Howdy

[Imbeciliac]

Greetings all. The forum bots are telling me that I'd best introduce myself or risk being deleted so, in the prosaic words of Buckwheat, "here I is!".
Um, a little about me (in case anyone's actually reading this): I'm an electrician by trade but dabble in a bit of everything when no one is looking - I can weld (sort of) with liberal use of a grinder to hide the worst of my evils, I mess around with wood a bit and have managed to make one or two items that were good for more than just campfires, I have also fabricobbled some stuff from sheet steel and diamond plate aluminum that some kooks actually gave me money to take off my hands (and no, my mom wasn't one of them, thank you very much).
Lately I have found myself thinking about building a couple three bigger items for my shop (2" belt grinder, 16" band saw and a cabinet saw) which led me here. There are so many great builds on this site that I don't know which one to look at first so please forgive me if I don't post a great deal for a bit while I try to sift through everything.
That's about it for now, I'm off to waste some time perusing.
Cheers.

[Jon]

Hi Imbeciliac - welcome to HomemadeTools.net

Those are some great builds you have planned. Which designs here are your favorites?

[kbalch]

Hi Imbeciliac,

Welcome!

Perusing is never a waste of time; one never knows what kernel of genius might be uncovered!

What's next on your build list?

Ken

[Imbeciliac]

Hi Imbeciliac - welcome to HomemadeTools.net

Those are some great builds you have planned. Which designs here are your favorites?

Hi Imbeciliac,

Welcome!

Perusing is never a waste of time; one never knows what kernel of genius might be uncovered!

What's next on your build list?

Ken

Well. Better late than never, uh, I suppose. My apologies for the ridiculously tardy reply, apparently I do not have thread notifications enabled and didn’t realize anyone was actually paying attention to my ramblings. Terribly rude of me.

Since you’ve both asked the same question (and since I am also sitting up in the middle of the night waiting for pain meds to start working), I will finally do you gents the courtesy of responding...

Time and happenstance have a very funny way about them. Of the three builds I mentioned, two are no longer necessary. As it happens, I found an old 14” Rockwell/Delta which needed a motor and a lot of TLC who’s owner was dropping off at a local scrap yard. A quick word with the yard owner and I was able to exchange a few pounds of copper wire for, what is now, an excellent band saw.
Then, about a month before this past Christmas, my neighbour came by with a present for me on the forks of his tractor: a 10” Craftex 3hp, very heavy and well-made cabinet saw which had spent the previous five years sitting at the far end of his sea container. It looked a hell of a mess, covered in grime and dust and the top heavily rusted. He said he was scrapping it (!) and asked if I wanted it. Duh. It now has pride of place in my shop.

That leaves the 2”X72” belt grinder. Jeremy Schmidt’s build

is the one I would most like to emulate. I have a 2hp treadmill motor earmarked for this, if I ever get my shop organized to the point that I am actually able to find my Southbend.

-Scott

[Jon]

Good to hear from you! Belt sander builds are popular around here; check out this belt sander guide for details: Homemade Belt Sander

[Imbeciliac]

Good to hear from you! Belt sander builds are popular around here; check out this belt sander guide for details: Homemade Belt Sander

Yoinks! Thanks Jon, what a gold mine, if a bit overwhelming. There’s certainly enough information in that article to enable most anyone to build exactly what they want. Thank you for the link.