What's a Moak?
For those who haven't followed along, Logan purchased a 24" Towsley Jointer several years ago. This huge machine was meant to be a focal point of his shop. It also was going to need a lot of work, starting with a new carbide insert cutterhead. It's been great fun following the story on the podcast. However, last Christmas an email changed the thread.
That story closes in this episode with the installation of a 16" Moak jointer in Logan's shop. Now that the Moak is up and running, it's become his favorite tool. Having seen both jointers, I believe this one is a much better fit for his space. The Towsley, while impressive in its scale, was too big and required too much work. Now it has been released back to the universe to find a new place to serve.
Metalworking Tools
With few exceptions, Logan's shop machines are large-scale vintage pieces. Most have required some kind of TLC to bring into working condition. I learned two lessons from Logan's adventures: Woodworking machines are pretty simple tools (even if they can be intimidating).
Second, I believe a woodworker should develop some metalworking skills (and tooling) in order to keep one's tools in top shape. From my perspective, the bigger accomplishment of Logan's jointer story is that he got his vertical mill working. This came from a Norm, an Illinois patternmaker. The mill is a 3/4 size mill made by US Burke.
I don't know what it is about vertical mills, but they're fascinating tools to me. The cross slide, the tooling, the hold-downs, the capabilites, all of it is fun to watch. Along with Logan's new metal lathe, he now has a dedicated metalworking corner of his shop — and a new set of tools to collect accessories for, turns out.
Here Logan decided he needed to make a T-nut. Mostly because he can now.
My workshop doesn't have the space for that kind of kit. However, I do have several places where metalwork happens: on one wall, I have a vise stand. A rack of files, a couple hammers, a hand-crank grinder, and my hack saw live here. Doesn't take up much space and keeps the metal debris away from the wood projects.
I turned the top of a tool cart into my sharpening station. Yeah, I consider sharpening a metalworking function. Those same sharpening stones can be used to polish metal bits and bobs.
The other metal station is my drill press. It's not a mill, but I can pretend it is in my head. I have a range of twist bits, step bits, and a small vise for making and modifying hardware and metal components. The drill press sees quite a bit of woodworking too, so I need to take care to avoid cross contamination.
Moisture Meters
Question: DPMeyer asks, "Sorry. Non sequitur, can you recommend a moisture meter? It doesn’t need to be a budget one, but if I can get good results without spending $600, that would be nice. If not, I understand. I basically build things smaller than a bread box. I like to make boxes and such from “storm wood” off people’s property and then present the home owner with something made from that tree that was in their yard."
Logan responded with a few options for moisture meters and what to consider for your needs or interests. He's written about it before.
Transcript
We include the episode transcript to help the search engines find us and the topics we discuss. It's also a great way to see what a conversation looks like in print — it isn't pretty.
Phil (00:16.545) It's that time again. It's the ShopNotes podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Phil Huber, joined by John Doyle and Logan Wittmer here to discuss all the things about woodworking, especially in this episode. We come to the end of the saga of the stolen jointer. We'll retell its account and find out how Grendel was slain and Beowulf has succeeded in the latest edition of Norse mythology. A special shout out to our sponsor for today's episode. This episode of the ShopNotes podcast is brought to you by Harvey Industries. Good enough is not good enough. See all of our new tools at harveywoodworking.com.
All right, we'll run down a few comments from last time, the last episode. That was John and I, we were talking about getting some projects complete. It was also one where Puppy Doc Bob had maybe called out Logan about certain office projects not being entirely done. Here we go. Ian McCullough writes, I finish all my projects as I keep telling my wife when I say I will finish something, I will finish it.
No need to keep reminding me every six months.
MuTiger83 says, I may be the king of projects I have started then get stalled on. I was trying to count just the projects I have purchased material for and that I have started milling material, but are not completed. I have a Walnut River table, Walnut River coffee table with pop-up hardware, three side tables, four Maloof style counter height stools, six corbels, two Adirondack chairs made with wine barrel staves, plus a barrel head side table.
But on the plus side, I should be able to finish my second Maloof-style rocking chair built for my new grandson sometime this weekend. And to be honest, the rocker should have been completed in July when he was born, but I don't think he'll mind. He will not, and he may not remember it. So I think you're okay there. Master Ranger 71 says, insert smart remark here. Appreciate it.
Phil (02:46.745) Joe still says, I have a bookcase that I started in a VOTEC adult learning class in 2021. I don't know why I cannot finish it because it calls out to me each time I go in the shop. Oh wait, it's my wife who calls out to me.
Phil (03:03.289) DP Meyer says, sorry, non-sequitur, can you recommend a moisture meter? Doesn't need to be a budget one, but if I can get good results without spending $600, that would be nice. If not, I understand. I basically build things smaller than a bread box. I would like to make boxes and such from stormwood off people's property and then present the homeowner with something made from the tree that was in their yard.
You're more of a moisture meter kind of guy with milling and stuff, right?
