Project — "Making a Silver Chest"

  

   Armed with the width and depth dimensions, Jessica can used the combined measurement to locate the best grain pattern on this large piece of mahogany.
  

  

   Designing a box so that the grain seems to wrap around all four corners takes a little getting use to. The illustration at the left is one that I created to illustrate the method when I first used it years ago,

  

   This is Bethany who was helping me at that time make a jewelry chest.

   Click here if you want to go to that story now.

  

   Now, back with Jessica as she cleans some packing oil from a brand new Panther Rip Blade.

   She installs the Panther blade. You can see that the TS 75 has the new feature of quicker and safer blade change. She simply depressed the handle at the same time as pulling on the green handle and the  shaft locks and the blade is exposed all the way.
   It makes blade changing so much quicker and safer. Note that she has still removed the power cord from the saw. It just makes sense to be doubly safe.

   Now, she can use the Allen wrench which is stored in the saw's base to loosen the arbor nut — an easy job with the shaft locked.

   Jessica will install the "Panther" rip blade for the next cuts.

    Jessica connects the dust extraction hose to the saw outlet. The new saw has a swivel connector that makes this much easier.

   Now, she connects to the power cord via the new quick connect plug.  Since she is using the new boom, it is a real convenience to be able to use these quick connects power and dust extraction and simply change only the machine, i.e. saw, sander, router, etc. It is a great system approach.

   She uses a speed square to position the short rail and makes the crosscut. And yes, she is making this cut with the Panther blade on. It works fine but doesn't give as fine a cross cut as we would want for our usual cabinet making.

   We have quite a bit more sawing to do but Jessica and I decide that spending a few minutes smoothing over the rough hewn wood, would make grain selection much easier.
    She is using the new Festool Rotex 150 with 50 grit paper. It doesn't take long to smooth over all the sides. This is a prime example where changing just the power cord and dust extraction hose on the boom makes "presto-chango" so very quick.

     This closer view may give you a better idea of the smooth surface vs. the rough hewned at the left.