Category: Articles

Shop and Site updates

Published on by Mike  (2 Comments)

First, I wanted to mention my newest shop update.  I had been finding myself more and more carting my primary laptop out to the the shop.  Now, a shop isn’t the best place for a computer, especially when it is being placed in any available flat surface.  The first problem is that it would get covered with sawdust.  I don’t know how many times I would come back in, and have to work on getting a piece of saw dust  jammed under a key, they having to clean it out.  Next, their was risk to the computer itself.  First, my shop is in a garage that door is typically open in the warmer months while working.  While I live in a good area, there is always risk that the computer could walk away.  Next their was always a risk of the computer getting damaged or destroyed by either a projectile off of a saw or getting knocked on the concrete floor.  After thinking it through, I decided to resurrect an old laptop that needed a hard drive.  Fortunately I was able to get one very cheaply.  I got it on there, and got the OS reinstalled on it (plus 200 windows updates to go with it!) .  Software wise, I put on the chat client I use for The Woodwhisperer chat room, current browsers, SketchUp (I draw all my project plans on that now), and ustream producer, so I can stream while in the shop.  (Believe it or not, people DO watch!)

Between the mouse click of getting everything installed on that computer, I built a small shelf out in the garage for it.  The shelf is up high, probably 6’5″ off the ground.  The was to address, a protecting it from flying objects and to help keep it away from the dust.  It will still get dusty, but I will hit with the shop vac to help with that.  Next I had an old 17″ flat panel laying around, along with a wall mount arm for a TV which we ended up never using.  So I mounted the monitor up on the wall, up high as well, for the same reasons as the computer, but also so I can see it comfortably while standing (I am 6’2″).  Finally I setup some old speakers (bought them for college nearly 15 years ago) so I could have some music from Pandora.com playing while I am out working.  Finally I got a cheap wireless keyboard and mouse.  Frankly they are junk, but they are good enough out the shop.  I spent well under a $100 for the setup, and it is well worth it!  Plus, with everything being old or cheap, if anything disappears or gets destroyed, I am not out a whole lot.

One quick site update, it was pointed out to me today that comments were not working.  I did not realize this, because commenting on my site is like calling my own cell phone, I never do it.  Most of the comments I get here are spam, and I have spam filters in place, and I just assumed that it was working.  Anyway, I figured out which plug-ins were causing it, and they have since been deactivated, so feel free to leave a comment on any of my posts!  😀

Cradle Project (formerly the mystery project), Turnings, and Tool Gloat

Published on by Mike  (Leave a comment)

I know it has been a little while since I made a post here, but that is simply because I have been busy in the shop!  It is a long post, but reflects what has been going on the past couple months.

First thing, is I finished what I previously referred to as the mystery project, which is a cradle for my wife’s cousin and her new daughter. When I decided to build this project, I had very little time to complete it, but I figured that would add to the challenge of completing an already challenging project.  I love a good challenge!  🙂  I started out drawing a design using Sketch Up.  After making a few slight revisions, and worked my way through some design challenges, I got started.  My plan was to make the frames of the panels out of maple, with cherry inserts.  I started out making the parts for the two end panels, both of which were the same.  The frames are being assembled with haunched tenons, which create a very strong joint.  The two side boards (the stiles I supposed you could call them) are also be where the side panels attach to the end panels.  After dry fitting the end panels, I went on to make the two side panels, including the tabs that will help fit the side panels to the end panels.  After fitting all the parts together for the side panels, I went ahead and did the glue ups for them.    Once the glue was dry, I was able to mark on the stiles for the end panels precisely where the tabs of the side panels will meet.  I then proceeded to cut out the tabs before the glue-up of the end panels, and made sure I had a decent rough fit, with enough material left to further tweak for final assembly.  Before gluing up the end panels, I went to the band saw and cut out some of the more intricate curves on the runners, but left the larger curves for after assembly.  This allowed me plenty of flat clamping space so I could achieve good solid joints.

After the glue dried, I cleanup the glue lines, and then put an extension table on my band saw.  This allowed me plenty of table space to cut the curves for the runner, and to make a nice profile across the top.  From there, I cleaned up all the glue joints, lots of sanding, and putting round-overs where round overs where needed.  This did involve some time with rasps and other hand tools to make the round overs look right on the inside corners.

 

This brings us to final assembly.  This involved a LOT of dry fittings, and a LOT of tweaking of all the pieces.  I kept doing this until I achieved as square a fit as possible.  My awesome wife also helped me with a lot of these dry fittings as it proved to be very difficult to put together with out a helper.  She also helped me with the final glue up.  Once glued up, I flush cut and sanded all eight tabs, the sanded all the joints smooth.  From there did the final sanding, working my way up to 220 grit.

