrew the keeper ring from the front of the unit to free the Cursed Circuit Breaker. I needed a small pair of pliers to grip the nut.
With the nut off, the cursed circuit breaker can now be removed from the unit and compared side by side with its replacement.
The cursed Circuit Breaker in my unit was a Sang Mao A-0701 18a breaker. It was made in Taiwan and is actually fairly commonly available for about $10. I got a comparable model off of Amazon; this type of breaker is used in portable generators, apparently. But I digress.
Put the new circuit breaker in place, replace the spade plugs onto the contacts. Check the main switch as well … I had accidentally removed one of the spade plugs on the main switch. Easy enough to plug it back into place, replace each of the 14 screws … and I was once again back to making sawdust.
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Dust.
It’s the never-ending problem in my garage woodshop.
When I finish wood, I generate dust. Great, pervasive clouds of dust.
It drives Velda crazy. When I’m sanding, she really has no choice but to give up on housework. I become my own living version of Pigpen, and she knows that dust is going to come into the house, no matter what.
No. Matter. What.
I’ve got the big dust collection system, of course, but that is for the large tools like the Table Saw or the Drum Sander. Those tools are great as I begin to shape of the boards, and then smooth the glued-up blanks … but they have no place in finish sanding.
For that, I need hand tools. For that, I need sanding by hand. For that, I’m going to generate small dust particles, and there’s little to be done to collect that dust in my shop … so I thought I’d create my Do It Yourself Air Cleaning System.
I’ve seen this idea done with a plywood box containing the entire system, with air filters both in front of and behind the box fan. That was needless, I thought. I simply put one air filter behind the box fan so dust would be sucked onto the filter, and called it good. Come on, this is as low tech as you can get. Why complicate it with building a box to contain it?
The box fan was $40, and the filters are $4.50 each when you buy a 12-pack from Amazon. Does it solve the Pigpen problem? No. Does it help? Absolutely.
Dust does float … but then it lands.
The big dust collector sits unused when I go to finish sanding.
I have a lot of sanding to do. 70 boards are being finished this weekend.
I use two Bosch random orbital sanders. The 20 is the small, lighter sander I use for edges and corners. The larger sander is the 65, which is what I use for the tops & bottoms of every board. Use them, and dust flies – in spite of their stock, on-board dust filters.
Here’s the idea: a 20″ box fan on the end of the workbench …
… and a simple, disposable, air filter is in front of the box ban, trapping any air born particles that are sucked into the air going through the fan.
Air filter, in the beginning.
At the end of the first morning session.
At the end of the first day.
At the end of the second morning.
At the end of the second day.
At the end, the filter is covered … and then you throw it away.
Despite the efficacy of the DIYACS, dust still goes everywhere.
Here’s the floor where I’ve removed the anti fatigue floor mat … leaving relatively clean floor beside the dust-covered concrete.
The new batch of boards – about 70 of them! – was finished in time for our July 4th event in Ventura. Here are the cutting boards about to get juice grooves … 10 of them. And an odd small board, too.
17 small sous chef boards were finished.
A new novelty shape, actual surfboards … 11 are finished.
4 bread boards and another odd small board got finished.
9 of the cheese servers, commonly called surfboards are done. Love this design, but it generates a TON of sawdust at every step of the process..
Another new item, chess boards, finally got out of the shop.
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Getting a job done properly is not necessarily a sign of an amazing talent or skill. Sometimes its just having the right tool.
Knowing what the right tool is … now THAT is wisdom. Knowing how to use a tool? That’s a skill.
In my case, the right tool is a tattoo wash bottle.
Yup, of all the guys I know, a tattoo wash bottle is about the LEAST likely tool that I would ever need. But this tool gets the job done.
What job?
Our refrigerator has an automatic ice maker. Yes, I’m spoiled. The ice is made automatically without the need for those clumsy, broken ice cube trays.
When it works.
The problem is that the ice maker fills by directing the water to flow through a short, flexible black tube that focuses the stream through a chute and into the reservoir.
When it works.
When it doesn’t work, it’s always because the black tube has become frozen solid with an icicle that blocks the water flow. So, how do you unfreeze a tube with a minimum of fuss?
Solution # 1 was to call a repairman, before we knew about the unfocused ice accumulator that is our ice maker. The repairman put water in a nifty little injector with a long wire tip, and the problem was solved in moments. He left the house a bit richer, and I was standing there a bit poorer wondering why I was so ignorant of the ways of the ice maker. We didn’t call the repairman to unfreeze the black tube again.
Solution # 2 was to improvise a tool that could direct a stream of hot water into the black tube and unfreeze it. DIY at its best. Unfortunately, the closest we had was an old salad dressing squeeze bottle that had an short tip that was about 1/4″ across. That directed the water in the general direction, but the tip was too short and inflexible to get in the right position. The inevitable result was that water went everywhere when we had to unfreeze the ice maker.
And I do mean everywhere.
We put a dish towel under the ice maker to soak up all we could, but it was a total mess, every time.
So I began to search for a better tool. Once I found the tattoo squirt bottle, the amount of water needed to unfreeze the tube dropped from about 20 ounces to about 1 ounce. The mess went from really annoying to no mess at all.
I wasn’t any smarter. I wasn’t more skillful.
But I had the right tool.
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