Extra Parts

It’s funny when we take something apart with the intention of putting it back together that no matter what we do there are always left over pieces.  With that being said we were able to get the table saw back in working order with only a small pile of washers left over. We were sure to put all the bolts and screws to use even if we weren’t sure which hole they came from.  For a week or so the saw ran great, easy starts, straight cuts, smooth as butter. Then the other day we were cutting a board to width when we went to turn the saw off and no dice. The saw kept running like a Kenyan in a marathon. We flicked the switch to both positions multiple times but the blade kept spinning.  We’re guessing the extra washers somehow had something to do with this problem.  We decided to give the saw a good dusting and cleaning hoping that would appease the tool gods and the switch would start working. We even thought about sacrificing a smaller less used tool as a gift to the gods but we decided that would not help either.  So we put a band aid on it. We plugged the saw into an extra surge protector we had lying around and attached it to the saw side and poof, new on/off switch.  Sadly this is not the first tool we have had to use this fix on, but it does work. Maybe the skills to make do with what we have on hand and to rig up our tools isn’t a dying trait. It just needs a reason to come out.  

A dying breed

     Well last week the table saw motor was still having issues, needing a kick start like an old airplane propeller is not so good for a table saw blade or our fingers. So after taking the motor off, our workbench now looks like a robot stepped on a land mine. It was ridiculous all the screws and bolts, and rods that had to come off to get the job done.  Alas we did get the motor off. We put it in a box and took it in town to an old man with a small work shop behind his home. This man seems to be a dying breed, at first glance his shop is a complete mess, but when you look more closely you see all kinds of rigged up motors and tools that  only he knows how to use and how he pieced them together. The impressive thing is that he knows exactly where every tool is and what it does. After seeing this I was immediately confident that this was the man that could fix the motor. After a few days sure enough he got the motor in like new condition. He was a mumbler, so when he told me what he had to do I nodded and smiled and assumed the pile of wires he showed me had something to do with it. I happily paid the man put the motor in the box took it back to the shop and am building the courage and fortitude to put the robot table saw pieces back together.  Our goal now is that one day The Rusted Nail shop will have a proper table saw, if not I will visit the old timer and see if he can teach me how to rig the parts of different saws together to make our own.