Tooltopia

[oldsfan442]

Great looking garage and great looking Toyota. Do you have more pics of the Toyota? Been looking for a project like that and yours looks amazing. Thanks in advance.]

Bryan

 

[loosewingnut]

After seeing a couple of the garages in here, I got side tracked a little bit from the welding cart. I decided I wanted a little heat in the garage so I bought some garage door insulation and started installing it. It is the last part of the garage that isn't insulated yet. I have to admit that I am not looking forward to doing all the cuts to get the insulation around the windows.

 

[Kevin54]

Loose.......First off, and I may have missed it, but how is you grandfather? Back home I hope.

The question I have, how do you like your radial arm saw? The reason I ask is that it's sort of a rarity to see people with them anymore, or do most people that work in wood as yourself have them? Everyone I know that had RA's practically had to give them away and purchased a compound miter saw, or a compound sliding miter saw. I know you've used them, but do you feel you have more precision with the RA over a CMS?

 

[loosewingnut]

Loose.......First off, and I may have missed it, but how is you grandfather? Back home I hope.

The question I have, how do you like your radial arm saw? The reason I ask is that it's sort of a rarity to see people with them anymore, or do most people that work in wood as yourself have them? Everyone I know that had RA's practically had to give them away and purchased a compound miter saw, or a compound sliding miter saw. I know you've used them, but do you feel you have more precision with the RA over a CMS?

My grandfather was never able to go back to his house. He never did gain enough mobility. He had to stay at the nursing home. In all though, it turned out pretty good for him because growing up at my parent's house there was a nursing home literally next door. What had been a massive pain in the **** growing up became a real god send. My grandpa was able to go to my parent's house every day and stay there until early evening. It allowed all of us to get to spend a bunch of time with him every day. He passed away several years ago. He was a great man and that is one of the reasons why I cherish the tools I got from him.

In terms of radial arm saws I must say I love them. They are a great tool and a real pleasure to use. I always use my radial arm saw before my sliding miter saw or my miter saw. Radial arm saws have a reputation for being inaccurate and unsafe. The biggest reason for this is the glut of cheap ones out there. There are tons of cheap 10" craftmans out there. These saws can be very inaccurate, or more truthfully stated, they lose their accuracy easy if bumped or moved. This is not a flaw with the radial arm saw, but a flaw with a cheap tool. It is the same as any cheap tool, it might do the job, just not that well. The heavy duty RAS are awesome and very accurate.

RAS excell at two things: crosscuts and dados. (these are wide crosscuts or non woodworkers out there) They can do a lot of other cuts too, but that is when they get more dangerous. If I had to do a long rip cut, (and I didn't have a table saw)I would rather use a circular saw than use the RAS. I do not recommend them for anything other than cross cuts and dados.

Another reason they get a bad reputation for inaccuracy is that they are more complicated to tune than other saws. They have a few more steps and most people don't know how to do it properly.

RAS can be had for super cheap used and are really the best crosscut tool if you have the room. I passed up a great delta 12" not too long ago for $150 that was in great condition. It practically killed me, but I am not a tool collector, nor do I have the room for a second.

 

[loosewingnut]

Great looking garage and great looking Toyota. Do you have more pics of the Toyota? Been looking for a project like that and yours looks amazing. Thanks in advance.]

Bryan

Thank you very much. I love that land cruiser. I needed a project car so I could keep my tools working. It is a great project car too because you can take off most of the panels to get to everything, is high enough to roll on a creeper without jacks, and has room to reach everything. There is a great group at IH8MUD.com to help with any mechanical problems too. Here is the couple of pictures I had on this computer.

 

[loosewingnut]

Look what I found! I have been looking on craigslist and ebay for about 2 months looking for a good deal on a dust collector. I got this baby for $120 and it came with 1 micron bags and a lone ranger remote control! I wanted it so that I could use my router, tablesaw, orbit sanders, and planer without wheeling my other dust collector over. Since my cruiser sits in the garage alot, it can be a pain. Now I just need to figure out where to put the darn thing. After cleaning it up, it looks brand new. The whole neighborhood however is now covered in dust. I will post a clean pic when I snap one.

 

[BJ42LX]

Thank you very much. I love that land cruiser. I needed a project car so I could keep my tools working. It is a great project car too because you can take off most of the panels to get to everything, is high enough to roll on a creeper without jacks, and has room to reach everything. There is a great group at IH8MUD.com to help with any mechanical problems too. Here is the couple of pictures I had on this computer.

Rear disc brake conversion. Nice.

 

[lilscorpion]

I really like out our space. Well thought out. How did you edge your radial saw top? Looks slick!

 

[loosewingnut]

I really like out our space. Well thought out. How did you edge your radial saw top? Looks slick!

The top is two layers of mdf. I used this material for its stability. I found that edge banding on ebay. I used a heat gun to attach it as it came pre-prepped with adhesive. They sell these cheap plastic clamps with two razor blades in them. You squeeze it and run it along the top and bottom simultaneously and it trims the laminate for you. One of the things I learned was to champfer the top and bottom edge too. I didn't and it will snag on things sometimes. I ripped a section when it caught on my pants.