Logan Wittmer (03:32.242) Mmm Yeah, I'm a huge fan of scanning meters because they don't leave pinholes so with the other with pin meters The two common pin meters three the two common pin meters that you'll find Lignomat makes some and dumb horse to make some
The Lignomat pin meters are very accurate and they're pretty affordable, but you do have to push the pins into the wood, so you're gonna be left with a couple pinholes. Wagner makes some scanning pinless moisture meters that are very good. think they're, most basic models, probably 300 bucks somewhere on there, so they're definitely on the pricier side. Lignomat also makes a scanning version. I don't know the price on that.
If you're on a budget, ballin' on a budget, do the Lignomat pin meter, knowing that you're gonna have holes. If you want a pinless, no-hole meter, get a scanner, either the Wagner or the Lignomat. I don't think you can go wrong with either.
Phil (04:39.075) How deep are the pinholes? Like are you likely to end up planing that away anyway? Okay.
Logan Wittmer (04:41.643) No, so that's the thing with pin meters is they only read as deep as you get those pins So if you just prick the top surface, you're only reading at the top surface the
right answer is to cut a board in half and then stick the pins in the end grain in the center of the board. Most of them are either 3 8ths or 3 quarters of an inch pins. So 3 8ths for one inch stock and the other pins for like 8 quarter stock. So you do have to get them in pretty far and it's a good push to get them in. Especially if it's like a white oak or something.
John Doyle (05:24.152) So is that the same with the scanning meters? They're just getting the surface or?
Logan Wittmer (05:29.462) nope.
Nope, the scanning meters, that's a good question, the scanning meters, the nicer ones have dual depth. So you can do a shallow scan or a deep scan. The shallow scan is I believe a quarter of an inch deep. The deep scan is three quarters of an inch deep. So they are reading electrical impotence in that magnetic field created on the bottom side of the meter. And you can change where that's located. So I have a couple of the Wagner ones and I love that dual.
depth scan. So and I personally I like the scan because you can just because you scan one area of a board
and it might read 13%, that doesn't mean the entire board's at 13%. If there's a lot of side grain shown or end grain coming out of that area, if you're reading towards a crotch or something, you're gonna get a much different reading than you are in the center of the log. So with the scanner, you can kind of glide all the way across it and get that reading throughout the entire piece.
Phil (06:34.969) So would you do that even with a pin style meter? Like just take some.
Logan Wittmer (06:38.026) No, they're painted but So the the pin meters are Kind of you're doing the the I do like the pin meters I like the pin meter the pin meters are definitely more accurate. I believe I know Wagner would probably argue that I believe the pin meters probably a little bit more accurate
John Doyle (06:43.493) Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab.
Phil (06:45.115) Hahaha!
Logan Wittmer (07:06.494) And I like the fact that doing a charge of...
lumber in the kiln you can put leads in so you can drive pins in in the center of the stack the top of the stack the bottom of the stack and you can take measurements with your pin meter through those leads so you can kind of get a broad overview of what the entire stack is sitting moisture wise so I mean yeah I guess you could stab stab stab stab stab but most people don't do that
Phil (07:25.269) okay.
Phil (07:41.453) Okay, just curious, wasn't sure.
James Cottingham says, hmm, just one incomplete job. Let's see. can start with the back steps that are rotting out. These lead to the kitchen where I have one cabinet left to finish. This leads to the dining room where I need to repair the ceiling and repaint the walls. This leads to the stairs, which leads to the upstairs bedroom that I also need to repaint. Funny thing is I have all the wood and most of the parts are cut and ready to be painted. I just hate painting.
I get a job done to the point that it needs to be painting and then I move on to another job. My first job was at a sign company and one of my duties was to whitewash the plywood boards to prep them before they hand painted signs on them. Five coats of paint on all sides except the face which got seven coats. Had to sand between each coat. The face had to be smooth as glass, literally. If it wasn't, I had to sand back and repaint until it was smooth. As far as throwing out tools,
I keep broken tools until I run out of room or it falls on my toes.
Phil (08:47.969) And then.
Logan Wittmer (08:48.272) I also was at a sign shop for several years during college as an intern, but we had a spray booth and a spray gun.
Phil (08:52.088) Yeah.
Phil (09:03.545) All right then. Puppy Doc says, I'm afraid to admit my unfinished projects. I wouldn't be able to harass Logan if he knew. If he only knew about the gun.
Logan Wittmer (09:12.178) Pretty sure Bob has a workbench still unfinished. Bob.
Phil (09:15.353) If he only knew about the gun cabinet that was changed to a bookcase curio cabinet that was started. Yeah, I don't think Logan was born yet. That's one that was decided to be scrapped long ago, but just never made it to the scrap pile. So that shouldn't count as an unfinished project then just one waiting for the right repurpose opportunity. Yeah, that's right. I may have a project or several that are just waiting for the right opportunity for repurposing.
Always fair.
