While scanning through the blogs today I saw the results of a survey. The survey asked what people would like robots to do for them. People wanted robots which:

• Clean the floors
• Clean the windows
• Clean blah blah blah

In other words, people wanted a maid.

What didn’t they want from a robot?

• Driving
• Helping children
• Keeping one company

If you were designing robots you’d take this and say “well, I guess I better make a robot maid” to which I would say “you’re out of your fucking mind”.

In other words: Ignore the results.

Why? Because a survey tells you what people are thinking about now, and the “now” is just about as useless as you can get. Honestly, how many people do you know — yourself included — who are visionary? Almost nobody.

Ask someone 10 years ago if they needed / wanted a web based video streaming service. Ask them about storing thousands of songs and applications on a phone. Ask then about a way to connect with old friends and play inane games hours on end. Would they want / need this stuff? Probably not.

That’s the point with innovation. If you follow the survey, you’ll develop a bunch of fucking robot vacuums. Instead, you should be developing for markets that don’t yet exist.

It’s not rocket science. Just look around you. What is more important to people — having a clean floor, or having someone to talk to? I’ll wager that most people would like a companion, human or robot, before they want a maid.

I’ve written about my Dahon Folding Bike before. It’s the one that I configured as a city apartment bike (read more here). The Dahon is a fun bike to ride. With its tiny tires you feel like you’re on a kids bike. It has a three speed hub gear system, so it’s easy to use. And it has fenders and chain guards, so you don’t have to be outfitted in bicycling gear to ride it.

While I had previously outfitted it with a lighting system, etc, it was lacking a good way to carry stuff. It has a really nice rear rack — but the wheels are so small that you can’t use regular pannier bags. It needed something like a milk crate.

Trouble with milk crates is that they look like milk crates. And any attempt to make it look nicer simply resulting in a nicer looking milk crate. I’d have to build my own.

So, out come some 1×12 scrap boards, and some knowledge recently gained from a new Super Secret Project. Here is the core:

The front, angled parts, and sides are all 1×12 pine boards. The front is 6″, angled 4″, and sides 8″. These dimensions were chosen because (a) my scrap of wood was only 30″ long and (b) it just happens to be exactly the right size for my rack.

In this shot you can see the angle cuts:

This is where having a gigantic miter saw really paid off. I was able to make those 22.5 degree bevel cuts right on the Makita. You can also use a portable circular saw, a good straight edge, and a steady hand.

Why 22.5 degrees? Because if you cut your lumber equally you’ll make a hexagon. I wanted a hexagon-like shape for my box, since I didn’t want it to look like a cube. The other huge added benefit it that the angled parts allow my feet to clear — if I made a cube my my pedals/feet would have whacked into the box. Luckily, my aesthetic choice was also a good usability choice.

The sides were glued up and allowed to dry using a strap clamp to hold it in place (this was a big pain and the hardest part of the project).

If you look carefully in the above photo you can see that I also used small pieces (cut at 45 degree angles) as braces. Why 45 degrees? Because 45 + 22.5 + 22.5 = 90. Geometry in action. The braces are glued in and then bradded (using 2″ brads — thank goodness for my DeWalt nail gun).

Again, by lucky happenstance, my scrap lumber and it’s dimensions lead me to one very important conclusion: It’s ideally sized to hold a 6 pack of bottled beer. If you are going to build your own, make sure it can accommodate 6″ x 8″ x 10″ tall. Unless you drink from cans, then you can reduce the height.

For the back, I used a piece of scrap 5mm plywood held in place with brads. You can use 1x if you have it (I was out). The bottom is another piece of high-quality 1×12 that I’ve had around. It’s held in place with about eight 1 5/8″ deck screws. Make sure the bottom is fastened well — it’s the primary mounting point to the bike.

Now that I knew this would hold beer, or a picnic lunch, or both, it was important to add some insulation. Two reasons for this: (a) to keep stuff cool in the hot Texas summer and (b) to keep things from rattling around while I’m riding.

I had some spare garage door insulator lying around (it’s like silvered bubble swap) which would work perfectly:

The insulation on the sides is one piece, held in place with construction adhesive. The bottom is more insulation, but is NOT adhered to the bottom. It has to be removable so that you can bolt the box to the bike rack.

This being Austin, I knew that I couldn’t leave the box plain black. That would be too boring. So we finally put to use some of the many, many bottle caps we have collected:

The caps are hot glued to a piece of Kommerling Komacel. Komacel is a plastic material that is weatherproof, cuts like wood, and can be purchased in a variety of colors. It’s a great material to work with. We had a scrap of white, so I spray painted it matte black. The resulting panel is then mounted to the rear 5mm back using 4 machine screws and nuts.

