harryball
10-18-2007, 10:38 AM
I guess it's been long enough now I can tell the story. A few of you know it already and a couple of you keep telling me I should share.
I have a 4 zone vac table and run 2 feins. For one of my bat house projects I surface one side of a 2x8x48" cedar board before planing the other side. To accomplish this I made a 2'x4' pallet with a cut through smaller than the board, then I added a 1/2" thick soft foam gasket I purchased from Home Depot. When you place the 2x8 on top it sucks down and self levels. It works well... perhaps too well.
So I'm working along one day and I had about 40 boards to plane. I'd place the board, walk to the end of the bot (remember this) and turn on the vac. I'd then check the vac gauge and if it was pulling over 5" of vac I would walk to the other end of the bot and click OK, my program would surface the board in 30 seconds or so, turn off the vac, remove the board and repeat. After doing this about 20 times it gets a little mundane but I have a radio in my headphones so I just enjoy the music.
On one round I turn on the vac and I thought I heard a crack (who can hear with all the noise, headphones and radio?) So I check and the vac and it is about 2" and falling. I go check the board and notice a huge crack down the middle and a large knot that just fell out. The vac force was enough to pull the weak knot out of the board. So I remove it and get the next board.
As I'm placing the next board on the jig... THWUUUMP! it sucks into place with the tips of my fingers under the ends! I forgot to turn off the vacs. I can just make out the vac gauge which is showing about 6", a nice good solid seal. After the searing pain in my fingers began to numb a bit I was able to wiggle and pull my left hand free which only caught about 1/4" of my middle finger. My right hand, however, had all 4 fingers engaged and firmly clamped into place.
So... there I am stuck to the table and unable to turn the vacs off. I give you guys a minute to stop laughing... ... ...
...
OK, that's enough.
I kept wondering how many hours it would be before my wife wandered out to the shop. Then I wondered how long she'd leave me trapped laughing at me.... and how long before the video hit YouTube. After about 5 minutes of prying and pushing and pulling I remembered that I had a small 6" beehive tool (small crowbar, trim nail remover type thingy) in my work apron. I managed to fish it out and apply leverage to the board.
There I am with a woefully undersized pry tool trying to move this board. It took all I was worth to get enough pressure to even wiggle the board. I was afraid the tool was going to break. After another minute of prying and pusing I decided there was just NO WAY I was going to let my wife find me this way! I imaginged the embarrassment and the ensuing video release. This was enough to bring on a rush of adrenalin and with shear determination I was able to finally free myself from the bot.
My fingers are fine but they did throb for a while once feeling returned.
Well... now you know. I'm not sure what I can do for an encore but stay tuned.
Robert
I have a 4 zone vac table and run 2 feins. For one of my bat house projects I surface one side of a 2x8x48" cedar board before planing the other side. To accomplish this I made a 2'x4' pallet with a cut through smaller than the board, then I added a 1/2" thick soft foam gasket I purchased from Home Depot. When you place the 2x8 on top it sucks down and self levels. It works well... perhaps too well.
So I'm working along one day and I had about 40 boards to plane. I'd place the board, walk to the end of the bot (remember this) and turn on the vac. I'd then check the vac gauge and if it was pulling over 5" of vac I would walk to the other end of the bot and click OK, my program would surface the board in 30 seconds or so, turn off the vac, remove the board and repeat. After doing this about 20 times it gets a little mundane but I have a radio in my headphones so I just enjoy the music.
On one round I turn on the vac and I thought I heard a crack (who can hear with all the noise, headphones and radio?) So I check and the vac and it is about 2" and falling. I go check the board and notice a huge crack down the middle and a large knot that just fell out. The vac force was enough to pull the weak knot out of the board. So I remove it and get the next board.
As I'm placing the next board on the jig... THWUUUMP! it sucks into place with the tips of my fingers under the ends! I forgot to turn off the vacs. I can just make out the vac gauge which is showing about 6", a nice good solid seal. After the searing pain in my fingers began to numb a bit I was able to wiggle and pull my left hand free which only caught about 1/4" of my middle finger. My right hand, however, had all 4 fingers engaged and firmly clamped into place.
So... there I am stuck to the table and unable to turn the vacs off. I give you guys a minute to stop laughing... ... ...
...
OK, that's enough.
I kept wondering how many hours it would be before my wife wandered out to the shop. Then I wondered how long she'd leave me trapped laughing at me.... and how long before the video hit YouTube. After about 5 minutes of prying and pushing and pulling I remembered that I had a small 6" beehive tool (small crowbar, trim nail remover type thingy) in my work apron. I managed to fish it out and apply leverage to the board.
There I am with a woefully undersized pry tool trying to move this board. It took all I was worth to get enough pressure to even wiggle the board. I was afraid the tool was going to break. After another minute of prying and pusing I decided there was just NO WAY I was going to let my wife find me this way! I imaginged the embarrassment and the ensuing video release. This was enough to bring on a rush of adrenalin and with shear determination I was able to finally free myself from the bot.
My fingers are fine but they did throb for a while once feeling returned.
Well... now you know. I'm not sure what I can do for an encore but stay tuned.
Robert