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Phil (10:23.833) All right, we are coming up on about a month away from Woodworking in America. So there's still plenty of time to sign up for that, although tickets are going pretty fast. Logan and I just had a meeting of it before we started recording here and we got a pretty good group already signed up and we would love to have you as part of it. So you just, I'll put a link to the event.
on our show notes page, it's woodworkinginamerica.com. We have a pretty solid list of presenters. And what I think is pretty cool is we have a pretty broad range of woodworking topics that we're gonna be discussing. So you got things like Logan talking about quarter sawing on a mill with live outdoor milling demos.
Logan Wittmer (11:17.991) That's right.
Phil (11:20.953) We're going to have presentations on Sketchup, turning, door making, hand planes, all that kind of stuff. the full range of woodworking, plus being able to be up close and personal with a lot of folk gives you that chance to ask questions, share some stories, and just learn a lot more about woodworking. I think it'll be a fun.
fun event this year. We're in a bigger space than last year. Still going to do an open house here at the Woodsmith Mothership where you can check out all that's going on, enjoy a libation as you take a tour of the facilities here, and check out a lot of the tool vendors that are going to be there in the exhibit space with a few folk.
debuting some new tools there as well.
Logan Wittmer (12:21.095) And for all you Midwestern folk, a libation means a bush latte. You can grab a bush latte here.
John Doyle (12:26.422) You
Logan Wittmer (12:31.58) Although we usually buy nicer beer than Bushlight. Yeah, yeah, there is. There is. Sorry, John. Yeah. Make a little vulture. my gosh.
John Doyle (12:34.242) Is there a nicer beer though?
Phil (12:34.583) Right. Yeah.
John Doyle (12:40.192) Like, like Bushlight Apple?
Phil (12:43.706) Yeah.
John Doyle (12:47.084) Yeah, it's a fall beer.
Phil (12:49.911) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (12:58.534) man.
Phil (13:00.601) Speaking of fall, were doing some grocery shopping yesterday, walking through Aldi and they had like a whole half aisle that was devoted to various fall flavored products from Pumpkin Spice.
Logan Wittmer (13:12.026) Was it their October stuff, Fest stuff?
Phil (13:15.689) not just that, because they had like a pumpkin spice Cheerios and they had a Clancy's sweet potato chips with a maple flavor on it, which was, I mean, not specifically fall because maple is usually a spring thing, but they were delicious. Just going to put that out there. Variety of other things on there too.
Logan Wittmer (13:17.548) Okay. Mmm.
Logan Wittmer (13:27.802) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (13:36.918) Yeah. I say this time of year, they usually do like their Oktoberfest stuff. So it's like all their German stuff. So like sausages and kraut and fantastic. Love it. You know, love all the fall flavored stuff. Call me a basic white woman all you want. I'll wear that proudly as I speak to your manager.
Phil (13:58.682) It also helps that the mornings have been significantly cooler here. It's like we got past the state fair and then all of sudden somebody just turned down the thermostat. That morning started off being in like the low 60s or the 50s.
Logan Wittmer (14:07.856) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (14:15.238) Mm-hmm.
Phil (14:22.573) Yeah, which means we still have probably one more really sweltering week in it just to kind of be the hockey stick across the shins kind of thing.
Logan Wittmer (14:35.546) Yeah, that's it's like false fall right now.
Phil (14:42.019) But with all the rain that we've had, it promises to be a very colorful autumn. So when you're here for Woodworking in America, which I know you're signing up for, we're gonna be in a good place for fall colors.
Logan Wittmer (14:51.632) Mm-hmm.
Logan Wittmer (14:57.786) Yep, drive down through Madison County, see the bridges.
Phil (15:02.261) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All that kind of stuff.
Logan Wittmer (15:06.212) by Chris Fitch's house while you're down there. Literally. And it's exactly what you think it would be like.
John Doyle (15:09.473) You can literally buy Chris Fitch's house. It's for sale. Yeah. Yeah.
Phil (15:19.811) perfect sort of place.
All right, let's transition here because we did some filming out at the popular woodworking global HQ last week, wherein we, and by we, we mean Logan mostly, got the Moac 16 inch jointer up and running.
Logan Wittmer (15:47.001) Let's be fair, John swung a hammer for several minutes, helping me get some bearings in place. Yes, yes.
Phil (15:52.503) You
John Doyle (15:53.728) When you're working on precision machinery, that's what you need is a sledgehammer.
Phil (15:57.06) Yeah.
Phil (16:02.585) Yeah. So with that in mind, that was like the capstone, so to speak on that. But what was it two weeks ago is when the stolen jointer saga ended. But I don't feel like it really ended until its replacement was there and up and running. Do you want to summarize where we are to this point?
Logan Wittmer (16:11.343) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (16:22.723) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (16:27.129) That's fair, that is fair.
