Day 3233 Hydraulic gush!

23rd June 2026 

I had high hopes that the Michigan coffee table would be finished today.

I had built the base at home, and all it needed was a final sand and a couple of coats of finish.

I took down a couple of spray cans to give the top a few coats as well.

I was expecting a call for John’s friend John the Eff, who wanted to purchase some lumber. 

I did get a call, but it was much later, so that was put off till next week.

That left us with time on our hands, what could we do? I know, let’s change the pump on the saw mill machine.

Now I don’t know a lot about hydraulics, I know that usually the fluid is under pressure, so I didn’t want to remove hoses until I knew what I was dealing with. 

I gave Bob at Wood Mizer a call. I told him what I was planning, he told me that I could disconnect all the hoses without losing any fluid.

I marked everything I could with identification labels, and started to remove them one by one. 

Very little fluid escaped, so I was happy.

I had to remove the pump assembly in order to remove the screws that held the pump to the manifold. Once the hoses were disconnected I could lift the unit out. I removed the six screws around the body and proceeded to tap the body to release the pump. Gradually a gap opened up as the pump eased out. It took one final tap to remove it. That is when all the fluid that had been stored in the reservoir decided to escape through the large hole left by the removal of the motor. Now Wood Mizer Bob failed to warn me of that.

As the fluid slick moved across the concrete, I shouted to John to get sawdust to soak it up. It’s not as if there isn’t much around, he toddled off and took ages to get any. By now all the tools were covered and it was difficult to work, I was worried that the identification tags would drop off, so I was a bit angry, pissed off.

Eventually he returned with a large drum of sawdust and he started sprinkling it about. 

Soon a level of control was restored, I loosely reattached the hoses in their respective connections, I could not refit the unit because the power tag was out of position. By now time had crept up on us, and I needed to go, so we covered everything up, and called it a day.

I did try to call Wood Mizer Bob if it was possible to loosen the motor end plate and rotate it one twenty degrees, but that can wait.

I was worn out, but most of the difficult work was done, so if we can reposition the power tag it should be possible to test it next week, provided John has more hydraulic fluid.