If you’ve been in the shop the last couple of days, not only is the loft gone, but you’ve seen the huge new Laguna jointer. It jointer is operational, but it is important that you note some of the following.
We need to replace the braker with a time delay breaker. Until then, it may trip the breaker when you start it up. It doesn’t do it every time. Reset and try again.
When you adjust the jointer up and down, you MUST pull and hold the lock-pin, BEFORE you rotate the wheel.
The jointer is very sensitive to pressure on the tail end of the board as you pass it through. You can press down on the outfeed, but try not to press down on the infeed. If you apply much pressure on the infeed, you can get some snipe on the last couple inches of your board. There is a Microjig Grip push block that is perfect for the jointer, since it has the drop down “smart hooks”.
We do not have dust collection hooked up. That is waiting on the new large dust collector in January. We have to continue to use the old bin. Empty frequently.
For now, the jointer is set at about 8 inches, which should be enough for most tasks. We will set up a jointer class in the near future. In that class, we can cover some of the new capabilities that this jointer offers.
The class for the jointer will focus on the usage capabilities of the jointer. We won’t be teaching any maintenance in that class.
We are bringing on a bunch more stewards with the goal of implementing preventive maintenenace across the space. This will give us a larger group of people to deal with even minor equipment problems with a short response time. The new red QR codes, on each machine, allow you to immediately report any issues. Those reports are distributed to the entire steward team, which is now almost 20 people. We have yet to train everybody, but the program is gearing up for 2022. Someone will be able to make an adjustment within a day, and maybe even hours, once we get up to speed.
The stewards have access to a full set of specialty tools, torque wrenches, etc., to do the maintenance to spec. We’ll have “owners” of equipment being responsible for particular machines, maintenance plans, etc., while also cross training the stewards so that any or most of us can deal with issues like turning jointer teeth, or making adjustments.
We really don’t want everybody cracking equipment open and fiddling. Yes, some people know exactly what they are doing. Others do not. One example of a problem is the table saw fence. The fence is often out of true. It can drift with heavy usage, but people turn the adjustment screws without understanding the proper method, and the fence gets worse. With the new system, a quick QR scan, a report, and everyone knows the issue that needs to be addressed.
Will you be using discourse (perhaps utilizing the post via email feature ) to have a (perhaps read only to all , writeable by stewards ) “queue”? Also will you be using discourse assign work feature ?
(Can you tell I’ve done this kind of thing before ? )
The “problem” with sending to all is the classic “if everyone is responsible , no one is responsible”.
I’m very glad to see people / process / systems improvements across the board at the space. It’s impressive and makes me happy to see the necessary organizational maturity starting to happen.
I have been giving very serious consideration to membership and this kind of progress / maturity curve has convinced me to join (and to (if possible ) become a board member ) .
The work ethic , organization and execution on Saturday was incredible!
(Perhaps spin up a dedicated topic / category for these kind of discussions relating to organization )?
We do have a collaboration tool (“Boardable”) that does shared to-do lists and stuff like that, but I don’t love it. So far we’ve had a small enough people doing work that we’ve been able to coordinate via Slack, but ongoing chatter with 20 stewards will probably make it prohibitive to scroll #stewards to see what’s going on. Maybe Discourse would make sense, but I’d want to take a look at purpose-built ticket tracking packages too.
Basically we need to ensure we don’t lose track of problems when, say, a report is submitted, then whoever’s on hand triages the problem, then it’s kicked up to a machine owner/expert for further work.
I have some ideas for a real-time shop status dashboard that are enabled by Charlie’s problem report and maintenance log forms (for each tool, show “all good” or “problem reported” or “maintenance required / waiting on parts” with an update ETA wouldn’t be too hard to aggregate and display) but there are a few other things ahead of that in the development queue.
Right now, we have nothing, other than email or Discourse, for communication. And up to now, no defined team. We’re creating a team and a process, but that is still in the early stages.
For reporting, I like the distributed QR codes, because it makes it easy for people to make a problem report. Same for reporting work on a machine. If a system isn’t easy to use, it won’t be used. I don’t want to see a reporting system that is easy for the IT folks, but difficult for the user community. That said, I’m fine with whatever back office stuff that IT folks want, if you have time to improve it. We just don’t want something that will die without it’s creator.
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We just don’t want something that will die without it’s creator.“
Completely agree! Hence suggesting the use of discourse. As long as the QR code form system can post to email (and/or REST API) the output can go into a discourse category as a new topic. Then using the discourse plugins for assigning work allows it to move through the outlined workflow process .
I think that checks all the boxes for something simple , not adding a new system , easily composable and scaleable .
I’m not sure how to spin parts of a Discourse thread off into a separate thread, but someone might want to do that here with the off topic discussion.
Back to the new jointer, here are some pics from the work day of @JoeN@Jon and @cfstaley working on getting it calibrated (with @iisword supervising for good measure )
The jointer was missing one of two bolts used to calibrate a physical stop at 90 degrees. Not sure if it was missed at the factory or was lost in transit / set up. I installed a new bolt and locking nut, and added blue loctite to both nuts. I did not add loctite to the bolts where threaded into the tilt mechanism so as to allow for future adjustments.
The fence is now calibrated at exactly 90 degrees using a known perfect square. There is a tiny bit of flex in the tilting mechanism, however, and so the fence can be moved a hair off 90. I am able to move the fence back into square with light pressure on the fence. The set bolts do not need to be adjusted to do this. As with all jointers, it is good practice to ALWAYS check the fence to make sure it is at a perfect 90 when edge jointer. If you move the fence out of square while jointing, you are using too much pressure.
The fence is set at about an 8" wide cut, which will be wide enough for most needs. If you need to move it back for a wider cut, please return it back to position. This is a safety measure to minimize the amount of exposed cutter head. Along those lines, DO NOT remove the blade guard.
I also checked the various infeed and outfeed table alignments with a known perfect straight edge. They were dead on from the factory, which was a nice surprise.
The depth of cut indicator is zeroed out. The current depth of cut is currently set at about 1/16", which is appropriate for the majority of jointing operations.
@cfstaley and I ran about 40 linear feet of 7" wide 6/4 maple yesterday. The Laguna cut like butter and left perfect faces and edges. Very impressive machine!
Let me know if you have any questions about the machine or how to safely and properly joint faces and edges.
ps- It will be very messy until dust collection is installed, so please clean up after using.
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