Posted by jerry on January 9th, 2006 — Posted in Technology, Woodwork
Happy new year everyone! Time to review one of my new toys – the GMC 1HP dust collector.
I was due to run some fence palings through the Ryobi 13″ thicknesser for a friend who makes picture frames, so it seemed a good test for the GMC dust extractor. My earlier attempts to keep the dust and chips from the thicknesser from forming a large pile of chips on the floor and a thick cloud of dust in the workshop had only met with marginal success.
My Ryobi thicknesser did not come with a dust extraction port (the new ones do from last year). So I had fitted the dust port from a Sherwood 13″ thicknesser – it fits perfectly (purchased from Timbecon as an accesssory at last year’s Working with Wood show in Canberra). And I had cobbled up an adapter to the shop-vac but that had been only partially successful – when the bin filled all dust extraction ceased!
Enter the GMC dust extractor. It came in large box with some simple assembly to do – fit the handle, the casters – which do help with moving the 20kg machine around – and the collector hose and bag.
First the good points – set up was easy with a clear well illustrated instruction booklet. The construction seems pretty solid – although the 4″ (100mm) hose seems very thin walled and looks as though it would hole easily on a snag. The induction motor is very quiet compared with the shop vac, and there was little discernable difference in sound whether the motor was under load or not – ie whether or not the hose was constricted. The bag is a good size for hobby use and is made from a tight weave polyester, and is rated for 30 micron particle size.
What this means is that it will do a great job of clearing the chips and coarse sawdust, but the fine stuff that damages your lungs will go straight through the bag – you can see it as a fine cloud when you start the machine up – so keep the mask on for personal protection. GMC would do well to offer a 4 micron felt bag as an accessory – but I suspect the carbatec or sherwood ones would fit perfectly – and will be on my shopping list.
The hose was a good fit on the 100mm extracator port on the thicknesser and the machine did a very respectable effort at capturing probably 98 percent of the dust and chips – and it did so for a good hour without getting warm.
Summary – this is a good hobby machine for those with limited workshop space who need a solid, but light and portable dust extractor for occasional hobby use. It does not have the capacity or airflow (measured in cubic feet per minute – cfm) of a 2-3 horspower machine, but it represents a good effort for GMC’s entry into dust extractors. I would definitely fit a carba-tec or sherwood felt bag to capture the finer dust, and contrary to the brochure I would not be using this for more than one machine at a time. But at half the price of its competitors (under AUS$100), this is a great accessory for any hobbyist woodworker.
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Posted by jerry on January 8th, 2006 — Posted in Journal
This morning we had a surprise visitor in our garden – it was about 9.30AM and we heard some commotion from a local magpie. On further investigation it appeared that a rat – an escaped pet by the look of it – was trying to make off with one of the lovely juicy peaches frm our peach tree!
The poor thing was clearly hungry, and out well past its bed time! The rat was quite scared of the magpie but hunger made it persistent and in the end it managed to make off with one of our peaches.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on January 7th, 2006 — Posted in Journal
The 18 January 2003 bushfires had razed the forest to the ground. Since then it has lain fallow pending redevelopment decisions and the new Canberra Plan. A quick walk around the local area a couple of days ago showed that new growth is afoot!
Just a few weeks ago strange green plastic triangles started springing up all over the old forest – presaging a new planting
The area is currently high with weeds – like this delightful Scottish thistle – a curse in the garden
But is it going to be just a plantation of native eucalyptus trees? Time to venture closer to investigate…
Ah! the are is divided into regions – some planted with oaks, some with sycamores, and some with gum trees – so we will have a variety of foliage at the end of our street
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on November 24th, 2005 — Posted in Journal
Today and tomorrow I will wear a white ribbon in honour of the campaign for the elimination of gender-based violence. 25 November has been designated UN International Day for the Elimination of violence against women. White Ribbon Day is the largest effort by men across the world, working in partnership with women, to end men’s violence against women.
White ribbons are worn on November 25 by men in countries and cultures across the world because violence against women is men’s problem. The White Ribbon Campaign is the first mass campaign by men against violence in the world.
It should of course be extended to all forms of domestic violence, in support of the vulnerable members of our community irrespective of gender or age.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on November 17th, 2005 — Posted in Journal, Writing
The other day at Gus’ cafe I met the Korean translator of my book for the first time. Dr Young-Min YUN met me with a big smile and we ordered coffee and some food. We discussed how he came to translate my book. “Ah,” he said “There is a story to that…” and he told me of the Graduate student who had suggested jointly translating my book into Korean, and how, having secured the rights from Routledge, the student then told Dr Yun that the language was too difficult – leaving him with a choice: either lose some face by withdrawing the project, or completing the project himself. It took 12 months, and the result is in every major bookstore in Korea.
I asked him about the title – I had laboriously tried to translate the new title – the @ sign gave away that the title had changed, and I knew that the word after @ was ‘Internet’ – so I knew that it was ‘Something @ Internet’ and not ‘Virtual States’. Young-Min smiled again “The word is ‘State’ – so the title is ‘State @ Internet'” I was curious. “You see…” he explained “‘Virtual‘ is not an easy concept to translate into Korean and I had to come up with something that would be easily understood as somehow summing up the book”. I complimented him on his choice.
He clearly enjoyed the project and asked me animatedly about the concept of ‘liminal space‘ and how he found the concept really useful. He has been using the book on his university courses since 2002 when the translation was published.
All too soon lunch was drawing to a close and we each had other appointments. We signed each other’s copies of the book. “one more thing” he said, and quickly produced a camera. We called over a waitress who smiled when we asked her to take a photo of us together.
Young-Min YUN and Jerry Everard
We stood and shook hands. “Anyonghi kyeseyo” I said and Young-Min’s eyebrows rose “Ah you speak Korean!” “just a few phrases” I said and we parted as the rain began.
Cheers
Jerry
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