Glen-L.com

I had seen something similar done with two engine stands at the ends on a guy's street rod frame so the frame could be rotated while adding components ,painting etc.

great tool Kevin

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

His Computer skills are awesome aswell.

Paul

It's so cool I was going to go and delete my own home made adjustable fence thread. I think I'll settle for going out to the garage and just throwing rocks at the table saw.

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Isn't it amazing!! The person that never has the fortitude to pursue his own dreams, will be the first to try and discourage you from pursuing yours.

My shop door is always open to fellow builders. I have to admit to being a serial pack-rat as I find it a painful experience to throw out anything that MIGHT be someday useful. As result, things do seem to accumulate. Oh, did I mention there is a full basement under shop and about half of it has similar storage. I like to call it “organized chaos”.

Also, it was mentioned by someone I may have started this thread to showoff my stuff – not so – my motives were more pure. I want to steal your ideas!

******************

But, here is another homemade item that has served well. I have owned my Grizzly 10” contractor saw for over 20 years. A few years after purchase I wanted a zero clearance insert for cleaner cutting but could not find one that would fit (they are now available).



Used white oak for the main structure and cut it to fit the opening. I cut a wide dado 1/4" deep on the top and using a dovetail router bit tapered the edges of the dado. Then from hard maple I cut a bunch of “inserts” with the same tapered edges to slide snuggly into dado. I change them out as needed. To cut the slot in a new one I mark on the table where the blade is and then place the fence over the plate leaving clearance for the blade to cut through. Then just crank the blade up and let it penetrate the insert.

The main body of the plate needed to be about 3/4" thick to accommodate the removable insert and as result I had to cut away some the thickness where it rest on the feet protruding from the opening. I drilled holes over the feet and tapped threads for 5/16” allen head set screws. With a sharp tap the oak took threads well. I can then use these to level the plate with the top.





Although it has served well I learned very quickly not to tilt the blade with the insert installed. I will place a very nice kink in the blade at the set height………

Hear hear. stealing ideas is always of the highest honor and intentions. I'm planning my own rotisserie even as I type. I just wanna know where I'm going to house the thing. You could use this for building trailers as well as for the boats. ,,,,hmmmm



Good idea. I'll get it deleted just as soon as I copy it enough for my own.

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Isn't it amazing!! The person that never has the fortitude to pursue his own dreams, will be the first to try and discourage you from pursuing yours.

The rotisserie is kool. I happened to workin a custom body shop many years ago and that guy had a rotisserie holding a '49 Cadilliac. we detailed out the inner fenderwells, frame, underbody, etc., etc. Pretty cool.

About the zero clearance insert. I make my own as needed. A sheet of old formica is good enough, or any similar material. Lower the blade all the way, lay the sheet over the table, set the fence in place, then start the saw and raise the blade. I think Ray has a much bigger shop to save all his 'stuff'. I only got a garage, to use stuff 1 time then throw it out to save my space. I wish I had Ray's shop.

Now that Kevin has gotten into the Big Stuff, I'll offer up the following !

We built a gantry crane to move the boat from its cradle onto the trailer. The 6" wide x 12' long
I-beam is supported by jack posts which can be adjusted from 7' to 9' in height. The 3" C-channel
base is supported by 8" steel casters. The I-beam travellers are overkill, but they were on sale
We hardly ever use the engine crane anymore !



We should have had the crane when we loaded Bruce's Monaco for the 2007 Gathering. I'll never forget
the 'block and shuffle' to load and unload his boat. Best of all, the crane is portable. Here it is in Toronto
pulling his drivetrain :



__________________
Paul Kane Chelsea, PQ

Building the Glen-L Hot Rod : http://www.boats.chelseacoachworks.com

With all these ideas I'm gonna need a bigger garage.

_________________
Bill

I told my wife we needed a three-car garage for my projects...she told me to ask her for permission next time before I buy a house.
http://www.unitybuild.net

Paul, much like many of your other inovations, this crane is simple and straight forward and OBVIOUSLY very effective. Do you have any problems with the legs wanting to splay while supporting a load?

It also appears as though both you and Bruce have been busy with your boats. They're looking so good.

_________________
Isn't it amazing!! The person that never has the fortitude to pursue his own dreams, will be the first to try and discourage you from pursuing yours.

When we built the crane I thought for sure that we'd have problems with the legs wanting to splay but we didn't notice any problems when lifting the boat (engine, trans and all).