With the cradle now ready for finish, I took advantage of the heat wave were having and applied two coats of boiled linseed oil.  The high heat helps the oil to dry and cure fairly quickly.  I let the second coat of oil sit for several days to give it a chance to cure and off gas.  This brings me back to a point I made earlier in the post, and a lesson learned.  The lesson being, just because you pull a board off of the maple shelf from hardwood supplier, does NOT mean it is maple.  Now, up until the point of finishing, the color of all boards where pretty close (as shown in the pictures)  Imagine my surprise as the oil brought out the color of the wood (which is why I like using oils) that some of the boards were not at all maple, but were in fact cherry!  Thankfully I already had cherry elements in the project, and where the boards ended up worked very well, and added a lot of character to the overall project, and I really liked the look of it.

After the oil was dry and cured, I applied man coats of shellac, with sanding between each coat.  After the shellac was dried, I made the bottom panel and put a couple coats of shellac on that as well.  From there my wife took care of getting the mattress, sheet, and bumpers for it to make it comfortable for the baby.

Today we delivered the cradle to my wife’s cousin, and her new daughter appears to be very comfy in the cradle!

After completing the cradle, I cleaned up the shop and sharpened all my chisels and planes.  I also decided that I would get started on turning some Christmas gifts so that I would have plenty of time to get them done.  Someone I think I will be making them last minute again this year.

Finally, I do have a bit of a tool gloat!  🙂  If you recall in the shop tour video I did back in January, I showed my bench top jointer and basically said it was a POS.  Well it has finally been replaced!  I ordered a freestanding jointer from Grizzly and had them deliver it to me.  Due to the weight (240lbs!) it was shipped freight.  It was a pretty awesome feeling seeing the UPS Semi Truck pull up to the house to drop that thing off!  It took me a couple evenings to put it together and tune it up, but from the test runs I have taken on it, this is definitely light years ahead of what I had before.

 

Table Saw Woes

Published on by Mike  (Leave a comment)

Damaged Pulley

I have made some pretty good progress on the mystery project since my last post, however it was not without some difficulty, largely with my table saw.  Last weekend was a long weekend for Memorial Day.  I also took a 1/2 day off from work that Friday.  I got through most of what I planned on finishing that Friday, when the belt on the Table Saw shredded.  That stopped me for that evening, but the next day I got a new belt for the saw, and was back working.  Saturday I didn’t get too much done as we went to a family event.  Sunday and Monday I made a lot more progress and was getting close to being able to glue up the first two panels, when I noticed the table saw was literally jumping around when starting and stopping it, and was making a lot of noise.  Started looking things over when I realized the pulley on the arbor split!  Between figuring out how to get the pulley off and getting a new ordered and delivered, I was down till yesterday (Friday).  Last night I got the new pulley on the saw, made sure everything was lined up, did a few other checks, and squared everything up again.  At this point, the saw is running great, better then ever.  I will keep my fingers crossed that it stays this way!

 

Spring Cleaning and New Project

Published on by Mike  (Leave a comment)

Since we have the most crappy trash service in the world, to make up for it our city has a yearly bulk trash pick-up.  Our day for this was this past Thursday (5/10/12).  This year was probably our biggest pile we have had in many years. Most of the stuff that got taken to the curb had been in the garage in our “for bulk pickup” pile.  Once the garage got cleaned out of all the trash, I set about doing some reorganzing and spring cleaning.  It is amazing, beyond the sawdust (which there was a lot too) how much dirty and debris gets on a garage floor!  It took a couple evening afterwards and most of the morning and afternoon today, but I finally got the garage spring cleaning done!  I don’t think the area has ever looked as good as it does now!

Earlier this week I milled up some boards for a new project that I got started on today.  I will give more details later on it, but it is intended as a gift for someone who may see this post on Facebook.  I put the breadbox on hold for this one as it is a little time sensitive, but I plan on getting back to that one after I finish this new one.  So keep your eye for future posts.

Also, as part of my spring cleaning and lightening my load effort, I have decided to finally get rid of my old (but newer?!?) table saw that I don’t use anymore.  This is the smaller one pictured in the foreground.  I use the table saw that is visible behind it exclusively.  It is actually older then the new one, but it is also by far the better of the two.  So that went up on to Craigslist today.

Going Ons

Published on by Mike  (Leave a comment)

Just wanted to make a quick update.  I am currently working on a breadbox that my wife requested.  This has been a winter project, which thanks to the mild winter I have gotten a more shop time then normal.  I started the real work on it back mid-January and mostly have been working on it during the weekends.  I will hopefully get a blog post up soon.

I have made a few updates to the blog itself.  I have been using my twitter account a little more, and plan on posting pictures using twitpic.  Check out the bar on the right, as it will display my most recent pictures and twitter posts.  These may not always be woodworking related, but most will be.  For example, there are pics posted of some house renovations that are going on, including a new roof, gutters and downspots, and few other repairs and updates.

I have been toying around with the idea of making more videos that may or may not drive some more traffic to the blog (and at the same time motivate me to make more updates to the blog)  I don’t have a lot of skill with video producing and don’t have a lot of video equipment, so they won’t be by any means high quality.  A couple video thoughts I have had is the process for making the tambor door I will be taking for the breadbox and the re-installation of the Micro Jig splitter on my TS.  If this is something you would like to see, please post some feedback in the comments section of this post, as the feedback I get will influence how and when I post a video.