bending plywood

[Pat]

Hey Andy, If it floats and goes...

My flotilla is reduced to an old Grumman Eagle aluminum 17 ft "cargo" model canoe, a leaky 1-2 person inflatable kayak, and borrowing rights to a two person peddle/paddle boat of my mom's. Don't expect me to issue any invitations to a challenge race any time soon.

I think maybe one day I might want a small easy to launch/recover trailerable sailboat and or outboard runabout but there is no definite timetable for these as I have lots of house building and farm/ranch items on the to do list.

It that old Evinrude will still wind up nicely you ought to plane out pretty good if I recall your boat correctly. Plenty of motor for that boat. Decades back, folks would ski with rigs like that.

I am however, at a loss for reasonable suggestions of things to make for that boat with your bendy plywood.

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[Pat]

Gary, I'm not definitely sure what it is. I think I know what Homosote is and don't think this is it. The Homosote is really wimpy. The stuff on my saw is about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches or so in thickness (prior to expanding when it got wet) and looks like what I have seen for big $ in 4x8 sheets. It is extremely fine grain/particle size and seemed pretty strong till it got wet.

I'll probably replace it with something that seems to be a reasonable material and if that doesn't work I'll try something else. It isn't like I don't have a better saw but it is handy to have more than one when making a lot of cuts.

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[egon]

Just for interest Pat.

When the original table on my Craftsman Radial Arm saw gave out I replaced it with 3/4 in ply with a top layer 1/4 in ply. Needless to say the new table is much larger than the original and has worked well.

Egon

[Pat]

Egon, I too have a Craftsman radial arm saw. Mine is pretty old, one of the high cast iron content, models. I bought it used from an engineer from the lab where we worked who had bought it from a retired engineer from the lab where we worked (lather rinse repeat). It certainly wasn't second hand, more like 3rd,4th, 5th , or... Anyway it came on a companion metal cabinet with 3 drawers and a storage bin, all chock full of accessories for disk sanding, boring, jig sawing, dado, molding making blade with 3 interchangeable cutter holders with multiple sets of cutters, and stuff I will have to "decode" some day by referrence to the book to determine what it is and does.

I am not sure how old it is but it works great, at least the part I have used (haven't used all the accessories.) Still has the owner's manual in good shape (academic types are easy on books.) If weight matters, it is a good one. So far it has been fun and useful to use except for the time I hit a knot in a fir 4x4 with the moulding cutters and launched the board for a glancing blow to my too ample midsection which sent the board bouncing off the windws in the corner of the sun room in a two rail bank shot. Scared me some but didn't break any glass (I cushioned the missle more than a little with my middle) and I regained my composure sufficiently before my wife came to investigate the suspicious noise such that I had the presence of mind to pick up a small scrap, place it on the saw's table and pretend intense interest to deflect her curiosity. (For a real thrill, diagram the preceeding sentance.)

When my shop is "lockable" I will start migrating tools to it, including the radial arm. I think your comment regarding the oversized plywood table with a replaceable "wear" surface illustrates a good idea. I will try to do somethig like that. Maybe I'll use a partial sheet of flooring underlayment (7/8 I think) and top it with OSB scraps (of which I have a fairly good supply). I'll have to come up with some kind of reinforcement scheme if I make a very large table to prevent sagging. Maybe some 2x4 on edge would stiffen it up nicely.

Having interesting weather... Overnight lows of 55 and 58, high yesterday about mid 70's and in 60's today. eventually the magic spell will be broken and we will have winter with ice storms, snow and such but right now you don't get a clue of what will come and DirecTV has removed "Instant Weather" and the interactive choose-the-city-you-want-weather-for service that used to accompany "The Weather Channel" leaving us massively uninformed.

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