A New Year's Evolution.

Wow Sam, you need to have REALLY good friends to move that kind of machinery around. It's gonna be fun watching the new shop progress.

It's not a widely-know fact, but "Shaz" was Robert's "basketball" name. Yep...Houston Rockets. He was famous, but you didn't see much about him in the papers or on TV, because the sports commentators could never spell or pronounce his last name. But you surely heard all about the Shaz and Colby Briant disagreements. That was all over the news.

Sam,

Looks like a heck of a nice spot. I, myself always prefer to live outside the city environs but still have immediate access to it. Seems like you have it made.

Vaughn McMillan said:

...It's not a widely-know fact, but "Shaz" was Robert's "basketball" name. Yep...Houston Rockets. He was famous, but you didn't see much about him in the papers or on TV, because the sports commentators could never spell or pronounce his last name. But you surely heard all about the Shaz and Colby Briant disagreements. That was all over the news.

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Well that explains things. Now I know who the enter the local 2 on 2 tournemants with.

Congratulations Sam, I love it when a plan comes together. I hope we can get together again soon. Antonio's really growing. He'll be ready for his great grandfather's hammer and some nails before long. Anxious to see the first sawdust in the new shop. I am truly happy for you.

George

congrats sam, wishin you the best in the future. i hope the town and the new venture is everything you dream it can be.

shaz, once again, you da man!!



thanks for taking us along for the move and setup.

let us know when class is in session. i'd love to look into the possibility of taking some.

George Clark said:

... Antonio's really growing. He'll be ready for his great grandfather's hammer and some nails before long. Anxious to see the first sawdust in the new shop. I am truly happy for you.

George

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Thanks George. He is shooting up quick. I had him bring me that hammer on Sunday - seemed like a natural fit, and he didn't want to let it go.

... so last week I get a call from a good friend from Miami, "Sam, I'm in Louisiana. I think I'll pop over for a visit." It's good to be retired. The small irony was, William had helped me pack the Miami shop up. I warn him I'm moving again... He shows up anyway, so I had no choice but to put him to work. Wasn't too bad, though, since I hired 2 college kids with a liftgate truck to move all the rest of the boxes, benches and bags of tricks I can't seem to part with. Took about 5 hours on Saturday. Then William wanted to know how to cut dovetails, something he'd never done, but wants to learn now that he has retired. I found the right boxes and some scrap and the 1st dust was created in the new shop.


Sunday was spent loosely staging areas and running pipe for the DC. Plus I threw together a couple of window displays -- mainly from my museum of unfinished projects -- for teasers. Got half ducting run before we had to leave to interview a local daycare person. Here's a few pics:







If anyone would like to check out the full photo library of the move check in here:

http://s115.photobucket.com/albums/n313/postcromag/Smithville Shop/The Move and Set Up/

Add me to the jealous crowd, Sam! Congratulations on the new place! I can only dream. When I'm lucky enough to move back home (Texas), I'll have to drop in.

Sam,
Great to hear you made the move. I am very excited for you. give me a call when things slow down so we can catch up. I am looking at visiting Austin in the near future.

Greg

Looks really good, Sam.

Gettin outa the big city, huh? Looks like some great digs there, and all that cabinet and shelf space ought to come in handy.

I've got a couple friends living out your way, one up towards Giddings, and another closer in the Bastrop, though he has a Smithville address, I believe. I'm off north of Austin, but not quite far enough north AFAIC.

Hi Sam ,
Bet you have been a very busy businessman/husband/dad/woodworker/neighbor/../../../ Your new environment seems very pleasing. I believe you have made a wise choice for you and your family. When you get time......................Go be with them!
Shaz

No internet access for a week (actually, very limited, a wifi spot at one restaurant in town where I could check emails during lunch)! Wow, talk about being in the wilderness. I have been busy this past week. My single phase service was changed to three phase Delta (stinger leg) service on Wednesday. Power is good, 245 volts across all phases, and to ground 122.5 on two legs and 208 to the stinger. Just like it is supposed to be. Much better than the weak legs I was getting in Miami. I pretty much spent the week running conduit, outlets and pulling wire. Finished the DC runs and also ran air lines. All the machines have power now and dust can start flying. Re-installed slider on Sunday and should be able to square it up again on Saturday. We are also moving the house during the next couple of weeks so won't be much shop time until that is done. No new pics, as not much has changed in terms of space or lack of full boxes and pallets. More to come later.

Sam,
Great little shop... I'm not exactly sure where Smithville is, I'm vaguely familiar with the Austin area of Texas.. my son lives at Bastrop and works in Austin.. it's a great area and my wife and I even talked about retiring to that area around Austin... but wound up in Tennessee about half way between the two families.. mine in Texas and hers in Illinois.

I like the pictures of the downtown.. reminds me of my hometown in central Texas.

Chuck Ellis said:

... my son lives at Bastrop and works in Austin...
I like the pictures of the downtown.. reminds me of my hometown in central Texas.

