Black Friday Blowout took on a whole new meaning this year. Unfortunately, the black was from all of the charcoal that needed to be cleaned up and the blowout was from, well, you know, the blowout. It worked out pretty nice because Friday was like a holiday/workday/freeday, so I didn’t feel so bad about working on the mess. There was no real plan except to pull out the tools that have some scrap value and to get the wood stacked and restacked (the fire department tore the stacks apart to put out the fire). I had help from Chris Law and Mike Stevens (thank you both), as well as Mark Soest who is donating the use of his loader, and we got a lot done. By the end of the day, the wood was stacked, the scrap was loaded, and most of the building was out of the way.
The sawmill can be saved. It got hot, but not as hot as the stuff in the building.
The only large tool that I plan to salvage is my sawmill. It is burned badly, needs a new engine, and it is missing almost everything that melts, but it was on the edge of the fire and didn’t get as hot. All of the other tools were inside the shop and are no longer straight, if they exist at all.
I took advantage of this shopping weekend to purchase my first replacement tools; a 6″ orbital sander, a Fuji hvlp system, and a few clamps. These are tools that I know I want new. Most of the rest, especially the bigger tools, I expect to replace with used equipment. I hope to again stumble on deals like a 12″ Crescent jointer for $300, or a 14″ Delta bandsaw for $25, or a Jet 13″ planer/molder that came with four sets of knives for $300.
I am in need of a 10″ tablesaw, a 20+” planer, a 12+” jointer, and/or Crescent Universal Woodworker (the coolest power tool ever). If you know of any of these available at a reasonable price, I would greatly appreciate a “heads up”.
The plan now is to work out of my garage at home, while I work on putting up a new shop. The concrete pad of the original shop is not in good enough shape for a shop floor, but will work well for parking trucks or lumber, so I am building the new shop adjacent to the pad. Next up is to get the electric back on, since it was roasted too.
I want to thank everyone that has offered their support, help and workshop. It is nice to know that I have so many places in St. Louis that I can stop by and make sawdust. Thanks again! Enjoy the slideshow.
