Tag: archive

Elgin Shop – Finishing the Foundation

They preped the foundation today, I tried to put as much of the electrical conduit in the foundations as I can. There are 4 zones per side. One in the floor and 3 about10 feet apart. I will show more pictures when I get to the wiring.
You can also see the 4 floor plug boxes. The main conduit is 1 inch and the side branches are 3/4 inch.
Here they are Pouring the cement:

Slab all finished up.

It took 3 days, a stuck cement truck, a dumped cement load,and a lot of Honey Buns. But is is finished.

Elgin Shop – Contract Signed!

Well it has been over 3 months here at the new place and we are bursting at the seams from our down sizing. We decided to bite the bullet and get started on the new shop. YEA! Contract is signed and it will be built by mid December. I went with a 30′ x 40′ metal building by Ark-La-Tex

Here is a quick sketch of the floor:

The Circles are floor plugs. I will post as more happens over the next month or so.

Moving on

Well the reason I have not been posting anything lately is that we have moved. A lot more work than I thought it was going to be! Both mentally and physically. I am sure that the new owners will enjoy it as much as we did.
We are down sizing quite a bit and decided to go with PODS for the stuff that wont fit right away. Mostly shop and brewery, you really realize what you have when you pack it all up.
Shot of the nearly empty shop

Here is a shot of the new backyard.

Cant wait to get started on the new shop!

Porter Cable Band Saw PCB330BS riser install using the Jet riser kit.

I have been pretty happy with my Porter Cable band saw so far. I got some new blades for it a Kreg fence, and I built a heavy duty base on wheels. Ever since I got the pecan log milled up, I have been wanting to try milling for my self. I decided to do the Porter Cable Band Saw PCB330BS riser install using the Jet riser kit.
I got the kit in the mail and opened it up. Comes with everything you need. I dont mind the cheap blade that comes with it. It works just fine to test everything out and get everything aligned.
First thing is to remove the upper part of the saw. To do this you will need a 26mm and a 1 inch wrench. My crescent wrench would not fit, to big. I dont know about you, but those are pretty large wrenches and I did not have them laying around. The 26 mm was a little tricky for me to find.
got it separated
Next I made a template of the top section so I would know exactly where to drill the holes on the bottom of the extension.
I put the template on the bottom of the Jet riser kit and marked the holes.
I then drilled them out with a 5/16 bit.
Test fit looks good!
I then created the template for the top
 Then I drilled the holes in the top of the band saw. It is the only modification I made to the saw itself.
Did another test fit, everything fit great. Painted everything black to match the Porter Cable PCB330BS.
Put the Jet Riser block in place and snugged everything up.
  At this point, I am thinking I am just about done. Couple more small things and done! Nope!
I try and put the new blade guard on, not even at all, It is so far off that I cant even get the mounting screws in. I pull out the Dremel and shave off the nipples on both ends.
Still does not fit, I end up using my Dremel to cut a piece of the upper arm cover away.
Now it fits and both the upper and lower doors close properly.
On to the next challenge, the upper guide bar. If you have been to other sites this is where you need to watch out for a small bearing and spring. They will pop out when you remove the existing guide bar.
Putting it back wont be a problem. You can slide everything back in through the top hole.
Well, it turns out that the new Jet upper bar guide is a little to thick. I want to keep all modification to the Riser kit just in case I want to remove it. So, I sand down the bar and polish it up until it slides freely.
But we are not finished with the guide post yet, turns out that the guide post seat is even smaller. Back to the Dremel! I grind down the bottom of the post until it fits. Sorry for the bad shot.
The guide post blade guard needs to be modified as well. The one you get it straight, it needs to have the half circle cut into it like the original. If you are keeping up, every major piece except the blade has been modified.
Here is a shot of everything put together
This modification is not for the faint of heart, it had me modifying more than I expected. I know that the Jet 6 inch riser kit was not intended for the Porter Cable PCB330BS, but is it really the best kit for the job? I don’t know. The 14 inch table saw is a great table saw. If I would have know that I wanted to do an extension, I would have looked more closely at the Grizzly band saws. To bad Porter Cable does not make an extension.

Preparing the Drying area

Alright! Now that the log is ready, I need to get started on a place to stack and dry. It needs to be straight and flat. If it is not straight, your fresh lumber wont be straight. I just happen to have a cement slab and cinder blocks I can use. I laid the cinder blocks with a 8 inch gap between them and made it 32 inches long. 2 1/2 cinder blocks in each of 6 rows.

Pecan Drying base
Pecan Drying base

The big deal here is, your lumber will be as flat as your drying area. The rule of thumb for air drying lumber is 1 year time for every inch of thickness. So you also need to choose a spot that can be occupied for at least a year, most likely longer. It will also need to be protected from the weather in your area.

Next Step, Getting it milled….

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