Easter Break

While the kids are away I will play! I finally got a chance to get back in the shop after the baby arrived. I pumped out projects left and right.

First I worked out a new sander bit for the drill press completely shop made with a long carriage bolt and some cicle cuts. A little spray adhesive and it was ready to roll.Second i got to work on finishing the paint job on the walls of the shop it was too dark and dirty. The floor is the next on my list but we will see when I have time.

The maintenance department here at work was selling off some old plywood they used after the tornado. I got a deal at $5 per sheet, so i got 5. I built two large garden planters so that my vegetables would have room to grow. It seems that every seed i stick in the ground here in Kentucky grows like crazy.
After that I had been wanting some sort of planning table in my shop so I built a quick one with a cabinet above and a flip up drawing surface. This is before the door had been placed on it.

Classic Woodworking Bench

So, I went to Lowes and ran across a twist, bend and warp sale. I got about 2 truckloads worth of 2x4s and such for around $20. I loaded it all into the shop which was quite a mess but managed (after some cutting) to fit everything in.
After all of this made it into the shop I tore apart my old shop table in order to begin work on a new bench. I did a fair amount of research and looked at well over 25 different options and decided on a simple but effective bench. I constructed the whole thing out of the 2x4s that I had gotten by ripping off both sides to make a square 2x3. I planked the top with a 2x8 and 2x3 pieces. It is heavy duty and cost me less than $10. In fact the $25 wood vise that is on one end was far more expensive than the bench itself. I also drilled bench dog holes every 6 inches as to hold larger projects. I think this thing has to be just about perfect for me. Below is the finished product.

Wall Bins and shop clean-up

I decided to mount my screw bins up on the wall today as part of my shop clean-up. i also decided to throw together a drill press stand as well in hopes that I can work my way around the shop to replace all my fixtures with more workable ones. I will be putting a door on the front of it later and adding a shelf.

Glue-up Caddy

I got tired of reaching around while I was gluing up projects and saw a similar design in a WOOD magazine article. I came up with this guy which holds the following: Glue, Glue Brushes (I use stencil brushes), sandpaper, a scraper/ putty knife, a pencil, putty, and a moist sponge.

Changing Table

After the arrival of the Kreg jig I asked Santa for, I decided to proceed with the changing table which I had planned to build for our upcoming arrival. It took me drastically less time with the jig and hid all the screws. A total of 6 hours and $20 of lumber yielded the changing table that we wanted that converted to a desk after the child has grown.I had to make a small adjustment and added a front rail to hold the pad on. Anyway, in a few years you remove the front rail and bottom left rail and it becomes a student desk.

Here is the finished product.

Comment Box

I was approached by someone at work to construct a comment box. This was a quicky but here it is. It is unsanded in the pictures.

Sick of Sawdust??? Have a laundry bag? Great!

I was beginning to become tired of the massive 20 pound pile of sawdust that accumulates under the table saw. My shoes were always dusty and I tracked it all over.

I decided to build a dust collector but had planned on using some sort of fabric to act as the bag.I whipped together a quick frame and I found a waterproof laundry bag that I never used and cut it apart. With a little sewing and reformulation in the shape department and a few staples we have a slanted bottom dust collector which i can now drop down on hinges and suck out the sawdust with the shop vac. Less Clean up and More HAPPY!

Small projects for small hands

I love tiny things! LOL Anything that is smaller than normal size and I am into it. in this post i will show off some of my "smaller" successes. About a year ago i started a dollhouse.... a year later I am still picking away at it.

After I started the dollhouse I made a tiny bench:

When i got my drill press I also got a circle cutter.... That is a time saver and a half.

Being able to cut perfect circles led to some great wooden wheels for a car that i have started.

After i saw how easy the wheels were I decided that I would contribute to my wooden food pile i have been making from scraps in preparation for the wooden play kitchen. Care for a burger or donut? Maybe a poorly made Croissant???

Automata

I found a huge section of woodworking books at the local library (what a surprise!). I've decided to share one that I thought was especially fun:

This book is a great amount of fun and a good starting point for someone like me who aspires to make things out of wood that do more than sit there and look pretty. This book is jam packed with wooden workings, gears, cams and all sorts of fun concepts and toys that can bring life to your stuff. I have a play kitchen in my future and am especially interested in ways I can make it really fun.

The project plans in this book lead you to building a gearbox and sample set of just about every working to attach to it (mine are less colorful and pretty than theirs). I think thats a great idea and a way to keep those items around in your shop so you don't foget how to do it. it also gives you the opportunity to mess around with those pieces and come up with creative new uses for them.

If you have any desire to ever work on a wooden clock, This is a great starting point!

Two projects from awhile back

So I thought I would share two projects that I completed awhile ago.

My wife told me that her sister wanted something special for Christmas to store baby food. After making a call while in Wal-mart to decide which size baby food jar it needed to house (since they somehow got away from the regular size ones), I purchased a jar and took it home to start the project. After the shop shelves i felt pretty comfortable throwing together a quick cabinet to hang on the wall so it was really a breeze. The only real difference between the shop cabinet and this was the door and close shelves. Total project time was under 1 hour. The result was pretty good. Take a look.

This cabinet holds 24-25 Stage 3 baby food jars and makes a great gift to a new mother!

My other totally impressive a cool project was this design by Popular Mechanics ( I think) for a library chair. This guy was a long 6 hour project, but that was before I had a good setup in the shop. We have some high cabinets and its the perfect thing to have around the house.
The whole thing cost around $15

The chair back flips over the front to turn into the step ladder.