I love that I am not beholden to a carrier for my Android OS updates. I love that my phone is so tightly integrated into the Google services I use, which is a lot of them. I love that the Android App Marketplace doesn’t sit on app approvals just because they’re submitted by a competitor. I’m looking at you, Apple.

I love that I can watch MLB TV on my phone. I love that I can watch Netflix on my phone. Nevermind that the screen is so small that you would have to be desperate for entertainment to watch either one on the phone. The only thing my phone was missing was an e-reading experience that I could live with. It required a bigger screen for that. So I’ve always known that if I was ever in the market for an e-reader, I’d most likely make it a tablet, because I wanted the versatility of a device that does much more than e-reading.

So when it came time to decide what tablet device to buy, you’d be surprised to hear that I gave the iPad serious thought. It has the e-reading apps. It has the video. And it has most of the Google apps available, finally. But I couldn’t get past my dislike of the Apple experience (an opinion based totally on hearsay, I’ll grant), despite the fact that it works well.

So I bought a Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 instead. With the Honeycomb release of the Android OS, I’d have the latest and greatest of what I already know I love. And it is a great OS.

On my phone, I’d find myself tagging emails and twitter posts for later reading on our laptop, since the phone’s screen was just to small to enjoy websites that are not optimized for mobile browsers. I’d wait to read emails for the same reasons.

The Galaxy Tab has solved those issues. Now I can read any email, and surf to any site, without waiting. The browser experience is sufficiently enjoyable no matter what the site’s administrators have done regarding mobile browsers. And e-reading is a pleasure. I don’t object to the tablet’s weight, which is heavier than most dedicated e-readers, because it’s less weight than many of the books I read. Summing that all up, I can say that Android is a great experience on this tablet device.

And it would be better if it were an iPad.

Why, you ask? Thanks for asking.

It’s a simple equation, really. It is missing some abilities, as of this writing, that exist already on the iPad, and also exist on my Nexus One phone. It doesn’t allow me to view MLB TV, and it doesn’t have a Netflix app. Oh, and there is no Facebook app. I guess they figure the site is good enough on the larger tablet screen.

Let me repeat: It is missing three abilities that I have on my phone already. And two of those features exist on the iPad.

Now I know Facebook is working on Tablet apps already. That will come to both the iPad and Android tablets soon. And I hope Netflix will be coming soon. Perhaps MLB TV will come, but I will be unlikely to subscribe to that again in future baseball seasons. That’s fodder for another long-ish blog post on another day.

So I find myself in a position to which I am unaccustomed. I am making excuses for an inferior experience, and hoping for the best yet to come. My experience on my Nexus One is one of smug superiority over my iPhone wielding friends, as I enjoyed full integration to the Google services I use so heavily, while they waited while Apple all but pocket-vetoed the Google Voice app for iPhone.

I will not be taking back my Galaxy Tab, since I like it so much. And I keep hoping Netflix streaming comes to this device soon, since it is the way I consume all my TV when I’m not watching baseball.

If I had it to do over again… I’d probably get the iPad. And I’d hate every second of my Netflix viewing, e-reading, web surfing, MLB TV watching, Apple experience. Or not.

Wordpress for Android QR Code

So, I know this is not revolutionary or anything, but it turns out there is an Android app that allows you to manage your WordPress blog from your phone. I imagine iPhone users are saying, “Duh. We’ve had this for fifty years already!”  Anyway, here’s a QR code for the Android WordPress app.

Well, since I’ve only had a smart phone since April, it’s a novelty to me.

I’m hoping this will be a motivator to me to actually update the old blog more than twice yearly. As always, time will tell.

My track record doesn’t lend much credibility, I’m afraid.

Don’t be alarmed, though I mangled 2 fingers on my left hand, it didn’t require stitches, and the only lasting effect has been some numbness.  Well, that and a lesson on how not to use one’s hand like a featherboard. Kickback is a cruel reminder of one’s stupidity. And, just to get it out of the way, I deserved what I got. I can use my splitter all I want, it won’t keep my fingers off the blade if I do something dumb again.

So, with that reminder firmly in mind whenever I use a tool now, I’m back in the shop and making something useful.  The current project is a vaguely Shaker style table to be used by my kids as a computer table.  Their computer currently resides on a pair of crappy end tables pushed together.  They aren’t wide enough for a keyboard and mouse, and are too deep to put the user at a reasonable distance from the monitor.

So I’m working on a table that has better dimensions, and looks nice too.  Since my goal is still to use up my voluminous supply of birch plywood, the main part of the table top will be birch, and will be banded by red oak.  OK, I know this probably makes some folks cringe, but I have my reasons.

So check back for progress… since I’ve actually already started on this, I hope the posts will come at a more rapid pace than “annually”.

L O L

My shop is in a part of my basement that is a bit of a walkway to the washer & dryer. It houses the circuit breaker panel directly over my workbench. The telephone and cable TV drops are right next to the electrical panel. Plus, it is situated directly under my kitchen. So you can imagine the rat’s nest of plumbing and wires that go through my space.