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Then your son and I are neighbors! Smithville is in Bastrop county, exactly 13 miles from the town of Bastrop. The town and the people have a great feel to them. Definitely stop by next time you are in the area. If you time it right, there is a little arts and crafts festival every first Saturday of the month. Give you guys something more to look at and do besides looking at antique shops, my shop (and my antics). Love to have you.

Nothing much to report this week that is exciting, but things were necessary. Spent all weekend replacing lighting fixtures. Since half the ballasts in there were bad or going I decided to pull them all down and go with new fixtures. This allowed me to make the jump to T8, and my full spectrum bulbs should arrive the end of this week. Not fun work, but the results will be worth it. All is not good news, though, as it looks like my combo doesn't like too much voltage. I'm getting 245 volts across the phases of my 3 wire delta set up and my combo likes 230 volts, +/- 5% (218-241). The internal protection keeps tripping -- my sensitive Italian. I've asked the electrical company to see if anything can be done on their end, but my guess is, not much. I think because the transformer is right outside my door, nothing is being lost down the line, so to speak. Right now, I'm counting on adding two buck/boost transformers inline to do some bucking. But there is alot of conflicting and confusing data out there as to which ones I need, kVA wise, that is. I'm thinking 500 or 750, depends on whose formula I use. I intend to get if figured out this week and will post the results.
That's all the news that is fit to print this week, and I have a house to move. (the wife won't let me stay at the shop to get my electrical mystery figured out until the house is moved -- what's with that?)

Thats so close I would try and find out if the trip point is adjustable or even selectable via a resistor. Often these things are set closer than they really have to be to protect things. It all depends on how responsive those that made the controller or what ever is tripping are.

Also often the power company can change some transformer taps to adjust voltage, so maybe you will get lucky there. I must admit most of my experence has been more along the single phase distribution.


Good Luck.

Garry

Garry Foster said:

Thats so close I would try and find out if the trip point is adjustable or even selectable via a resistor.
Good Luck.

Garry

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It is close, and the internal tripper is adjustable, but only for a small range. I did try setting it to its max and it didn't help things. On Sunday I installed the two buck and boost transformers, dropped my voltage by almost 18 volts and things are humming along happily. I think the main motors would have been fine working in a +/-10% range from optimal, but they set the overrides narrower, and if it was just a simple switch i could have bypassed it or installed one with a wider range, but there are so many other electronics involved on this machine, six motors in all, circuit boards, micro switches, etc, I thought it would be prudent to set the voltage where the mother country says to set it.

I thinks the strangest part of this episode of the adventure is I spent a week googling, asking, yahooing, even went to the library, and no two experts agree on anything pertaining to three phase power, even sources I have trusted in the past, but certain generalities kept popping up, and from all that the transformers seemed the right choice, but until they were installed and the machine worked I just couldn't know with any certainty. Of the electrical forum boards out there it was fun to listen to the electrical engineers argue with field electricians and linesmen. Calculus arguing with common sense and experience. Good stuff and it makes some of our less tame woodworking forums out there seem tame.
So, another obstacle overcome, and some dust can start flying as I start dialing in the squaring fence (re-checking actually) and making storage platforms for the wood. Next time you hear from me there will be some additional pics.

Blimey, by my standards it looks like an aircraft hangar set off a motorway (freeway to you guys) I'll have to post some pics of my set up. Couldn't be more different.

I love the idea of a workshop that is visible from the galleries. Bound to generate interest.

Apart from the envy I feel I hope that it all works out for you

Pete

Sam Blasco said:

I thinks the strangest part of this episode of the adventure is I spent a week googling, asking, yahooing, even went to the library, and no two experts agree on anything pertaining to three phase power, even sources I have trusted in the past, but certain generalities kept popping up, and from all that the transformers seemed the right choice, but until they were installed and the machine worked I just couldn't know with any certainty. Of the electrical forum boards out there it was fun to listen to the electrical engineers argue with field electricians and linesmen. Calculus arguing with common sense and experience. Good stuff and it makes some of our less tame woodworking forums out there seem tame.
So, another obstacle overcome, and some dust can start flying as I start dialing in the squaring fence (re-checking actually) and making storage platforms for the wood. Next time you hear from me there will be some additional pics.

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Sounds a lot like the 120 or 240 arguments.

Or is it that the 110/220......?

Glad you got it working......that is the final test.

Garry

Pete MoncrieffJury said:

Blimey, by my standards it looks like an aircraft hangar set off a motorway (freeway to you guys) I'll have to post some pics of my set up. Couldn't be more different.

I love the idea of a workshop that is visible from the galleries. Bound to generate interest.

Apart from the envy I feel I hope that it all works out for you

Pete

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Pete, I agree, it does look like a massive space, but I'm sure the Sam will fill it up soon enough

The idea of people being able to watch the work is cool, and would drum up some interest, it would also, I think, make one work "cleaner" or at least tidy up more often

BTW Pete, I look forward to a tour of your shop!