Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[Smokerbill]

That definitely sounds electrical and could be caused by a lot of different things. Failing motor or trigger switch, failing electrical connection. There might even be a circuit board that's going bad.

If you manage to remove the motor you could try reassembling the saw and giving it one more try before sending the motor in. Sometimes a faulty electrical connection can be fixed by just disconnecting then reconnecting the connectors. Good luck!

 

[Molpet]

Sounds like they want to make it difficult so you don't bother

 

[gtaus]

That definitely sounds electrical and could be caused by a lot of different things. Failing motor or trigger switch, failing electrical connection. There might even be a circuit board that's going bad.

If you manage to remove the motor you could try reassembling the saw and giving it one more try before sending the motor in. Sometimes a faulty electrical connection can be fixed by just disconnecting then reconnecting the connectors. Good luck!

I asked Ryobi to send me detailed instructions on how to remove the motor head. When I take it apart, I'll be sure to look for loose connections. If something is obvious, I'll correct the problem and retry it before shipping it off. Good point that sometimes just disconnecting and reconnecting the connectors might solve some problems. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[gtaus]

Sounds like they want to make it difficult so you don't bother

Yep. It's like you are walking through warranty Hades trying to get correct information and helpful responses. To make things worse, every time I get an email and send back a response, I get a different person. Guess what? They don't bother to read the previous email thread!

If you want to drive yourself crazy, just try and get correct answers from some random customer service rep who has no idea what they are talking about. But they can select standard pro forma responses from a list and send out an email.

I thought I was making good progress yesterday with Ryobi. But today I got a new response from a different rep and it was like starting all over again. Very frustrating.

Yeah, my blood pressure was up too high over all the anxiety of this situation. I have to monitor my blood pressure daily in a log book for the doc, so I know it was affecting me. That's why I just got a different miter saw so I could get back to enjoying my hobby. I might still get upset about the responses and run around I get from the warranty issue, but at least I have a working saw which is fine until my Ryobi saw is fixed. It was an unplanned expense, but for my health, it was better for me to get another miter saw then sit and get all worked up about the broken Ryobi saw.

I fully agree with you that the warranty system appears to be setup in a way to wear you down to the point where you just want to give up. This was a $300 saw, so I'm not going to give up. But, yeah, if it was a $50 drill, probably not worth the time, effort, or my health dealing with the warranty run around.

To be fair to Ryobi, I have been buying their tools for almost 20 years and this is only the second or third tool that I have had to ask for warranty service. In the past, they just sent out a replacement in about a week. It looks like this miter saw warranty issue might take considerably longer to resolve.

Speaking of which, the Menards miter saw I mentioned has a one year, in house, full return warranty. So, if it lasts more than one year, I guess I got lucky. At least I will not have to deal with the tool company if the saw dies in that year. Menards will just replace it themselves. If they no longer carry that brand/model, you get a full refund. I think that will work out better for me.

 

[gtaus]

Cooling Racks and Plant Stands

On the What are your Frugal and Sustainable Tips thread, @igorsMistress posted some nice pictures of her watermelon jelly cooling on a wood rack. Actually, the wood racks used to be a plant stand she inherited from her mother. @Smokerbill thought those wooden racks might be a great pallet wood project. I agree. It might be a great way to use up some of the scrap pieces of wood you accumulate.

Here are the pictures posted by @igorsMistress ...

I have a bunch of pallet wood planks that are split somewhere down the middle. I put them aside in case I need just part of a board. Those split planks would be perfect to cut into narrow slats for a cooling rack or plant stand like those in the pictures above. And who doesn't need some good cooling racks and more plant stands?

Thanks to @igorsMistress for posting her pictures and to @Smokerbill for suggesting it as a pallet project.

 

[gtaus]

If you manage to remove the motor you could try reassembling the saw and giving it one more try before sending the motor in. Sometimes a faulty electrical connection can be fixed by just disconnecting then reconnecting the connectors. Good luck!

Yeah, more problems with that Ryobi miter saw. Ryobi customer service now wants me to send the entire saw into a repair shop. They gave me a list of three repair shops in the neighboring states. Two of those shops no longer service Ryobi products. The third shop refused to take the repair job stating the warranty is void if I did any disassembly on the unit. Of course, that is what Ryobi directed me to do. They told me to take off the motor head to ship back to a shop. So, I sent Ryobi an email with that updated info and asked them to come up with a solution for repair. They did not respond today....

Anyways, I got my new Menards miter saw set up and running. It cuts really good, but it is very loud. It has a 15-amp motor and spins the blade at 5000 rpm. That's more power than my Ryobi 18v miter saw had, and it's a lot louder than the Ryobi. Well, not the end of the world as I have good workplace Bluetooth headphones for hearing protection.

Was out in the garage today cutting up wood, finishing off my new workbench for table saw I bought this winter. Just about done with that project, but I have to get some wood rasps for final fit.