Logan Wittmer (16:31.63) Yeah, so up until this point of the story, had, I had talked to Mr. Aaron Rogers and he had told me he wanted to buy the head from me for the, the jointer and he was going to trade me a South Bend lathe for the jointer. So the deal was to be done the first weekend of August. So I loaded up the jointer. put the tables back on the jointer.
use the skid loader to put it in the bed of my truck. And I gotta say, when I put the beds back on, I'm like, God, this is such a nice looking jointer. Like it kind of was tugging a little bit of a heart string. But at the same time, I'm like, okay, this thing does need a lot of work, needs a lot more work than I have time to put into it.
he wants to buy the head and get me a metal lathe in trade, you know, okay, sure, no problem. And I drove it the two hours to Mr. Aaron Rodgers property. Now, here's the, so here's the story here. Gentleman has a property, 10 acres, kind of back. The driveway is maybe a quarter of a mile long. It kind of is a shared easement down the edge of a field into the middle of the timber, okay? When I talked to this guy originally, he said, he was telling me that,
he had a bunch of machinery back there you know it's like I you know I'm probably I probably have three million dollars of machinery just sitting here I'm like okay yeah whatever but
I'm on my way down there and talked to him and he said, uh, yeah, when you, you pull in the driveway, he's like, it's there. We've had a lot of rain. They've had a lot more rain down on that Southeast part of the state than we have had. And he's like, it's very wet. He's like, pull into the field on the right hand side a little bit. It's a hayfield. It's definitely dryer. Okay, cool. Pull in. like, Oh yeah. Like that, the driveway looks like I would be fording the river. Like it was wet.
Logan Wittmer (18:29.189) And so I pull over into the hay field and make it about 30 yards before I sink a one ton long bed truck to its axles in mud.
She was sloppy. So I called him. He came down with the backhoe and drugged me out after burying the backhoe in the mud. But luckily the backhoe has an extremity to remove itself from the mud. Get back to his area back there. And the guy had so much machinery sitting there. Like I was kind of like, okay, yeah, you know, I know I
what you're telling me but didn't really buy it. Like he had like four 36 inch Tanowitz bandsaws just sitting there like giant metal planers several large like I mean 10 foot long metal aids like I mean the guy just had a lot of equipment there he's like yeah you see that giant
Box almost yeah, looks like a it looks like an air compressor the size of my shop. He said yeah, it's 450 horse air compressor. Thank So the guy likes to buy equipment definitely likes to buy equipment has a lot of big plans I'm gonna preface this by saying this guy was unbelievably Nice like he was like I I was kind of being a little facetious the first couple times talked about him Definitely was a he was an extremely nice guy
you know, kind of chatted a bit. And then we pulled the the joiner out of the bed of the truck. He opened up a semi trailer. He had three or four semi trailers parked there with stuff inside of them. And the lathe was in there and it's in great shape. mean, the the gentleman he got this from had tore it apart, painted it kind of restored it. And then it's been living in this trailer ever since. So there's a little bit
Logan Wittmer (20:33.875) the surface rust on some of the some of the parts that weren't protected but overall it's in great shape like I've turned a little bit on it I'm actually have two posts at the post office I need to go grab to kind of update it I got a new chuck for it so long story short I brought the South Bend it is a South Bend 9a lathe I brought that back home got it into the shop
and then we started working on the MOLAC on video last week. got a new...
cutterhead from a company called WGM Tool Works. WGM is the one who I got the head for my DJ20 jointer from. So they custom machined this head for this Moac jointer. And yeah, I was just kind of waiting on the video crew to come out here to put the thing together, and we did. And we were having, actually, so let me back up. We actually did this over two weeks, didn't we? We did this the first day, and we
Phil (21:38.648) Right.
John Doyle (21:39.121) you
Logan Wittmer (21:41.013) when we tightened the bearing blocks down, so we got the new bearings put on the cutter head, put them in the bearing blocks, mounted, John and I lifted the head into the jointer and tightened the bearing blocks down, all of a sudden the head would not turn anymore. And it was driving me absolutely nuts. Like what is going on here? Like you loosen the bolts, they hold the bearing blocks in place, everything free spins. Then you tighten them down, it locks up like he has disc brakes on it, right?
So what I discovered was there was a cover on the backside. These bearings are what are called self-centering bearings. So instead of the outer race and inner race being locked in the same plane, the inner race and the outer race can rotate in relation to each other. So the bearings, so the alignment of the head shouldn't be as hard to nail as if the bearings were locked.
But what that allows is where the shaft extends through the bearing into the motor area, there was a cover out there. And that cover was rubbing on the shaft when you would tighten everything down. So over the...
next few days I decided you know what I gotta mill out the inside of this cover to make it bigger and it's cast iron and it's three quarters of an inch thick so I'm not just gonna take a die grinder to it.
So I, yeah, spent the next couple days getting my vertical mill up and running. It didn't really need anything. I started pulling it apart because somebody had greased it at some point and those are supposed to only be used with oil. So even though they have grease zirks on them, they're meant to be filled with oil. So I spent a lot of time cleaning out kind of gunked up grease and stuff and got a three phase converter on it. And the thing runs like a fricking champ.