You can see that the top is cut to mirror the shape of the box, has the edges rounded over, and then mounted with a single hinge. Since I was out of larger boards, I biscuited and glued up two 1×6 boards and then cut to shape. Insulation was also glued into place so that the entire box is insulated.

Next up, some designs for the side:

A nighttime test ride:

I’ll try and get some photos of how the box gets mounted to the rack, and some more of the top.

For the final touches, we’ll decorate the sides some more, and probably put a latch (perhaps magnetic) on the lid so it doesn’t bounce around. (I noticed a little movement in the top — mainly because I used a cheap leftover hinge. If you have one, use a piano hinge.)

Our prototype panel is above. We decided that the black background looked better than white.

I’ve been doing a good deal of IT work, so nothing exciting to report there. It has kept me out of the shop, but is necessary to get food on the table and rent checks paid.

The coop stuff has tapered off a bit since the pre and post tour rush. This is a good thing, as we have two big projects in the works (non coop related). One is an art-type product which we will be selling through one of the crafty stores (ex. Esty). The other isn’t a product, but a fun thing that might lead to other stuff. It’s all very hush-hush because it’s Halloween related. I’ll leave you with that as a teaser.

Things around the house are pretty everyday. We’re growing a small garden this year (all it pots). Tomatoes (we’ve already harvested 6), bell peppers, Serranos, jalapeños, Anaheim, along with a few flowers. All the peppers have been grown from seed, with two plants surviving from last year, so that’s been fun for Evelyn. This is the first time we’ve raised vegetables. It’s nice having a back yard.

With some prodding from Evelyn, I finally pulled out our two bikes (the nice ones we got in PR — which have been in storage for 4 years). Surprisingly they survived pretty well, only needing air in their very flat tires. I might need to clean up my chain a bit, but otherwise it’s running fine.

We managed to take short rides over the Memorial Day weekend, but the last day or so has been rainy, so no riding. To motivate me I’ve put the bikes inside the house, in the front room. This makes it easier to get them out of the house (we have no service door on our garage) and I have to look at them — meaning I’m more likely to get out and ride. (The guilt factor.) They say that after 21 days you get into a habit, and riding a bike is a habit I need to get back to after all these years.

Boring, but useful for anyone writing Reports in MS Access 2K7.

I found that the Report Builder was VERY slow. Every time you moved a field around, resized, etc it would lock up for a few seconds. Extremely annoying when you are trying to organize a new report.

I found that if I turned off error checking it dramatically improved the situation. Go under Office button, Access Options. Go to Object Designers and scroll down to the bottom. Under Error Checking, uncheck “check for common report errors”.

You may also want to turn off other Error checking if you find them unnecessary. Shutting that stuff off speeds up the designers.

It’s been busy. About a coop a week through most of March and April. And the IT work. So I’ve unfortunately not had a lot of time to blog. Ah well.

One think I’d like to mention: If you want to save your hearing, buy better tools.

You see, we’ve been gradually upgrading our shop from our first-time tools (like the Skil miter saw, Rockler HVLP sprayer, Arrow stapler) to something more production worthy (Makita miter, Earlex sprayer, DeWalt electric nailer). It’s been a gradual swap-out, as the cheaper tools have either failed, have started to fail, or could not longer support the strain we put on them.

What I’ve found is this: With each (big) upgrade we’ve had a big decrease in sound levels. The Makita saw, while far larger and more powerful than the Skil, is at least 1/2 the loudness. When our $120 Chinese special HVLP sprayer started dying, I went to an English made Earlex — and it’s about 1/3rd as loud as the cheapie. And so on.

The loudness is important for a couple of reasons. First, we have a home shop, and want to be respectful of our neighbors. We realize that hearing banging or cutting all day long is no fun. Second, the quieter it is, the less stressful it is. I find I can cut longer, with less aggravation, with the quieter saw. (Even though I’d use earplugs.) Sure, the saw is of higher quality and makes better cuts, but the decrease in noise seems to make cutting more enjoyable.

In general, I’m finding that a quieter tool is a better made tool. Better fit and finish. Higher quality parts. More attention to detail. My loudest tools are also my cheapest.

I removed my “old” scrap wood boxes from the sides of my cart, replacing them with some new “wings” for my Makita miter saw. Actually, more like re-purposing. I took the boxes apart and used them for the wings. They were 1×12 material, so gave me the size I wanted.

