Hardwood Floors April May 2018

TECH TALK with

Michael Dittmer

Jason Elquest

Lenny Hall

Scott Taylor

Ben Totta

What is one challenge you experienced in the field due to equipment that hadn’t been properly maintained?

It only takes a fewminutes to clean and evaluate the condition of your equipment a er each use so that it will be ready for the next project. LENNY HALL Loss of e ciency is the greatest challenge. Running any machine that is not nely tuned is simply not e cient. If blades are dull on any tool: circular saw, jig saw, band saw, table saw, router, etc., wood is burned, cuts/grooves are not clean, undue stress on the machines shortens their life span, and the cut can stray from the desired line, not to mention a serious potential for personal injury. A saw not set up to cut squarely leaves gapped miters or unsquared end cuts. is is not critical if the saw is used only as a wall line cut saw, but if you are doing any higher level design work, then an unsquared saw will not deliver the precision needed. It’s my opinion that if you are presenting yourself as a quality contractor, all saws should be sharp, set up as square cu ing, and in tip-top performance shape. is should be both a ma er of principle and practice. Compressors and hose connections that leak also shorten the compressor’s life span by making it run longer to charge up and cycle onmore frequently and longer while delivering air to the air tools. Keep your connections tight and leak proof. Even simple things like cleaning your trowels at the end of use, so they are clean for the next time. at’s e ciency not being lost. SCOTT TAYLOR I was asked by a large national general contractor to meet about a report that I had wri en that found the job site to be the reason the oor was performing as it was (contraction). e project was a commercial restaurant that had a 3” engineered wood oor. e two of us met

at the job site, and the general contractor disagreed withmy ndings of lowRH (relative humidity) because he had a hygrometer that was 20 percent higher than my hygrometer (42 percent-22 percent). I was able to show him, using my laptop that his device requires calibration every six months. I asked himwhen the last time he had his 5-year-old instrument calibrated was. His response, “I have never had it calibrated.” at is all it took to show him that no ma er the cost of the device, if you don’t know how to maintain it properly, then you don’t have a working unit. BEN TOTTA Maintaining equipment is something that is important, but not usually urgent, which o en ends up making it very easy to overlook, or at least a low priority. As contractors, with ever-growing demands and expectations on us to complete work within the allo ed time to please our customer, equipment maintenance o en falls by the wayside. e irony, of course, is that failing to maintain tools leads to unexpected failure, usually at inconvenient times during use, and we end up losing a lot of time when the job is brought to a halt to resolve a bigger issue. One example that I remember early in my career was when I rst learned the reality of waves and cha er caused by my big machine. On a large project that we thought we had done a great job on, we came in to walk through with the customer and they objected to a slight wave. rough that, I ended up really digging in to howmy machines were built, where they start to show signs of problems, and how I could maintain them myself. Tough way to learn, as it o en is in our trade, but I learned the value of regularly watching and seeing what my machine is doing, making small or preventative steps along the way to avoid larger catastrophes or unexpected delays.

MICHAEL DITTMER As a contractor who sands oors on a regular basis, it is imperative to keep all of our tools in tiptop condition. We have two sets of tools, so in case of equipment failure, we can change out the nonworking tool with one that is up to speed. It has been our experience that the edger is the piece of equipment that constantly needs a ention. One recent resand project contained numerous edger defects due to the use of an old pad that was worn-out. Dishing out against stone surface caused by using two papers on the edger was unacceptable to the customer. e replacement of the old edger pad would have le a smooth edge against the stone as ours had le a er the resand. e line around the baseboard of the room would have been nonexistent if a new properly maintained pad had been used as well. JASON ELQUEST Dust is always our nemesis. We have had dust cause some major equipment failures on our belt sander. It builds up around the upper roller and everywhere else, and can inhibit the normal function of the machine. We had the honor of resanding a beautiful Brazilian cherry oor due to cha er that did not show itself until the oor was coated. is could have been prevented with a be er maintenance system in place.

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