Logan Wittmer (23:38.947) I used the boring bar to wallow out the cover a little bit. Used it to fix the engine cover on the MOAC. The motor cover on the MOAC had a broken stud. I can build that flat so I can use a spacer on it. It's been awesome. We have had a productive couple of weeks here. It's... Yeah.
Phil (23:58.362) I think that's almost the bigger story to me than the fact that the Moac got up and running because that one was pretty close anyway. It's almost like the linchpin of the whole thing was the side quest to get the vertical mill running.
Logan Wittmer (24:07.903) Yeah, yeah.
Logan Wittmer (24:16.947) It was, yeah kind of, yeah I sent Ben a message about that this morning and he's like, what a web you weave. And I'm like, I mean, it's kind of true because it's like, well to get this machine running I have to this machine and to fix this machine I gotta do these things. So yeah, it worked out great though. It was one of those things that it was the kick in the pants that I needed to get it done because that mill has been in the shop for almost a year. And it's just been, it's been sitting on the pallet, not hooked up.
Phil (24:22.797) Hahaha
Logan Wittmer (24:46.108) It was, when I got it from my buddy Norm, it was operating in his shop, but there were, because I moved it, the head and the motor were off, off keyed-er. Some stuff was really sticky on it. It just needed a little bit of cleanup before I wanted to put it into use. So I did that. So I tore the entire quill assembly out of it because I'm expecting...
Now I ran a Bridgeport a little bit during high school, but that's pretty much my experience on milling machines. I maybe messed around with my dad's Bridgeport at his work a little bit. But I'm thinking, okay, oversized drill press. The lever on the side, the quill goes up and down. When you release it, the quill should go back up like it does on a drill press. I don't think that's how a vertical mill usually operates.
because I was pulling that lever and the quill was very stiff. So that's what initially started me kind of tearing this thing apart and realizing that it had been packed full of grease. And I have the original owner's manual is available as PDF on vintagemachinery.org. And in the original owner's manual, it says these grease zirks are for use with oil only, not grease. Well, they were greased. The grease was very sticky. And if anybody has ever worked on a piece of equipment
that has old glazed over grease on it it turns into some of the most
the hardest Biggest pain in the butt stuff to get off because it does it just glazes over and nothing will cut through it So the one thing I found that will cut through it kind of is brake cleaner So I went through about three cans of brake cleaner trying to clean out the quill and stuff Long story short the quill still stiff. I think that's just how vertical mills are the the return spring is just there to assist It doesn't actually lift the quill up But yeah, she's running she runs great
Logan Wittmer (26:43.199) The only thing that that vertical mill is missing is a timing belt for the self down feed and from my limited research on the internet it is a custom-sized timing belt. Nobody makes one. I'm just SOL, not your mill, use the auto down feed. So it's fine.
Phil (27:07.171) but you can still, there's like a manual down feed similar to like a drill press, but then there's also the canned wheel down feed, right?
Logan Wittmer (27:13.022) Yes.
Correct. is, I'll send Phil the video of me doing the boring bar on the head and you can see me for the show notes page, you can see me using the manual down feed. So there's a lever that brings the quill down, but then if you engage the fine feed is what they call it. If you engage the fine feed, you use a little wheel and as you turn it clockwise, it feeds the quill down fairly slowly. I'm sure there's a, you know, set thousandths per inch that it does during a revolution.
John Doyle (27:23.77) Thank
Logan Wittmer (27:46.177) But yeah, I mean thing works great. I've been milling all sorts of stupid stuff that I don't need a mill Fix the giant chip on the ember pattern makers vice that I am putting on this workbench Fixed it. I shaped it so it now looks intentional instead of a chunk missing Started running a piece of copper I had through there because why not just wanted to see how it turned but what this is Shown me
that I know absolutely nothing about milling bits I know nothing about milling bits, so I'm going through the drawers of End mills that I got from norm and I'm like
no idea what these are. Like I tell you if it's a ball bit, like a ball nose bit, I can tell you if it's two flute or a four flute, but I don't know if that's for this cutting type. I don't know if this is for this. My way to figure it out is put it in the chuck and see if it cuts. luckily most of the stuff I've been milling has been cast iron and I mean I could probably put a number two pencil in there and mill it. Cast iron mills wonderfully. It turns into a powder when you mill it kind of.
So.
Phil (29:04.897) It almost looks like graphite chunks when you're done. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (29:07.807) Yeah, 100 % yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it looks like. Yeah, and it doesn't go super fast. And that's probably a function of the cutters that I have. I did just order a couple cutters off of Amazon. So I have a few cutters that I know what they are. I know that they're, know, Cobalt cutters and stuff like that. yeah, no, it's been a couple weeks. And then last week we did, we got the
Cover put on the MOAC. Got the bearings set to where we could still spin the head by hand.
