Home Improvement Today?

final coat of sealer

 

Looks like you need a hammer drill with a chisel bit attachment! That makes quick work of it. I'd say you could borrow mine, but I'm on the other coast...

 

I actually have a couple hammer drills but no chisel bits. Well no hammer drills that are hammer only!

 

Heh, I guess I should have specified the SDS variety

 

We have full height bookcases and my fiancée, who is vertically challenged, uses a step stool to reach higher shelves. She saw a pic of a spiral staircase step stool and wanted one. They sell in the $3000 dollar range.

We have a retired friend with a nice shop setup in his garage who likes woodworking projects, so we approached him about building it ourselves. Some of the work I'm doing in our garage - I have various saws, sanders, drills etc, but he has the band saw, lathe and other really nice stuff. He was onboard and was excited to try something he's wanted to do for some time: bent wood without a steam box.

So we went to a specialty wood store and bought some walnut (for the treads) and an oak pole for the vertical shaft. I cut the treads, first on a table saw, then the bandsaw to get the shape close, then clamped them together to drill the hole. After that I used a vertical oscillating belt sander to get the radius done. Then sanding with progressively finer grit. A lot of sanding...

He has a large slab of poplar we decided would be the risers and tread supports. The original plan was to turn the risers on his lathe, and I had started practicing turning beads (not so easy), when the other half decided she wanted a more craftsman style. So round is out and square is in.

For the horizontal, curved bands we cut thin strips off the slab. He soaked them in his pool eek:) then put them in a curved jig, glued them and clamped the hell out of it. Came out pretty good but a few pieces didn't stick.

We got to a point where we wanted to mock it up and that's one of the pics below, using scrap wood as the supports. All in all, this is a really fun project and we're having a blast.

 

OK I am buying one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

What are people using for track saws. Go!

 

I made one of these 8' long


I needed to cut an 8' finish panel and all I had was a skill saw. So I bought a 4x8 piece of particle board to act as the sacrificial table. Put the setup on a pair of saw horses. Clamped the fence to the line I need to cut. And, it worked great. This was before lumber prices got stupid so the whole thing was under $20. Today the Festool would probably be cheaper.

 

neat stuff!

 

Yeah I’ve got a decent circular saw and can definitely make a straight edge that’s workable too but the more I think of it, I have little to no space here and a track saw could do all my long rips and I could avoid a table saw for the foreseeable future.

 

Maybe this?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Empire-...VsPfjBx023QzUEAQYBSABEgL3AfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

I have the older WEN model that is identical to this one. It works great and the price is palatable. https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-6-1-4-track-saw/t10687

 

Makita corded and one of these
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/sho...1280-grs-16-pe-guide-rail-square?item=86N5402

 

Well after 3 days of cure time its time to park the cars....

 

Festool TS55 , Festool TS75 , Makita 2x18V cordless with the GRS16 rail squares

 

You didn’t even have to respond for me to know you are running a Festool setup. I’m not into woodworking enough to jump to the Festool world but I love watching all your builds and hope you continue to do so.

 

Haven't posted an update from my client build for a while

Timbers complete , framing complete .

Metal roofing all installed , they just have one more day to finish up the flashings and gable end caps

Velux electric opener and fixed skylights in , 14" Velux Suntunnel also installed

We start the housewrap and then soffits & siding next week , windows arrive Nov 8th





Inside electrical , plumbing and HRV rough ins all installed , inspected and approved to cover

In the vaulted hand framed roof portion we installed 2" R-8 Roxul Comfortboard80 in the 2x10 rafter bays prior to the insulator starting to get a total R-36 in the 2x10 rafters




My insulator started yesterday with 1 helper , they are basically done aside from the vapour barrier on one wall where we are waiting on the plumber for Monday .

Drywall arrives Monday , Insulation inspection is Wed , boarders start Thursday

 

do you run the Makita 18V cordless tools ?

 

I do. I have their skill saw actually. Does it mate up with some of the tracks?

 

This model of 18Vx2 Makita cordless has a track compatible base , I got one about 6 months ago , works great . Its not a plunge style saw but a regular style saw that you can use like a normal circular saw that also happens to work with Makita or Festool tracks and uses normal 7 1/4" blades .

https://www.makita.ca/index2.php?event=tool&id=3575&catid=2