In the past, we've done osmosis repair on fiberglass boats and its been a challenge to block up the hull to a confortable work height. When the Hot Rod's ready for paint, we'll be lifting the boat from the trailer and rolling it right into the spray booth
__________________
Paul Kane Chelsea, PQ

Building the Glen-L Hot Rod : http://www.boats.chelseacoachworks.com

why isn't this thread still going? i dont have any pictures of it but a few years ago i spent the summer working for one of my neibors (back in florida) who builds sail boats in his 100,000 sq. ft. shop in his back yard. being a "gentleman of expirence" (early 70's) he didn't like bending down or reaching up so after we made a mold for 14' hulls he asked me how we would make it more user friendly, the beam was real wide and it was hard to reach the keel area. after looking around the shop for a few minutes i said we should make a rotissorie for the mold. he laughed at first, but he stopped when i pointed out all the parts we needed to build it just laying around the shop. 2 days later we were sitting on some old bar stools doing a layup, with the mold at 75 degrees from level the keel was easy to reach . ours was not as nice as the one on this thread but it is 20' long with car tires, lights, and a hitch on it. all it needs is a plate to be road legal we didn't start with a trailer but thats how it ended up. i'm not sure why we made it so portable? other than the fact that it weighed a ton and we had to hitch the riding mower up to it to move it around the shop/yard.

This was my first home made tool. It didn't start out this size I just expanded the length to take a 6''X120'' belt. It has been in use for over 20 years.

The drive drum is on the right.

The underside shows the motor which is mounted on a tensioner not showen.

For years the drive drum was mearly made of wood with a 5/8 shaft runing through it and covered in self stick foam rubber.

On the back side this curved pc. helps keep the belt centered onto the drive drum.

This is the belt tensioner assembly.

Notice the bolt lengthwise, under the drum, that adds tension to the sanding belt.


Notice the dado in the belt tensioner assembly.

Dust collector

The table (work platform) in front and on the ends are adjustable.

The underside of the work platform.

I updated the drive drum last year with some 4 1/2'' pvc, and a 1'' spindle and bearings I had from a spindle shaper I had made about 20 yrs ago. Never throw any thing away , you never know..

_________________
THE FRAUD WILL NOT GO AWAY..9-11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEvA8BCoBw

http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r302 ... rd_photos/

The bevelator





http://davesboat.blogspot.com/2009/04/b ... pdate.html

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Hey! I built a boat ! No Really, I did !
http://davesboat.blogspot.com/

Dave I came up with something similar when I did my TNT only I used my belt sander...

_________________
THE FRAUD WILL NOT GO AWAY..9-11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEvA8BCoBw

http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r302 ... rd_photos/

I built this thickness sander mainly for thicknessing guitar parts, but it will come in handy when making the 1/8" planking for a boat....I have a planer, but they "snipe" leaving about 3" on each end un-usable no matter how I adjust it. Also planers with figured wood can be disasterous and even deadly. Tried to plane some zebrawood once, spent a half an hour pickin slivers out of my chest. Not all of em came out clean either, thought a gernade went off in the damn thing, so I built a drum sander for about $120.

Found the plans for it on the web, made some modifications of my own, and still have a few more to make.

Here's a whole link on how I built it:
http://www.nocturnalguitars.com/Nocturn ... Sander.php

and some photos



Regular shopvac hose epoxied to the wood hood. Doesn't suck up all the dust, but it keeps the flying dust out of the air, which is far more important. The dust flaps on the infeed and outfeed are cut up bike tire tubes.







The bed is about 20" accross, so I can thickness complete tops with rosettes. Probably should have used a 2 horse motor instead of a one, it will bog down, but it works well. I need to re-true the roller and re-level the table. I saw a guy do a variation of this with four threaded rods around the outside corners of the table, tied together with bike chain and gears with one crank. The table stayed level, and the whole table moved up and down. I like that method better than mine, but it will require a major rework.

In the last picture, you can see my adjustment rod. Simple threaded rod with a turning handle I made myself, goes through a wooden clamp block. Block clamps on the threaded rod, basically self threading. Other side of the board has a piano hinge connecting it to a cross brace. Thickness adjustment is one sided. I need to get a longer drive belt, only have a 1.25" adjustment before the table runs into the motor, which means I can't thickness sand larger peices. I find the sander works better for short peices than a planer because of the sniping. Still playing with pully ratios to get the best drum speed, but right now, have a 5" on the motor and a 2" on the drum. Finding faster is better, it will bog before it burns.

On the whole, it works well enough. Sometimes takes more than one pass to get rid of the ripples. I hope to fix that with a true roller, whether its this one or I make another. It takes a certain touch to get it through at a consistent speed just below the bog-down speed, but in the end, I get very consistent, flat, thin boards....gone down to .060" (was making some binding).

Anyway, for making mahogany planking and decking, I figured I could plane it down to just under 1/4", then thickness sand it to 1/8".

I love the 20 year old belt sander....I could use something like that, but shorter.

_________________
Ken Hundley
http://www.nocturnalguitars.com

So, my big brother was playing guitar and I figured I'd try it too.
- Stevie Ray Vaughan