That adjustable height workbench for the new table saw is taking a lot longer than I expected. Well, big delay with my Ryobi miter saw going bad, but also, I changed my mind on the build once I got into it. Late last night, I had some new ideas on improvements for the adjustable height feature. I started building those improvements into the bench today, but I had to undo some previous things I had already put together. That's OK. One of the things I love about using pallet wood is that I don't feel bad if something does not work out and I have to start over. It's all free wood to me, so I enjoy experimenting with different ideas and some work out, others don't.

 

[igorsMistress]

Cooling Racks and Plant Stands

On the What are your Frugal and Sustainable Tips thread, @igorsMistress posted some nice pictures of her watermelon jelly cooling on a wood rack. Actually, the wood racks used to be a plant stand she inherited from her mother. @Smokerbill thought those wooden racks might be a great pallet wood project. I agree. It might be a great way to use up some of the scrap pieces of wood you accumulate.

Here are the pictures posted by @igorsMistress ...

View attachment 4096060
View attachment 4096061

I have a bunch of pallet wood planks that are split somewhere down the middle. I put them aside in case I need just part of a board. Those split planks would be perfect to cut into narrow slats for a cooling rack or plant stand like those in the pictures above. And who doesn't need some good cooling racks and more plant stands?

Thanks to @igorsMistress for posting her pictures and to @Smokerbill for suggesting it as a pallet project.

I think it’s a good idea for pallets too!

 

[Smokerbill]

@gtaus , so the Ryobi runaround continues. Darn. Well, if you give up and write the saw off as a loss you've still come out way ahead with your entire Ryobi collection. Most of those Ryobis were bought on sale or as special deals, right?

 

[gtaus]

@gtaus , so the Ryobi runaround continues. Darn. Well, if you give up and write the saw off as a loss you've still come out way ahead with your entire Ryobi collection. Most of those Ryobis were bought on sale or as special deals, right?

I have been buying Ryobi products for almost 20 years. In all that time, I don't think I have ever paid full retail for any of the tools I bought. This is only the second product that has failed within the warranty period and that's a pretty good record. Well, by failing, I mean it is not operating normally, taking a number of attempts to get the saw up and running. Once it runs continuously, it seems to work fine for the rest of the day. So, is it dead? No. Is it working right, no.

It's a $300 miter saw that I got on sale for $200. One of the more expensive Ryobi tools I have ever bought. So, it's worth trying to get repaired or replaced before the warranty expires.

Will I continue to buy Ryobi products? Probably, because I have so much invested in 20 years of tools and about 50 batteries in the 18v line. My tools from the first Ryobi kit I bought 20 years are still in use today. That's a good track record. On the other hand, I have not really needed any new tools for a few years. I have already purchased most everything I needed or wanted.

I suspect Ryobi will make this warranty situation right, but it is just taking more time than I had hoped. Also, Home Depot used to be helpful in situations like this. They were not helpful to me at all on this issue. Seems like once they get your money, they really don't care about you anymore. Home Depot had better customer service years ago, but they have changed their support policy on the tools they sell and no longer accept tools for repair work.

But I don't think it's all Home Depot's fault either. 2 of the 3 repair shops I contacted on the Ryobi authorized repair center list no longer work with Ryobi! One shop indicated they had past problems with TTI, the parent company of Ryobi, Milwaukee, and Rigid and no longer works with them. The third repair shop declined to take my repair once I informed them that I had partially disassembled the motor head per shipping instructions from Ryobi itself. In any case, if Ryobi does not have an accurate current list of their repair shops, that indicates they have support problems in their system.

But I needed a miter saw so I picked up that inexpensive Tool Shop miter saw that is on sale for $89, after rebate, at Menards...

Is it a good saw? Well, it seems like it is good enough for my pallet projects. Certainly, it is much less expensive than a $300 miter saw that might have a few more features (which I probably would not use for pallet projects). I will give a mini review on that Tool Shop miter saw after I have used it for a while. There were only a few comments online about the saw, but they were positive stating it was worth the money. So, I hope it works out for me.

FWIW, that Tool Shop miter saw normally sells for $159.00. So, the sale price of $99.99 is a significant drop in price, plus another $11.00 in rebates. Well, all that, plus I had enough money in past Rebate checks that I paid for it without any new money out of pocket. That eased the pain of having to buy another miter saw while I fight the warranty claim with Ryobi on that saw.

 

[chickengr]

Cooling Racks and Plant Stands

On the What are your Frugal and Sustainable Tips thread, @igorsMistress posted some nice pictures of her watermelon jelly cooling on a wood rack. Actually, the wood racks used to be a plant stand she inherited from her mother. @Smokerbill thought those wooden racks might be a great pallet wood project. I agree. It might be a great way to use up some of the scrap pieces of wood you accumulate.

Here are the pictures posted by @igorsMistress ...

View attachment 4096060
View attachment 4096061

I have a bunch of pallet wood planks that are split somewhere down the middle. I put them aside in case I need just part of a board. Those split planks would be perfect to cut into narrow slats for a cooling rack or plant stand like those in the pictures above. And who doesn't need some good cooling racks and more plant stands?

Thanks to @igorsMistress for posting her pictures and to @Smokerbill for suggesting it as a pallet project.

and thank you too. I have enough pallet wood pieces to make it.