New Addition to the Dust Collection Setup

The better half got me the Sawstop Over-Arm Dust Collection Assembly.

There are a few goals for having it installed so that it would work with all of the other systems.

• Be easily lowered down against the saw to reduce the height so it can easily fit under the new Miter Saw station.
• Be easily moved out of the way so the right side router table can be used.
• Do a good job collecting the dust off the top of the cuts.

Since we also have the Incra TS/LS system it took a little modification of the mounts to get them to work.

The bolts that came in the kit weren't big enough to work in the Incra Rails so we used some bolts that we had in the shop.  Unfortunately that meant drilling out the hole in the mount a little bit.

The Nova Drill Press did a great job as usual.

A couple of bolts, lock washers, and flat washers are holding the mounts securely.

The tubes are set in the holders so they stick out from the edge just a little.

The instructions have the long tube on top with the short flex hose, but in the end we went with the opposite.  The short tube with the long flex hose on top and the long tube with short flex hose on the bottom.  The adapter, while not a wye, seems to do a decent job of pulling air into the setup.

The tubes easily rotate in the holders after tightening them just a little.  This lets the saw still easily fit under the miter saw station.

And the whole setup easily rotates all the way down allowing full access to the right side router table setup.

Simple Frames made with Love

The oldest girl picked out a couple of prints for her room as presents.

We had previously made a walnut/cherry frame for a drawing she made so it was an easy jump to make a couple of frames for these new prints.

She wanted the frames all white ( after changing her mind from white to black ) and fairly small.

After researching different woods and styles we decided to go the simple route and just use MDF.

After practicing a couple of times with the new Festool Domino it was frame making time.

We did a quick and simple Sketchup drawing of the frame just to have a reference for the measurements and drawings to work from.  We printed out shots of both pieces and kept them in the shop while we were making the frame to use as a reference.

Going by the measurements, we cut the four pieces to their longest length and then used a straight bit in the router table to cut a small recess in the bottom of each piece of the frame to hold the plexiglass, print, and backer.

After verifying the miter saw was cutting 45 degrees, both the long sides were cut at the same time and then did the same for both the short sides.

After putting a domino in each corner, it was amazing to see how well it dry fit together and held.

A little glue in each hole for the domino and on the edges was used.  Because of the dominos clamping the frame together was much faster and easier while ending up more square in the end.

We picked up some plexiglass from the big orange store but cutting it was a challenge at first.  I scored it over and over and then tried to break it along the lines.  It worked, but ended up having to break small piece after small piece off and didn't give a nice smooth edge like we wanted.  

We gave up, pulled out the trusty track saw, and slow and smooth won the race.

Both frames were primed with Zinsser from a spray can we got from the big orange store.  Unfortunately using the spray can turned out to get more primer on the surrounding stuff than the frame.  It took a couple of coats and ended up using the whole can.

Once the primer was dry, sanded, and done again, the frames were sprayed with General Finishes Milk Paint in the Snow White color.  We used the new Fuji Sprayer and thinned the paint with 10% to 15% and the stock needle size.  The Fuji is amazing and made a beautiful coat once I got back in the swing of it.  Keeping a wet coat worked the best.

Because the recess wasn't deep enough to hold the plexiglass and backing we used a couple of screws and mounted the backing on the outside of the back of the frame.

Finished products.

And in her room, hung, and enjoyed.

What we use

We've been asked a few times what tools we use to do what we do.

We decided to set up an account on kit.com to list some of the equipment and tools we use.

Checkout our lists and let us know if you have any questions about the tools or anything else.

https://kit.com/kplcreations

Have a great one!