Due to a plumbing job, my space has been taken over by the detritus of copper pipes and solder that represents my attempt to fix a leaky spigot whose outlet is also directly over my workbench. Come to think of it, that seems like abysmally poor planning on the part of my home’s builders.

Anyway, I’m not really good as sweating solder joints for plumbing, but I’m good enough at it that I refuse to call a plumber for something as simple as a spigot replacement. But I’m bad enough at it that I take two full days to accomplish what a plumber could do in two hours, even if said plumber took a leisurely coffee break in the middle of the job.

So I haven’t done any woodworking in quite some time. But I do have some projects on tap:

• New table saw base with better dust containment
• Make a wing of the table saw into my router table
• Build a new rolling storage cabinet for some of my larger power tools, and a rolling base to set them on when I use them

Yeah, it’s all shop projects. But they’re things I’ve needed to get to for quite some time, based on experience and observation during past projects.

I’m hoping that once the month of May is past, I’ll get to these. May is loaded with events in my family, including my birthday, my son’s birthday, Mothers Day, and my father’s birthday. We spend most of May either driving across town, or hosting events for which others drive to us.

In the meantime, I have a few blog posts stored up that I’ll share soon.

Part of the reason that I needed a deadline of January 5th was that the month of January is a tough one for me. Following on Christmas and New Year’s Day, I have the birthday of my triplets, which is a week-long challenge to schedule parties and visits. Then is my mother in law’s birthday, then my mother’s, and finally my wife’s at the end of the month.

So I haven’t done any work in the shop since my last post here. It may be February before I make any more progress, but hope springs eternal. I do have a 4-day weekend coming up this week, so I’m hoping for the best. And February brings a new fiscal year at work, which means a new raft of vacation days that I may use for more frequent 4-day weekends this year. Still have to talk that idea over with SWMBO (she who must be obeyed). Just kidding, I couldn’t ask for a cooler spouse. And I might get into trouble if I did. Kidding, again!

So I’m hoping for something interesting to talk about later this week, but I’m not holding my breath just yet.

I suspect the problem is related to two things about my fence.  First, the fence is relatively narrow, about 1 1/2″ wide, made of aluminum.  Second, it hooks in both the front and the back of the table saw.  Lets take these characteristics one at a time.

The first problem is the narrow width.  Now, I haven’t noticed it flex while I push a workpiece against it, so despite its narrow width and aluminum construction, it seems solid enough.

The trouble is that it hooks on a back rail as well as the normal front rail.  I believe this design was necessary because of the fence’s relatively insubstantial design – it wasn’t strong enough to be rock solid hooking only to a front rail like the Biesemeyer fences do.

These two features combine to make a fence that is particularly hard to count on.  Because it hooks on both the back and front rails, it is easy to get the fence canted either away from the blade, producing sloppy cuts, or toward the blade, producing a situation ripe for kickback – and serious injury.

On every single cut I perform, when I set the fence distance from the blade, I am careful to take precise measurements not only from the blade (to set the width of the cut), but also I measure the distance from the miter slot at the front of the table and at the back, and make sure they are identical.  If not, I tweak the fence position until it is correct.  I never skip this step!

Since the fence is so temperamental, this is a large reason why I think the splitter is so critical.  The splitter, when properly aligned, will help you avoid the kickback situations if the fence is set wrong, and the anti-kickback pawls on it will also grab the wood if the blade does want to kick it back, and will keep you safe in most situations.

So, needless to say, I would really like to replace this fence with a Biesemeyer or similar fence, that is substantial enough to stand on its own, and that I can trust to be rock solid once I set the distance from the blade.  The time I’ll save will be wonderful.

One last note about this.  Because the fence is so bad, I never use the measuring tape that is attached to the fence’s front rail.  In fact, I ultimately ended up moving the rails and the fence to the right by 6″, so that I could turn the space to the right of the blade from 24″ to 30″.  So the ruler is irrelevant anyway, even if I could trust it.

Next: A zero-clearance insert dilemma.

That’s not what I wanted to tell you about.  I want to tell you about the saw’s splitter, which I use religiously.  For about the last two months, anyway.

When I bought the saw, I had a little experience on a bench-top saw, and quickly found its limitations for the kind of woodworking I had wanted to do.  So, being a devout follower of Norm Abram, I bought a new contractor style table saw from Sears (money is always an object), and never took the splitter and blade guard out of their plastic bags.  I put them in a drawer and promptly forgot about them, and began using the saw Norm-style, sans protection.

I can already imagine the fright half of you feel at reading that, as well as the chorus of “me too” from the other half of you.  Well, as much due to luck as care, I have never had a table saw accident of any kind.  No severed fingers, no serious kickbacks, nothing.  Not that I didn’t deserve it, because I did some crazy things from a safety perspective.

It was the table saw class with Frank Klausz a couple of months ago, as well as episodes of Matt’s Basement Workshop podcast where Matt Vanderlist conversed with guest Hendrik Varju regarding table saw setup, use and safety, that finally converted me.  I searched my shop, and miraculously found the splitter, blade guard, and mounting hardware all hidden in my shop.  This is amazing to me, because I am really good at not being a pack rat, and I throw stuff away all the time.  Also, I have moved twice since purchasing this table saw, and I really cannot believe that I didn’t misplace anything!

