My cheap-ass Harbor Freight dust collector has picked up a bit of a vibration. Enough so that last Sunday, it vibrated itself right off the French cleat on the wall twice in an hour. In the second fall, it landed on top of the box I had built to hold my pen press, shattering the box, which did its job of protecting the press from damage.
So, Monday morning, it was off to the wood store to buy some tubafors. Note that the price is now $1 per linear foot, that is, a 16 foot tubafor costs $16. At least I’ll be able to remember that.
Anyway, I spent Monday and Tuesday building this stand for the DC. And got it set in place in the shop this morning. Seems to work, but it takes up some floor-space I can’t really spare, but I’ll figure out how to reorganize things one of these days.
Pretty much all rabbeted construction. Glue and screws. I also put the new filter bag on the DC while I had everything apart, and scrubbed the dust off the sensor for the cyclone canister so maybe I’ll get a warning when it fills up.
But my local wood store is primarily hardwood, and I basically could pick three 16 footers off the top of the pile, rather than spending hours rummaging through the unstacked pile at Homer Depot, only to end up having to take home pretzels anyhow.
It was also notable as the last hauling my pickup did before I sold it. We now have a 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid, and I have a buncha pictures of Benjamin Franklin in my wallet from the truck, which got sold to my mechanic who got a pretty good deal on it, based on his smile.
Yep. Didn’t get as much for it as I could’ve because of the rust, but yeah, it’ll serve my mechanic well, and the Highlander can haul lumber if need be. Though I’ll have to be a bit more gentle about loadi and unloading.
Sounds like a scam to me. Waaay too expensive for construction lumber, unless is ‘choice’ or something I guess. Did you check the impeller and bearings?
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
Wow, a buck a foot! That's highway robbery. My local Lowes has 2X4X96 Spruce Pine Fir Kiln-dried at $3.55 each. Did you determine the source of the vibration?, does still vibrate on the new stand? Many of Harbor Freight items are not the best, but then again, we don't always need the best, all depends on the item.
If I bolt it to the wall, it would vibrate the whole wall, turning it into a large drum. There’s also the spacing problem, as the internal wall for my shop has 2x4 studs on 24” centers, while the exterior ones have 2x6s on 16 inch centers. The holes in the DC are 14 inches apart, IIRC, so there would need to be an intermediate board… after thinking about it, I decided a stand was best for my long-term sanity.
I don’t see any obvious damage to the impeller blades, and the vibration is less after shaking some wood chips out of the housing. At this point, it’s good enough, and the stand doesn’t walk around the shop when I turn it on. Next year’s plan is to have one of the motorcycles sold, and a portale roof built over the door of the shop to protect it from rain and sun, and move my low bench outside so I can work on that in the shade of the roof when the weather’s nice.
I think it was “choice” lumber because unlike Homer Depot or Lowe’s where all the tubafors are pretzels tangled together in a great heap, there were actually straight ones on top of the neatly stacked pile at my wood store.
I’m happy with the price, since I’m done. If I’d gone to either big box, I would’ve just burned down the shop rather than fixing things. I get that frustrated trying to find lumber I can actually use at the big boxes. It’s easier to cut down a tree and mill it myself.
I have mentioned this before, but when I want the best quality southern yellow pine at the orange and blue stores, I usually go to the 2x12s. It takes higher quality logs to produces those. I then rip them to the width that I want. I try to pick boards that either have no pith or where it is nearly perfectly centered at both ends. When you rip those down the middle and remove any pith (you may lose about 1-1.5" but you can use where crappy wood will do fine), you wind up with very stable quarter sawn boards. Of course, I also sight down the length to make sure that they have no warping at all to start with and make sure that the end grain at both ends looks about the same to minimize diagonal grain. I also avoid any with loose knots or knots along the edges or where the knots are larger than about 1.5" diameter. That approach should work with other available species as well. It can take some time digging through the stack but unless I need a bunch of them at a time, I can usually find what I need off the top of the stacks within a few minutes. I did this over a couple of months time when I was collecting the lumber for my workbench and basically wound up with #1 select lumber out of the #2 stacks. It pays to chat up the person at the custom order or pro desk to find out what day they usually get a new delivery (here I found that it is usually the same day each week) so that you can be there early that day to get first pick. IIRC, a SYP 12' 2x12 was just under $20 back then (2019) but nearly doubled during the pandemic. Looking at the HD website, the price is back down to $22. BTW, I usually just took my cordless circular saw with me to the store and cut the boards in half to get them into my van (unless I bought 10' or shorter boards) rather than asking them to cut them for me.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
Yeah, Nathan. I remember you saying that, but ripping 2x12s down would mean spewing dust everywhere in the shop because no dust collector. I was mostly working on sawhorses with a circular saw outside for this.
And the HD and Lowe’s here are both terrible. I won’t even set foot in the stores if I can avoid it.
This is how the aisles at Lowe’s have looked for the past 3 years.
F them both and the horse their managers rode in on.
I’ll order online from HD for things I can’t get elsewhere, but otherwise, they get zero custom from me.
Yikes! I was going to say send that picture to their HQ but it would probably be more important to send it to the local fire marshal (or whatever they are called).
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
I dunno Dave. I'd probably prefer running that Lowes gauntlet versus a typical store aisle with a single shopping cart and obliviot parent with two kids. At least a loaded Lowes cart has momentum to breech the blockages.
damn thats horrible dave. our lowes here are immaculate. thats a management issue there. im surprised someone from corporate hasn't come in fixed that ? maybe send that pic to their headquarters and say because of this i dont shop there anymore? maybe get some heads chopped and cleaned up ?
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
If I had ever liked Lowe’s, I might care enough to complain. But the HD and the Lowe’s here are both horribly managed, and I’m happier just not going to either. I have a nice wood store, and I have a local hardware store that has a lot of what I need, and the price premium is less than the cost of 2 gallons of gas for driving the 15 miles to town and back, so they win.
