Ted's shop is a big place, jammed with all manner of power tool:
He says it's often much cheaper and easier to buy and modify a tool for a special purpose, rather than to design and build the tool from scratch.
Here's a simple example. It's an old table saw with a dado blade:
He uses this tool only for cutting the notch at the intersection of the top braces.
Ted shows off a simple modification of a big industrial tool:
He bought this huge old pin router, but found that it vibrated too much at high speed. So he simply replaced the machine's head with a modern router. Now he has a heavy duty router mounted in a totally vibration-free environment. With this unit, he can duplicate parts with incredible accuracy.
Check out the old bandsaw behind him.
The whole shop is a feast of tool modifications, setups and cool ideas.
On cold days, he fires up this old wood stove:
It heats the big room reasonably, but look up above there:
At the upper left, there's a box fan mounted near the ceiling above the heater. The fan blows hot air into that long serpentine cloth tube draped the length of the shop.
Dry, heated air is delivered right to the air intake of his spray booth:
Simple, and so efficient.
Ted does his own welding, and made up this four station buffer:
Top and back construction begins with his pantograph carver:
It's a tool Ted designed and built after trying out and being dissatisfied with a commercial unit.
He has tensioned cables which keep the linear bearings aligned:
The idea for the cables came from those old drafting machines, with its self-aligning squares and rules.
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