It's a direct drive motor, so there is a motor housing that sits over top of the shaft. A stator slides into that motor housing and then a rotor is keyed onto the shaft and that spins with inside the stator and the housing. And we got all that set up last week and turned it on for the first time. I remember somebody was yelling like, it sounds like a tornado siren. And it did. It was one of those slow rev up,
the VFD set up for a 10 second speed up time and a 10 second slow down time on this thing. So the 10 seconds for getting up to top speed it did sound like kind of like a tornado warning siren going off. And
didn't think much of it. It quieted down after the maybe the second or third time we turned it on. It kind of quieted up a little bit and we ran some stock through it, which is on the popular woodworking Instagram, if anybody's an Instagrammer. But then this weekend,
Logan Wittmer (30:51.518) I decided I had to finish these drawers for this workbench. So I needed to mill some stock. I was like, all right, I'm gonna actually the head dialed in exactly because we had just kind of slapped in there got it close, but it still needed adjusted slightly. And as soon as I adjusted it, the head bound up again immediately. And I'm just beating my head against the wall trying to figure out what is going on with this thing. So I the whole head apart again. That was maybe yesterday.
two days ago, maybe Sunday I did that. And what I figured out, I think it was a compound issue with two slightly different things. The bearing blocks are able to pivot in and out a little bit, and I put my machinist level on them and plumbed them, and as soon as I plumbed them, the head ran much, much cleaner by hand.
Phil (31:47.38) Okay. All right.
Logan Wittmer (31:48.606) So I think maybe those bearing blocks being canted a little bit even though they are self centering bearings You know, they might have been rubbing or binding just a hair. So by plumbing up everything Because the way the set screws work, they're able to pivot and I think they're able to pivot on purpose but it was fighting against me at this point and then I believe that the Rotor was actually rubbing on the stator when we had the motor set up the first time so there's supposed to be a
between the rotor and the stator and that is not a whole heck of a lot there is not a lot of wiggle room in there
So, took me, you know, getting the bearing block set up, you know, 35, 40 minutes figuring out how I wanted to set them and getting the head leveled with the outfeed. It took me maybe an hour, hour and a half of dinking around with the motor housing to get it to where the rotor and the stator were not rubbing. And it took some very precision shimming of that motor housing with the randomest washers I could find out of my hardware drawer. But.
It runs like a freaking champ now. I surfaced all the stock for these drawers this morning and I was telling you guys before we started, that is my new favorite tool in the shop. For the last week it's been the vertical mill just because it's been new and shiny. But it is, god, it's so nice, it is so nice. The bed is big enough I can stack parts and still work on it. It cuts so clean, I got dust collection hooked up.
dust collection on that thing is phenomenal compared to the jet joiner that I've been using. I don't know if it's just because I was choking down a six inch into a four inch and this one is six inch the whole way so there's significantly more airflow significantly better so yeah.
John Doyle (33:46.775) Yeah, it was pretty amazing. You're talking about it sounding like tornado siren once you got it going, which was just wasn't like a screaming it was just a loud whirring because it's a lot of metal moving, spinning, you know, but when you jointed something did not change the sound at all. Like you didn't even know. Like, I thought you passed it over and didn't even touch the wood and then you look and it's like, yeah, smooth cut. Yeah. So
Logan Wittmer (33:58.747) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (34:03.569) Not at all.
Phil (34:03.715) Yeah.
Phil (34:09.825) Yeah, yeah, that was really funny. Because I took a video when you... I took a video as you were making that first cut and exactly what John said. I thought for sure like, we didn't have it set deep enough to make an actual cut. And then you flip the board upside down and say, yeah, nevermind. Carry on.
Logan Wittmer (34:10.564) Yeah, well, yeah, that was the...
Logan Wittmer (34:28.591) Yeah, well that was the one thing that the...
So I took the motor, I don't remember if I talked about this or not, but the things I did to this jointer, I bought the jointer, I put new bearings in it, which were not cheap bearings. I took the motor into a motor company here in town, 3E Electric, I've used them in the past when I was in the print industry to rebuild motors. And I had them look at the motor because I'm like, I'm waiting on a head anyways. So test this motor, see if it works, see if the windings are shorted, know, see if anything.
wrong with it. So what they did is they took the motor, they took the stator, they tested the windings, made sure they were good, they washed it, baked it, and then they repainted the ends of the windings. I don't know what they used but it's almost like a plaster dip that they put over the windings.
