broken handle

Several years ago, when the city rebuilt the next street over, I picked up a bunch of oak timbers that the fire hydrants were shipped/delivered on. 3" x 4", white oak or live oak or something similar. Heavy, dense and hard, lots of interesting grain. 

I used the table saw to cut it down to the turning blank, and turned the handle. I tried a different shape this time, made it big, left it heavy, for more mass and hopefully more control of the tool. 

With the old lathe, with a 1/2hp motor and a very old vbelt, I didn't worry too much about needing a lot of control. This big lathe has a 2hp motor, serpentine belt, and believe me, it commands respect and caution. 

Wow, I got off topic fast, huh. 

Instead of the grain running lengthwise end to end, the grain switches direction where the nails were and where it broke. Yes, I was not using the tool as it was intended when it broke, but we're not going to talk about that. I've learned my lesson, for now, anyway. I smeared some yellow wood glue on it, after making sure there was no sawdust in the way, clamped it together over night. Works, good as ever again. 

FYI, the tool is made with a piece of shaft that I got from Steve, from where he works. Grind a flat spot on the end, drill and tap a hole and screw on a carbide cutter.

I get some cutters from AZCarbide, and some from Cap'n Eddie Castelin. 

top 10 list

How about another top 10 list?

crockpot
radio
gas grill
coffee
epoxy
cream cheese
free wood
cats
cheesepie
indoor plumbing

Genesis grinder

I went dumpster diving yesterday. 

Diving is not really accurate, since I hardly ever climb inside, but I almost did yesterday, but employing the use of some 2x4 levers, I was successful retrieving a 4 1/2" Genesis angle grinder. It was missing the extra handle that screws into the head area of it, but no matter, that's the easy part. 

Genesis brand....never heard of it. But,  of course Uncle Google was aware of it, and told me that I could get one at Home Depot, Amazon, and some other scumbag place that I don't remember or patronize. 

HD charges about $40 for one....so it's not the cheapest thing available....Harbor Freight holds that honor, if you use a couple coupons, you can get one for about 8. And for what I do, it works pretty well. 

I plugged the Genesis in, and turned it on. Actually, the switch slides, but whatever, and it came on, sounded normal, smelled normal. It has a cut off wheel installed, and that works too. The only obvious problem, aside from the missing handle, is the spindle lock button is damaged, broken, etc. 

So, I found some wood, I found a bolt, I found the lathe and some epoxy, made a handle and will put it all together. You can jam a screw driver in the right place to lock the spindle, and the wrench from my Skil grinder that Val gave me 20+ years ago fits. Maybe the ideal thing for this one would be a cup brush of some sort, so it doesn't have to be changed too often.  

I love it when people throw away perfectly good tools.....I neglected to tell you about the Makita circular saw that I found.....missing the cord. It too works great.