The Table Saw Trouble

One of the most important and frequently used woodworking machines is a table saw. There are three table saws at our workplace and one of them stopped working last week. It was really sudden and we had no idea what happened to it. Juno examined the switch of the table saw carefully but couldn't find the source of the trouble.

That table saw was still new, we bought it last May and it was within the warranty period. Juno asked the shop where he bought it and they agreed to send someone to our workplace to fix it.

This Monday, a man to fix the table saw came. Just in case, he brought a motor for replacing. He seemed to be used to fixing table saws, and he discovered the cause easily.

As shown in the picture below, one of the parts has a black mark on it, it's a corrosion. This is the part where electric sparks fly, and the corrosion gets severe little by little every time the motor starts.

The man taught Juno how to fix it. It was easy, you just have to clean the corroded terminal of the internal switch using sandpaper and it's all done.
After two days passed since the man came, another table saw that is identical to the previously fixed one stopped. Juno opened the cover of the table saw motor and made sure if that part was corroded or not and it was! He cleaned the corroded terminal as he was told and the motor started working.

I don't know if it happens often or happens on specific brand of table saw but it was good to know. Some small tips make work comfortable.

Yukari

Launching Juno's New Puzzle

(We have started selling Juno's new puzzle "Windmill Burr #2" on our website.)

Hi! I would like to ask you a question first.
Can you guess what these cubes are for?

These cubes are not puzzles, these are a part of Juno's new puzzle.

His new puzzle is "Windmill Burr #2." The reason that there is "#2" at the end is because he designed "Windmill Burr" which was released by Mr Puzzle as a Limited Edition in 2010 (It's out of stock now). Well, I think that there may have been some room for better consideration naming puzzles, anyway he decided to call it Windmill Burr #2.

The method of deciding this name was very simple but it's not so simple to solve. Windmill Burr #2 is composed of 12 pieces and a cube. It may be complicated to solve therefore we will supply the solution by Burr Tools (computer program for interlocking burr puzzle) file format.

The puzzle size is just a good size to hold with the hands and I think you can enjoy playing it comfortably.

Windmill Burr #2 is made from four kinds of timber. The part which stands out the most is the windmill part, and two timbers are used here; Zebrano and Bubinga (See the picture below).
 The inside structure is made from Queensland Maple, and the cube is made from Victorian Ash.

Juno used Silver Ash for Reza 6-8. Silver Ash and Victorian Ash sound like the same kind of timber, don't you think? Actually, these two are not from the same family. Silver Ash and Victorian Ash both have the word "Ash" in the names but they are different species of European Ash as well. It's complicated, isn't it?

There's one more complicated thing. Queensland Maple is used for the burr pieces. Well, I think you have already noticed, yes Queensland Maple is not Maple, it's from the family of Rutaceae. I don't know why some Australian timber names have similar names to foreign timber.
Oops, this blog is not for plant lovers, let's finish talking botany here.

Juno and I hope that puzzle lovers will enjoy Windmill Burr #2.

Yukari

Making Miniature Furniture

Today's blog is a sequel to the last blog I wrote on 16th January. I made a miniature wooden chair last time, with plywood. It looked good but I wanted to make it with real timber.

I asked Juno and got some American Walnut which was good texture. I drew a chair in real size using a software ViaCAD and reduced it into 1/6 scale. I put a printing of the drawing onto the board and cut it using an electric scroll saw.

Then, I sanded the edge of the cutouts neatly. Putting every part in the correct position is difficult and I paid close attention to do the right work. I know this is just a hobby but I was doing it very seriously.

Juno gave me an idea to hold small timber with sticky tape. I don't know if it is a common way to do it, but this was a really good idea and worked well.

The first chair's backrests were glued on the frames of the chair, this time I caught backrests in the frames. This procedure is awkward and took time but looks better than the first one.

Luckily, we have lots of small clamps, they were just a good size to hold my miniature chair.
I took almost a day to complete the chair. Here it is, this is my second wooden chair of 1/6 scale. The tote bag on the chair is also 1/6 scale.

The next day that I made an American Walnut chair, I made a miniature outdoor bench because there were narrow pieces of offcut timber. I was going to cut the timber by the electric scroll saw as I did before, but Juno suggested that I use a CNC router. He imported the DXF data and cut the bench frames. It took about 20 to 25 minutes. It's easy and noisy.

After cutting the frames, as I did the day before, I sanded and made sure the size of each frames. Then, routed the edge of narrow timber, these timber would be the seats and the backrests.

The next step was the last step, putting the narrow timber onto the frames and then, I was finished.

I really enjoyed making miniature furniture. I would like to make 1/12 scale miniature next time.

Yukari