And I was talking to the shop manager there and they're a giant company. mean, you know, they, when you walk in, you got to duck around overhead cranes because they are taking, you know, 4,000 pound motors off of flatbed semis. they deal with big stuff usually. And he's like, oh, he's like, this is one of the good motors. was like, what do mean? He's like, this must be from a piece of equipment from the forties to sixties. was like, yeah, that's dead nuts in the middle of that. He said, yeah. He's like, this is
when they he's like this motor is gonna have a lot of torque he said
Logan Wittmer (35:56.763) what they started doing after like the 60s is instead of wrapping, so this motor's, I don't know, maybe 12 inches in diameter, the housing, maybe 10. What they started doing is they started stretching those windings out so the motors became longer but not as big around. something, not an electrician, I don't know exactly how these work, but he said the way that those windings, the old windings,
were made he's like they have so much more torque than a modern motor so he's like even though you could grab this at five horsepower with a modern direct-drive motor at five horsepower he's like yours is gonna it's like a diesel versus gas he's like the torque is unbelievable on these ones so yeah but after I got everything lined up the head is so I mean everything's so much quieter now it's still as John said it's a lot of metal
Phil (36:45.731) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (36:54.523) I it's, you know, there's, I don't, I didn't even count the cutters, probably 220 cutters across that head. Like there's a lot of metal spinning, so there's a lot of air moving, but it's significantly quieter. Bearings are quieter, no rubbing on the stator or the rotor. So yeah, pretty happy with it. So now I just, now I just gotta get the power switch wired up so I don't have to walk around the backside to turn it on and off every time. Cause that gets old about the third time you do it.
Phil (37:14.68) Awesome.
Phil (37:21.315) Right, which was in.
Cause it's a long walk. That's the part of it is, which was interesting because the original, and I say original, whatever power switch was kind of on that backside of the infeed table anyway, which, know, at the, the far infeed side, having it there isn't awful, but if you're not jointing really long pieces, it's still in an awkward spot.
Logan Wittmer (37:26.648) Yeah. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (37:36.238) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (37:53.016) It is, Yeah.
Phil (37:55.236) So I'd have to say that that's one thing that I appreciate about modernish tools, especially on jointers, is having that power switch that's kind of like on a mast almost in your face that you can really see it. Because even we've had other jointers that are relatively modern where it's a, you know, like low kind of off on your left in the front of the machine, like that's still a, I don't know, semi-awkward place for it.
Logan Wittmer (38:22.894) Yeah, you know, I hadn't thought about that until you just said that, Phil. Like, I had planned on just mounting a electrical box on the front of the jointer with my on-off switch. And actually, I must have brought it out to the shop. It's just a standard on-off switch. You know, push button, start, push button, stop.
It might not be bad to put that on a mask, like... overhead. Like, I mean, not overhead, but like, up on a post. That might not be bad, I have thought about that. That might be good way to do that.
Phil (38:57.857) I'm just thinking like that one that we have, the Laguna.
The Laguna joiner that we have in the shop has kind of a from the backside but higher up mounted power switch. And I kind of like that idea of having that ready access right there.
Logan Wittmer (39:04.591) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (39:10.937) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (39:14.468) That's true, yeah.
Yeah. Well, and I don't know that I would ever want to do it with this tool in particular, but like any tool that you're running off of a variable frequency drive like this, you have the ability to slow the motor down. And actually, I turned that VFD on originally, when we were doing video, it didn't turn on. was like, crap. And then I realized that the speed was turned all the way down, so I could slowly, manually turn the speed on.
But like doing something, doing the control panel on a mast like that would allow you to put a potentiometer up there. So you could change the speed. You could power on, power off and change the speed right there. Now this cutter head needs to turn at 3,600 RPM to get a good cut. But...
Phil (39:54.881) right.
Logan Wittmer (40:07.169) Yeah, other things like bandsaw or anything else you're running with the VFD. I have a disc sander out there that I'm going to be bringing into the shop soon. can turn the speed down with that with the VFD. So... Yeah.
Phil (40:28.057) One of the lessons that I've learned in this whole saga here, and I'll even stretch it back to your radial arm drill press, is the, one, the simplicity of woodworking machines. You know, there's not a lot of complication there. But two, in seeing...
Logan Wittmer (40:39.885) Yeah.
Phil (40:54.805) all the little lessons that you've learned about how machines are built, set up, operate smoothly, maintained, you know, that can be put to use whether you have new machines or old machines, I think.
Logan Wittmer (41:11.225) for sure yeah yeah it's super cool and I wouldn't I would be lying if it didn't make me want to be like hey it'd be really cool to make some woodworking machines like the old stuff you know like you know not not that that's feasible to do but like they are they're so simple I mean there's there's definitely precision parts of them
Phil (41:27.491) the
John Doyle (41:30.471) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (41:39.224) The, what was I just, I was just looking at something and I noticed that there was a spiral grinding on it from somebody doing like some precision grinding.
But so like there are parts of like that Moac joiner for example that are precision like the the bed or the the ways that the beds right on the gibs they're like those are precision but like the bearing block adjustments it's three it's it's three jam bolts and a Bolt to pull the block tight. That's it like there's nothing precision there other than putting a half inch wrench on it and turning it an eighth of a turn, know, that's about as precise as
you get for setting those up. So it's things like that I'm like, like there are certain things that don't really have to be that precise on these machines. And then there are things that really matter. But like, man, how cool would it be to, what I would love is I would love to go back to like the 20s or 30s and watch these machines be made. Like that would be very cool because that would be, I think that'd be something to see.
