When I ordered my new Grizzly bandsaw I knew that I would need some new blades to go with it. I had used Timber Wolf blades on my old band saw and was very satisfied with their quality. For my old bandsaw, I purchased the Timber Wolf blades at Woodcraft. Doing that again would mean that the 4 blades that I wanted would cost me around $100 – $120. That was more than I could afford along with the saw so I started looking around to see if I could find the Timber Wolf blades cheaper from another source.
Here’s what I found while searching for Timber Wolf blades.
Example blade specifications: 105” X ½” X 0.25”, 3PC
Suffolk also has a one-time offer of a free silicon steel blade with the purchase of 3 other silicon steel blades. Click here for the details.
My 4 new Timber Wolf blades from Suffolk Machinery ended up costing me only $69.57 including shipping.
For re-sawing veneers, I also purchased a Wood Slicer blade from Highland Woodworking. I couldn’t find the Wood Slicer blades anywhere else but Highland Woodworking. I haven’t tested this blade yet but, if it’s as good as all of the reviews say, I’ll be very happy. I’ll let you know the results as soon as I have a chance to try it out.
I built this materials cart a while back to clear up some space in my shop. The build is relatively straight forward starting with the base. I made mine from 2-4X8 sheets of 19/32” OSB and a couple of 2X4’s, some scrap ¾” plywood, and 4-3” locking casters.
Recommendations:
After building this cart and using it for a short while, here are a few recommendations on how I would make the cart better if I ever have to do it again.
• Use non-locking casters or only 2 locking casters in opposite corners. Even living here in earthquake country, I don’t think the casters need to be of the locking variety. It would take the “Big One” to make this thing move. If that happens, I’ve got bigger problems than figuring out how my lumber cart got moved. This would also reduce the cost slightly without affecting the functionality of the cart.
• Use 4” casters or larger. When the cart gets fully loaded, it is quite heavy making it a challenger to roll on the 3” casters that I used. 4” or larger casters would make it easier to roll, especially if you encounter a wood chip or power cord.
• Use 3/4” plywood instead of OSB if you can afford it. Placing screws on or near the edges would be more solid with plywood than with OSB.
• Install “handles” under the 3rd shelf from the top to aid in pulling cart. I did incorporate the recommendation into my cart after it was completed. It does make it easier to start rolling out of a corner of from against a wall.
About two months ago I decided it was time to upgrade my bandsaw. It took about a month to sell my old bandsaw and pull together the rest of the money for the new saw. In the middle of June I ordered a new Grizzly G0555P. That’s the Polar Bear version of Grizzly’s venerable G0555 Ultimate 14” Bandsaw in almost all white (the sides of the table are still Grizzly green).
My current table saw, a Delta contractor saw, is my second. The first one was a Ryobi portable table saw. The user manuals from both manufactures suggested aligning the blade to the miter slot by pounding on the trunnion with a hammer or board or by prying on it with a board. I tried these methods because I was a newbie and didn’t know of a better way. While these methods produced barely adequate results, I was never really satisfied with it being close but not quite precisely aligned so I purchased a“> Contractor Saw Precision Alignment & Locking System (PALS™) almost two years ago.
Although I was not fully satisfied with the blade alignment on my table saw, I shied away from the task of installing the PALS™ kit because I thought it would be tedious and time consuming. After all, my saw wasn’t way out of alignment. It was close enough to make reasonably accurate cuts.
But those extra blade marks on the sides of my rip cuts were a annoying and time consuming to clean up so before starting to build my materials cart, I decided to bite the bullet and tackle installing the PALS™ kit and doing a proper job of aligning my saw.
For me, organization is an important part of creating an efficient workspace and keeping frustration to a minimum while I’m woodworking. It’s hard for me to keep it organized but, I like to start a project with a clean slate. The smaller the workspace, the more important it is to me. Whether workshop or desk, organization is important, that and not trying to put 10 gallons of stuff into a 5-gallon bucket.
I know there are woodworkers out there that will disagree with me or, at least, they don’t mind working in what some would consider a cluttered and disorganized shop. And, that’s fine. They know where everything is in their shop and they create projects of wonderful craftsmanship in an environment that they are comfortable and familiar with.
You can see from the photos on this site that my shop is far from organized in its current state. So, how can I be talking about organization you may ask. The fact is that I had odd pieces of lumber and sheet goods stacked all over the place. One stack in my shop area and two stacks in the other part of the garage. I had to keep looking in each of the stacks to see if I had what I needed at the moment and I had to keep moving the stacks around to get to things behind them.
To solve this problem, I built the Materials Cart shown above. I don’t have very much space overhead and no open walls at this point so I searched around for materials storage on wheels ideas and found a design I liked in ShopNotes, Issue #55. It had storage for lumber, cut-offs and sheet goods. It had a panel-cutting guide as a bonus. Originally designed to store a full 4’X8’ sheet of material on edge, it was too big for my small area. I adapted that design to a 48” X 25-1/2” footprint that works better in my space and left off the guide since I figured that I would have to have already cut the panel down in order to use the guide on this smaller cart.
Additionally, I changed the method of construction and the material from plywood to OSB; it saved me a lot of money (2 full 4X8 sheets, $20 vs. $50+). The most expensive single component of building the cart was the 3” casters. I’ve since found a cheaper source for those as well; which is good because I have several mobile workstations, storage and cabinets yet to build.
Now I have all of my larger pieces of lumber and sheet goods in one place, out of the way and easily movable if needed. This is just the start but, it will help to reduce the frustration level on my next project. Do you store your lumber and/or sheet goods on wheels? If so, or if you have other recommendations, I invite you to share them.
I’ll go through the building process of this materials cart in upcoming posts. Stay tuned.
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