I mounted the splitter, and verified it was parallel to the blade, and began to use it for the first time in nine years!

Table saw splitter and blade guard

Its features include the blade guard, which swings up and out of the way for blade setup; a splitter (not a riving knife, even though that’s what the saw’s owner’s manual calls it) that tilts with the blade’s tilt; and anti-kickback pawls on both sides of the splitter.

I have found the usage of the blade guard and splitter to be far less irritating than I expected, once the apparatus is installed on the saw and properly set up with the blade.  Of course, it isn’t usable with my crosscut sled, and can’t be used while my dado set is installed.  But for all rip cuts, it is in place and has not proven to be a problem.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  I find the leading edge of the blade guard to be a welcome reminder of the position of the spinning blade, and it makes it easier to keep my fingers away from it.  Now, I’ve always been scrupulously careful about my fingers while using the saw, but really, isn’t that what we all say right up until the first time we have an accident?

This apparatus does indeed have a down-side, though.  While it’s easy to use once installed, it is the installation and uninstallation that is the biggest problem.

Splitter attachment to the table saw

In the photo, you can see that the splitter is attached to the saw via three thumbscrews that are tightened and loosened with a supplied allen wrench.  There is no quick attach/detach mechanism.  Each time the splitter is to be installed, these three screws must be installed.  The two on the back support aren’t too bad, but the one under the blade insert (seen in the photo to the right near the blade) is almost impossible to get to, and is the crucial one for setting the splitter’s leading edge directly behind the blade.  The other two are manageable. Uninstalling the splitter requires using the allen wrench to completely remove all three screws.

With practice, I have managed to get the installation and setup time to less than ten minutes, though I must say, I’m not racing to get it done quickly.  I tweak it until it is right, regardless of how long it takes.  Removal is a matter of two minutes or so.

So what did Frank and Hendrik say that convinced me to dig out the splitter and use it?  Well, they discussed in great detail the importance of the splitter or riving knife in preventing kickback.  Honestly, though I may have heard it mentioned before, I never realized with any clarity that the splitter played such an important role.  But when properly aligned with the blade, it keeps the rip cut firmly against the rip fence, making kickback much less likely.

Though I had never experienced kickback myself, I had come close a few times.  My saw’s motor is no more than 1hp, and so when the workpiece binds against the blade, most often it just stops the blade.  Like I said earlier… I’ve been lucky.

So add my voice to those advocating the splitter.  I haven’t had to lose a finger, or suffer a kickback punch to the gut, to come to that realization.  But my experience with this saw, combined with the words of these woodworking masters, made their impression on me.

I mentioned in my previous post about this project that I am using an existing stock of poplar plywood.

My stock of birch plywood

However, I remembered today that this wood is actually birch plywood.  I had purchased this wood about 4-5 years ago in a quantity large enough to build a set of bookshelves in the den of our previous house.  Luckily I had no time to start this project due to the birth of the triplets in 2004.  When we moved in 2005, the wood moved with us, and has been parked in my workshop ever since.  I used a large quantity of it for the beds I built for the kids this year, and since there is much remaining, the coat center will also be primarily made of this wood.

So, the cuts are mostly made, and I have begun cutting the dadoes and rabbets I’ll need to fit the top and bottom to the sides, as well as to fit the dividers and center shelf in place.  That process has not been completed, and there is much left to do.

Also mentioned previously was my intention to fit the coat hook board to the shelf box using a sliding dovetail.  Once I saw the bottom piece, though, I changed my mind.  Instead I will use pocket screws, since they need not be seen by anyone as they’ll be in the back of the board against the wall.  I know not everyone cares for pocket screws, but I think this is a place that calls for their strength.  Flame on if you have an opinion.

I am unlikely to have any shop time until the new year (Saturday) since I’m back in the office on Monday, and New Year’s Day will likely be spent at my parents’ house across town for a much delayed Christmas.

Until then, I have a few other things to post that may be of interest.  Enjoy!

Frank Klausz and his tenoning jig

Sorry if the picture is a bit blurry, but it was not the brightest classroom, and the picture was taken with my cell phone.

One humorous, but serious, anecdote to share. Frank made sure he told us how serious it was that we lock down our rip fences, since failing to do so can, and usually will, result in kickback. This of course would cause serious injury if you happened to be standing anywhere behind the workpiece. Frank told us that the first thing he does before cutting his workpiece is to push against the fence in order to ensure that it is properly locked down.

So as Frank demonstrated his tenoning jig above, I noticed, from my front-row seat, that his tenon came out a bit less than straight. It turned out that he had forgotten to lock down his rip fence. He said, “Don’t tell my Grandpa!” We all had a good laugh, but I couldn’t help but think how close we came to seeing Frank Klausz get injured by kickback with his own table saw jig.

It’s a class I won’t soon forget, especially when I’m about to turn on my table saw.