Here is the left-hand (feed) side:

A 24″ long 1×12 is bolted to the cart (just like the scrap boxes were) using a couple of 1/4″ bolts. To keep things strong and level, I added two 2x4s cut at 45 degree miters. They act as braces for the top. The work surface is another 1×12 standing on a couple of short 2x4s. The 2x4s, with some washers, bring the deck to exactly the same level as the saw.

If I had put the saw on a new deck, I wouldn’t have needed this more complicated setup. However, I was trying to avoid buying more lumber and wanted to re-use what I had on-hand.

Everything is pine, which isn’t exactly the most stable material, but it will do for now. I “finished” the top with a couple of layers of the ever-stinky Johnson’s Paste Wax.

I used the wing for all of my cuts — what a difference it makes! The extra support on the left side is amazingly helpful. And I really don’t lose any space — my scrap can fits right under the wing. This is great, as I can just toss odds and ends right in.

After finishing my cuts, I noticed that I could use some support on the right (out-feed) side. I’ve been playing around with this design:

On this side, I need it to drop / stow out of the way, because I have very little room in the shop (see band saw in right background). So, I attached the wing to the existing handle on the cart. Now I need a way to keep it in place while cutting (right now I’m using a little clamp, visible). Since this is just the out-feed, and I usually use 1x4s, this is a 1×6 piece of pine cut to 24″.

Update: Ye old saw is shifting around on my baker’s cart, throwing off the alignment (and height) of the side wings. Looks like I’m gonna have to build a new platform after all. Ah, well. I’ll make it out of MDF, which is a lot more stable (less likely to warp).

There is a line in a Doctor Who story which goes something like: Immortality is a curse, not a blessing. I feel that way about multitasking.

You’d think that computers and smart phones and whatnot would make people better at multitasking, but then you’d be looking at it the wrong way. Those devices don’t make it easier to multitask, they force you to multitask — and the human brain is notoriously bad at switching between goals. While recent studies have shown that we can manage two (yes, only two) tasks at once pretty well, the brain takes a huge hit when switching between tasks. Some people have better built brains and can switch faster, but the switching happens nonetheless.

This, of course, is why drivers have become even more incompetent than ever. Most of them are staring down at glowing screens instead of focusing on moving a multi-ton wheeled piece of steel along pavement. Take a look at your fellow drivers at the next stop light — that is, if you aren’t yourself looking at your phone.

But we’re supposed to be doing twenty things at once! I can get more done than other people! I’m efficient!

Hogwash.

My time in the shop has taught me many things. One of which is that multitasking slows you down and puts you in danger.

If I focus on just one task — and put my other responsibilities out of my mind temporarily — I can get the task in front of me done faster and better than if I was worrying about something else at the same time. I think that this is the Zen-like mindset that woodworkers often talk about — you are solely focused on the one task, so that big brain of yours can dedicate its resources to get the job done right.

The danger part? Well, every single time I almost (or actually) hurt myself in the shop was because I was distracted or otherwise multitasking. Worrying about the next cut instead of the one in front of me, trying to solve another problem while working on something else, and so on.

Single-tasking has become so important to my work process that I come across as brusque or angry. Not so. I’m forcing myself to focus on the one task at hand, to the exclusion of all others. I’d love to answer your chat, but I’m working on something else. I can’t talk about my to-do list, because I’m busy focused on scratching things off that list.

A couple of months ago I realized that our miter saw was on the way out. While the “old” (10 months) Skil saw did a good job, it just isn’t able to handle production work. It was getting sloppy on 45 degree miters — which was deadly to us, since our coops use those cuts extensively. Something like 64 miters and 48 bevels and dozens and dozens of straight cuts. In other words, our miter saw is really important.

I knew my upgrade would require a couple of things:

• Greater depth of cut. My little 10″ Skil could barely handle a 1×6.
• Greater height of cut. The Skil had trouble with 1x4s on edge.
• More accuracy. I need a tool that’s less likely to be sloppy.
• Something pro level which could handle production work.

After looking around, I decided to go with the brand new Makita LS1216L 12-Inch Dual Slide Compound Miter Saw.

Now, in typical fashion, I’m going from a $100 entry level saw to a $650 high-end beast. It’s kinda like moving from a Hyundai Accent to a BMW 6 Series. This side by side gives you an example:

The photo doesn’t give really great scale — the Makita is far bigger than the Skil. Mainly in depth, because it has a much bigger depth of cut. How much? Well, here is the Skil:

Realistically, the Skil can cut about 5 1/2″ — almost — at zero degrees. It’s a fixed 10″, so that’s pretty fair. (It’s not a fault of the saw — that’s just the limitation.)  Now look at the Makita:

That’s right — it will handle a 15″ cut — almost 3 times what my Skil could. This is approaching Radial Arm Saw territory (saws which, unfortunately, are rarely sold anymore). Why in the heck get such a reach when most of your stuff is 1×4 and 1×6?

