New Steps around the Block

[Bill Ballard]

I tried two things different on the pinblock of a Steinert C (6') which I
glued in earlier this week.

You know how the first cut off a double  panel (or larger) can be tricky as
a one person operation. Trying to guide  this massive panel across a
inclined band-saw table, holding to the line and trying to counteract the
panel's natural inclination (npi) to slide of f the table. All you need to
set your table level again is (on the Delta 14" bandsaw) 6" of elevation to
the front legs of the stand. Picture it: the table is now level and the saw
and its blade are leaning backwards at the angle specified by the plate
flange. Tippy band-saw, ready to fall over backwards? Not in the least.

 I bore my blocks out of the piano with the drill press head transfered to
a short column, set (leaning forward) in a base of rotary-sawn maple
plywood (the kind we had plenty of leftovers of the day twenty years ago
that multilaminates showed up). I had been moving the block around under
the drill by floating it on several roller steel plates. The plates were
3"x6"x1/4" with maybe a dozen 1/2" ball bearing inlaid in each plate,
Because the balls appeared on top and bottom of the plates, they would tend
to travel not just across the benchtop, but also to wander in relationship
to the work, and thus need frequent repositioning (the same way if your
moving a piano on pvc pipe, you need to be feeding it new pipe as you move).

At the local mega-maul WoodWorkers warehouse I bought a dozen 1" separate
1" ball-bearing inset in steel mounting flanges @ 99¢ ea. I mounted three
apeice on twostrips of wood whose thickness was planed to equal the height
off the bench to the surface that the drill press was doing its work on. At
the start of the boring, with all of the block off to one side of the drill
press, the panel was resting on the two roller strips. The rollers were
down on the benchtop and the panel was sitting flat on the top side of the
strips. Well not directly. I put a thin cardboard shim  between the roller
strips and the panel so that when not drilling, the height of the roller
strips plus cardboard shim held the panel slightly off (= the shim
thickness) the dril press table, for slick rolling. As soon as the drill
bit comes down, the panel flexes slightly, comes in contact with the drill
press table, and is held fixed. The roller strips move with the panel, and
stay with it. When you reach midway, one of the strips gets mooved to the
otherside of the drill press.

Bill Ballard, RPT
New Hampshire Chapter, PTG

"There are fifty ways to screw up on this job. If you can think of twenty
of them, you're a genius......and you aint no genius"
Mickey Rourke to William Hurt, in "Body Heat", discussing arson.

Lots'o'Fun