It all started with ripping a 2*10 down to size on my ancient Craftsman radial arm saw. The newly cut edge didn't look square. I slapped a try square on the board and yup, the cut wasn't truly square.
This is not the end of the world. Radial arm saws have a number of adjustments to make them cut right. I started making them, and the real problem became apparent fairly quickly. The plywood saw table had warped over the years. Laying a 4 foot straight edge along the saw table showed nearly 3/4" of warpage.
Damn, should a done something about that long time ago. I vaguely remember making that table sometime back in the '70s. So ho, off to the lumberyard for a piece of plywood. Back of the mind worry, how do I get a 4*8 sheet of plywood home on the roof of the DeVille?
Arriving at the lumber yard, I ask for "MDF" (medium density fiberboard) and the lady behind the counter says "Oh, that's special order". "Do you have anything else?" I ask. They did, they had four or five different glue-and-woodshavings synthetic sheetgoods, including plain old plywood. The plywood price was outta sight, so I bought a 2*8 sheet of "Industrial Flakewood" for $15.66. Makes me feel kind of out-of-it when a plain old lumberyard is full of high tech new products that I have never heard of, and have no idea of what their properties might be.
The yard kindly cut it in half so it would fit in the back seat of the DeVille. That solved the "how-do-you-get-it-home" problem. Times like this I miss my old minivan.
A few cuts and some hole drilling, and trusty old Craftsman has a slick new table and looks a lot newer. So much for a one day puttering in the shop project.
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