Well, because we also make owl boxes and Leopold benches. And that’s 1×10, 2×10, and 2×12 material. Currently, I have to cut all of those free-hand with a circular saw. Which means cutting the angles with a Speed Square, which takes time. By having such an enormous depth, I can make a majority of my cuts on the miter saw — which is far faster and more accurate.

The table swings 52 degrees left and 60 right, which beats the 45 limits on the old saw. And it bevels in both directions (left and right), 45 degrees each way.  And notice the gigantic fences on this saw — it can cut up to 8″ crown molding. Now, I’m not planning on doing trim work, but it’s nice having the capacity.

Lucky for me, my little portable stand I made is just big enough to place the saw on:

With me in the photo you can get a better sense of scale. The saw is sitting on a 24″ x 18″ deck and it takes up that entire space.

Above, you can also see that the motor is set at a 45 degree angle — this keeps it away from your work and allows it to cut that tall molding. This is a godsend for me, as the motor assembly on my old Skil used to knock into the work all the time.

The motor has smooth start and a good electronic brake. It’s remarkably quiet — I’d say about half as loud at the old one! This was a VERY pleasant surprise for me, as the Skil is noisy (I had to wear earplugs and use only during the day). I can use this one in the evening (if need be) and feel less like a bad neighbor. The blade stops in probably 1/4 the time of the old saw. Just a few seconds.

My initial impressions are positive. The saw has a huge reach, is well built, quiet (for a power tool), and looks to be a fine addition to my shop. The true test will be tomorrow — when I make about 500 cuts.

Update #1

• My first runner up for this saw was a sliding Hitachi. I liked the feel of the Hitachi better than other brands in the store. This is a brand-new saw, so I couldn’t test it in-store first. However, the older / smaller models had good reviews, and I’ve been very happy with my Makita drills.
• It’s assembled in the USA. Being a US based manufacturer myself, I appreciate this.
• I’m going to re-rig my rolling cart so that my scrap storage bins act as “wings”. The saw comes with no external tables/supports.

Update #2

• Spent the morning making a new lead-in “wing” for the saw. My advice to miter saw owners? Make at least a lead-in wing — better yet, one on each side. I never realized how useful these are until I had them in place. Makes cutting a LOT easier — and you have a work surface right at saw height.
• Make lots of 45 miter and bevel cuts today. The tall fence makes bevel cuts a lot easier.
• With my new “wing” on the left, I was able to set up a temporary jig-like setup for cutting some of my door parts. This sped up the process a lot.
• An accurate laser is a wonderful thing. I could line up the laser to my tape, avoiding marking. Must faster cutting. The Makita laser is extremely accurate.
• The quick electric brake means I cut properly with this saw — I wait for the blade to stop, like I should.
• The lower noise is a godsend. So much more comfortable to work with the saw for longer periods of time.
• I’m going to install a Kreg measuring system on my left side, to make repeat production work easier.

There are three tools in my shop that I never thought I needed, but now find indispensable. The Band Saw, the HVLP Sprayer, and the Brad Nailer. Why are they so important to me? Because, in a production environment, every minute counts. Saving a minute here or there doesn’t sound like much — until you look back over a week and realize you shaved hours off of a build. I’ve talked about the Band Saw, so let’s look at the Brad Nailer.

A Brad Nailer is just that — a machine that nails brads (small nails). The most common range of brads is 5/8″ up to 2″. I’ve been looking at them for a while now, but haven’t pulled the trigger (so to speak) because of the complicated setup and the limited use in our shop.

Why complicated? Because most of the nail guns run off of air, so you need a compressor. A compressor means more noise in an already noisy shop. And, more importantly for me, another big current drain in an already underpowered shop (the whole house only has 60 amps coming in).

And it would be a limited use tool, since our coops use screws throughout. However, we had identified a couple of places (interior supports, temporary fixtures, ramps) which really didn’t need to use screws. In fact, screws were a big downside, as it takes a lot longer to fasten with them (drill hole with countersink, drive fastener — a two tool process).

So I was stuck. I knew I could use a nailer, but not enough to want me to hassle with air tools.

Luckily, while scanning through my tool blogs I saw something I was unaware of: The cordless brad nailer. Ah, ha! This could be the solution to my problem.

Unfortunately, I went looking for the brand the one guy mentioned (Senco) but couldn’t find good / consistent pricing on them, and most of the on-line shops were out of stock. Not a good sign. Fortunately, I found that DeWalt makes one. While I knew I’d have to pretty much pay list (DeWalt doesn’t allow much discounting), at least I could walk into Lowe’s and pick one up.

