Tool Whisperer

Little by little I'm getting my shop out of the garage and out onto the driveway of my house. It's not a big deal but it's monumental to me. I like working on wood in my garage with the radio going. As I've written in the past I have not really been able to do this for the past couple years for one reason or another however that's changing I have access to the garage and now am accessing my tools and getting them where I can use them. It is kind of sad because I know by the time I really get focused and doing this bad weather will come in and that will be at for this year. Still though I will have a game plan for next year provided I'm lucky enough to make it through the winter. Today however, I worked on my 4 inch belt sander. I really need to get my belt sander functioning so I can process the wood into sticks. I have in the past used the lathe to do this process but I don't have access to a working blaze right this minute and I sort like the idea of just taking a stick and working the edges off with the sander and then finishing the stick with sandpaper by hand. I remembered belt sander works very well for this purpose.

The belt Sander I have is a Sears craftsman 4 inch wide belt with a 6 inch disk,man talk, I got the sander a couple years ago in truth is,I've never used the machine as much as I should have. It's taken me a while to understand how cheap Sears Craftsman line of products are but the products are usually cheap enough that I can afford and work well enough for my needs. I don't need the exactness, are precision I just need something that will do the rough cut, the rip the basic job relatively safely. The problem I have with this sander is that it's awkward to move around and I do not have it anchored down to anything like most tools of this nature are. The sander is also fairly heavy for me to deal with, for most people the sander awkward and heavy. So I was pleased when Dianne informed me that the sander was in the garage and she knew exactly where the sander was at. Dianne got the sander for me and put on top of the bench.

It had been a while since I last used this machine I had forgotten that the 4 inch sanding belt had ripped off and idea to replace it. I picked up a couple belts but had never gotten around to changing it out. Now I remember why I could not figure out how to put the belt on the sander. Actually, I could put the belt on I just had to figure out how to disengage what they call the sander be I bed. Since I long ago lost the manual for the sander spent hours so tracing down a copy of the owners manual on the Internet. However,I got lucky I found the document and got to work what I thought was to be an easy task. Wrong! Somehow I cannot get the tracking feature to work on the sander. I just about have it figured out but I think it will take more hand function then I've got and somebody with a secret tool sense—a tool whisperer. So, tomorrow I'm going to search for the whisperer, and maybe efault to my next-door neighbor-- the German. He can do anything with tools The only problem is that he's ancient and had some issues of late that may prevent him doing the work you need to do. However I have great faith in him. And I know he could do the job.