John Doyle (42:43.59) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like you're saying, they're so simple. They, I mean, all the tools in the shop, they're just basically a motor and it makes a bit or a blade spend. It's like, there should be a company out there that just takes like one motor and like it's all in one tool with like a table saw and a lay and like a drill, but like all in one, all in one, like one footprint. And then you give this like switch over between them. It'd be so simple. If there were a company out there that could do that.
Logan Wittmer (43:02.018) Shut up! Shut up, John! my God.
John Doyle (43:13.04) Gangbusters, print money, print money. You know, right here in America could be made. We've got the ingenuity.
Phil (43:15.278) If if if if if only if only
Logan Wittmer (43:17.239) Ugh.
John Doyle (43:23.219) I'm gonna patent that. You heard it here first, folks.
Phil (43:27.097) You
Logan Wittmer (43:29.559) my god.
Phil (43:33.389) There you go.
Phil (43:37.465) All right, you had a little side mention there a couple of times here of the workbench, your shaker style bench, and getting the emmerit vice on it and the drawers nearly wrapped up. So we're pretty close to the end of that project as well.
Logan Wittmer (43:45.153) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (43:52.331) Yeah, that issue actually has to go to the printer next week, so I have to have it done this week. Yep, was the side quests of the vertical mill and the jointer that kind of put me behind on this.
Phil (43:57.004) All right, there you go.
Phil (44:01.796) You
John Doyle (44:04.914) You're like, I just need to join one more board to get this workbench done.
Logan Wittmer (44:07.1) Yes, that's right. It was all the drawer stock and I was like, do we drive into the office and do it? No.
Phil (44:08.313) Yeah.
Phil (44:19.353) But yeah, so that's kind of cool. How was it attaching the pattern maker vice then to your benchtop?
Logan Wittmer (44:25.054) Pain in the ass is what it was be and I'll tell you why The it's funny I was talking to My boy Jared out at woodpeckers about this because he has he has a device I do and I
Phil (44:27.426) You
Logan Wittmer (44:43.223) recessed mine into the outside edge of the top so that the the top is kind of cut to follow the profile of the jaws. So it sits pretty flush in there. What that does though is it doesn't allow you to rotate the jaws at all like you like like the I mean like this vice is meant to do. Now I could probably I don't have all the hardware on there yet but I think I could probably loosen underneath and pull it forward slightly before doing it. So I think it will still work not 100 % sure.
But getting that to match and it still doesn't match perfectly and I need to do a little more work on it It's fine for photos, but I need to do a little more work on it
There was a lot of, to be fair, it didn't take me long. It took me maybe 30 minutes because what you have to do is you have to cut out the jaw location and then there is a top plate that's a 90 degree bracket, so think piece of angle steel, that screws to the top of bench and the face of the bench and both those need to be recessed in. But then there is a giant collar, like my coffee cup, that sits underneath that has to be wallowed out of the workbench surface underneath.
So what I actually ended up doing was I have a four inch forstner bit. I removed a lot of the material with the four inch forstner bit, straight in the edge of the bench. And then I switched over to the Arbortek power carver. And I went to town with the Arbortek. And I just, I mean, I was covered head to toe with maple shavings, but it went pretty quick. It's not pretty, but if you're laying on the floor looking at the bottom side of my workbench,
You probably had too much to drink anyways, and I'm just gonna tell everybody that you were drunk Because you don't see it So it was it was not something I want to do again, but the vice is super awesome like The vice is super nice So I tore apart D Russ
Logan Wittmer (46:47.506) I, my initial plan was to, ceracote it. have, Highland green ceracote that I thought would look really good on that vice. but.
When I stripped all the Japaning that was on there, there's a lot of Japaning and varnish and stuff from years of use on it. There was a lot of rust underneath the Japaning, like surface rust. So instead of like de-rusting it and stuff, I said, you know what, we're just gonna use a rust-oleum bonding primer. And I did that and I used a rust-oleum gloss enamel to paint it. It looks great. It's a nice hunter green color.
Phil (47:11.075) Hmm. Okay.
Logan Wittmer (47:29.352) I left some of the parts unpainted so I kind of have a steel and green type look two-tone thing so yeah it's kind of kind of cool I like it
Phil (47:38.305) Okay, awesome. Be able to check that out in an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking.
Logan Wittmer (47:44.661) Yeah.
Phil (47:48.877) All right, there you go. That wraps it up for another episode of the ShopNotes podcast. Perfect for sauna sessions. That's the timing that we're shooting for here is to help you maximize your health while learning about woodworking. Special thanks to our sponsor for today's episode, Harvey Woodworking. You want to check out all of their new tools and the exciting things that they have going on harveywoodworking.com.
questions, comments or smart remarks we want to hear about it, you can send those in an email, woodsmith at woodsmith.com. Or like I said, at the top of the show, check us out on YouTube at the shop notes podcast. See you next time, everybody. Bye.