Now before I go much further, let me get this out of the way: This is a $300 nailer.

If you are a weekend warrior, don’t bother. If you already have air in your shop, don’t bother. If you need to sink something other than brads, don’t bother.

A finish carpenter? Get it. Install kitchens? Get it. Rapid assembly? Get it.

DEWALT DC608K 18-Volt 18 Gauge 2-Inch Brad Nailer Kit

Loading the gun is super easy. You slide a panel open and lay the brads in place. There are little grooves which the different sized brads lay in. This is NOT like loading a staple gun. It is infinitely better. You can change from 5/8″ brads to 2″ brads in the time it took me to write this sentence. I can’t tell you how much I love the simple easy loading mechanism.

You can run in single-shot mode, or “bump” — which is what I use when attaching 5mm panels to our coop doors. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. I can lay down 30 brads in under a minute. We use the single-shot mode when making our core frames — what used to be a 10 minute process of positioning, holding, drilling, fastening, is now down to maybe 2 minutes. It saves that much time.

But remember, this is a nailer, and a pro tool at that. So it’s big. See the battery pack on the bottom? That’s a standard 18V pack. It gives you an idea of how big the head is. And the head isn’t plastic — that’s metal up top. It’s heavy, about 8 pounds or so, but not horribly so. It’s a great tool for building biceps.

Remarkably, this big tool can get into some pretty tight spaces. And that’s when you really appreciate that it’s battery powered — no hoses to deal with! I climb inside the tight confines of a coop, bam-bam-bam-bam, done. I honestly don’t know how I lived without it.

It’s also quiet. Press against the work to rev up the flywheel inside (pretty quiet) and pull the trigger to sink the brad (quieter than my Arrow staplers). I’ll do a SSS video on how I use it.

Its limits? Well, it can only fire 18 gauge brads, from 5/8″ to 2″. So it’s very specific in what it does. But if you need to pin things into place, or attach finish work, or hold something in place while the glue dries, then it’s an excellent tool. I find myself looking for more uses for it — like knocking together suet feeders.

The executive summary: If you do production work and are sick of trying to use electric staple guns to fire brads, get one of these tools. It is big, heavy, and expensive, but I wouldn’t give up mine. It has saved us time and frustration.

Back in February I picked up a new saw for the shop. I already have two portable circulars, a miter / chop, saber, reciprocating, scroll…the list goes on. But let me say this: I should have gotten a band saw a LOT sooner.

It has quickly turned into my second most used power saw in the shop — it’s that handy. Need to rip through boards? Done. Re-sawing a board or rough lumber? Done. Curves. Done.

I especially like that I can do finer work — that I used to do on the scroll saw — without the frequent blade breaks or “flapping” caused by the scroll mechanism. And this is REALLY important if you want to cut plastics like acrylic. For any of you out there looking for the best way to cut small pieces of acrylic, I say this: Get a small band saw.

Now, remember that you’re not going to be able to do really fine work, like on the scroll. And you are limited in capacity, based on the “throat” of the tool — don’t think you can cut sheets of plywood with it. And it’s not good for sharp angled edges, like the miter saw, but it’s a fantastic utility saw that I go to all the time.

Since I was dipping my feet into the land of the Band Saw, and am limited in space, I wanted to get the smallest good quality one I could find. I ended up getting a 10″ Rikon (also branded as a Craftsman model) from Highland Woodworking. I like Highland (based out of Atlanta) because their prices are good and they ship quickly.

Rikon 10″ 10-305 Band Saw from Highland Woodworking

Stuff I like:

• An import, but well made.
• Heavy cast iron table.
• Easy to clean
• Ball bearings on blade guides.
• Good sized table.
• Does what you need it to to — quick cuts.
• Very nice looking.
• Heavyweight — doesn’t move much.

Stuff I don’t like:

• Underpowered at times. It has a smaller motor that gets bogged down at times. Slow feeds on wet wood are a requirement.
• Fence doesn’t get close enough in (for small rips) — I had to make an add-on fence.
• Miter gauge not included, but I bought one for some work. Handy to have, but not very useful. Too far from blade.
• Assembly guide a little confusing, but not too bad.
• Non standard blades harder to find locally, buy easy to get mail ordered.

Would I get another Rikon? Absolutely. If you are getting into Band Saws and don’t have a ton of space, this little bench top model is a great starter — or can augment your larger saws. In many ways I treat it like a scroll saw on steroids. Do I regret getting the smaller one? Nope. It fits in my shop great. Would I get a bigger (14″) one if I had the space? No question.