The Woodshop Vacuum

For the past several years, I’ve had a hankering to revisit my family roots in woodworking. For as long as I can remember, my father’s clan has plied the carpenter’s craft with skill and joy. Me? I’ve always had the interest, and in my youth I had a fair amount of training—not just under my father’s gaze but also under the watchful eyes of my shop teachers. Now that I’m staying home to help my parents, specifically my father, I actually have the time to return to the avocation that I’ve neglected due to the constraints of trying to earn a wage of some sort.

Since my father’s illness has gotten to the point where it’s not really feasible for him to do any more woodwork, I’ve pretty much become the beneficiary of his shop equipment (my brother showing little inclination to continue with the legacy).

Before I started really working on anything, I needed to get a new Shop-Vac^®, as the motor in the decade-long workhorse was noisily dying. So, with a newer, more powerful vacuum at hand, I started my first day getting reacquainted with the tools of the trade. I setup and aligned the table saw, cutting off some pieces of stock for the next mechanical joy: the router table. As the router table was going to see heavy duty as a makeshift joiner/jointer, I needed to be very familiar with this little gadget. While I’m sorting through it’s quirks, starting and stopping the vacuum a half-dozen to a dozen times during the tests, I’m surprised when the new Shop-Vac^® dies. It won’t turn on. The switches click, but nothing. Systems checks reveal that there is power, but the beast refuses to spring to life.

So, tomorrow I’ll be exchanging this shop necessity for a new one and hope that it holds up better. I’m very disappointed. I’d expected better.

sigh